RUTHFULLY YOURS

Is Israel increasingly isolated? Is Israel experiencing a slowdown of foreign investments? Not according to the documentation of foreign investments in Israeli companies.

For instance, Hewlett-Packard (HP), a personal computers and printers global giant, which operates eight research and development centers in Israel, just established theSilicon Valley-Israel HP Tech Ventures, an investment arm seeking path-breaking US and Israeli companies in the areas of 3D, virtual reality, hyper mobility, Internet-of-Things, artificial intelligence and sophisticated machinery. Expressing confidence in the potential of Israel’s healthcare cutting-edge innovations, Orbimed, the world’s preeminent healthcare investment and asset management fund, just raised $300MN for its second Israel Fund, surpassing the $222MN first fund. In May, the German carmaker, Volkswagen, concluded a strategic partnership agreement – involving a $300MN investment – with Israel’s taxi-hailing, delivery and logistics applications start-up, Gett. And, General Motors announced the tripling of the personnel – from 100 to 300 employees – of its research and development center, in Herzliya, Israel, which has developed a number of technologies, enhancing GM’s competitive edge in the global market. Since 2011, GM Ventures, GM’s investment arm seeking growth-driven, innovative technologies, has invested in a number of Israeli start-ups.

Furthermore, during the first ten days of June, $237MN were invested – mostly by foreign investors – compared with $28MN during the first ten days of May and $327MN during the entire month of May, approaching $2BN for the first half of 2016.

Obama of the “if I had a son, he would look like [Trayvon Martin]” prattle, has a very peculiar way of showing his concern for children of all ages. In the U.S. Department of State Trafficking in Persons Report 2015, Secretary of State John Kerry asserts that

. . . this is no time for complacency. Right now, across the globe, victims of human trafficking are daring to imagine the possibility of escape, the chance for a life without fear, and the opportunity to earn a living wage. I echo the words of President Obama and say to them: We hear you, and we will do all we can to make that dream come true. In recent decades, we have learned a great deal about how to break up human trafficking networks and help victims recover in safety and dignity. In years to come, we will apply those lessons relentlessly, and we will not rest until modern slavery is ended.” – John F. Kerry, Secretary of State

Yet, “a Reuters examination, based on interviews with more than a dozen sources in Washington and foreign capitals, shows that the [American] government office set up to independently grade global efforts to fight human trafficking was repeatedly overruled by senior American diplomats and pressured into inflating assessments of 14 strategically important countries in this year’s Trafficking in Persons report.” In fact, “. . . analysts in the Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons – or J/TIP, as it’s known within the U.S. government – disagreed with U.S. diplomatic bureaus on ratings for 17 countries [.]”

And, while the State Department claims that “the ratings are not politicized” many of the most egregious violators of human trafficking, i.e., Malaysia were removed from Tier 3 which is designated “for countries that fail to comply with the minimum U.S. standards and are not making significant efforts” to improve.

Even Sen. Robert Menendez, New Jersey Democrat stated that “the latest report on human trafficking was under exceptional pressure to shape the rankings to meet political demands, not the facts on the ground.”

Though Obama claims human trafficking is “one of the great human rights causes of our time,” why then is the office established in 2001 by a congressional mandate “increasingly struggling to publish independent assessments” of these offending countries? Furthermore, why did it take nine months for Obama to nominate someone to be a director for the Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons (J/TIP). Why the foot dragging?

In August of 2015 Investor’s Business Daily noted that “human trafficking has expanded significantly since Obama stopped enforcing U.S. border laws.” Additionally, “. . . Cuba and Mexico were removed from lists of nations that support smuggling networks. So political machinations have endangered the safety of these border-surge children, who are being lured by some of the most evil people on earth.”

Hostility towards the Palestinian Authority (PA) seems to have reached unprecedented heights among refugee camp residents.

A chat with young Palestinians in any refugee camp in the West Bank will reveal a driving sense of betrayal. In these camps, the PA seems as much the enemy as Israel. They speak of the PA as a corrupt and incompetent body that is managed by “mafia leaders.” Many camp activists believe it is only a matter of time before Palestinians launch an intifada against the PA.

Nablus, the largest city in the West Bank, is surrounded by a number of refugee camps that are effectively controlled by dozens of Fatah gangs that have long been terrorizing the city’s wealthy clans and leading figures.

Hamas, of course, is cheering on the sidelines as it watches the PA-controlled territories going to hell.

