WarSclerotic

Christians and Yazidis in Iraq – and a World’s Indifference, Front Page Magazine, Joseph Puder, August 19, 2014

(Might the different identities of those allegedly responsible in Gaza — Jews — and those actually responsible in Iraq and Syria — Islamists — be a principal basis? — DM)

For the United Nation’s (UN) and the international media, there is one standard for Palestinian people and refugees, and another for others. This can be deduced from the reaction to the plight of the Iraqi Christians and the Yazidis (a Kurdish ethno-religious group of people, concentrated primarily in the Nineveh Province in Northern Iraq, now occupied by the fanatical jihadists of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant [ISIL] now called the Islamic State – IS.)  The Yazidis practice a syncretic religion that fuses Shia and Sufi Islam along with indigenous regional folk traditions. They are considered infidels by the Sunni Muslim IS and the Gaza Palestinians.

There are no protest marches in European capitals or American cities on behalf of the Christians and Yazidis of Iraq like those recently held in solidarity with Hamas in Gaza. Nor has there been sustained media coverage of Christian and Yazidi suffering, as was seen during the Gaza war about the Palestinians.

At an August 12, 2014 press conference UN General Secretary Ban Ki-Moon bemoaned the situation of the Yazidis. “The plight of the Yazidis and others (meaning Christians) on Mount Sinjar is especially harrowing.” While devoting a few obligatory lines about the Yazidis in Iraq, Ban Ki-Moon failed to provide the “harrowing” dimensions of their tragedy, including the murder of 500 Yazidis by decapitation and live burials and the 300 Yazidi women who were kidnapped and forced into sex-slavery by the IS jihadists.

Ban Ki-Moon did, however, elaborate on the plight of the Palestinians in Gaza. He said, “According to preliminary information, nearly 2,000 Palestinians have been killed –almost 75 percent of them civilians, including 459 children…more than 300,000 people are still sheltering in UNRWA (United Nation Relief and Works Agency for Palestine) schools, government and private schools and other public facilities or with host families.  At least 100,000 people have had their homes destroyed or severely damaged. Most of Gaza’s households have little or no water supply. Hospitals meant to cope with disaster are themselves disaster zones. The new school year was scheduled to start in less than two weeks, but a great many of the buildings will not be ready or are totally unusable in their current state.”

The UN Secretary General failed to mention in his statement to the press that Hamas has fired its rockets and mortars at Israeli civilians from UNRWA schools, hospitals and private homes, as well as public facilities, including mosques and churches in contravention of international law. And, while it is regretful that Palestinian children might not be able to start school on time (courtesy of Hamas), Christian and Yazidi children in Iraq have no schools or hospitals to go to at all. At least 1 million Christians and 500,000 Yazidis had to abandon their homes and, with no shelter on the mountain, are completely exposed to the elements. The exact number of Christians and Yazidis killed by the Islamic State is hitherto unknown, albeit, a one day toll of murdered Christians stood at 1,700 in what amounts to a genocide. These numbers are likely to be far greater than the Palestinians killed in Gaza. Moreover, their deaths might bring to an end the existence of one of the oldest Christian (Assyrian) sects in the world.

The exact number of Iraqi Christians is hard to come by. The figure often mentioned is about 400,000 to 500,000 who live in the country, down from a total before the 2003 war of perhaps 1.5 million. Other observers think as few as 200,000 may be left. The majority of the remaining Christians live in the far north of the country. The IS capture of Iraq’s second largest city – Mosul, in northern Iraq, prompted thousands of Christians to flee, some to Erbil (capital of the Kurdistan Regional Government-KRG) and others to the Nineveh plains, a traditional stronghold of Christians and Yazidis. The Christians and Yazidis are safer in these areas because of the Kurdish Peshmerga protection – the only force in Iraq standing against the onslaught of the fanatical IS.

Unlike the Palestinians in Gaza, the Christians and Yazidis will not get the UNHRC (UN Human Rights Council) to investigate “war crimes” committed against them. Nor will they get a special refugee agency – UNRWA (United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine) with a budget of $1billion, to rebuild their lives. At best, the U.S. military, not the UN, will continue to deliver food and water for those stranded in the mountains.

