RUTHFULLY YOURS

Refugees fleeing the advancing Islamic State forces in western Iraq tell tales of savagery. The accounts have a number of common factors. A new report just issued by Amnesty International notes that the Islamic State has begun “a systematic campaign of ethnic cleansing” [1] in northern Iraq. The report focuses on the actions taken by Islamic State forces against Yezidis living in the Sinjar mountain area of Iraq, close to the border with Syria. This area fell to IS in early August.

The Amnesty report lays bare a reality in which the Islamic State appears to be seeking to terminate the existence of non-Muslim religions on its soil. It describes, for example, two incidents that took place in the Yezidi villages of Qiniyeh and Kocho in mid-August. In both cases, the males of the villages — men and boys — were rounded up, forced into vehicles and then taken out of the villages and shot. Women, meanwhile, were abducted by the jihadis.

IS have established a slave market in Mosul, where women are sold for prices ranging from $5-25.

Christian and Yezidi places of worship and Shia mosques have been systematically vandalized or destroyed by the advancing Islamic State forces.

That the Islamic State is committing crimes against humanity is clear. What is less clear is the nature of the western policy toward the emergent jihadi state.

The U.S. response in Iraq, it should be said, has been firm. Very plainly, the administration drew a red line in front of Baghdad and the Kurdish capital of Erbil and made clear that the Islamic State would not be permitted to enter these areas. As a result, the IS advance on Erbil stopped 45 km from the city and remains stopped. The jihadis understood after the first U.S. airstrikes that if they attempted a rush for the city they would be wiped out from the air.

With the help of U.S. air power and special forces, the Kurds and the Iraqi army are now pushing the jihadis back from the easternmost of their conquests in Iraq. The Mosul Dam has been won back. The siege of Amerli has been lifted.

But its not quite clear what happens next. And there is a danger of goals being set which the west will not then seriously attempt to achieve. President Obama recently defined the goal of U.S. policy as to “degrade and destroy” IS. The Islamic State currently stretches from Mosul in Iraq all the way to Syria’s border with Turkey. It is hard to see how it could be destroyed by air power alone. It is also hard to identify a ground force among the myriad forces operating today in Iraq and Syria which could make a serious bid to destroy it on the ground.

When Steven Sotloff was abducted last summer while crossing the border between Turkey and Syria, serious efforts were made on the part of colleagues, friends and family members to keep secret the fact that the American journalist was not only Jewish, but was also an Israeli citizen.

The belief guiding the people involved in this campaign to prevent Sotloff’s Islamist kidnappers from learning of his roots was that the young man’s life would be in even graver danger if the truth about him emerged. In retrospect, we now know that his days were numbered anyway. Being an American, it turns out, was sufficient cause for Sotloff, like the photojournalist James Foley before him, to be decapitated on camera by the Islamic State operative known by his comrades-in-arms as Jihadi John.

It did not matter to the Islamic State group that Sotloff had undergone a voluntary — albeit “quickie” — conversion to Islam while in Egypt, reporting from Tahrir Square on the revolution that replaced ousted President Hosni Mubarak with the Muslim Brotherhood’s Mohammed Morsi.

As a liberal, Sotloff likely harbored a degree of sympathy for the region’s anti-Israel and anti-Western forces. And one imagines he would have shared such views with his captors over the course of the year he spent with them, if for no other reason than self-preservation. But this was of no interest to the British national who ended up beheading him.

Regardless of any personal relationship that might have developed between Sotloff and the hooded butchers whose company he was forced to endure for 13 months, their sociopathic religious ideology sealed his sad fate. To them, he was merely a means to an end. In their eyes, he — like Foley and the British hostage currently on their literal and figurative chopping block — was simply a slab of flesh to be used as a bargaining chip and then slaughtered as a “message to America.”

And though most Americans actually have been getting the message that the Islamic State group and an increasing number of other radical Muslim groups possess a blood-lust that is part and parcel of their mission to murder all “infidels,” President Barack Obama continues to deny it.

The government is not the only prey on our freedoms. Islam is its major partner in that crime.

The ongoing abrogation of the Constitution and the freedoms it was established to protect and guarantee is complemented by the Islamic campaign to abrogate them, as well. What makes it possible are multiculturalism (no culture is superior to others), political correctness (many things are unmentionable, or mentionable only in euphemistic terms), diversity (a Brunswick Stew of cultural traditions, social relationships, and even political systems can enrich American culture and society), and subjectivism (all systems of values, moral, political and even esthetic, are mere prejudices, with no basis in reality).

