Archive for the ‘Off Topic’ category

The Final Death of Western Civilization

August 18, 2014

The Final Death of Western Civilization

via The Final Death of Western Civilization | Gates of Vienna.

 

Last week in the Austrian daily Die Presse Michael Ley about the new anti-Semitism and the role of the Left in the Islamization of Europe. JLH, who has kindly translated the piece, includes this note:

The Muslims’ faithful reprise of Mohammed’s original temper tantrum at the Jews makes Sicilian vendettas and Appalachian feuds look like cocktail party spats. Modern leftist Jew-hatred, on the other hand, is an echo of the age-old search for a scapegoat — any scapegoat — guided by the Alinskyite technique of identify, isolate, destroy, but older than socialism and its acolytes. Just think Fiddler on the Roof.

This is a very effective picture of how and why Islam and Leftism suit each other so well, and how they are bound by anti-Semitism. The example of wheat happened to the Left after Khomeini at least offers some ironic feeling of poetic justice.

 

The translated article:

Who Owns the World?

Criticism of Islam is often denounced as “the new racism.” Hostility to Jews, on the other hand, is as old as Islam itself.

Taking aim at the new anti-Semitism.

by Michael Ley

Anti-Semites like to compare Jews, Zionists and Israelis to Adolf Hitler. Recently, Prime Minister Erdogan of Turkey certified that the Israelis are worse than Hitler. “What Israel is doing to Palestine and Gaza is beyond what Hitler did to the Jews.” In the Arab world, this equivalence has the status of legend. It was not only Yasser Arafat who made use of this smear. It is a part of Arab identity. This extreme hatred of Jews has long since spilled over into European societies and spread quickly through the Muslim parallel societies. The image of the radical rightist anti-Semite is overdue to be augmented by the Muslim Jew-hater. The French political scientist Pierre-André Taguieff determined years ago: “The originators of violence against Jews are no longer mostly from the extreme right. They are recruiting above all among young immigrants, especially from the Maghreb*.” Hatred of Jews is a part of their cultural identity.

For several years sociologists have been confirming a “new anti-Semitism” which is above all else a Muslim anti-Judaism. The contemporary violent excesses and Jew-hostile slogans of the Muslim mob are energetically supported by many from the Left and are also sympathetically received by leftist media personnel. In the leftist daily taz the editor Stefan Reinicke recently wrote: “In a free country, it must be possible to question Israel’s right to exist.” From there to questioning the right of Jews in general to exist is a shorter step.

Hostility to Jews is nothing new among Muslims or leftists — it is as old as socialism or Islam.

Islam exhibits an extreme anti-Judaism. The Koran is permeated by Jew-hostile stereotypes overlapping with those of Christians. The Jews have the hardened hearts of the uncircumcised; they have broken the bond with God and killed the prophets; they lie and have falsified God’s word; they do not honor treaties; they are usurers; they steal money; they do not believe in the afterlife. The Jews appear in the Koran as evil characters. Thus the battle cry: “Fight against them until they are humiliated and pay the tax.” (9:29) The Koran portrays Jews as not only warmongers guilty of every misdeed on earth, but also curses them as “apes and pigs” and assigns them the lowest, subhuman rank: “And you have surely known those among you who broke the Sabbath. Then we said to them: ‘Be outcast pigs and apes!’’ (Surah 2:56) Because the Jews did not recognize Allah, they were dehumanized and became as animals: “Say this: ‘Shall I teach you of those whose penalty from Allah is even worse than that? They are those who have cursed Allah and whom he has scorned and made into apes, pigs and idolaters. They are in an even worse situation and have wandered still further from the right path.’” (Surah 5:60) This motif occurs again and again.

Islam’s end-times prophecy sees the annihilation of the Jews. The pertinent Hadith says: “In the final hour, Muslims will fight against Jews. Since Jews belong to the army of Satan and Muslims are the soldiers of the Prophet Jesus, they will fight against each other, and the Muslims will be victorious until every stone and tree will say: ‘Come here, Muslim. A Jew is hiding behind me. Kill him.” But Islamic anti-Judaism is only the tip of the iceberg in the battle against the infidels.

