RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://www.nationalreview.com/2019/11/brexit-ho/

The Tories have run a solid campaign so far, while Labour has stumbled.

After two weeks of Britain’s election campaign, which now has less than three weeks to run, the lack of excitement over its result is palpable. The national polls have been more or less steady since the starting gun was fired, with the Tories hovering around 40 percent support, Labour rising slightly to 30 percent, the Liberal Democrats stuck around 16 percent, and the Brexit party falling to single figures. The weekend saw a slight strengthening of all these trends, with the Tory percentage settling down in the mid-40s, for a lead over Labour of well into double figures. If repeated on Election Day, that would produce a solid Tory majority of about between 40 and 60 seats. As the pundits say, however, these figures could all change very rapidly under the influence of events.

The problem for all the opposition parties is that there haven’t been many events — at least not the kind that change political fortunes. Iain Martin, who edits the Reaction website, makes the original point that Britain’s parliamentary politics have been fizzing with such neurotic energy in the last two years that the conventional exercises of the election campaign — manifestos, leadership debates, extremists slipping through the net into candidacies, etc. — seem fairly dull by comparison. A truly big story was needed to provide a shock to the system and to disturb its slow, inevitable progress rightwards. Unfortunately for Labour, the biggest news story, and not just in the U.K., has been the scandal of Prince Andrew’s relationship with the late, disgraced financier, Jeffrey Epstein (and allegedly with at least one of the underaged women in Epstein’s entourage), which the prince’s BBC interview succeeded in the near-impossible task of making worse. It’s a scandal with legs that looks like running longer than the West End hit No Sex Please, We’re British. The strictly political effect of this scandal, however, has been to distract attention from the election altogether and so, in all likelihood, to freeze the Tory lead.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/anti-semitism-soars-in-eastern-europe-11574812176?mod=opinion_lead_pos10

During the past decade, as internal struggles have preoccupied the U.S., the rest of the world hasn’t been standing still. China has risen, as has populist nationalism—and so too, it turns out, has anti-Semitism.

The latest global survey conducted by the Anti-Defamation League finds that anti-Semitic attitudes have increased significantly since 2015 in Central and Eastern Europe, which before the Holocaust was home to most of European Jewry. According to the ADL’s 11-question index, in use for more than 50 years, the share of the adult population expressing a high level of anti-Semitic views rose from 37% to 48% in Poland, 32% to 46% in Ukraine and 23% to 31% in Russia. Hungary showed a more modest increase of 2 points, but from a high base of 40% in 2015.

In these four countries, classic stereotypes prevailed. Asked whether “Jews have too much power in the business world,” 72% of Ukrainians agreed, as did 71% of Hungarians, 56% of Poles and 50% of Russians. Sixty-eight percent of Ukrainians, 67% of Hungarians, 56% of Poles and 40% of Russians agreed that “Jews have too much power in international financial markets.” Fifty-six percent of Ukrainians, 51% of Hungarians and 40% of Poles believe that “Jews have too much control over global affairs.” (Russians trailed at 29%, perhaps because they believe—correctly—that Vladimir Putin is more powerful than a mythical Jewish conspiracy.)

Citizens of these four countries also resent being reminded of the Holocaust. Asked whether “Jews still talk too much about what happened to them” in the genocide, 74% of Poles answered in the affirmative, as did 59% of Hungarians, 50% of Russians and 44% of Ukrainians.

This view is widespread in Western Europe as well. Fifty-two percent of Austrians regard the discussion of the Holocaust as excessive, as do 42% of Germans, 40% of Belgians, 38% of Italians and 37% of Spaniards. CONTINUE AT SITE

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2019/11/adl-acknowledges-excess-muslim-jew-hatred-western-andrew-bostom/

November 21, 2019, the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) released its 2019 survey data on the prevalence (occurrence) of extreme Antisemitism (defined, below) within 18 countries assessed between April 15 and June 3, 2019. Six of these countries—Belgium, The United Kingdom, Germany, Spain, France, and Italy—included a Muslim over-sample, allowing for a direct comparison of Muslims vs. Christians, those professing no religion, and the overall populations.

