A brutal Trump AD, Power Line,
This ad by the Donald Trump campaign is a good reminder of why I plan to vote for him, despite his flaws. It is brutal but 100% accurate and fair:
Archive for August 2016
A brutal Trump AD
August 9, 2016Black Lives Matter’s Support for Killers of Black Cops
August 8, 2016Black Lives Matter’s Support for Killers of Black Cops, Front Page Magazine, Daniel Greenfield, August 8, 2016
In the spring of 2000, Fulton County Sheriff’s Deputy Ricky Kinchen and fellow Deputy Aldranon English went to serve a warrant in downtown Atlanta. Both Kinchen and English were African-American.
Kinchen had graduated Morris Brown College, a historically black college that had been founded in 1881 and named after one of the founders of the African Methodist Episcopal Church. He had spent almost a decade serving the public in his current job and was married to Sherese Kinchen and had two children.
At his killer’s trial, Sherese testified that, “When Ricky was killed, I lost a part of myself. Ricky was not only my husband, he was my friend for 18 years. He was my confidant and my rock, and now he’s gone.”
Ricky Kinchen and Aldranon English were approaching a store owned by Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin, formerly known as H Rap Brown. Brown had converted to Islam after a term in prison and a shootout with police officers in the seventies. He had shot to fame as the very violent chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. Typical lines included, “It’s time for Cambridge to explode, baby. Black folks built America, and if America don’t come around, we’re going to burn America down.”
When Kinchen and English were approaching him, Brown was known as Imam Al-Amin, a Muslim religious leader who headed the Community Mosque and was a key figure in the National Ummah.
He was no less of a terrorist for it.
Al-Amin opened fire with a rifle on the two African-American law enforcement officers. Deputy Aldranon English was wounded and he stumbled to a nearby field to save his life. Deputy Kinchen was shot and fell. Al-Amin ran out of bullets, took a handgun from his black Mercedes, pointed it at the fallen African-American officer as he lay dying and shot him between the legs three times.
Deputy English survived the attack. Later he would break down in tears on the stand as he described the murder of his partner. Defense lawyers for Al-Amin worked to rig the jury, removing anyone who disliked the violent racist Black Panthers hate group that Al-Amin, in his former life as H Rap Brown, had been associated with. They ended up with a jury of six black men, three black women, two white women and one Hispanic woman.
The jury, including the six black men and three black women, found Al-Amin guilty as hell of the murder of an African-American police officer. Al-Amin and his two wives, the younger of whom was a teenager when they were married, who lived in houses three miles apart from each other, frowned as the verdict was read. Al-Amin was sentenced to life in prison. There would be no parole.
Outside the church where Deputy Ricky Kinchen was buried, the line of police cruisers stretched for miles as officers paid tribute to a fallen brother. His casket, covered in the flag, was carried out to honor and glory. If there had been any justice, Deputy Kinchen would be remembered as a hero.
Instead Al-Amin has become a martyr among black nationalists, including among the latest incarnation of the racist movement, Black Lives Matter.
The recently released Black Lives Matter policy agenda calls for freeing a number of cop killers, including the murderer of Deputy Ricky Kinchen.
Al-Amin is one of Black Lives Matter’s heroes. It doesn’t matter at all that he took a black life.
Black lives don’t matter to Black Lives Matter. Black Nationalist terrorism does. The racist hate group describes the murderers of black and white police officers as “political prisoners”. It demands the removal of Assata Shakur, a particular icon of Black Lives Matter, from “international terrorist lists” and an end to the bounty for the capture of the fugitive who helped murder New Jersey State Trooper Werner Foerster.
Black Lives Matter also agitates on behalf of Kamau Sadiki, formerly known as Freddie Hilton, Assatu Shakur’s ex-boyfriend.
Hilton had been busted for the sexual abuse of his girlfriend’s 12-year-old daughter. The Black Nationalist icon had allegedly molested the little girl for seven years. Eager to get out of trouble, he began talking to the police and it didn’t take them long to connect him to the murder of Officer James Green who had been killed by Hilton on orders from a superior in the Black Liberation Army.
If the life of Officer James Green doesn’t matter to Black Lives Matter, perhaps the life of that little girl should.
But it clearly doesn’t.
Finally Black Lives Matter’s policy agenda speaks out for the murderers of Sergeant John V. Young. Young was killed with a shotgun blast inside a police station by Black Nationalist terrorists who were also involved in the attempted murders of seven police officers. One of their vilest crimes was the bombing of St. Brendan’s Church where the funeral of Patrolman Harold Hamilton had been taking place.
Hamilton’s three little children were nearby when the bomb, filled with nails and screws, went off.
If all had gone off according to plan, the bomb would have exploded as the casket with the fallen officer was being carried past it. But the timing was off and no one was hurt. But not for lack of trying.
“To the violent and the criminal our efforts to halt this kind of lawlessness will be condemned as acts of oppression,” Governor Ronald Reagan declared. “Let them call it what they will. I’m unable to hear the whimper of the criminal above the cry of the victim and the weeping of his widow and children.”