Jihad is the highest duty in Islam and no Muslim may evade it. Martyrs of jihad go directly to paradise, while Muslims who refuse jihad are threatened with “the torments of Hell.” So long as Muslims are a minority in a non-Muslim country, there can be no offensive, militant jihad. If Muslims expand to an appropriate percentage of the population, they must arm for the forthcoming battle: “And arm yourselves against them with men and horses a much as possible, in order to menace Allah’s enemy.” (Surah 8:60) If Muslims have enough power and influence, then they must pursue jihad. Every Muslim is duty-bound to kill infidels who refuse to convert. “Kill the idolaters wherever you find them, and seize them and besiege them and lie in ambush for them in every nook and cranny.” (Surah 9:5) The only alternative to conversion is subjection as a dhimmi and payment for “protection.”

From the Islamic point of view, the world belongs to Allah. Theologically, jihad is simply re-conquest of Islamic territories. Jihad signifies permanent war against infidels and precludes any peace with them. The battle against non-Muslims may only be interrupted by a “truce” and this may not last longer than ten years. Truce based on treaties may be rescinded by Muslims at any time. The holy war knows no lasting peace. However, jihad can also be prosecuted peacefully: by conversion, propaganda and bribery.

Class war was the secular left’s jihad, through which the original, perfect world was to be restored. Many anarchists, socialists and communists saw in the Jew the spear-point of the class enemy. In his diatribe “On the Jewish Question,” Karl Marx wrote: “Let us not seek the secret of the Jew in his religion, but the secret of the religion in the real Jew. What is the worldly basis of Jewry? Practical need, self interest. What is the worldly cult of Jews? Usury. What is their worldly god? Money. The ultimate meaning of Jewish emancipation is emancipation of humanity from the Jews.” Marx is in the tradition of an older, leftist hatred of Jews. Early French socialists at the beginning of the 19th century dreamed of a worldly redemption of humanity, and proclaimed a political religion whose flip-side was anti-Semitism. They secularized, so to speak, Christian anti-Judaism to modern, political anti-Semitism.

Charles Fourier preached a utopian socialism and saw himself as the new prophet, claiming to recognize the Jews as the bane of humanity. His students, Pierre Leroux and Alphonse Toussenei, likewise saw absolute evil in the Jews. Toussenei warned of Jewish world domination. The philosopher, Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, proclaimed: “The Jew is the enemy of humanity. This race must either be sent back to Asia or annihilated.” His anti-Semitism became the model for modern Jew hatred, which the left has to this day not been able to discard.

In the postmodern era, proletarians are no longer the subject of human salvation. They have been replaced by immigrants, who are the new stylites** of the leftist utopia for an old, doomed society, still bourgeois in places. Millions of immigrants will dissolve old Europe to make way for a new culture of multiculturalism. It will be national identities making way for diversity in ethnicities, religions and identities.

Western apologists for Islam and those who represent the interests of Islamic organizations never tire of denouncing any criticism of Islam as “new racism.” The new definition of racism is: Anyone who seeks the causes of Islamic terrorism and the lack of desire to integrate on the part of many Muslims in the religion of Islam, and does not overwhelmingly hold the Crusades, colonialism, imperialism and European xenophobia responsible for it, is displaying a racist attitude toward Islam and Muslims.

Every criticism of Islam must be denounced as “racism” or “Islamophobia” and this is preparatory to eliminating all religious, cultural and social criticism of Islam. Consequently, doubt is cast on all the positive cultural and political achievements of the modern West in favor of a multi-ethnic state whose basis is relativistic values. A society that gives up its own obligatory norms and values is preparing for its own disposal. Exclusive social self-criticism and compulsive xenophilia are the expression of a serious collective neurosis and testify to an incomparable political foolishness.

The political goal of the mainstream Left — transforming society with massive immigration — will be reached in the foreseeable future. But the result will shock the most naïve of do-gooders. The goal of orthodox Islam and its organizations is the Islamization of European society, and in this context, the Left plays the role of the useful idiot who believes it has found in orthodox Islam an ally in the struggle to overcome the despised bourgeois society.

Islam’s representatives, however, are not in the least interested in the utopia of a new human being in the sense of multiculturalism or diversity. They want to overcome any life form that is not Islamic. If Islam should succeed in several decades, the leftists would be the first victims of this most dangerous political religion of the 21st century. The Left did not learn this lesson in its fight alongside Ayatollah Khomeini against the hated Shah. After the takeover, they were ruthlessly persecuted and liquidated.