As ADL’s own press release stated:

Muslim acceptance of anti-Semitic stereotypes was substantially higher than among the national populations—on average almost three times as high—in the six countries tested: Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and The United Kingdom.

In sadly typical fashion, however, the ADL downplayed these findings in its press release, effectively concealing them as the last of six bullet points, i.e., # 6 of 6.

The ADL also failed to expressly note how compared to Western European Christians, specifically, Muslims were also ~3-times more likely to harbor extreme Antisemitic attitudes as gauged by abiding at least 6 of 11 Antisemitic stereotypes queried. (see tabulated data)

In brief, the ADL presents respondents with the following questionnaire:

Jews are more loyal to Israel than to [this country/to the countries they live in]
Jews have too much power in the business world
Jews have too much power in international financial markets
Jews still talk too much about what happened to them in the Holocaust
Jews don’t care what happens to anyone but their own kind
Jews have too much control over global affairs
Jews have too much control over the United States government
Jews think they are better than other people
Jews have too much control over the global media
Jews are responsible for most of the world’s wars
People hate Jews because of the way Jews behave

The “Index Score” determining the occurrence of “extreme Antisemitism” in each population surveyed is calculated as follows:

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2019/11/16/englands-shameful-history-blood-libel-compelled-denounce-corbyns/

OnThursdayIjoinedJohnLeCarré,TrevorPhillips,FiyazMughalandmanyothersinsigningaletterexplainingourrefusaltovoteLabouron12December.Theconcern–indeed,thedread–whichweexpressedwas“theprospectofaprimeministersteepedinassociationwithantisemitism.”WhetherJeremyCorbynispersonallyanti-semitic,orwilfullyblind,orboth,Idonotpresumetojudge;butthesheerrangeofhiscontactswithindisputableanti-semites,hisrepeatedexpressionsofenthusiasmforthem,meansthatIhavelongfounditimpossibletoignoretheanxietiesofJewishfriends.

Oneassociationinparticularseemstomebeyondthepale.In2011,writingintheMorningStar,thefutureLabourleadercondemned“theZionistlobby”forsecuringthedeportationfromBritainofaPalestinianactivistnamedRaedSaleh.Ayearlater,CorbynwasstillcampaigningonSaleh’sbehalf,andevenissuedhimaninvitationto“teaontheHouseofCommonsterrace.”Itishardtothinkofanyonelessdeservingofsuchaninvitation.SalehhasbeenconvictedofdeployingthemostrepellantofallthemanycalumniesdirectedagainsttheJewsoverthecenturies:thechargethattheyareinthehabitofmixingchildren’sbloodwiththeirritualbread.

ThisbloodlibeliswidelyrepeatedacrosstheMiddleEasttoday–butitdidnotoriginatethere.ItoriginatedinEngland.Thecontextwasagrowingdreadin12thcenturyChristendomoftheJewsaswillingagentsoftheDevil.Increasinglytheywerefingeredassorcerersandblasphemers:enemiesoftheChurchwho,giventhechance,wouldpollutethesacredvesselsusedintheeucharistwiththeirspit,theirsperm,theirexcrement.Darkestofall,theywerechargedwithmurder.

In1144,thediscoveryofayoungboy’scorpseinawoodoutsideNorwichpromptedahostofsensationalaccusations:thattheboyhadbeenkidnappedbythecity’sJews,torturedasChristhadbeentorturedandofferedupasasacrifice.Thestoryspreadlikewildfire.AssimilartaleswerereportedacrossChristendom,afurtherhellishrefinementwasadded:thattheJews,inagrotesqueparodyoftheeucharist,mixedbloodintotheirbread.

Thatthisclaimwascondemnedasalibelfirstbyanimperialcommission,andthen,in1253,bythepapacyitself,didnothingtostopitsspread.Twoyearslater,thediscoveryinLincolnofasmallboynamedHughatthebottomofawellsawninetyJewsarrestedforthemurderontheordersofthekinghimself.Eighteenofthemwerehanged.Themurderedboywashailedasamartyr.ThatthepapacypointedlyrefusedtoconfirmthiscanonisationdidlittletocheckthegrowthofthecultofLittleSaintHugh.