Black Lives Matter still calls it oppression. It demands that we hear the whimper of the cop killer.
It is no coincidence that the cop killers that Black Lives Matter is agitating for were associated with the Black Liberation Army. Or that the hate group traffics in rhetoric about police genocide that is ominously similar to those of the racist killers and terrorists that it defends.
Black Lives Matter does not care about the lives of black people or of anyone else. It is a terrorist organization that seeks power through terror. It plays the victim as cover for its abuses.
The life of Ricky Kinchen has no value or worth to Black Lives Matter. It cares nothing about the pain that the father of two felt when Al-Amin stood over him, pointed a gun and pulled the trigger for no other reason than to torture him and to cause a dying officer more unspeakable pain.
We must never forget that this is what Black Lives Matter supports. We must never forget that these are their heroes and their role models. We must never forget that the murder of police officers associated with Black Lives Matter campaigns is not an accident, but a design.
That is why Black Lives Matter complains about the execution of Black Nationalist terrorist Micah X. Johnson after his murder of 5 Dallas police officers in its policy agenda. Whether it’s decades ago or today, Black Lives Matter supports the murderers of police officers.
British MPs face booze ban as Parliament moves to building governed by Sharia
August 8, 2016British MPs face booze ban as Parliament moves to building governed by Sharia, Jihad Watch,
British MPs are facing a six-year drinking ban after a committee decided that they will move to an office block that is operating under Islamic law while the Palace of Westminster is being refurbished. The committee’s recommendations were leaked.
Back in 2014, it was announced that Britain was launching the first Islamic bond scheme in the non-Muslim world. Three government buildings in Whitehall were transferred to Islamic bonds, switching the ownership from British taxpayers to Middle Eastern businessmen and banks, and thus rendering the premises fully compliant with Sharia law, which includes the banning of alcohol.
It almost seems too farfetched to imagine Islamic law governing British MP’s, which would make them officially dhimmis in obedience to the Sharia. But it is happening.
“MPs face six-year Sharia booze ban: Parliament to move to Islamic-owned Health department block in 2020 while Palace of Westminster is refurbished”, by Rory Tingle, UK Mail, August 7, 2016:
MPs face a six-year drinking ban after a committee decided they will move to an office block operating under Islamic laws while the Palace of Westminster is refurbished.
Their new home, Richmond House in Whitehall, was transferred to finance an Islamic bond scheme in 2014.
The building, currently the offices of the Department of Health, will house MPs when a multi-billion-pound refurbishment of Parliament begins in 2020.
Palace of Westminster decided against MPs remaining in the building while work takes place.
Their recommendations, which will be voted on by MPs when they return after the summer recess, was contained in a report leaked to The Times.
A plan to nationalise the nearby Red Lion pub so it could be kept private for MPs was shelved after owners Fuller’s Inns spoke out against the idea.
Peers will go to the QEII Centre at the other end of Parliament Square.
Renovating the Palace of Westminster while it is vacant is expected to cost between £3.5billion and £3.9billion and take six years.
The committee rejected two other plans, which would have been more expensive.
One was to move MPs and peers out of the Palace of Westminster at different times as the building was repaired, costing £4.4billion and lasting 11 years, while the other would have seen them stay put as repairs were carried on around them.
This third choice would have taken 32 years at a cost of £5.7billion.
MPs will vote on whether to accept the committee’s recommendations after they return from the summer recess.
The Palace of Westminster has dozens of bars and restaurants, where MPs, peers, staff and other passholders can enjoy pints for as little as £2.90.
This is 70p cheaper than the average price of a pint in London thanks to taxpayer subsidies worth £4million a year.
The landmark, opened in 1859, has a leaky roof, crumbling stonework and faulty cabling.
The Queen Elizabeth Tower, which supports Big Ben, is also tilting by 18 inches.
Richmond House is one of three Whitehall buildings that were transferred to the £200million Islamic bond scheme, which switched their ownership from British taxpayers to wealthy Middle Eastern businessmen and banks.
George Osborne announced the move in June 2014 as part of an effort to make the UK a global hub for Islamic finance.
But critics say the scheme would waste money and could undermine Britain’s financial and legal systems by imposing Sharia law onto government premises.
The bonds – known as Sukuk – are only available for purchase by Islamic investors.
The money raised will be repayable from 2019.
But instead of interest, bond-buyers will earn rental income from the three Government offices as interest payments are banned in Sharia law…
Erdogan-Gulen Power Struggle Divides European Turks
August 8, 2016Erdogan-Gulen Power Struggle Divides European Turks, Investigative Project on Terrorism, August 8, 2016
(Please see also, Plotting Jihad in the Poconos—Who the Hell is Fethullah Gulen? — DM)
Millions of European Turks – both immigrants and subsequent generations – ally themselves with the Gulenist movement, or Hizmet. While some call it a cult and claim it represents a zealous Islamic religious movement, others view it as a more moderate strain of Islam and praise Gulen for his interfaith initiatives, and for the hospitals, schools and universities he has founded internationally, including over 100 charter schools in the United States. But since the split between the two men, tensions have also emerged between pro-Gulen and pro-Erdogan groups that are far more virulent than the disputes between those who favor Hizmet and those who condemn it.