The goal of orthodox Islam and the Islamists is Islamic theocracy, which has no place for decadent Western society. Therefore, all radical organizations like the Muslim Brotherhood, the Salafists, the Wahhabis, and/or groups infiltrated by them, as well as the foreign representatives of the Turkish religious authorities must be banned.

Radical imams and their mosques must have no place in an open, pluralistic society. Islam’s jihad is the greatest threat to the freedom of Europe and signifies no more nor less than a new descent into slavery, the final death of Western civilization.

BBC News UK jihadists British Muslim willing to join Islamic State

August 16, 2014

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From Jail to Jihad ? BBC Panorama 2014 BBC full Documentary British convert to Muslim islam

Christians in the Caliphate: The Islamic State (Part 4)

August 16, 2014

Canada Stands With Israel

August 16, 2014

1st Cavalry soldiers headed to Poland, Baltics

August 15, 2014

1st Cavalry soldiers headed to Poland, Baltics

By Jon Harper

Stars and Stripes Published: August 13, 2014

via 1st Cavalry soldiers headed to Poland, Baltics – News – Stripes.

 

WASHINGTON — Approximately 600 soldiers from the Army’s 1st Brigade, 1st Cavalry Division will deploy to Poland and the Baltic states to help reassure European allies who feel threatened by Russian military moves, the Pentagon announced Wednesday.

The troops and their equipment — which include M-1 Abrams tanks, infantry fighting vehicles, and armored personnel carriers — will go to Europe in October for a three-month series of training exercises.

The soldiers, based at Fort Hood, Texas, are replacing about 600 paratroopers from the Army’s 173rd Airborne Brigade, which is based in Vicenza, Italy. The “Sky Soldiers” have been conducting exercises with Poland, Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia since April as part of ongoing Operation Atlantic Resolve.

“These land training exercises … help foster interoperability through small unit and leader training,” Pentagon spokesman Col. Steve Warren said.

In addition to ground forces, the U.S. has also sent F-16 combat aircraft to Poland and participated in NATO air policing missions over the Baltics.

The exercises came at the request of host nations that fear a resurgent Russia, which annexed the Crimea region of Ukraine earlier this year and continues to support a pro-Russia separatist movement in eastern Ukraine.

For months, the Russian military has massed forces along the border with Ukraine and provided advanced weaponry and other assistance to the rebels. In recent days, Moscow has announced its intention to send a convoy of trucks into Ukraine to deliver what it says is humanitarian aid to separatist-held areas under pressure from Ukrainian government forces.

Kiev has said it will allow Russian humanitarian aid into the affected region, but only if it is delivered by the International Red Cross. Russia wants to deliver the supplies directly.

Ukrainian and Western officials are concerned that the alleged humanitarian mission might be a ruse to enable Russia to provide more military help to the separatists.

On Tuesday, Warren warned that Russian aid convoys could be a “Trojan horse.”

harper.jon@stripes.com
Twitter: @JHarperStripes

UNRWA = United Nations Rocket Warehousing Agency

August 13, 2014

 

United Nations Rocket Warehousing Agency (Again)

UN Rocket Warehousing Agency Logo largeDing Ding – Seconds out, Round Three! Buried (much like they hide weapons) at the end of an unrelated story on the UN site with this title: “Citing humanitarian impact, Ban warns against further escalation in Gaza conflict” we find the THIRD admission of weapons concealment by, what shall be forthwith be known as, the United Nations Rocket Warehousing Agency (UNRWA):

In a related development, UNRWA said that a cache of rockets was found today at one of its schools in central Gaza. The discovery came during a regular UNRWA inspection of the school, which was closed for the summer and not being used as a shelter. All the relevant parties have been notified. “We condemn the group or groups who endangered civilians by placing these munitions in our school,” said UNRWA spokesperson Chris Gunness. “This is yet another flagrant violation of the neutrality of our premises. We call on all the warring parties to respect the inviolability of UN property.”

As ever we have no firm idea what they did with the rockets but the chances are high they gave them back to the terrorists. Again. Here are the previous times they’ve done this: The Answer To My Question: UNRWA Supplies Weapons To Hamas Terrorists Weapons Found At UNRWA School. Again And lets not forget that Hamas likes to fire rockets from next to these schools and sometimes these go astray. Deaths In Beit Hanoun: Hamas Crime And UNRWA Cover-Up? H/t to my Facebook friend John for the new name of UNRWA.