Abrogation of the “peaceful” Koranic verses by the violent ones, and the abrogation of the U.S. Constitution by Islamic Sharia law (not that Muslims need any help from Congress and Obama to accomplish that) is an established goal by all the Islamic organizations in the U.S. But, first, let’s define the term. Merriam-Webster online:

: to abolish by authoritative action : annul

: to treat as nonexistent

As virtually every Islamic scholar, past and present, has preached, the later violent verses and dictats in the Koran abolish the earlier “peaceful” ones. They may as well have never existed, because the Koran especially was purported dictated in its entirety into Mohammad’s ear, and Mohammad, an illiterate bandit and killer, in turned supposedly dictated it to unknown scribes. (See Robert Spencer’s book, Did Muhammad Exist? An Inquiry Into Islam’s Obscure Origins). The Koran really didn’t begin to be assembled, collated, edited, expunged of “unauthentic” attributions, and disseminated by Islamic scholars until centuries after Mohammad’s death.

Before examining how Islam would abrogate our freedoms, we should examine some alternating examples of how the Koran abrogates its “peaceful” (Mansūkh) verses with the abrogating ones (Nāsikh).

On imposing jizya, or a poll or protection tax on “infidels.”

My first special article for nearly two months highlights that Israeli technology is fundamental to everything we use or consume. Modern life would be impossible without Israel.
There is some really bad news for the lunatic anti-Israel BDS (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions) brigade. Virtually every electronic device in the world is now produced using Israeli technology. The systems manufactured by Yavne-based Orbotech are used globally to produce almost every printed circuit board on the planet. So when you tell the BDS crazies to dispose of all their electronic equipment, here are some recent news reports relating to other everyday items that they also need to steer well clear of.

1. Doctors and medicine

BDS advocates must never approach hospitals or GP surgeries because Israeli discoveries, treatments and life-saving devices dominate the medical arena. Latest advances include treatments for pancreatic cancer and bladder cancer; a vaccine against avian flu; improved methods for diagnosing ADHD and blood clots; a new durable material for hip replacements; an app for diabetics; a watch that prevents heart attacks and safer cancer radiation therapy.

2. Water, food and drink

There is seldom a day without an announcement from one of Israel’s prolific water treatment companies. It may be Miya, saving billions of gallons of water in the Americas, South East Asia, South Africa and Australia; or RWL water, supplying water treatment systems to America’s nuclear energy industry. And the BDS mob will soon need to avoid most well-known food and drink products as the top companies in the US food and beverage industry are adopting Israeli water solutions in their manufacturing processes.

3. Agricultural produce

Israeli companies, products and innovative methods have revolutionized the agricultural industry in many countries. Israel has established twenty “centers of excellence” in India, providing technological solutions to agricultural issues. Netafim started propagating Israeli technology in 1965 with its drip irrigation system – now popular even in Arab countries. Netafim has just completed a successful international pilot project of its uManage platform, which helps farmers to monitor irrigation/fertilizer performance and yields. Meanwhile, even apparently small-scale Israeli innovations can help feed billions of needy people. Israelis Moti Cohen and Mendi Pollak won the $20,000 top prize in the Pears Challenge. Their Livingbox “mini-farm” can grow vegetables anywhere, with a self-sustaining “closed loop” of energy and nutrition.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nEpPknWiCa0

American and European leaders are “shocked” that the Islamic State (IS) barbarians beheaded two American reporters, Steven J. Sotloff and James Foley. Their “shock” is disingenuous and troubling. They react as though such barbarism is something new among Islamists. It is anything but. And if not earlier, then certainly in the aftermath of al Qaeda’s attacks on the U.S. on September 11, 2001, a spike in Islamic groups’ and individuals’ barbaric crimes has been reported worldwide.

Islamist beheading is nothing new. Open a Quran in any translation to find the instructions that the IS and other jihadists groups are following, in the name ‘the Beneficent, the Merciful Allah.’ Bloody fighting as prescribed in the Quran serve as the foundation of their religion of War.

Here are a few examples: The Book of Muhammad, verse 4 (47:4) – “Therefore, when ye meet the Unbelievers (in fight), strike off their heads; at length; then when you have made wide Slaughter among them, carefully tie up the remaining captives: thereafter (is the time for) either generosity or ransom: Until the war lays down its burdens.”

According to the Book of Al-Maeda, verse 33 (5:33) -“The punishment of those who wage war against Allah and His Messenger, and strive with might and main for mischief through the land is: execution, or crucifixion, or the cutting off of hands and feet from opposite sides, or exile from the land: that is their disgrace in this world, and a heavy punishment is theirs in the Hereafter.”

And the Book of Al-Anfal, verse 12 ( 8:12) – “I (Allah) will instill terror into the hearts of the unbelievers: smite ye above their necks and smite all their finger-tips off.”

The IS and other jihadists are doing their best to follow the Quran’s barbaric instructions, using machetes, the popular modern version of the Prophet’s 7th-century sword. Indeed, a sword features in the national flags of Iran–the center of Shia radicalism, and Saudi Arabia–the center of Sunni/Wahhabi radicalism. The sword is not merely a symbol. The sword represents WAR. the most important value for this radical regimes.