The Palestinians, who enjoy a special status as “permanent refugees,” receive the highest per capita handouts from the international community and Western “Christian” states, especially the U.S. Both the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah and the Hamas-led Gaza regime are sustained by welfare checks received from abroad. The Gatestone Institute quoted from a recent study by the Jerusalem Institute of Justice that “The Palestinian people have received per capita, adjusted for inflation, 25 times more aid than did Europeans to rebuild war-torn Western Europe under the Marshall Plan after the Second World War.” It also qualified that “If the entire Palestinian Authority leadership lives off an international welfare check that arrives only because the conflict still exists, there isn’t much incentive for ending the conflict.”

Western governments including the U.S. are now clamoring to rebuild Gaza after the recent war called “Protective Edge” by Israel. Can the Christians of Iraq and Yazidis count on the same largesse from the international community or Western powers as has been showered on the Palestinians? It’s doubtful.

What is so tragic about the double-standard practiced by the international community is that right and wrong are no longer relevant. The Palestinians in Gaza elected the Hamas Islamic terrorist regime and most of its population supported the terror attacks against Israel, whether by suicide bombers during the Second Intifada (2000-2004) or the rockets fired at Israeli cities and its civilian population. Israel turned over the Gaza Strip to the Palestinians in August, 2005, along with ready-made hot-houses and orchards primed for exporting. Israel’s gesture of peace was met with the firing of more than 10,000 rockets.

Christians and Yazidis are true victims of Islamic intolerance, and the barbarism of the Islamic State. The Gaza Palestinians and their chosen Hamas regime cannot qualify as victims. They initiated hostilities with Israel, and now seek concessions from Israel and Egypt. In 1 Kings 21:19the question is asked: “Have you murdered and also taken possession?” The Palestinians attacked Israel, and are seen as victims. They are, instead, victims of their own hateful aggression. Conversely, neither the Christians nor the Yazidi Kurds attacked their neighbors with rockets or suicide bombers. They truly are defenseless victims.

In a letter written by Rebecca Simon, an American of Assyrian Christian descent, to Colonel Allen West, she asked: “No doubt the kidnapping of 200 kids by Boko Haram being forced to convert to Islam was a tragedy. But equally tragic, if not more so, is the forceful conversion to Islam of at least 200,000 Assyrian Christians in Iraq. And where is the outrage by the Spanish bleeding hearts: Mr. and Mrs. Javier Bardem and Penelope Cruz? In their delicate artistic mind, does a Palestinian child have more rights to life than an Assyrian Christian child?”

The Christians and Yazidis of Iraq deserve the sympathy and support of the international community. The Palestinians in Gaza, on the other hand, require scrutiny and condemnation.

Obama to chair U.N. Security Council meeting to discuss threat of Western Islamist militants, Hot Air, Noah Rothman, August 18, 2014

(What could possibly go wrong right? — DM)

In September, President Barack Obama will preside over a meeting of the United Nations Security Council. This marks only the second time in history that an American president has presided over the UNSC, the first being President Barack Obama.

On the agenda when Obama first took the helm of a UNSC meeting in 2009, however, was the issue of nuclear non-proliferation and nuclear disarmament. The president will take on a substantially more pressing and less utopian subject when he addresses the UNSC member states next month: Western fighters joining the ranks of Islamist militants in the Middle East who could potentially plan and execute terror attacks on Western targets.

According to administration officials, who revealed Obama’s plan to chair a UNSC meeting exclusively to the liberal news outlet Think Progress, the nature of the threat and a counterterrorism strategy designed to address it will be on the agenda.

“Specifically the meeting will cover the phenomenon of foreign fighters travelling to conflict zones and joining terrorist organizations, as seen in the surge in foreigners joining ranks with such groups as Jahbat al-Nusra in Syria,” Think Progress reported.

TP does not, however, mention the terror threat posed by the Islamic State in both Iraq and Syria, where a July estimate suggested over 10,000 Western fighters are training for and executing attacks.