Palestinians fear that their communities may be facing a return to anarchy and falatan amni, or “security chaos.”

Recent incidents are yet another sign of the Palestinian Authority’s failure to enforce law and order, especially in refugee camps such as Balata (near Nablus) Qalandya (near Ramallah) and the Jenin refugee camp.

Moreover, these incidents are an indication of mounting tensions among rival camps inside Fatah and between the refugees and the Palestinians living in the big cities surrounding the camps.

These camps, which are hotbeds for gunmen and terror groups, have long been off-limits to the Palestinian Authority (PA) security forces. Tens of thousands of Palestinians live in these three major refugee camps in the West Bank. Although the refugee camps there located in areas controlled by the PA, the Palestinian security forces do their best to steer clear of them. Attempts by Palestinian security forces to arrest camp residents wanted for various crimes have often resulted in armed confrontations.

Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his fellow Islamists are keen admirers of the idea that Muslim Turks capture lands belonging to other civilizations because, in this mindset, “conquest” means the spread of Islam.

“Look, now there is the Islamophobia malady in the West … [Its] aim is to stop [the further spread of Islam]. But they will not be able to succeed.” — Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, June 4, 2016.

In Erdogan’s narrative, Muslim Turks have never invaded foreign lands by the force of the sword. What they did was just conquering hearts. This is not even funny.

1071 is a very special year for Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan — and his Islamist ideologues. Erdogan often speaks about his “2071 targets,” a reference to his vision of “Great Turkey,” on the 1000th anniversary of a battle that paved the Turks’ way into where they still live.

In 1071, the Seljuk Turks did not arrive in Anatolia from their native Central Asian steppes with flowers in their hands. Instead they were in full combat gear, fighting a series of wars against the Christian Byzantine [Eastern Roman] Empire and featuring a newfound Islamic zeal. The Battle of Manzikert in 1071 is widely seen as the moment when the Byzantines lost the war against the Turks: before the end of the century, the Turks were in control of the entire Anatolian peninsula.

Another divine date for Erdogan is May 29, 1453. That day saw the fall of Constantinople, capital of the Byzantine Empire, after an Ottoman army invaded what is today Istanbul, modern Turkey’s biggest city. The conquest of Constantinople was not a peaceful event either. The city’s siege lasted for 53 days and cost thousands of lives. The Byzantine defeat left the Ottoman armies unchecked, clearing the way for their advance into Christian Europe in the centuries to come. The long and violent Ottoman march into Europe came to a halt in 1683, when the Ottomans were defeated during the siege of Vienna. By then the Ottomans were in control of north Africa, most parts of the Middle East and central and eastern Europe, totaling 5.2 million square kilometers of land.

On every May 29, the Turks, proud of being — possibly — the world’s only nation that celebrates the capture by the sword of their biggest city from another civilization, take to the streets for grand ceremonies. The 563th anniversary of the conquest was celebrated with a major event created by a team of 1,200 people. It saw a 563-man Mehter concert [an Ottoman military band], a show by the Turkish Air Force aerobatics team, special conquest celebrations, a fireworks display, live broadcasts in six different languages and the world’s largest 3D mapping stage used to reenact the conquest.

It shouldn’t be so hard to grasp, nor would it be if modern journalists’ first instinct was not to report events as newsroom consensus prefers to frame them. A Muslim kills 49 people while screaming ‘Alahu Akbar’. Obviously, conservatives, gun owners and Islamophobes are to blame.
The only thing that perpetrators of major terrorist attacks have in common is their religion. That, and being total weirdos. Exhibit Z: Omar Mateen, self-proclaimed ISIS loyalist and, quite likely, a closeted homosexual. Neither is particularly unusual in itself, but taken together you get a pretty bizarre mental image: a leery, effeminate chanting “Allahu Akbar” to drown out the hot and guilty fantasies of man-on-man action that plague him. If this was a premiere screening at the Sundance Festival and not the backstory to a major terrorist attack, the character of Mateen might even provoke sympathy. Indeed, by the final scene, we could expect a happy ending, as he reconciled himself with his sexuality. They would probably call it Camelback Mountain.

