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Ruth King

Palestinians of Syria: A Year of Killings and Torture by Khaled Abu Toameh

According to the reports, Syrian authorities are withholding the bodies of more than 456 Palestinians who died under torture in prison. No one knows exactly where the bodies are being held or why the Syrian authorities are refusing to hand them over to the relatives.

Mainstream media outlets seem to prefer turning a blind eye to the plight of Palestinians living in Arab countries. This evasion harms first and foremost the Palestinians themselves and allows Arab governments to continue their policies of persecution and repression.

It remains to be seen whether the UN Security Council will get its priorities straight and hold an emergency session to discuss the murderous campaign against Palestinians in Syria. Perhaps, somehow, this will overtake “settlement construction” as a topic worthy of world condemnation.

2016 was a tough year for the Palestinians. It was tough not only for those Palestinians living in the West Bank under the Palestinian Authority (PA) regime, or the Gaza Strip under Hamas. When Westerners hear about the “plight” and “suffering” of Palestinians, they instantly assume that the talk is about those living in the West Bank or Gaza Strip. Rarely does the international community hear about what is happening to Palestinians in the Arab countries. This lapse doubtless exists because the misery of Palestinians in the Arab countries is difficult to pin on Israel.

The international community and mainstream journalists only know of those Palestinians living in the West Bank or the Gaza Strip. Of course, life under the Palestinian Authority and Hamas is no box of dates, although this inconvenient fact might be rather unpleasant to the ears of Western journalists and human rights organizations.

In any event, mainstream media outlets seem to prefer turning a blind eye to the plight of Palestinians living in Arab countries. This evasion harms first and foremost the Palestinians themselves and allows Arab governments to continue their policies of persecution and repression.

The past few years have seen horror stories about the conditions of Palestinians in Syria. Where is the media attention for the Palestinians in this war-stricken country? Palestinians in Syria are being murdered, tortured, imprisoned and displaced. The West yawns.

Foreign journalists covering the Middle East swarm by the hundreds throughout Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. Yet they act as if Palestinians can only be found in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. These journalists have no desire to go to Syria or other Arab countries to report about the mistreatment and trespasses perpetrated by Arabs against their Palestinian brothers. For these journalists, Arabs killing and torturing other Arabs is not news. But when Israeli policemen shoot and kill a Palestinian terrorist who rams his truck into a group of soldiers and kills and wounds them, Western reporters rush to visit his family’s home to interview them and provide them with a platform to express their thoughts.

Palestinians living in Syria, however, are less fortunate. No one is asking how they feel about the devastation of their families, communities and lives. Especially not the hundreds of Middle East correspondents working in the region.

“The year 2016 was full of all forms of killings, torture and displacement of Palestinians in Syria,” according to recent reports published in a number of Arab media outlets.

“The last year was hell for these Palestinians and its harsh consequences will not be erased for many years to come. During 2016, Palestinians in Syria were subjected to the cruelest forms of torture and deprivation at the hands armed gangs and the ruling Syrian regime. It is hard to find one Palestinian family in Syria that has not been affected.”

Turkey Jails American Pastor by Uzay Bulut

“[T]he charging documents do not present any evidence against him…. He is being held simply because of his Christian beliefs and is facing grave danger in a Turkish prison.” — Gene Kapp, American Center for Law and Justice.

“The government of Turkey — led by an Islamic party — has begun increased crackdowns on Christians, and Pastor Andrew, if convicted, may face years in prison based on extremely serious — and false — charges,” wrote Jordan Sekulow, Executive Director, American Center for Law and Justice.

“A Turkish judge had the option to deport Pastor Andrew, release him on weekly sign-ins at the local police station, or imprison him. The judge chose to remand Pastor Andrew to prison.” — American Center for Law and Justice.

The global “human rights community” has done nothing to help him. One hopes that the incoming Trump administration will stand up for his freedom.

American Pastor Andrew Brunson has been jailed in the city of Izmir, in western Turkey, on charges of “being a member of an armed terrorist organization”.