The Saudi kingdom carries out barbaric physical punishments today as they have done since Ibn Saud founded it in 1932. Cutting off hands of thieves, stoning to death, beheading and crucifying those who violated the sharia, are carried out regularly.

Russians are stupid. They should send Hamas fighters into the Ukraine: they’re undetectable.

Media attention has shifted from Gaza to the Ukraine where more than 2000 people have been killed since April. How many civilians, soldiers, children? No breakdown is deemed necessary. But the situation is troubling, Russia is accused of invading, economic sanctions are traded like gunfire, the image of pan-European peace is tarnished.

And then there is DAESH. The mother of kidnapped journalist Steven Sotloff appealed by video to the Caliph, begging for mercy, pleading with the Caliph not to punish her son for acts of a government over which he has no control. Declaring that she has learned much about Islam, she asks the Caliph to follow the example of the prophet Mohamed who protected the People of the Book. Similar appeals have been made in the past, many kept private, others made public. Is there a single example of one that was successful? Allow me to express my doubts. [September 2–Steven Sotloff was beheaded, as promised] What works is money, prisoner release, arms, safe passage. Not appeals for mercy, not misconceptions about Islam.

The Daily Mail reports that a guard from one of the prisons where James Foley had been held was executed the day after Foley was beheaded. Was Abu Ubaida Almaghribi really guilty of giving information to British intelligence or was John-the-knife pissed off because the Brits identified him so quickly?

Meanwhile, some journalists were still foaming at the mouth in Gaza. A recent issue of Libération fell into my hands the other day. After reading a human interest story from the ruins of Shujaiyeh, I had a fleeting thought of inviting the author, Luc Mathieu, to face me in an honest public debate. That’s probably as hopeless as the heartfelt plea from Sotloff’s mother. Mathieu’s double-page spread of bitter complaints against a background of rubble is a variation on the theme of “Why did they destroy my house? I’m not Hamas…” No one is Hamas, no Hamas fighters were anywhere in reach, no rocket launch pads were on the rooftop and no tunnel entrances at ground level. Well, ok, maybe a little tunnel entrance, but it’s no reason to bomb us to smithereens. The stink of putrefaction and the smell of raw hatred rise in crescendo, accusations mount skyward against the unfair air raids and land with disgusting details of desecration by Israeli soldiers bivouacked in the al Mghani home during the operation. They made a hole in the wall for their sniper, smashed up everything in the kitchen, left their excrements in the room with the birdcages… the cages are empty now. There is no attempt at verification, no other side of the story, no hard facts… it’s not journalism. It’s take my word for it because the victims are howling in pain. So what is it doing in a newspaper and what is its purpose? To fuel hatred of Israelis. And, since there aren’t so many of them here in France, Jews will do. The article ends with an implicit justification for future attacks. “Saïd” (who requested his real name not be used) says he tried to enlist in Hamas but was rejected because he doesn’t know how to shoot. The journalist asks Saïd’s 17 year-old son if he’d join up. “I have just one thing to say: look around, look at our houses bombed to rubble. You’ll understand what I’m going to do.”

Anti-Israel propaganda has been driven from the start by lies distortions and a massive rewriting of history. Blame for everything is piled on the Jews, while the crimes of the Arabs, including the Palestinians, are exonerated.

The American Vice-Consul, along with British officers and the British High Commissioner, Sir Alan Cunningham, stated at the time that the Arabs were encouraging flight while the Jews were doing all in their power to prevent it.

The Hagana’s behavior was the exact opposite of “ethnic cleansing.” Once order was restored, Arabs were appointed to key posts and part of the supplies originally earmarked for the Jewish inhabitants were given freely to the Arabs.

Just now I’m feeling a bit ashamed of being Irish. Although our music, dance, and Nobel-prize winning literature have helped us punch above our weight in the ring of international culture, our politics has never been a model for anyone — and it is getting worse.

Back in 2011, for instance, Israel’s Foreign Ministry stated that Ireland had undoubtedly become the most hostile country to Israel in the European Union, “pushing all of Europe’s countries to a radical and uncompromising approach.”

Oddly enough, Ireland also has a reputation as a country relatively free from anti-Semitism. According to John Gallen, anti-Jewish incidents are thirty-two times more likely in the U.S. than in the Poblacht na hÉireann. One of the reasons there are almost no anti-Semitic incidents in Ireland is that there are very few Jews in the Irish Republic in the first place: under 2000 (0.04% of the population).

This information is based on data from the European Jewish Congress and the Stephen Roth Institute for the Study of Contemporary Antisemitism and Racism, Tel-Aviv University; but I remain sceptical.

If you are a Jew in Turkey not even a funeral is peaceful.