No consensus has been reached on who exactly is to blame for Mateen’s actions. Republicans, in their predictable and reductive way, have blamed Mateen. Democrats, however, have been more creative. President Obama pointed the finger at Donald Trump, namely his proposed Muslim ban and use of the phrase radical Islam. (We can almost see Mateen, doing “research” on Grindr and polishing his AR-15, fuming: “I’ll show those bigots who doubt that Islam is a peaceful, moderate religion.”) The New York Times blamed Republicans more broadly, opining

While the precise motivation for the rampage remains unclear, it is evident that Mr. Mateen was driven by hatred toward gays and lesbians. Hate crimes don’t happen in a vacuum. They occur where bigotry is allowed to fester, where minorities are vilified and where people are scapegoated for political gain. Tragically, this is the state of American politics, driven too often by Republican politicians who see prejudice as something to exploit, not extinguish.

No mention that Mateen was a registered Democrat, but no surprise there?

In many ways, the Orlando shooting was a liberal dream come true. In their unflagging efforts to blame Muslim terrorist attacks on anyone but Muslim terrorists, they came up with the line some months ago that terrorists were “emotionally unstable” or something to that effect, and this death cult which has nothing to do with Islam (how could you even think such a thing?) was merely a convenient excuse to act on violent urges. That worked for a while, until the PC censors came to their senses and realized that blaming terrorism on mental illness is ableist. So they had to bin that line.

The Orlando shooting offered their old horse new shoes. Not only could they shift the blame away from the perpetrators – they could place it on the shoulders of their preferred scapegoat: conservative Republicans. Who is responsible for jihadism? Right-wing Christian patriots! It just rolls right off the tongue, doesn’t it?

That’s too bad, though. Besides being grossly inaccurate, the ableist excuse actually made a lot of sense. Like we said, these terrorists aren’t just fanatical ideologues. Most of them are also really sick puppies.

The father of a young woman killed in the Paris massacre last November is suing Google, Facebook Inc. and Twitter Inc., claiming the companies provided “material support” to extremists in violation of the law.

Reynaldo Gonzalez, whose daughter Nohemi was among 130 people killed in Paris, filed the suit on Tuesday in the U.S. District Court in the Northern District of California. The suit said the companies “knowingly permitted” the Islamic State group, referred to in the complaint as ISIS, to recruit members, raise money and spread “extremist propaganda” via their social-media services.

The Gonzalez lawsuit is similar to a case brought against Twitter in January by the widow of a contractor killed in an attack in Jordan. It includes numerous identical passages and screenshots, although the lawyers in the cases are different.

In statements, Facebook and Twitter said Wednesday that the Gonzalez lawsuit is without merit, and all three companies cited their policies against extremist material. Twitter said it has “teams around the world actively investigating reports of rule violations, identifying violating conduct, and working with law enforcement entities when appropriate.”

Facebook said if the company sees “evidence of a threat of imminent harm or a terror attack, we reach out to law enforcement.” CONTINUE AT SITE

BOSTON, England—The changing face of this east coast market town helps explain why many want to leave the European Union that Britain has spent the past 43 years helping to shape.

Resident Andrew Fraser said when Britons go to the polls on June 23 to vote on the country’s membership, he will be voting for Britain’s exit, or “Brexit,” because he believes a sharp rise in immigrants to Boston, where he has lived for most of his life, has radically transformed the town’s character.

“That’s not English, that’s not English, that’s not English,” the 57-year-old retiree said, gesturing to various shops around the town. “It’s all gone.”

Unease about immigration has been fueling anti-EU sentiment in the U.K., just as similar concerns have fostered frustration with political elites in the U.S. and across Europe.

In the U.K., rising immigration levels have galvanized debate about the country’s ties to the Continent. Britons uncomfortable about the rise in immigration blame EU membership for allowing unfettered arrivals from Europe. Others see the issue as an indication that Brussels has too much say over Britain in general, that the EU is unaccountable, and that membership, at £8 billion a year ($11.6 billion), is too costly.

A string of recent opinion polls suggest support has swung in favor of those campaigning to leave, with several surveys placing that camp in the lead. (See the results of the polls here.) The “leave” campaign’s focus on the immigration issue appears to be resonating with the public. CONTINUE AT SITE

In the past few days, we’ve witnessed unspeakable acts of brutality perpetrated by Muslims against non-Muslim nationals, principally American, French, Canadian and Israeli. The carnage began last Wednesday night when two “Palestinian” Muslim gunmen drew automatic weapons in a posh Tel Aviv café and began shooting everyone in sight. Four Israeli civilians, including two women were murdered in that attack to revolting cheers of Gazan and West Bank Muslims.