Brunson — a U.S. citizen from Black Mountain, North Carolina — has led Protestant churches in Turkey for over 23 years with the knowledge of local authorities, and has raised his family there.

Brunson and his wife, Norine, were summoned to the local police station in Izmir on October 7, 2016 to discuss their application to renew their visas. They thought they would be receiving a long-awaited permanent residence card; instead, they were detained by Turkish police.

While Norine was released 13 days later, Pastor Brunson was informed he would be detained until deportation, based on being a “threat to national security”.

Most Embarrassing Photos From ‘The Women Who Love Abortion and Hate Trump’ March By Megan Fox

They’re at it again. The minority population of women determined to make the rest of us look like mental patients is marching around in their vagina costumes in the deep-blue cities again (where the voices of the rest of America are suppressed and ignored).

Please recall that these are the same women who claimed to be offended by the use of the word “pus*y,” and yet one of the rallying projects for this march was to knit your own “pus*y hat.” And they wonder why no one takes them seriously.

Frankly, with this few brain cells and their inability to comprehend irony, they deserve smaller paychecks. Perhaps the worst thing about these marches (and it’s hard to pick just one terrible, awful, horribly bad thing because there are so many) is the fact that the “women” they represent are not diverse at all. They are the women of the left (Democrats) only. No other women need apply (and according to them no other women exist). The media is out in force declaring it to be the biggest march in history with all women everywhere united against Trump and for all the left-wing agenda items! If that is true, then who were the women who voted in massive numbers on Election Day against all those things? Who was this march missing?

Women like the New Wave Feminists who are pro-life were disinvited. Other pro-life women’s groups were told not to come. There were no women’s gun rights groups in attendance. I didn’t see any Catholic women’s signs. So the only women these marches included were women who march in lockstep with left-wing, Democrat ideology.

Newsflash for the terminally slow: THIS IS WHY YOU LOST. You ignore and excoriate the multitudes of the women on the planet who disagree with you at your peril. There are millions of us out here. Instead of talking to us, you ban us. Instead of reaching out to see if we can find common ground, you treat us like we do not exist, and when we smoke you in an election, you blame it on the Russians!

We are mothers, sisters, grandmothers, aunts, and daughters and we have women’s reproductive organs (that we don’t like to run around exposing). We disagree with you broads in every way politically and so we are silenced and banned. We aren’t losing any sleep over it because this is seriously not our scene.

What an embarrassing display of vulgarity and naked partisanship. This was a march against Trump and for abortion. That’s it.

A Tale of Two Speeches By Roger Kimball

A brilliant inaugural address the founders would have applauded.
Absorbing the reaction to Donald Trump’s inaugural address yesterday, I thought about a famous passage from Act II of The Tempest. A few of the shipwrecked men are taking stock of their situation on Prospero’s enchanted island. It soon becomes clear that the island appears very different to different characters.

Friday afternoon, I wrote a brief piece about the inauguration for the Financial Times (requires registration) in which I described Trump’s address as “gracious but plain-speaking.” My, how the readers of the FT disliked that!

To be fair, the legacy media in America hated Trump’s speech, too, as did — and this is the more interesting thing — the anti-Trump Right. The Chicago Tribune described the speech as “raw, angry and aggrieved,” “pugnacious in tone, pitch black in its color.” OK, par for the course. But Andrew Ferguson, writing in The Wall Street Journal, said that “the candidate who campaigned as a sociopath shows signs he may yet govern as one.” (“Sociopath”? Caligula was a sociopath. Donald Trump?) Sure, Chris “Old Reliable” Matthews, ready as ever with the Godwin Expedient, described the speech as “Hiterlian.” But just about every mainstream outlet from The Weekly Standard on down referred to the speech as “dark.” I was a bit taken aback to hear a politically mature friend describe the speech as “disgusting,” “nasty,” “borderline unAmerican” and then go on, listing Godwinwards, to invoke “beer halls” (you know what that means!) in connection with the speech.

So what do you think, is the ground tawny? Or does the ground look lush and lusty?

I said that Trump’s speech was gracious. Here’s how he began:

Every four years, we gather on these steps to carry out the orderly and peaceful transfer of power, and we are grateful to President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama for their gracious aid throughout this transition. They have been magnificent.