Senators want UNRWA investigated over ‘troubling’ Gaza role

Swedish politician quits after ‘Jewish pigs’ slur online

August 12, 2014

Politician quits after 'Jewish pigs' slur online

A soldier near Gaza. Photo: Tsafrir Abayov/TT

Politician quits after ‘Jewish pigs’ slur online

Published: 05 Aug 2014 11:28 GMT+02:00
Updated: 05 Aug 2014 14:28 GMT+02:00

Omar Omeirat, Social Democrat candidate for the town council of Filipstad, central Sweden, gave a speech in the town on Friday evening advocating diversity and openness.

On Saturday he sang a very different tune.

“The entire Muslim world is sitting and watching while our brothers and sisters in Palestine are slaughtered by the Jewish pigs,” Omeritat wrote on his Facebook page.

“May Allah strengthen those who defend Palestine, and be merciful towards the dead Muslims. Amen.”

His Facebook page also included a flag used by the Islamist group Isis, local paper NWT reported.

The post quickly became public knowledge, and the young politician came under fire for his choice of words.

“I called Omar about what he had written, and he said that he had watched a film where Palestinian women and children were murdered by Jews,”  Åsa Hååkman Feldt, Social Democrat spokeswoman in Filipstad, told The Local.

Omeirat quickly regretted the post, and updated his Facebook status to an apology.

“He never meant to judge people who are Jews, Christians, or anything else,” Feldt explained. “He just meant to judge Israel as a state.”

On Tuesday it was announced he would be stepping down from his position.

“I regret what I said,” Omeirat told Sveriges Television. “It was the wrong choice of words and no one should say something like that.”

Feldt confirmed that Omeirat had decided to leave politics, and said it was entirely his own choice.

“Of course we condemn his statement,” Feldt told The Local. “But it is Omar himself who has decided that he should take the consequences for his actions and leave the party.”

Feldt called the situation “unusual”, saying that the most common reason to step down is sickness. She explained that the town’s voting slips are already printed and that Omeirat’s name will still be on the list, but that he will not be eligible for a position in autumn elections.

“You really have to think about what you write on Facebook, especially as a politician,” Feldt added. “It’s a public record and there are consequences.”

Last month Social Democrat party leader Stefan Löfven was criticized for expressing his thoughts about Gaza, when he wrote on Facebook that “Israel has the right to defend itself”.

—-

 

Löfven: Israel has the right to defend itself

Stefan Löfven meets a member of the Jewish community to discuss anti-Semitism during a recent visit to Malmö. Erika Oldberg/TT

Löfven: Israel has the right to defend itself

Published: 13 Jul 2014 14:31 GMT+02:00
Updated: 13 Jul 2014 14:31 GMT+02:00

The election favourite posted the comment on Saturday night and within minutes he was on the receiving end of angry replies from users of the social network.

“Israel must respect international law but obviously has the right to defend itself. It is a huge tragedy that the violence escalates,” Löfven wrote.

Most of the comments were critical of the political party leader’s stance with one user posting; “Israel kills right now Palestinian children every day. Is that self-defence?”

Several other people said they had no intention in voting for Löfven in September following the remark.

Others said he was letting the Social Democrats down by not maintaining the stance of the late Olof Palme and Anna Lindh, who were critical of Israel when they were in office.

“It is fairly modest wording but that makes no difference, it is an issue where there is only room for two opinions,” political scientist Stig-Björn Ljunggren told Aftonbladet.

Löfven’s comment appears to clash with a statement released by the Social Democrats’ foreign policy spokesperson Urban Ahlin. In a press release issued on Thursday Ahlin stated that the party needed to be clear in its reaction against the Israeli bombing of Gaza.

He also condemned the Hamas rocket fire against Israel and called for a peaceful two-state solution.

“It’s very surprising (what Löfven wrote) as it differs from what the party’s foreign policy spokesperson Urban Ahlin said the other day,” Ulf Bjereld, a professor of political scientist at Gothenburg University, told Aftonbladet.

On Saturday several demonstrations were held across Sweden in protest over the Gaza bombings. A manifestation in Stockholm attracted over a 1,000 people with many carrying signs which were critical of Israel.