That bestial incident was followed by the largest act of mass murder ever committed by a lone gunman in the U.S. The attack by an ISIS inspired gunman at an Orlando night club claimed the lives of at least 49, with the death toll likely to climb as several of the wounded remain in critical condition. Barely a day later, a Muslim terrorist stabbed a French police chief to death in the town of Magnanville while chanting Allahuakbar. He then proceeded to torture to death the man’s wife in front of their toddler son. And yesterday in the Philippines, Muslims belonging to the Islamist Abu Sayyaf terrorist group beheaded a Canadian national after their ransom demands for his release were not met.

But the victims of Islamist terror and barbarism have not been limited to Westerners or those whose values are otherwise rooted in the Judeo-Christian faith. Hindus too have recently come under attack in the Indian subcontinent.

In Bangladesh, Muslims, who constitute 90% of the population, have carried out a series of deadly attacks targeting Hindus, Christians, gay rights activists and secularists. The most recent victim, named Nitya Ranjan Pandey, was an elderly Hindu monastery worker who was hacked to death. His decapitated body was found in a rice field. A few days prior to that gruesome discovery, another Hindu, a 69-year old priest, was found hacked to death. Hindus, who constitute roughly 9% of the population, have always been victims of discrimination in Bangladesh but oppression by the Muslim majority has worsened in recent years.

Mayar Mohamed Mousa, a young 17-year-old girl, died the other day in a hospital in the province of Suez in Egypt while undergoing female genital mutilation surgery.

Don’t wait for Obama to repeat her name and to say that she could have been one of his daughters. If she had died while having a back-alley abortion because her evil white Christian father forbade her to have a safe one in a medical clinic, Obama would be up for it. But Mayar died at the cruel and sadistic hands of Islamic theology and so she doesn’t make the cut.

Mayar was in the process of being maimed and mutilated the way a vast number of Egyptian women are. They usually undergo the horror as young girls, but if they avoid the knife and broken glass, then they undergo the barbarity before they begin dating and get married.

A United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) report explains:

“Many Egyptians believe that for a girl or woman to be ‘clean,’ ‘pure’ and ‘feminine,’ she must have her genitals cut at a young age. . . .Many parents will have their daughters cut as a proactive measure so that they will be ‘marriageable’… In some communities, men refuse to marry any woman who has not been cut.”

Get ready, of course, to hear from media darling Reza Aslan and many other leftists that what happened to Mayar, and what is happening to millions of Muslim girls like her, is not because of Islam. You will be told that it is only some kind of “extreme” Muslim fringe that is supposedly practicing this crime, and, yes, you guessed it, non-Muslims do it too!

But here is a question:

If Islamic genital mutilation is not Islamic, where are all the Muslim imams, muftis and clerics in the world, and in Egypt in particular, who will be vociferously denouncing and repudiating what happened to Mayer just recently and that continues to happen to millions like her? Why aren’t they shouting from the rooftops about the un-Islamic nature of this crime and coming to the defense of Muslim girls and women? Why haven’t they shut down FGM under Islam since it is so un-Islamic?

Israel responded to a Palestinian terror attack in Tel Aviv which claimed four lives by revoking 83,000 travel permits for Palestinians to enter the country during Ramadan. The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights suggests that response amounts to “collective punishment” and is, thus, illegal under international law.

High Commissioner Zeid Ra’ad Al-Hussein’s comments last week received a somewhat sympathetic ear in Washington, where State department spokesman Mark Toner refused to agree or disagree with his “collective punishment” characterization but noted the inconvenience that the travel ban would prove to Palestinians.

“We strongly support Israel’s right to ensure the security of its citizens,” Toner said, adding, “We hope that any measures that it does take will be designed to minimize the impact on the lives of Palestinian civilians who are going about their daily lives.” While “understanding the precautions and the understandable security measures that Israel is taking in the wake of these kinds of attacks,” Toner said the United States asks that “we don’t see measures taken that will add to tensions.”

Rather than fret that reasonable Israeli security efforts will somehow “add to tensions,” U.N. and U.S. officials should focus on the cause of ongoing slaughter in Israel – a Palestinian society that nurtures it. Rather than debate Israeli “collective punishment,” those truly interested in a path to Israeli-Palestinian peace should confront the reality of Palestinian “collective responsibility.”