“Raw”? “Angry”? “Nasty”? “Disgusting”?

Granted, that was merely the prelude. The rest of the short speech (it was only about 1400 words) is what I called “plain-speaking.” Trump negotiated the transition from gracious prelude to forthright substance with the word “however”:

Today’s ceremony, however, has very special meaning. Because today we are not merely transferring power from one Administration to another, or from one party to another – but we are transferring power from Washington, D.C. and giving it back to you, the American People.

During the primaries, my favored candidate was Ted Cruz, partly because I thought he was the most serious about bringing the bipartisan, leech-like Washington gravy train to an abrupt halt.

At first, I regarded Donald Trump as just another big-government operator who would not reform Washington so much as find ways to exploit it for his own benefit. So far, I have to say, I have been pleasantly surprised. Sure, it is early days. But he has spoken of making staff cuts of 20% and a budget cut of 10%. And, in what is the real kernel of his inauguration address, he gives the rationale: his administration will not just be Washington business as usual, in which new leeches come to town to replace the old leeches, but will actually endeavor to alter the basic, perverted metabolism that has taken root in Washington. The aim, he said, was not simply to transfer power from one party to another — chaps with different hats but the same grasping hands and insatiable appetite for your money — but to transfer it from Washington to where Madison, Hamilton, Jefferson and the rest thought it should be, to We the People.

Will Donald Trump be able to accomplish this? I do not know. But I applaud the ambition.

From the Front Line: Sharia Compliance in the US Military By Pamela Geller

I recently received this shocking letter from a man who has served as a contractor in Afghanistan. It reveals the appalling extent of sharia compliance in the United States military.

My name is John Craig. I have been a contractor in Afghanistan for over five years as a mechanical engineer. Recently I have been dismissed by the command of Bagram Air Field and lost my job. I am in Kuwait and in route to go home and find another job.

The reason I was expelled from the base is because I had two copies of the Koran. One was a hardback study book and the other a paperback Koran; it is my interest to study the religion in and of itself and take notes.

Well, what happened was that I wrote notes and highlighted throughout the books and came to the conclusion that the doctrine itself is that of murder, rape, and extortion. That is my personal view of the religion.

Well, dumb me, I wrote on the paperback Koran in black marker right on the front – RELIGION OF MURDER. That is what I think of it. The Command M.P. (military police) did an inspection in our rooms and were searching for General Order 1 violations; it’s normal procedure finding drugs, alcohol, and pornographic material. Well, in this search, they found my study Korans (under my bed) out of sight and out of view of others, and called me in to investigate why I had marked on the Koran RELIGION OF MURDER.

I went to the police station and wrote an essay on my reasons for having the books and why I wrote that. I explained to them that this was all for personal study and not meant for sharing with others, especially with Muslims. I do not preach, evangelize or try to talk to Muslims about their religious beliefs. I am simply there trying to make a living for my family and have no intention of ever sharing my beliefs.

The Command did not see it that way. The following day, the leadership of my company called me in and read a letter from the Air Force Colonial Command, stating that I was permanently barred from the military base there in Afghanistan and that I was to leave immediately. The charge was that I was “in possession of prohibited material.” So it did not define my marking on the book; it just said I had something that was in violation of their General Order 1.

The colonel said that my presence there was a security threat and a disruption of the good conduct of personnel on the base and that I had to leave. In addition, I will not be able to work anywhere with the military, either there or in Kuwait or Iraq, or with any other branch in the military service.

In bid to belong, Israeli Arabs sign up for Israel’s army By Rinat Harash

A battalion of soldiers crawls across the desert sand with assault rifles cocked. It’s a routine exercise, but these are no ordinary troops – they are Arabs who have chosen to fight for the Jewish state.

While the vast majority of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) are Jews – and nearly all their conflicts have been against Arab nations – a trickle of Israeli Arabs volunteer for the army.