At the time of writing Löfven’s post has attracted more than 2,300 comments. He has yet to speak publicly on the furore surrounding his remark.

The Local/pr

BREAKING NEWS – Recep Tayyip Erdogan ‘wins Turkish presidential vote’

August 10, 2014

A Dictator will be elected in Turkey

August 10, 2014

‘Erdoğan will become ‘dictator’ with de facto presidential system’

'Erdoğan will become 'dictator' with de facto presidential system'
In this March 31, 2014 file photo released by the Turkish Presidency Press Office, Turkish President Abdullah Gül, (R), and Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan are seen during a meeting in Ankara, Turkey. (Photo: AP/Turkish Presidency Press Office)
May 04, 2014, Sunday/ 18:57:35/ TODAY’S ZAMAN / ISTANBUL
The Justice and Development Party (AK Party) has, for the most part, decided on its strategy for the presidential election in August and will seek a plan to switch to a de facto presidential or semi-presidential system, which opposition parties have slammed as a move that will pave the way for dictatorship.“This would lead to a de facto dictatorship,” Faruk Bal, deputy chairman of the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), told Today’s Zaman, noting that as per the Constitution, presidents are not accountable for their acts before the law.Whether Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan will run for president in the election in August has been a source of controversy, but according to a report by the Radikal daily on Sunday, Erdoğan’s plan is no longer a mystery.According to decisions reached by Erdoğan, President Abdullah Gül and senior members of the AK Party, Erdoğan will run for president. Should Erdoğan be elected president, a temporary prime minister — though no name has yet been finalized — will run the country for the next 10 months until the 2015 general elections, during which Erdoğan will reportedly be de facto acting like a president in a presidential system. Another part of the plan is to have Gül elected as leader of the AK Party following the 2015 general elections.Not only is the president not accountable before the law other than for charges of treason under the Turkish parliamentarian system, the current political system also lacks checks and balances required in a presidential system to counterbalance a powerful president. “In the current system, it is not possible to counterbalance the president [who would hold extensive powers as in a presidential system]. A ruler who is not restricted by a system of checks and balances is called a dictator,” Bal commented. The AK Party’s plan rests on two important factors. Firstly, this year the people will be electing the president for the first time as opposed to the previous system where presidents were voted in by Parliament. According to Radikal, as president, Erdoğan will try to use the powers of a president in a presidential system, creating a de-facto regime change. If the AK Party faces no obstacles to this plan and if the formula of a new and powerful president is accepted by society, Erdoğan will continue as president with his ineffective prime minister. If however, problems emerge during the course of his presidency, the AK Party will opt for a stronger prime minister. According to Atilla Kart, a deputy from the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), such a step would represent a violation of the Constitution given that it is based on the requirements of a parliamentarian democracy. “Such a move would in fact be a de facto coup d’état in the constitutional sense,” Kart told Today’s Zaman, accusing Erdoğan of having dictatorial tendencies. Noting that such a step would disturb the balance of the current parliamentarian system, Kart challengingly said: “The Turkish Republic would prevent such attempts.” President Gül will likely be elected as leader of the AK Party and prime minister after the 2015 elections. Radikal reported that the AK Party will be consulting with its senior members throughout May to lay out the final version of the plan. The AK Party will have a meeting in Afyon on May 9 in which all deputies will attend. On May 16, there will be a larger meeting in which provincial chapter chairmen and mayors will also be present. Erdoğan and Gül will continue their talks on the presidential plan throughout May. Although the AK Party has not yet decided on a prime minister to lead the government during the “transition” to a presidential or a semi-presidential system, Radikal reported that Deputy Prime Minister Bülent Arınç appears to be a strong candidate. If Turkey eventually gives up the parliamentary system, Gül might not seek leadership of the AK Party. However, if the plan works out, he will most certainly head the AK Party after the 2015 general elections. The prime minister who will run Turkey in the interim will be a senior member who will be running for the last time as per the AK Party’s three-term rule, which states that a deputy cannot serve in Parliament for more than three consecutive terms. The AK Party has, over the previous months, considered removing this rule because Prime Minister Erdoğan is currently serving his third term, but the AK Party’s Central Executive and Steering Committee (MKYK) on Friday ruled to keep the rule in place in line with Erdoğan’s plan to run for president. The AK Party MKYK also decided to abandon its earlier plans to overhaul the current electoral system to introduce single-member or five-member constituencies in an effort to give the AK Party sufficient majority power to draft the constitution and transform the regime into a presidential one. Although the system change would have most certainly benefitted the AK Party overall, sources suggest the plan was abandoned because changing the electoral system would cost the AK Party significantly in İzmir and the Southeast. Arınç, one of the “founding fathers” of the AK Party, will lead the party to the general elections. Other possible individuals for this post are Ali Babacan and Binali Yıldırım. Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu and former Felicity Party (SP) leader Numan Kurtulmuş are also among others who might be the AK Party’s choice for prime minister in the transitional period. Deputy Prime Minister Beşir Atalay confirmed on Sunday that the possibility of Erdoğan running for president had become stronger. “But of course we would not want to see our president detached from his own cause, his mission and this movement and want him to have a say in his future,” Atalay said, speaking about President Gül’s future in the party during a program aired on Kanal 24. He said the 2015 general elections are extremely important for the AK Party and the party would be stronger if both Erdoğan and Gül remain in politics.