Just imagine a Turkish Jew having a legal dispute with a Muslim Turk and facing this judge in the courtroom…

As usual, apparently Muslims are allowed to kill Muslims as they like, only Jews are not.

Nearly three years ago, the Israeli news site Ynetnews.com published an opinion piece written by a Turkish-Jewish girl. She wrote: “…I have never had the need to discuss my Jewish identity, let alone my Israeli identity… We are a Jewish family with a connection to Israel, and as fit for a Turkish family we enjoy… freedom of religious rituals and worship. Holidays and vacations, Jewish schools, synagogues, and Jewish after-school clubs, all out in the open, and with no reason to fear… (Nov. 17, 2011)”

Just when I suspected that the author must be describing a Turkey other than the one I lived in, her final line confirmed that it was the same Turkey: “Despite my love for Turkey, I have chosen to remain anonymous, in case, well, you know…” Well, I knew…

Last month, Georgia and Jak Karako, a prominent, affluent Jewish couple, were found stabbed to death in their apartment in Istanbul’s upscale Ortakoy neighbourhood, amid President-elect Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s thundering speeches that, “Israel was worse than Hitler,” and regular attacks on Israel’s diplomatic missions in Ankara and Istanbul, including rocks thrown at — and hundreds of angry Turks trying to break into — the diplomatic compounds. The mayor of Ankara, Melih Gokcek, was quoted as saying: “We will conquer the consulate of the despicable murderers.”

Unfortunately, the Jewish couple had already been slain. But fortunately, this was not a crime motivated by anti-Semitism. The police quickly caught the suspects, an Uzbek couple who worked for the Karakos. They confessed to the killing. It was a simple criminal act like hundreds of others committed in Turkey everyday.

Problems abound with the U.N. agency responsible for helping Palestinians.

The United Nations has been quick to launch a special inquiry into Israel for defending itself this summer against Hamas terrorist attacks out of Gaza. But will anyone be investigating the role in this conflict of the U.N. itself?

This latest bout of war has underscored alarming questions about the U.N.’s chief agency in Gaza, the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, better known as UNRWA.

Officially, UNRWA advertises itself as a strictly neutral party providing humanitarian and relief services — including schooling, health care, construction, loans, and emergency response — to Palestinian refugees in the Middle East, including some 1.2 million beneficiaries in Gaza. In practice, UNRWA has become so enmeshed in the workings of Gaza that it effectively functions as a support service for the interests of Hamas, the Palestinian terrorist organization that rules the territory.

Hamas is dedicated in its charter and its public statements to eradicating Israel, and has used Gaza for years as a launching pad for bombarding Israel with rockets and mortars. Lacking the ability to obliterate Israel in one fell swoop, Hamas’s strategy has been to terrorize and try to delegitimize Israel, firing weapons from behind or near human shields, including UNRWA facilities, until the Israelis strike back in self-defense. Hamas then parades the resulting destruction before the world, blaming Israel for the conflict and punishing anyone in Gaza who might dissent. UNRWA plays along, condemning Israel in graphic terms while making scarce mention or none of Hamas.

Here’s a typical locution, plucked from an August 1 UNRWA daily Situation Report on Gaza: “Reportedly there were 100 rockets and 88 mortar shells fired toward Israel.” In UNRWA reports, it’s as if the rockets and mortars targeting Israel simply assemble and launch themselves.

During the thick of the fighting, in July, UNRWA reported discovering caches of rockets stored in three of its schools in Gaza. But not one of the related UNRWA press releases laid any blame on Hamas. UNRWA officials contented themselves with strongly condemning the unnamed “group or groups” who were using its schools as arsenals.

Have you noticed how much earthquake and volcanic activity has been occurring lately?

There was a major earthquake in Napa, California on Sunday, August 24th as well as considerable volcanic activity from Iceland to Papua, New Guinea. August was also a month that set records for colder U.S. temperatures.

According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), there were some 1,097 “low max” temperature records broken in the U.S. between August 1 and August 23, meaning that the maximum temperature during that time period was the lowest it has ever been. NOAA reported that summer across much of the U.S. has been colder than normal.

Most of us, after decades of global warming predictions that became more and more absurd, rising sea levels drowning Manhattan and Miami, an upsurge in hurricanes, forest fires, and every other calamity, have concluded that none of these things have happened in the volume or intensity predicted. In the 70s we were told the Earth would get colder. In the 80’s and 90’s we were told it would get warmer.

A new book is advising us to prepare for a serious cold spell that is not only going to arrive in twenty to thirty years, but will likely stay around to become the next ice age. This time, though, the prediction is based on well-established climate cycles and the behavior of the Sun that was known as far back as Galileo’s day.

The new “normal” is colder weather and this is because the Sun’s sunspot activity has been in a cyclical decline since about 1998, producing the latest cooling cycle for the Earth.