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On the night of July 15, members of the Turkish military stormed the state-run TRT news agency in Ankara and forced an anchorwoman to read a statement calling President Recep Tayyip Erdogan a “traitor.” Within moments, tanks began to drive menacingly through the streets of Ankara and Istanbul as military planes roared over Turkish skies. The Parliament was bombed. The fifth military coup in the history of modern Turkey had begun, taking even the most anti-government Turks by surprise.
But Erdogan regained complete control within hours, thanks to his fervent supporters who took to the streets in his defense. Throughout the night, pro- and anti-Erdogan military and civilians clashed across the country, leaving nearly 300 dead and 2,100 injured by morning.
The attempted coup and its aftermath, however, soon exploded into more than just a national crisis; it has had incendiary repercussions globally, particularly in the Turkish communities of Europe.
Erdogan declared a state of emergency July 16, and began cracking down on suspected members of the coup plot and their allies. By July 20, more than 45,000 people had been arrested, including 2,700 judges and 15,000 teachers. As Erdogan called for reinstating the death penalty, credible reports emerged of prisoners being tortured and raped.
In the meantime, tens of thousands of others have been fired from their jobs as the state takes over or shuts down nearly all the country’s media outlets – including three news agencies, 16 television channels, 45 newspapers and 15 magazines, Reutersreports. And on Monday, more than three weeks after the failed coup, Turkey recalled five senior diplomats from its embassy in The Hague.
All who have been sacked are accused of complicity in the coup, based on their (ostensible) ties to Fethullah Gulen, a powerful cleric now living in self-imposed exile in Pennsylvania. Once one of Erdogan’s closest allies, Gulen has become his most despised enemy in recent years, thanks in large part to Gulen’s criticism of Erdogan during the 2013 Gezi Park demonstrations. Now Turkey’s president accuses Gulen of being behind the coup attempt, demands his extradition from the United States. Meantime, he continues his crackdown on the cleric’s followers.
But those followers are not just in Turkey, and neither are Tayyip Erdogan’s. Millions of European Turks – both immigrants and subsequent generations – ally themselves with the Gulenist movement, or Hizmet. While some call it a cult and claim it represents a zealous Islamic religious movement, others view it as a more moderate strain of Islam and praise Gulen for his interfaith initiatives, and for the hospitals, schools and universities he has founded internationally, including over 100 charter schools in the United States. But since the split between the two men, tensions have also emerged between pro-Gulen and pro-Erdogan groups that are far more virulent than the disputes between those who favor Hizmet and those who condemn it.
As a result, the clashes between the conflicting sides have spilled beyond the Turkish borders into Europe, and have now exploded since the coup. Often, they have been violent, with pro-Erdogan protesters hurling stones into the windows of Gulen organizations in Gelsenkirchen, Germany and Rotterdam, Holland, or calling to set fire to a building housing a Gulenist organization in Beringen, Belgium (“Burn them alive!” the protesters shouted.). Arsonists also attacked several Gulen buildings in the Netherlands.
In other instances, the attacks are quieter but more sinister: members of 70 different Gulen-affiliated groups in the Netherlands report receiving hate messages and death threats. People believed to support the movement – or who fail to support Erdogan – report being banned from mosques and refused entry to restaurants. Dutch children have told each other “I can’t talk to you anymore.” A number of Gulen followers have gone into hiding, fearing for their safety.
And in Germany, home to Europe’s largest Turkish community, estimated at nearly 3 million, some 30-40,000 Erdogan supporters marched through Cologne on July 31. And while the demonstrations went off without incident, they represent a chasm within the country – not just between Germans and Turks, but – as in the Netherlands – among the Turks themselves. Noted Deutsch-Welle‘s Gero Schliess in an editorial, “After the coup attempt in Turkey, divisions have emerged in this country that no one had seen for a long time – or hadn’t wanted to see. The failed coup and President Erdogan’s massive onslaught against civil rights have deeply divided the Turkish community in Germany. The split runs right through families and neighborhoods, regardless of social strata or profession.”
But at least as disturbing is the idea of 30-40,000 people marching in support of the man who has led the profoundly anti-democratic crackdown in Turkey. While it may be understandable to oppose a military coup, it is something else entirely to continue marching in support in light of the abuses that have followed. Moreover, according to Politico, the situation has also “reignited a decade-long debate in Germany about the Turkish state steering public opinion within the German-Turkish community through a web of lobbying groups, religious institutions, media outlets and public figures.”
Religious groups seem to be chief among those, such as the Turkish-Islamic Union for Religious Affairs, sponsored by the Turkish state. That Turkey is therefore subsidizing mosques in Germany demonstrates the strength not only of the country’s influence on the political visions of German Turks, but on their religious ideas as well. And in an increasingly Islamist Turkey, those ideas no longer reflect the secular, humanist values of Ataturk; rather, they are based on an increasingly strict vision of Sunni Islam in which the state and the mosque are one.