Over the weekend, Syrian opposition forces called on the United States to carry out airstrikes similar to those being executed against ISIS targets in Iraq on Islamist positions in Syria. The highly publicized announcement came seemingly out of the blue, though unconfirmed foreign affairs reporters indicated that this plea came at the request of the United States:

Important if true. MT @Basma_: US asked #Syria rebels to call on int’l community to hit ISIS targets: sources. Appeal expected today. 8:17 AM – 16 Aug 2014

Of course, the U.S. continues to confuse its allies in Syria by not being clear about the level of American support they can expect.

The news come as the US is carrying out air strikes on Islamic State targets in Iraq and a day after the UN Security Council unanimously adopted a resolution that aims to weaken the Islamic State and al-Nusra Front, al-Qaeda’s Syria branch.

Commenting on the resolution, the Syrian Coalition’s Special Representative to the UN, Najib Ghadbian, said: “The Syrian Coalition calls for targeted air strikes in Syria. Strikes should be backed up by intensive train and equip programmes for the moderate Syrian opposition forces that have been effectively fighting ISIS [Islamic State] for over a year.”

Another member of the coalition told Al Jazeera that the group was “getting different promises” from the US.

The Islamic State, an al-Qaeda splinter group, has in the recent months seized swaths of territory in Iraq and Syria and declared a caliphate.

Following the Syrian opposition’s calls for U.S. intervention against Islamist fighters, Vice reported that Assad’s forces executed their most comprehensive strikes on Islamic State targets in Syria to date. If America acts in Syria, it may well be doing so alongside the Syrian army less than one year after Obama addressed the nation about the need to execute airstrikes against pro-Assad forces.

This comes as Iran and the U.S. are reportedly working toward the same goal of rolling back ISIS in Iraq, though without any overt coordination. While “a foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds,” tacitly allying with Damascus and Tehran in the effort to combat ISIS would have been virtually unthinkable just months ago.

The Gaza War: Appearance vs. Reality, Gatestone Institute, Louis René Beres, August 19,2014

Why is Hamas putting its weapons in the middle of homes, schools, hospitals and mosques in the first place?

Palestinian violence has been persistent in violating all rules of engagement, despite the signed Oslo II Interim Agreement of 1995, Article XIV of which states that the West Bank and the Gaza Strip shall be completely demilitarized.

Now that the dust has begun to settle in Gaza after Israel’s Operation Protective Edge, it is again easy to feel sorry for the beleaguered Palestinians. As everyone knows who looks at The New York Times and CNN, the lingering images are incontestably painful, and continue to look “asymmetrical” and “disproportionate.”

How could Hamas have been the aggressor when so many more Arabs than Israelis were killed? Surely the side with greater civilian losses must always be in the right. How could it be otherwise?

The people of Gaza (together with those many Israelis still forced to live under terrorist rocket attacks) are indeed victims of regional violence. But their victimization was not caused by any outside enemy. On the contrary, Palestinian suffering remains the direct result of a criminal Hamas leadership. Why is Hamas putting its weapons in the middle of homes, schools, hospitals and mosques in the first place?

Moreover, this Palestinian leadership sits safely away from Gaza, either tucked away in Qatar or the comfortable parts of Europe. “Martyrdom” is always welcomed, as long as it is someone else’s.

Israeli soldiers inspect a concrete-reinforced tunnel that was dug by Hamas from Gaza to Israel, in preparation for a terror attack, August 3, 2014. (Image source: IDF)

Contrary to carefully scripted outbursts from Hamas, Israel’s defensive responses were never gratuitous or contrived. Unlike their adversaries, Israelis receive absolutely no joy from killing others. Hamas, Islamic Jihad and related terror groups operating from Gaza, on the contrary, always seem to take calculated steps to ensure that Israeli reprisals will kill or injure Palestinian noncombatants. By directing elderly women and young children to those areas in Gaza from which lethal rockets will intentionally be launched into Israeli homes, hospitals, and schools — with the knowledge that the Israelis will have to return fire to the places from which the fire originated — Palestinian leaders openly violate the most elementary restrictions of the laws of war. Under international law, holding civilians in front of one as a shield is specified as a crime.