Most are Bedouin, a community native to southern Israel. But some are other Arab citizens of Israel, the descendants of Palestinians who remained during the 1948 war of the state’s founding, when hundreds of thousands of their brethren fled or were forced from their homes by advancing Israeli troops.

“Why did I decide to enlist?” asks Sergeant Yusef Salutta, a 20-year-old Arab from the north of Israel who serves with the Desert Reconnaissance Battalion. The army rarely grants journalists access to the unit.

“Because I’m from this country and I love the country and I want to contribute,” he said. “Everyone should enlist, anybody who lives here should enlist.”

The military conscripts young Jewish men and women, but not Arabs. It does not report exact numbers of Arab volunteers, but officials say there are several hundred among the 175,000 active personnel.

A silver Star of David necklace hung around Salutta’s neck, and he chatted with fellow-soldiers in Hebrew.

At a time when Israel is expanding its settlements in the West Bank and Palestinians fear they may never end up with their own state, some Israeli Arabs see volunteering for the military as betrayal.

“This phenomenon, we totally reject it,” said Ahmad Tibi, an Israeli-Arab member of parliament.

“What could go through a person’s mind when he serves against his people? We try to educate people that this is not the way.”

Volunteers say their families are supportive, and that they are prepared to take criticism.

GOOD NEWS FROM AMAZING ISRAEL: MICHAEL ORDMAN

ISRAEL’S MEDICAL ACHIEVEMENTS

Successful bone transplants. I reported previously (often) on the revolutionary method from Israel’s Bonus BioGroup for growing bone in the lab from a patient’s own fat cells. Latest trials show that bone, injected into the jaws of all 11 patients, successfully fused to existing bone and filled gaps in their deteriorating jawbones.
http://www.timesofisrael.com/israeli-company-performs-first-transplant-of-lab-grown-bones/
http://www.bonus-bio.com/index.php/press-room/press-releases
https://www.youtube.com/embed/WpXZUOD9j48?rel=0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AD7bwLhG7dU

European approval to grow bone from coral. (TY Harold G) I reported previously (twice) about Israel’s CoreBone which grows ultra-strong bone-graft material in the laboratory from corals. CoreBone recently received both CE and ISO 13485 certification to allow the company to sell the product in Europe.
http://www.israel21c.org/growing-new-bone-from-corals-raised-in-the-israeli-desert/

How viruses communicate. Weizmann Institute scientists have discovered that some viruses (phages) secrete small molecules that are read and updated by other copies of the same virus. Viruses use this to coordinate their attack and will go dormant if these molecules indicate that insufficient uninfected host cells remain.
http://wis-wander.weizmann.ac.il/life-sciences/viruses-overheard-talking-one-another

Pain relief for osteoarthritis. Israel’s Moebius Medical is developing MM-II, a novel treatment for osteoarthritis pain. MM-II’s proprietary liposomes lubricate arthritic knee joints, to reduce friction and wear, and pain in the joints. Moebius has contracted with India’s Sun Pharmaceutical to further develop MM-II.
http://www.globes.co.il/en/article-moebius-and-sun-sign-osteoarthritis-drug-licensing-deal-1001166429

Plant extract mimics insulin. (TY Liat) A new study in Austria has confirmed the anti-diabetic properties of the purslane herb extract Portulaca oleracea L. Israel’s Frutarom manufactures Portusana®, a scientifically supported and unique purslane extract.
http://www.frutaromhealth.com/2016/12/07/research-suggests-purslane-extract-mimics-insulin/

Improved ECG is saving lives. I reported previously (Nov 2014) about HyperQ from Israel’s Biological Signal Processing (BSP) that discovers heart problems that normal ECG tests cannot. BSP’s CEO Dr Yair Granot came on ILTV Daily and said HyperQ had been sold worldwide, including to anti-Israel Venezuela!
https://www.youtube.com/embed/ybAhnD8snUY?rel=0

Low-cost proton therapy to destroy tumors. I reported previously (twice) about Israel’s P-Cure which has developed low-cost Proton radiation therapy devices to kill cancer tumors. The revolutionary technology was explained recently on ILTV daily. https://www.youtube.com/embed/DPf2Hu616i8?rel=0