Other Turkish religious groups, including Milli Gorüs, an Islamist group headquartered in Cologne, are also believed to hold sway over European Turks, particularly in the Netherlands.
Behind them all, particularly in Belgium, is the Diyanet, the official Turkish Directorate of Religious Affairs .
Ataturk created the Diyanet soon after the founding of the Turkish republic, to help ensure that imams preached moderate interpretations of Islam. They were critical to maintaining the separation between mosque and state. With the rise of Erdogan and his AK Party, however, it has served to do just the opposite: it now promotes Islamist views in Turkey and among the Turkish community abroad. As Istanbul-based journalist David Lepeska noted last year, the Diyanet‘s budget has quadrupled since 2006 to over $2 billion, with a 2015 budget allocation that was “40 percent more than the Ministry of the Interior’s and equal to those of the Foreign, Energy, and Culture and Tourism ministries combined.” In addition to presiding over Turkey’s own mosques, the directorate governs hundreds of mosques across Europe, has increased the number of religious classes in public schools, and, reports Lepeska, “runs a 24-hour television station, Diyanet television, available via satellite, cable, and YouTube, and manages a Facebook page (with nearly 230,000 fans), two Twitter accounts (more than 50,000 followers), and an Islamic lifestyle hotline.”
The result is a toxic mixture of religion and politics that could not be further from the secular ideals of the founder of modern Turkey. Add Erdogan’s and the AKP’s human rights abuses and dictatorial leanings to this and the cauldron boils hotter and more dangerous than ever. Whatever problems existed previously, the post-coup situation bears far too many parallels to the impulses and ideologies of radical Islamism: whoever does not support Erdogan becomes the enemy. And Erdogan, as the leader of Turkey, is the leader of the Diyanet.
The outcome is a kind of tribalism that already infects the rest of the Middle East: to be outside the Erdogan support core is to be outside the realm of the Diyanet – an apostate of sorts, threatened with death.
That this could become the future of Ataturk’s secular democratic republic is tragic. But there is also a very real possibility of the impulse spreading into Europe. Other events this year, such as the attacks on Dutch journalist Ebru Umar and German comedian Jan Bohmermann, both of whom criticized the Turkish president, demonstrate that many European Turks lean towards such a radicalized and tribalist vision. It is a vision Europe’s leaders would do well to extinguish while they still can.
The “Anti-Normalization” Campaign and Israel’s Right to Exist
August 8, 2016The “Anti-Normalization” Campaign and Israel’s Right to Exist, Gatestone Institute, Khaled Abu Toameh, August 8, 2016
(Please see also, Israeli-Saudi Ties Warming; Hizballah and Iran Livid. — DM)
♦ For many Arabs and Muslims, the conflict with Israel is not about a withdrawal to the pre-1967 lines. These opponents have no intention of recognizing Israel’s right to exist, even if it allows for the creation of an independent and sovereign Palestinian state in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem.
♦ A leading cleric, Dr. Ali Daghi, Secretary-General of the International Muslim Scholars, wrote: “There is a consensus among Muslims, in the past and present, that if an Islamic land is occupied, then its inhabitants must declare jihad until it is liberated from the occupiers.”
♦ “Anyone who calls for peace with the Zionists should brought to trial for high treason. Normalization is treason.” — Ramzi Al-Harbi, Saudi writer.
♦ Let us be clear: these are not fringe voices. This is mainstream Arab and Islamic society. What bothers them is not the “normalization” with the “Zionist entity,” but the fact that Israel exists. For the masses, jihad against Israel is the solution, not another peace initiative endorsed by unelected Arab dictatorships.
Arabs and Muslims are up in arms over a controversial visit to Israel by a retired Saudi general, Dr. Anwar Eshki, who is being accused of promoting “normalization with the Jews and the Zionist entity.” If “normalization” with Israel is being denounced as a major crime and sin, one can only imagine what “peace” with Israelis would be considered in the Arab and Islamic countries.
General Eshki and a delegation of Saudi academics and businessmen met with Israeli Foreign Ministry Director-General Dore Gold, the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), Maj.-Gen. Yoav Moderchai and several Knesset members from the opposition. The Saudi delegation also travelled to Ramallah, where its members met with Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas and other Palestinian officials.
Retired Saudi general Anwar Eshki (center, in striped tie) and members of his delegation, meeting with Knesset members and others during a visit to Israel, on July 22, 2016. (Image source: Twitter)
The anger engendered by the unprecedented visit by the Saudi delegation to Israel shows that many Arabs and Muslims continue to believe that Israel has no right to exist despite the optimism voiced over the so-called Arab Peace Initiative of 2002.
Several Arab and Muslim leaders insist that, according to this initiative, an Israeli withdrawal to the pre-1967 lines and the establishment of an independent Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital would lead to the creation of “normal relations” between their countries and Israel.