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/15208/sweden-milestone

Conditions in Sweden have deteriorated so drastically — with everything from child care to elder care being deprived of funds that are instead being used to feed, clothe and house refugees, faux refugees, and other foreign freeloaders — that many Norwegians worry, with good reason, about a massive spillover of social chaos, poverty and crime from a country with which it shares a thousand-mile-long border.

One is reminded, of course, of the indefensible way in which British authorities handled — or refused to handle — decades of child-rape cases in Rotherham, Rochdale and other cities throughout Britain. But in Sweden — whose distinctive history of ideological conformity and self-image as a “moral superpower”… the readiness to deny unpleasant realities is even more widespread and deep-seated than in the U.K. and other Western European countries.

It was the Social Democrats and Moderates that created Sweden’s current crisis and allowed it to endure and worsen and be considered beyond criticism….

The Sweden Democrats’ triumph, then, may well be at once a genuine milestone in the advance of Swedish democracy and individualism and a mere turn in the road to ultimate cultural displacement.

When I moved to Norway twenty years ago, a term I encountered often was “American conditions” (amerikanske tilstander). It was always used disparagingly. It referred to such things as urban sprawl, strip malls, inner-city gangs, school shootings and private health care. After Barack Obama became president, I heard the term far less frequently — in Norway, after all, you cannot get too rough on a country with a black president, especially a president to whom you have given the Nobel Peace Prize.

Today, even though Trump-bashing — in Norway as in the U.S. — is the media’s favorite sport, the term does not seem to have come back into widespread use, which perhaps has something to do with the fact that the U.S., among other things, now has the world’s strongest economy and staggeringly enviable employment figures. Meanwhile, there is another term that has become increasingly common in Norway: “Swedish conditions” (svenske tilstander). It really took off about two years ago, when Sylvi Listhaug, Norway’s then Minister of Immigration and Integration, used it after visiting some of Sweden’s worst Muslim enclaves — a reaction that outraged politicians and journalists on both sides of the border.

Although recently there has been good news from Sweden — which I will get to shortly — let it be said, at the outset, that the term “Swedish conditions,” when used in Norway, has exclusively negative connotations. While “American conditions” covers a wide range of purported sins, however, “Swedish conditions” means basically one thing, or rather one set of intimately related things: admitting masses of unvetted immigrants from a very different culture into your country, encouraging them to settle in monocultural, autocratic enclaves that become no-go zones, allowing them to sit home collecting generous welfare benefits instead of learning the local language and finding jobs, and punishing even their most brutal crimes with a slap on the wrist — all the while continuing to repeat the mantra that their culture has enriched Sweden and to ignore the glaring reality that Sweden is undergoing a long-term conquest as well as what one Norwegian observer has called “an inferno of violence.”

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/15214/iran-nuclear-bomb-months

This marks a dangerous phase in Iran’s nuclear defiance. Tehran is now using a kind of prototype centrifuge that enriches uranium almost 50 times faster.

Although Iran is a party to the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), it refuses to allow the International Atomic Energy Agency to inspect its sites. The IAEA is also not allowed to inspect or monitor Iran’s military sites where nuclear activities are most likely being carried out.

That is why, before it is too late, which it is fast becoming, it is incumbent on the US and the international community to take seriously Iran’s nuclear advances and urgently address its rush to obtain nuclear weapons.

The Iranian government is shortening its nuclear breakout time — the amount of time required to produce enough weapons-grade uranium for a single nuclear weapon. Tehran has accomplished this through several steps in the last few months.

Iran’s government first increased its enriched uranium stockpile beyond the 300 kilogram limit; it enriched uranium to levels beyond the cap of 3.67 percent, and then activated 20 IR-4 and 20 IR-6 advanced centrifuges. The Iranian leaders even boasted that their government is now exploring new uranium enrichment programs and producing centrifuges.

