RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/15601/anti-jewish-hatred

Just as in the 1930s, National Socialist anti-Semitism and far-right anti-Semitism — and their consequences for the Jews — were of no interest to anyone, the anti-Semitism growing today seems of no interest to anyone.

None of the countries represented at the ceremony to commemorate the Holocaust, except the United States, appeared interested in the threats to Israel or the genocidal intentions of its enemies.

If, seven decades ago, the existence of the new State of Israel had depended on the countries represented this year in Jerusalem… the war that resulted would effectively have been a second Holocaust.

The ceremony held in Jerusalem on January 23 for the 75th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz death camp created the opportunity to remind the world about the Holocaust. The commemoration of the only attempt totally to exterminate an entire people by industrial means, which was among the worst crimes in history, offered the international leaders who attended the opportunity to reaffirm the need to fight anti-Jewish hatred at a time when, throughout the world, it is rapidly gaining ground.

“The industrial mass murder of six million Jews, the worst crime in the history of humanity, was committed by my countrymen”, German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier humbly said.

One nevertheless feels the need to ask whether those international leaders who attended are actually ready to align their actions with their words.

Almost all the speeches there defined anti-Semitism in a vague way, and when the words became more specific, they pointed only at National Socialism (Nazism) and the “far right”.

People nostalgic for Nationalist Socialism still exist, as well as far-right political movements, of course; so the world, it seems, does need to remain vigilant. Today, however, in the West, political parties that openly supporting National Socialism, or right-wing movements that promote antisemitic ideas, do not, bluntly, exist. Since the end of World War II, there have been no anti-Semitic murders committed in Europe by people from the “right.”

https://www.wsj.com/articles/global-terror-finance-watchdog-set-to-sanction-iran-11582240405

A global terror-finance watchdog agency is set to blacklist Iran, broadening a U.S. effort to isolate Tehran financially and potentially straining the already sanctions-battered Iranian economy.

Iran’s blacklisting by the Paris-based Financial Action Task Force is expected to take place Friday and comes after European governments decided to join the U.S., according to American and allied officials.

The task force’s decision will place financial transactions with Iran under additional scrutiny and escalate the pressure on the dwindling number of banks and businesses still dealing with the Islamic Republic to cut their ties.

The blacklisting marks a step forward in the U.S. campaign to use sanctions to compel the Iranian government to end its support for terrorist groups and eliminate its nuclear weapons program. Most Western banks have already severed links with Tehran in response to the U.S. sanctions, which have also drastically cut Iran’s oil sales—its largest revenue source—weakened its economy and helped fuel street protests against the government.

European governments declined to join the U.S. pressure campaign in an effort to save the multination Iran nuclear accord, from which the Trump administration withdrew in 2018.

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/15629/france-crackdown-political-islam

“The problem is when, in the name of a religion, some people want to separate themselves from the Republic and therefore not respect its laws.” — French President Emmanuel Macron, February 18, 2020.

“Turkey today can make the choice to follow that path with us or not, but I will not allow any foreign country feed a cultural, religious or identity-related separatism on our Republic’s territory. We cannot have Turkey’s laws on France’s soil. No way.” — French President Emmanuel Macron, February 18, 2020.

“What we must put in place is not, as I have sometimes heard from some people, ‘a plan against Islam.’ That would be a profound mistake. What we must fight is the separatism….” — French President Emmanuel Macron, February 18, 2020.

French President Emmanuel Macron has announced new measures aimed at countering political Islam in France. The changes would limit the role that foreign governments have in France in training imams, financing mosques and educating children.

Macron also vowed to fight what he called “Islamist separatism” and to lead what he described as a “Republican reconquest” aimed at reasserting state control over Muslim ghettoes — so-called no-go zones (zones urbaines sensibles, sensitive urban zones) — in France.

In a much-anticipated policy speech, Macron, during a visit to the eastern French city of Mulhouse on February 18, said that his government would seek to combat “foreign interference” in how Islam is practiced, and the way that Muslim religious institutions are organized in France. “The problem is when, in the name of a religion, some people want to separate themselves from the Republic and therefore not respect its laws,” he said. “Here in France, there is no place for political Islam.”

Macron outlined a four-pronged strategy to combat Islamism in the country: 1) fight against foreign influences in schools and places of worship; 2) reorganize Muslim worship in France in accordance with the principles of secularism and French law; 3) fight against all manifestations of Islamist separatism and communitarianism; and 4) reassert state control over all parts of France.