However, the outrage the Saudi delegation’s visit to Israel has triggered throughout the Arab and Islamic countries points to one conclusion: that for many Arabs and Muslims, the conflict with Israel is not about a withdrawal to the pre-1967 lines. Nor is the conflict about Palestinian rights and “normal relations” between Israel and the Arab and Islamic countries.
Those opposed to the visit are expressing their feelings under the banner of “Anti-Normalization” with Israel. The existence of Israel on “Muslim-owned” land, however, is the real problem. These opponents have no intention of recognizing Israel’s right to exist, even if it withdraws to the pre-1967 lines and allows for the creation of an independent and sovereign Palestinian state in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem. This, of course, stands in sharp contrast with the spirit of the Arab Peace Initiative, which many in the Western world mistakenly believe would put an end to the Israeli-Arab conflict.
The first to express outrage over the visit were thousands of Saudis, including top Islamic clerics, who took to social media to express their poison and hatred for Israel and Jews. Many reminded their listeners of fatwas (Islamic religious decrees) banning any form of “normalization” with Israel and Jews, who are referred to as “infidels and polytheists.” The fatwas also forbid Muslims from giving up any part of “Muslim-owned” land to non-Muslims.
In Islam, if land has ever been under Muslim control, like southern Spain, el-Andalus, it must belong to Muslims to be as an endowment, or waqf, held in trust for Allah, in perpetuity. As the entire Middle East was under the control of the Muslim Ottoman Empire from 1259-1924, many Arabs and Muslims believe that the entire area belongs only to Islam, regardless of who may have lived there before.
Jews, who have lived continuously in Biblical Canaan and Judea for three thousand years, might well wonder how they can be accused of “occupying” their own land.
One of the leading clerics, Dr. Ali Daghi, Secretary-General of the International Muslim Scholars, wrote: “There is a consensus among Muslims, in the past and present, that if an Islamic land is occupied, then its inhabitants must declare jihad until it is liberated from the occupiers.”
Clearly the two-state solution is not the goal of this cleric and his friends. Nor are they interested in “Palestinian rights.” Rather Dr. Daghi is concerned about the “right” of Muslims to all the land, including those parts on which Israel exists today.
Another senior Saudi religious leader, Adel Al-Kalbani, the former imam of the Grand Mosque of Mecca, joined the “anti-normalization” campaign by declaring: “When we were young, they used to call them the Zionist enemy. For sixty years, this enemy has not changed. But we have changed!” The “change” he is talking about relates to those few Arabs and Muslims who are willing to recognize Israel’s right to exist.
Saudi sheikh Esam Al-Zamel said, “The hatred for Israel and the Zionist enemy is inscribed in the hearts of our generation. We must inscribe these values and principles in the hearts of our children.”
Another Saudi citizen, Sultan Al-Jumeri, said, “Normalization and extending a hand to the Zionist entity must remain a disgrace and sin that will chase the perpetrators to their last day. This is a betrayal of the history, the land and the martyrs.”
Fahd Al-Shumri, also of Saudi Arabia, remarked, “Normalization means recognition of “Israel.” This will lead to another phase: relinquishing the Al-Aqsa Mosque and recognizing the Jews’ right to the land of Palestine.”
For his part, Hassan Al-Mutairi, a Saudi preacher, wondered, “Is there any Muslim who supports normalization with the Zionists? The stone and tree will remain witness to our enmity to the Jews.”
He is referring to a hadith (the words and actions of Mohammed), which is also a part of theHamas Charter, that states:
“Judgment Day will not come before the Muslims fight the Jews, and the Jews will hide behind the rocks and the trees, but the rocks and the trees will say: Oh Muslim, oh servant of Allah, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him — except for the gharqad tree, which is one of the trees of the Jews.”
Some Saudi and Arab writers described the visit by the Saudi delegation as a “stab in the back” against the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions Movement (BDS) against Israel. They urged the Saudi government to take immediate punitive measures against the former general and his delegation members, in order to deter others from committing such a “big crime” against Arabs and Muslims.
“Israel will remain our number one enemy in spite of the Zionists,” remarked Saudi writer Amal Zahid. Ramzi Al-Harbi, another writer from Saudi Arabia, commented, “Anyone who calls for peace with the Zionists should be brought to trial for high treason. Normalization is treason.”
Many Palestinians also joined the bandwagon by adding their incendiary and hateful remarks against the Saudis who visited Israel.
“We salute every Saudi who rejects normalization with the occupation,” said Palestinian political analyst Ibrahim Al-Madhoun.
Not surprisingly, Hamas, Islamic Jihad and other Palestinian groups also issued statements strongly condemning the visit of the Saudi delegation to Israel and calling for a ban on such trips. These groups even went as far as condemning a number of Palestinian Authority officials, such as Jibril Rajoub, for participating in the meetings between the Saudi delegation and Israeli officials.
The Palestinian “Resistance Committees,” a coalition of various Palestinian armed groups in the Gaza Strip, denounced the visit as a “crime against Palestine and its people.” The groups described the visit as “shameful” and warned against attempts by some Arabs and Muslims to “accept the existence of the Zionist terrorist entity on the land of Palestine.”