App to streamline emergency response. Magen David Adom, Israel’s national emergency service, has developed the My MDA app. It provides dispatchers and ambulance teams with advance information, including the exact location of the user, medical information, and photos or a live video feed from the scene.
http://www.timesofisrael.com/magen-david-adom-app-aims-to-streamline-emergency-response/

An excellent brain scientist. Professor Haim Sompolinsky of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem won Israel’s EMET prize for Excellence in Life Sciences (Brain Research) for his work on the principles of brain function and the behavior of neuronal networks, and for shaping brain theories into a systematic discipline.
http://en.emetprize.org/laureates/life-sciences/brain-research/haim-sompolinsky

Thank you for fighting Ebola. On the first ever state visit to Israel, the President Ernest Bai Koroma of the Muslim-majority Sierra Leone expressed his gratitude for the Jewish state’s assistance in fighting the Ebola virus. “That we have put the Ebola behind us is because of the support of this nation” he said.
http://www.thetower.org/4435-watch-president-of-sierra-leone-thanks-israel-for-help-fighting-ebola/
https://www.youtube.com/embed/ebeDTCQwNrs?rel=0

Peter Smith The Media’s Dark, Distorting Prism

If Obama had delivered Donald Trump’s inaugural address it would have been hailed for its eloquence, nobility and resolve. But it was not merely a Republican at the lectern, it was a maverick Republican, so the consensus insists the entire known world is in mortal peril.
I noticed yet again that the Democrats in the US have a way with the instantaneous dissemination of words; or, at least, when it comes to the “dark” word. President Trump had hardly finished his inaugural address when it was in the mouths of CNN commentators and, tout de suite, I saw it appear via the ABC and The Australian. I guess it also made an appearance in other media outlets. It was previously used, I recall, in describing President Trump’s acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention. And then too it spread like wildfire among the media elite.

“We the citizens of America are now joined in a great national effort to rebuild our country and restore its promise for all of our people…We will bring back our jobs. We will bring back our borders. We will bring back our wealth. And we will bring back our dreams.”

This doesn’t sound too dark to me. So where is the darkness so perceptibly spotted by the Dems at their ‘media control headquarters’? Here it is, just 83 words taken out of his whole speech.

“But for many of our citizens, a different reality exists: mothers and children trapped in poverty in our inner cities; rusted out factories scattered like tombstones across the landscape of our nation; an education system flush with cash, but which leaves our young and beautiful children deprived of all knowledge; and the crime and the gangs and the drugs that have stolen too many lives and robbed our country of so much potential. This American carnage stops right here and stops right now.”

If you can stand it, picture the well-heeled media types on CNN twittering on about how this sat uneasily with the soaring [empty] inauguration speeches of yesteryear. For example: “To the people of poor nations, we pledge to make your farms flourish and let clean water flow.” And the progress President Obama made on this? Tut-tut, a mere detail.

Never mind that people and whole communities are being thrown on the scrap heap as a result of globalisation, high corporate taxes and mindless regulations; never mind that the living standards of the low skilled are being forced down by illegal immigration; never mind that law abiding people and their children are living in fear in crime-ridden inner cities. There is nothing to see there. After all, east-coast commentators on CNN are doing OK – thanks very much.

Talk about living in a bubble. It is sickening and is precisely why, and not before time, that America has President Trump. And look the way he immediately followed up his supposedly gloom-laden remarks: “We are one nation and their pain is our pain. Their dreams are our dreams. And their success will be our success.” The group-thinking MSM would have wet their pants in admiration for his soaring oratory if Obama had said it. The difference is that Trump said it. And the palpable fear is that he actually means it and just might succeed in doing something about it. Forget this cant that he is our president and we want him to succeed. They want him to fail monumentally.

Girls’ Day Out by Roger Franklin

To impede the smooth flow of traffic, if one is to go by the globe-girdling agitation of ladies who don’t much approve of the latest US President or, for that matter, the result of elections that fail to produce the result they anticipated.