Most recently, the head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, Ali Akbar Salehi, declared that Iran has an adequate supply of 20% enriched uranium., “Right now we have enough 20% uranium,” he told the Iranian Students News Agency, ISNA, “but we can produce more as needed”. He added that the country is resuming uranium enrichment at a far higher level at the Fordow nuclear facility — an underground uranium enrichment facility which is reportedly located on one of bases of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC­­) — injecting uranium gas into centrifuges, and operating 60 IR-6 advanced centrifuges.

https://us12.campaign-archive.com/?e=&u=47f17d17778fdf9b4e07c91ad&id=9e716a

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2019/11/24/former-mi6-chief-calls-jeremy-corbyn-danger-national-security/

https://wp.tomgrossmedia.com/

The former head of MI6 has called Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn a danger to national security who is unfit to lead the country.

Sir Richard Dearlove has written in the Mail on Sunday that Mr Corbyn would pose a “present danger to our country” if he became prime minister and has access to top-secret files.

Sir Richard, who spent 38 years with Britain’s intelligence service, said Mr Corbyn’s past political activities would make him a security risk if he was in possession of such sensitive information.

“Today, in the home of parliamentary democracy, we are faced with the possibility that a leader of the Labour Party who once preferred East Germany’s political and economic model of government could become prime minister,” Sir Richard wrote.

BRITISH CHIEF RABBI: “A NEW POISON – SANCTIONED FROM THE TOP – HAS TAKEN ROOT IN THE LABOUR PARTY”

https://wp.tomgrossmedia.com/

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/ephraim-mirvis-what-will-become-of-jews-in-britain-if-labour-forms-the-next-government-ghpsdbljk

Elections should be a celebration of democracy. However, just weeks before we go to the polls, the overwhelming majority of British Jews are gripped by anxiety.

During the past few years, on my travels through the UK and further afield, one concern has been expressed to me more than any other. Of course, the threats of the far right and violent jihadism never go away, but the question I am now most frequently asked is: What will become of Jews and Judaism in Britain if the Labour Party forms the next government?

This anxiety is justified. Raising concerns about anti-Jewish racism in the context of a general election ranks among the most painful moments I have experienced since taking office. Convention dictates that the Chief Rabbi stays well away from party politics — and rightly so. However, challenging racism is not a matter of politics, it goes well beyond that. Wherever there is evidence of it, including in any of our political parties, it must be swiftly rooted out. Hateful prejudice is always wrong, whoever the perpetrator, whoever the victim.

The Jewish community has endured the deep discomfort of being at the centre of national political attention for nearly four years. We have been treated by many as an irritant, as opposed to a minority community with genuine concerns. Some politicians have shown courage but too many have sat silent. We have learned the hard way that speaking out means that we will be demonised by faceless social media trolls and accused of being partisan or acting in bad faith by those who still think of this as an orchestrated political smear. Yet, I ask myself: should the victims of racism be silenced by the fear of yet further vilification?

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/15202/iran-tortures-protesters

This internet blackout, according to Iran Human Rights director Amiry-Moghaddam, “might indicate the Iranian authorities’ plans to use even more violence against the protesters.”

On November 22, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced on Twitter: “The U.S. is sanctioning the Minister of Information and Communications Technology, Mohammad Jahromi, for helping shut down the Iranian internet. We will hold members of the Iranian regime accountable for their violent repression of the Iranian people. #Internet4Iran.”

It is likely that Pompeo’s warnings had a direct effect: the following day, on November 23, NetBlocks confirmed that: “[Internet] connectivity has been restored with multiple fixed-line providers across much of Iran, allowing users to get online via wifi.”

To help the Iranian people, at the mercy of their oppressive regime, the world would do better to emulate the Trump administration’s tough posture. European appeasement and diplospeak only embolden, rather than weaken, tyrants such as those in Iran.

The hundreds of anti-regime protesters and civil rights activists who have been arrested by Iranian security forces since the eruption of mass demonstrations on November 15 — after the government raised the price of gasoline — are in danger of torture, forced confessions and even death sentences.

According to the organization Iran Human Rights (IHR):

“The detainees are held in unknown places, and their families are not informed about their whereabouts. Moreover, there has been a total internet blackout imposed by the authorities making information flow very difficult.

“‘Most of the detainees could not call their families. Their relatives have tried to find out where they are held. They even do not know their beloved ones are dead or alive,’ a well-informed source told IHR.”