The widespread campaign against the visit of the Saudi delegation to Israel is the direct result of decades of anti-Israel indoctrination in the Arab and Islamic countries, including the Palestinians. At the core of this campaign is the denial of Israel’s right to exist and a denial of any Jewish link to “Muslim-owned” land.
Let us be clear: these are not fringe voices. This is mainstream Arab and Islamic society. The Palestinians, too, have long been part of this campaign, promoting their own “anti-normalization” drive to prevent anyone from meeting with Israelis.
By allowing (and sometimes endorsing) such campaigns, the Palestinian Authority is shooting itself in the head. Each time a PA official, including President Mahmoud Abbas, meets with Israelis, a large group of Palestinian “anti-normalization” activists react by denouncing the encounters and calling for a total boycott of Israel.
The anti-Israel BDS movement provides an inspiration to these haters. As far as the enemies of Israel are concerned, the campaign should not be only about boycotts, divestment and sanctions. As the fury over the visit to Israel clearly shows, what bothers them is not the “normalization” with the “Zionist entity,” but the fact that Israel exists.
The world can continue talking about the Arab Peace Initiative for as long as it wants. The facts on the ground show that the Arab and Muslim masses continue to see Israel as an alien body that was forcibly planted on “Muslim-owned” land. For the masses, jihad against Israel is the solution, not another peace initiative endorsed by unelected Arab dictatorships.
Aleppo battle seesaws: pro-Assad siege in place
August 8, 2016Aleppo battle seesaws: pro-Assad siege in place, DEBKAfile, August 8, 2016
(Please see also, Jihadists and other rebels claim to have broken through siege of Aleppo. — DM)
The battle for Aleppo was locked in a draw Monday, Aug. 8 – contrary to the claims of Syrian rebel forces to have broken through the weeks-long government siege on the city and seized key positions from Assad’s army and its allies, Hizballah and pro-Iranian Shiite militias.
DEBKAfile’s military sources report that the rebels had not yet secured control of the roads linking western and eastern Aleppo. Neither was there any sign of the heavy Russian air strikes claimed by the rebels Sunday afternoon to have been launched in an effort to halt their advance.
According to our sources, intensive air strikes are indeed being conducted in the Aleppo theater – but only by the Syrian air force. There is no Russian presence in the skies over city. Their air force is active in the last few days in only one arena, Idlib in northern Syria. Its absence accounts for the Syrian rebel militias’ partial gains in the battle for Aleppo, and the Pro-Assad forces’ difficulties in holding them back.
Had the Russians provided solid air support for the Syrian army and its allies, our military analysts assert that the rebels would have been pushed back.
It is being withheld, according to our intelligence sources, because Moscow wishes to keep the door ajar for dialogue to continue with the Obama administration. The Russians are interested in particular in setting up with the Americans a joint military and intelligence coordination mechanism in Syria for fighting Islamist forces.
the division of tasks is conceived in Moscow, the Americans would provide intelligence for the Russian air force to undertake the bombardment of targets to be marked by US intelligence.
An agreement in principle on this deal would necessitate direct communication lines to operate between their two active war rooms for Syria: the US-Jordanian and Russian-Jordanian joint command centers operating in Amman.
Kremlin fears that Russian aerial intervention in the Aleppo fighting would put paid to the talks with Washington on this broad collaboration.
So long as those talks are underway,, neither the Russians nor the Americans are likely to step in to determine the military situation in the battle for Aleppo – which was once Syria’s commercial center. The fighting will continue to seesaw inconclusively between the warning sides.
Israeli-Saudi Ties Warming; Hizballah and Iran Livid
August 8, 2016Israeli-Saudi Ties Warming; Hizballah and Iran Livid, PJ Media, P. David Hornik, August 7, 2016
Image Courtesy of Shutterstock
As Khamenei tweeted on Monday: “Revelation of Saudi government’s relations with Zionist regime was stab in the back of Islamic Ummah.”
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The Israeli society that I encountered embraces a culture of peace, has accomplishments it wants to (protect), wants coexistence, and wants peace.
Those words weren’t spoken by an enthused congressman after a trip to Israel. They were spoken to BBC Arabic by Abd al-Mujid al-Hakim, director of the Middle East Center for Strategic and Legal Policy in Jedda, Saudi Arabia, and a member of a Saudi delegation that recently visited Israel.
The delegation, which included academics and businessmen, was led by Dr. Anwar Eshki, a retired Saudi general and former top adviser to the Saudi government. About a year earlier Eshki had shaken hands and shared a stage in Washington with Israeli Foreign Ministry director-general Dore Gold—seen as a major breakthrough at the time. But a public visit to Israel of this kind, which could only have been carried out with the approval of the highest level of the Saudi government, is a historical first and still has a taste of the surreal to it.
During the visit Eshki met again with Gold; with Maj.-Gen. Yoav Mordechai, responsible for Israeli administration of the territories; with Palestinian officials in Ramallah; and with opposition Members of Knesset.