Ironically, these criminals are now proposing to bring Israel’s leaders before the International Criminal Court.

Now, after an expectedly inconclusive end to Operation Protective Edge, several major Palestinian terror groups will begin to prepare for expanded attacks on Israel. Such attacks, possibly in cooperation with certain allied jihadist factions (perhaps even with the Islamic State, [IS], which is now slaughtering its way across Iraq), could include chemical or biological weapons of mass destruction. Over time, especially if Iran transfers some of its growing inventory of nuclear materials to terror groups, Israel could even face Palestinian-directed nuclear terrorism, perhaps launched from trucks and ships, as well as from nuclear-tipped rockets and missiles.

Should Iran be permitted to become nuclear-capable, as now seems a certainty, it could send ballistic missiles armed with nuclear warheads against Israel, as it has repeatedly threatened to do, despite the stipulations in the UN Charter that member states are prohibited from threatening each other. Israel’s Arrow ballistic missile defense system would require a 100% rate of success, but no such system of perfect reliability is possible.

Israel has always tried during war to keep its essential counterterrorism operations in Gaza consistent with the established rules of international humanitarian law. By contrast, Palestinian violence has been persistent in violating all rules of engagement, despite the signed Oslo II Interim Agreement of 1995, Article XIV of which states that the West Bank and the Gaza Strip shall be completely demilitarized. [1]

Furthermore, although the word “occupation” has been tirelessly repeated in the media for a month, there is no “occupation” of Gaza. Every last Israeli left Gaza in 2005, in the hope that the Palestinians, reciprocally, would finally cease their self-destructive excursions into terror and instead use the opportunity to build a productive state. All restrictions on how goods could enter Gaza grew out of the concern, now seen as justified, that instead of building a productive state of its own, Hamas was using the material it imported to build a city of terror tunnels from which to attack Israel. What country could possibly permit that of a neighbor who keeps pledging to destroy it?

Louis René Beres was educated at Princeton (Ph.D., 1971), and is the author of many books and articles dealing with terrorism and international law. His most recent legal writings can be found in the Harvard National Security Journal (Harvard Law School); Israel Journal of Foreign Affairs; The International Journal of Intelligence and Counterintelligence; The Brown Journal of World Affairs; and Oxford University Press. Professor Beres’ popular writings are published in US News & World Report; The Jerusalem Post; The New York Times; and The Atlantic. Dr. Beres was born at the end of World War II in Zürich, Switzerland.

[1] 3. Except for the Palestinian Police and the Israeli military forces, no other armed forces shall be established or operate in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.

4. Except for the arms, ammunition and equipment of the Palestinian Police described in Annex I, and those of the Israeli military forces, no organization, group or individual in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip shall manufacture, sell, acquire, possess, import or otherwise introduce into the West Bank or the Gaza Strip any firearms, ammunition, weapons, explosives, gunpowder or any related equipment, unless otherwise provided for in Annex I.

Hamas, Nation of Islam and New Black Panthers exciting violence in Ferguson, Missouri
August 16, 2014 By Dr. Rich Swier

(Where ever Islamo-facism goes, chaos ensues. The images from Ferguson look eerily like Gaza.-LS)

The Democrat Governor of Missouri Jeremiah W. (Jay) Nixon has decided to take the power to govern away from the Ferguson Mayor and City Council and keep the local Police Department from fulfilling their law enforcement duties. Missouri residents are asking Governor Nixon: Exactly what have you replaced them with?

Governor Nixon has invaded and taken over Ferguson and it now it belongs to him.

Governor Nixon placed Missouri Highway Patrol Captain Ron Johnson in charge of Ferguson. Chris Smith and Danielle Scruggs from Fox News 2 in St. Louis report, “Governor Nixon ordered an immediate curfew for the city of Ferguson to start Saturday night from Midnight to 5 am. The curfew will be enforced by the Missouri State Highway Patrol who has operational control of security in Ferguson. The governor also issued a state of emergency for Ferguson.”