Yesterday in Melbourne, where outpourings of local feminist sentiment can be murkier than the Yarra, the crusader in blue took her male along to join in the fun. No doubt he enjoyed the outing, especially the heavy lifting of those weighty issues on his half of two signs extolling the correct positions on a number of fashionable topics. The photo also perhaps explains why it can sometimes be rather hard to stay on top of the latest trends in feminist discourse.

Surprisingly, if women are to be free, it seems capping CO2 emissions is a vital first step; likewise, all who aspire to enlightenment must scoff at any link between Islam and frequent outbreaks of mass murder — a conclusion only those silly enough to favour an afternoon at the beach over marching and chanting would ever be likely to entertain. They are the same people, just by the way, who might well regard the veiling of women, child marriage, arranged marriage, consanguineous marriage, genital mutilation and the scripturally ordained second-rate status of women as symptoms of a true patriarchy. Feminists, of course, know better.

And don’t forget that sexuality is not a choice — handy advice if troubled by a sudden interest in bicycle seats or, for that matter, an eagerness to parade as 50% of what many might regard as a humiliating public exercise in cognitive dissonance. “Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored,” proclaims Madam’s placard, complete with an erudite attribution to Aldous Huxley, who penned that thought in A Note on Dogma. To be fair, she could not have squeezed too many more words on that single sheet of cardboard and must therefore be granted the benefit of the doubt for not sampling another relevant quote. It is in Huxley’s letter of congratulation to George Orwell upon the publication of 1984.

… I believe that the world’s leaders will discover that infant conditioning and narco-hypnosis are more efficient, as instruments of government, than clubs and prisons, and that the lust for power can be just as completely satisfied by suggesting people into loving their servitude as by flogging them and kicking them into obedience.

Infant conditioning? Narco-hypnosis? Why, it brings to mind Ritalin time with Matron after a Safe Schools class!

For more on the International Day of Female Fury in Comfy Shoes, follow the link below, where another strange discordance is in evidence. When Donald Trump is surreptitiously recorded saying something vulgar in private, he is to be roundly condemned. But it’s entirely different when feminist heroine Madonna speaks of yearning to blow up the White House and urges her new president to go suck a …. well, just follow the link. At Quadrant Online we leave such language to the ladies.

Trump, Netanyahu Discuss Iran and Israeli-Palestinian Peace Process Call comes as Israelis approve construction of hundreds of settlement units in East Jerusalem By Rory Jones

President Donald Trump spoke Sunday by phone with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu about ways to strengthen relations between their two countries and “threats posed by Iran,” according to the White House.

Mr. Netanyahu’s office described the conversation as “very warm” and Mr. Trump invited the prime minister to come to Washington to meet sometime in February. Relations between Israel and the U.S. grew strained under former President Barack Obama and his administration abstained from a United Nations resolution in December that declared settlement construction in East Jerusalem and in the West Bank illegal.

“The President and the Prime Minister agreed to continue to closely consult on a range of regional issues, including addressing the threats posed by Iran,” the White House said after Sunday’s call. “The President affirmed his unprecedented commitment to Israel’s security and stressed that countering ISIL and other radical Islamic terrorist groups will be a priority for his Administration,” it said, referring to Islamic State.

Mr. Trump also emphasized that peace could only be negotiated directly between Israelis and Palestinians, the White House said. That remark came after attempts earlier this month by France and the international community to convene a peace conference on the Israeli-Palestinian issue.

Previously, Mr. Trump has pledged to move the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, which would be an unprecedented and politically charged move effectively recognizing the city as Israel’s capital. Palestinian officials have condemned the idea and warned they won’t be held responsible for violence that might erupt as a result of an embassy shift.

Palestinians want East Jerusalem as the capital of a future state. They maintain that the status of Jerusalem should be decided as part of broader Israeli-Palestinian negotiations.

“We are at the very beginning stages of even discussing this subject,” White House press secretary Sean Spicer said Sunday of the possible embassy relocation.

Saeb Erekat, the secretary-general of the Palestine Liberation Organization, which negotiates with Israel in peace talks, has said such a move would signal the end of the peace process between Israelis and Palestinians. CONTINUE AT SITE