One of those opposition MKs, Issawi Frej of the far-left, mostly Jewish Meretz Party, said:
The Saudis want to open up to Israel. It’s a strategic move for them. They want to continue what former Egyptian president Anwar Sadat started (with the 1979 Israeli-Egyptian peace treaty). They want to get closer with Israel, and we could feel it clearly.
What’s going on?
Israeli commentator Yossi Melman, while noting that the visit marks a new plateau in the increasingly overt Israeli-Saudi ties, points out:
[O]n a covert level, according to foreign reports, the ties being cultivated are even more fascinating. Intelligence Online reported that Israel is selling intelligence equipment, as well as control and command centers, to the Saudi security forces. Previously, it had been reported in the foreign media that the heads of the Mossad, the organization responsible for Israel’s covert ties, met with their Saudi counterparts. Media outlets affiliated with Hezbollah even reported that officers from the two countries’ armies had met.
What’s going on, in other words, is that Israel and Saudi Arabia have common enemies in the region, and with American power withdrawing, Israel’s power constantly growing, ISIS threatening, and the Obama administration having paved a path to nuclear weapons for Iran, the Saudis—like Egypt, Jordan, and other Sunni states—are casting their troubled gaze toward Jerusalem.
Or as Melman puts it:
Israel and the Saudis share a fear for Iran’s nuclear program and Tehran’s efforts to increase its influence in the region. They also both have an interest in weakening the standing of Hezbollah, “the forward headquarters” of Iran on Lebanon’s Mediterranean coast. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks often of Israel’s ties with the “Sunni Bloc,” and hints that the Saudis are included in this group.
It appears that he need hint no more.
Last week’s Saudi visit to Jerusalem—a dramatic, even stunning confirmation of Israel’s cooperation with that bloc—did not go unnoticed, of course, by the rival Shiite bloc. And they’re not happy about it.
Hizballah chief Hassan Nasrallah accused the Saudis of “normalizing for free, without receiving anything in return…. It seems the future of Palestine and the fate of its children have become a trivial matter for some Arab states recently.”
The Saudi visit, he said, “couldn’t have taken place without the agreement of the Saudi government. We know how things work there. In Saudi Arabia a person will be lashed for so much as tweeting.”
But if Nasrallah is not pleased with this development, his boss—Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Khamenei—is even less thrilled.
As Khamenei tweeted on Monday: “Revelation of Saudi government’s relations with Zionist regime was stab in the back of Islamic Ummah.”
None of this means that the Sunni Arab part of the Ummah is ready to warmly embrace Israel. While in Israel last week, Dr. Eshki—like Egyptian and Jordanian officials before him—said that real “normalization” would have to await a resolution of the Palestinian issue. It’s code for: “We’re not really ready to accept a Jewish state in our midst.”
Still, considering that Israel and Sunni Arab states used to fight wars every few years, a reality of nonbelligerency and pragmatic ties is a major improvement for Israel. Whoever is the next U.S. president might want to cooperate with the Israeli-Sunni alliance against Iran instead of giving the mullahs a “sunset clause” leading to nuclear night.
ABC Panel Picks Up Secret Sexist ‘Code’ in Trump’s Hillary Criticisms
August 8, 2016ABC Panel Picks Up Secret Sexist ‘Code’ in Trump’s Hillary Criticisms, MRC News Busters, Nicholas Fondacaro, August 7, 2016
(Any attack on Our Beloved Hillary is an attack on All women! All emphasis below is from the link.– DM)
The panel featured during ABC’s This Week’s“Powerhouse Roundtable!” seemed have been picking up some radio interference Sunday, because they kept insisting they were hearing sexist “code” coming from Donald Trump. “The emphasis on unhinged and she doesn’t look presidential is totally code for “we shouldn’t elect a woman,”” spat commentator Cokie Roberts, “That is exactly what that is.” Sexist dog whistles have become a common complaint of hers for the Trump campaign.
Roberts complaints of sexism were also directed at Trump’s many supporters as well. When discussing a new ABC poll that that showed Trump down eight percentage points to Hillary, and had Trump leading with white males, Roberts couldn’t hold back her disdain for them. “The numbers in the poll that really struck me, other than the fact that white men have a lot of answering to do, is that— “cares about people like you,” that is a key question.”
And it wasn’t just Roberts who was hearing the faint sounds of sexism emanating from Trump in Morse Code, journalist Roland Martin was hearing it as well. Martin pointed to Trump’s recently unveiled team of economic advisers as his evidence:
ROLAND MARTIN: When you talk about the care for everyday people. What does he do this week? He appoints a team of economic advisers. All men.
MARTHA RADDATZ: All Men. All men.
COKIE ROBERTS: All white men.
MARTIN: All hedge fund guys. Tell me how that’s going to work?