The Examiner reports:

On Wednesday, Fox St. Louis reported that the Federal Bureau of Investigation has warned that a leader of the radical New Black Panther Party is in Ferguson, Mo., advocating violence against police.

“FBI confirmed document that says new black panther leader is in area encouraging violence against cops did indeed come from FBI,” tweeted Fox 2 reporter Roche Madden. Earlier in the day, he issued a tweet indicating that he was attempting to get confirmation of the document from the FBI. On Tuesday, he said rocks were being thrown at patrol cars and officers were targeted with death threats.

TPNN posted a picture of demands made by the NBPP and other groups, including the local Nation of Islam and the Organization for Black Struggle, an organization identified as pro-Hamas. The groups demand the officer involved in the shooting of Michael Brown be immediately identified, fired and charged with murder.

According to Madden, “Chawn Kweli and other members of the NBPP are in town” responding to the shooting. Kweli, according to his Facebook profile, is the National Chief of Staff for the NBPP.

The following information on these three groups who are now in Ferguson is provided:

1.The New Black Panther Party – Founded in 1990, the New Black Panther Party for Self-Defense (NBPP) is a militant black separatist organization, notorious for promoting racial violence against Jews and whites. According to an Anti-Defamation League report: “Much of the NBPP’s ideology derives from the notion that African-Americans continue to suffer as a result of a racist white power structure that has oppressed them politically and economically since slavery. The primary perpetrators of this institutional racism, according to the NBPP, are whites, whom it views as ultimately responsible for Black exploitation; Jews, whom it sees as wielding disproportionate control of political and economic affairs; and law enforcement, which it sees as facilitating racial injustice on the ground.”

2.The Nation of Islam led by Louis Farrakhan – On numerous occasions, Farrakhan has made alliances with avowed foreign enemies of the United States. In January 1996, for instance, he formed a partnership with Libyan dictator Muammar Qadhafi, who pledged $1 billion to help Farrakhan develop a Muslim political lobby in the U.S. According to Libya’s official news agency Jana, Qadhafi announced: “We agreed with Louis Farrakhan and his delegation to mobilize in a legal and legitimate form the oppressed minorities — and at their forefront the blacks, Arab Muslims and Red Indians — for they play an important role in American political life and have a weight in U.S. elections.” The Jana story further stated that Qadhafi and Farrakhan had pledged to fight America from the “inside.” “Our confrontation with America,” said Qadhafi, “was [previously] like a fight against a fortress from outside, and today [with the NOI alliance] we found a breach to enter into this fortress and confront it.”

3.The pro-Hamas Organization for Black Struggle – The Organization for Black Struggle Freedom Agenda states, “We will fight to advance beyond capitalism, which has demonstrated its structural incapacity to address basic human needs worldwide and, in particular, the needs of Black people… We will fight for a society in which every person and every community is free from state repression, including freedom from state-sponsored surveillance. We seek amnesty for, and the release of, all political prisoners… We recognize lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people as full and equal members of society, and of our communities… We will fight for reparations… We will uphold the right of the African American people to self-determination (Black Radical Congress in June 1998)… We oppose the Human Genome Project in its current form and with its current leadership, and we oppose all sociobiological or genetic experiments that are spurred by, and help perpetuate, scientific racism .”

The pro-Hamas Organization for Black Struggle is demanding:

1.Community control of the police and a civilian review board with subpoena power.
2.A professional certified police department that looks like majority Black Ferguson.
3.An end to racial profiling. No more driving, walking, shopping while Black. Fight to get enforcement of penalties for racial profiling.
4.Black political empowerment and proportional representation.
5.Accountability of elected officials.
6.Jobs, home improvement, training opportunities, etc.

Governor Nixon needs to emulate what Governor Rick Scott did during the Trayvon Martin shooting, demonstrations and trail, keep your hands off and let the local officials deal with it. If they ask for help then give it to them. Otherwise let the community work it out.

In a press conference Governor Nixon appears to be partnering with the New Black Panther Party. He is allowing them to patrol the streets with the Missouri Highway Patrol.