The panel also demonstrated a huge double standard between their coverage of Trump and Clinton when it comes to pooh-poohing their attacks. “He questions her mental fitness. Nobody in America questions her mental fitness,” exclaimed CNBC contributor Sara Fagen. “But they question his,” Martin responded gleefully. So, it’s not right for Trump to question her “mental fitness,” but when Clinton fear monger’s by warning that Trump can’t be trusted with the nuclear codes she’s doing the exact same thing.
It seems to have become common for ABC to link Trump to sexism. On Thursday evening during World News Tonight reporter Cecilia Vega did a segment where she said Trump blames the victim in sexual harassment cases.
Partial transcript below:
ABC
This Week
August 7, 2016
9:43:30 AM Eastern
COKIE ROBERTS: The numbers in the poll that really struck me, other than the fact that white men have a lot of answering to do, is that— “cares about people like you,” that is a key question. Hillary Clinton was up 20 points on that. And that is often the question that tells you whether somebody is going to get elected.
…
ROLAND MARTIN: This is a guy who wants to be whiner in chief. He complains about everything. The issue is this: Can he deal with issues? Remember what Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said, he doubt know a lot about the issues out there. He what, at some point he has to focus on. You can wing this thing. You can sort of talk in broad terms. But at some point, you have to get down to the nitty-gritty.
When you talk about the care for everyday people. What does he do this week? He appoints a team of economic advisers. All men.
MARTHA RADDATZ: All Men. All men.
ROBERTS: All white men.
MARTIN: All hedge fund guys. Tell me how that’s going to work?
…
SARA FAGEN: She is such a week candidate. You saw it again just yesterday where she was stumbling over her answers on how she handled her E-Mail controversy.
RADDATZ: And what about his tweeting about how she short-circuited, brainwashing?
FAGEN: Short-circuiting—
ROBERTS: Unhinged.
FAGEN: Unhinged saying that she— he questions her mental fitness. Nobody in America questions her mental fitness.They think she’s liberal—
[Crosstalk]
MARTIN: But they question his!
RADDATZ: They question her honesty.
FAGEN: They question her honesty, that’s right.
ROBERTS: But. But. But, the emphasis on unhinged and she doesn’t look presidential is totally code for we shouldn’t elect a woman. That is exactly what that is.
FAGEN: I don’t know if I agree entirely with that.
Gunmen wearing Afghan military uniforms kidnap American, Australian in Kabul
August 8, 2016Gunmen wearing Afghan military uniforms kidnap American, Australian in Kabul, Jihad Watch,
The AP headline says that the perpetrators were “gunmen posing as Afghan soldiers,” but there is no reason why the kidnappers couldn’t be members of the Afghan military, which is rife with jihadis, as the green-on-blue killings demonstrate.
Meanwhile, the hostages will now be killed, enslaved, ransomed or freed outright.
Here is a salient passage on this issue from a Shafi’i manual of Islamic law:
When an adult male is taken captive, the caliph considers the interests … (of Islam and the Muslims) and decides between the prisoner’s death, slavery, release without paying anything, or ransoming himself in exchange for money or for a Muslim captive held by the enemy. (Umdat al-Salik o9.14)
A revered Islamic jurist, Al-Mawardi, agrees with ‘Umdat al-Salik:
As for the captives, the amir has the choice of taking the most beneficial action of four possibilities: the first, to put them to death by cutting their necks; the second, to enslave them and apply the laws of slavery regarding their sale or manumission; the third, to ransom them in exchange for goods or prisoners; and fourth, to show favor to them and pardon them. (Al-Ahkam As-Sultaniyyah (The Laws of Islamic Governance), 4.5)
“Gunmen posing as Afghan soldiers kidnap American, Australian in Kabul: official,” by Rahim Faiez, Associated Press, August 8, 2016:
KABUL – Five gunmen wearing Afghan military uniforms have abducted an American and an Australian in the Afghan capital, Kabul, a security official said Monday.
The two foreigners were taken from their SUV while driving on Sunday night on a main road near the American University of Afghanistan, according to Sediq Sediqqi, spokesman for the Afghan Interior Ministry. They are believed to be employees of the university and were travelling between the university and their residence, he said.
No one immediately claimed responsibility for the abduction.
Sediqqi also added that initial reports show that up to five armed men stopped the foreigners’ vehicle and carried out the kidnapping. The two abducted are both men, he said. He did not reveal any more details except to say that an investigation is underway.
The U.S. Embassy in Kabul issued a brief statement confirming the kidnapping of an American citizen but gave no further details “due to privacy concerns.”
“U.S. Embassy security officials are working closely with Afghan law enforcement and security colleagues and AUAF to assist in the investigation into the kidnapping,” it said, referring to the American University of Afghanistan.
Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade also issued a statement confirming “the apparent kidnapping of an Australian in Kabul.” No further details were released, also for privacy concerns.
“We continue to advise Australians not to travel to Afghanistan because of the extremely dangerous security situation, including the serious threat of kidnapping,” it said….
Sediqqi said that kidnappers in all the Kabul cases, including Monday’s, had been wearing military uniforms, establishing a pattern and hinting at some form of organized gang activity….
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