Who wants to help the birth of a dictator?

The graft and bribery investigations of Dec. 17 and 25, 2013 have shown that Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s boundless tyrannical power is financing its ruthlessly anti-democratic and unlawful policies with money from graft, bribery and theft. In addition to informal pools of funds obtained from pro-government businessmen who are awarded public contracts in non-transparent and uncompetitive tenders, Erdoğan also started to abuse public resources for his presidential campaign. Even though election law requires every public official to resign from office when he runs as a candidate in an election, Erdoğan skillfully used his influence over the legislature to ensure that he was exempt from this ban. Election law says that if you are the governor of a district and if you run as a candidate in an election, you must resign from office in order to circumvent abuses of public resources in your election campaign. However, Erdoğan is exempt from this requirement even though, as prime minister, he can abuse public resources to any extent he wishes. Given the political financing through illegitimate methods, the abuse of public resources by a candidate in government, the unequal coverage of the presidential candidates by state-owned media and broadcasters — such as the Turkish Radio and Television Corporation (TRT), the Anatolia News Agency and the so-called private media outlets that are controlled by the government — the printing of 18 million extra ballots, the power outages in more than 40 locations while votes were being counted in the local elections of March 30, the hundreds of minutes about the ruling party’s gerrymandering efforts and numerous findings and claims about election rigging, especially in Ankara, everyone must be on high alert for the fairness and soundness of the presidential elections slated for Sunday. Regardless of the level of democratic maturity, Turkey has always performed satisfactorily in terms of election security and fairness, starting in the final days of the Ottoman Empire, excluding the 1946 elections and especially during the multiparty regime. Although many other deficiencies of Turkish democracy were stressed, no one would have voiced concerns that the country didn’t hold fair and just elections. No one would have complained about any systematic effort to rig the elections, including those held in the wake of the military coup of September 12, 1980 and the post-modern coup of February 28, 1997. No doubts about systematic gerrymandering efforts were heard. However, Turkey lost this proud quality during the last elections, held with the Erdoğan-led government at the helm of the so-called “New Turkey” with an “advanced democracy.” The doubts and controversies regarding the March 30 local elections have further escalated the concerns about the fairness and security of the elections slated for Sunday. These worries compelled many international organizations, including the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) and the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), to send their observers to Turkey. Putting to one side all the other sins of Erdoğan, who is growing more despotic each day, this anti-democratic sin is enough to have Erdoğan remembered as a black stain on Turkey’s history of democratization. Having designed a tremendous propaganda machine modeled after Hitler’s Germany or Mussolini’s Italy — using illegitimate funds obtained through the abuse of public resources, graft and fraud — Erdoğan can be prevented from turning Turkey into a full-fledged dictatorship only with the prudence and foresight of the public, in spite of the fact that their democratic consciousness seems to have been maimed by the intense propaganda. If the nation fails to exhibit this democratic prudence and foresight on Sunday, you can be assured that a much more dangerous adventure awaits this country. When an impatient, intolerant and bigoted leader who does not respect fundamental rights and freedoms is given, through democratic means, the mandate to meddle arbitrarily with the very nature of the democratic regime, we face the risk of completely losing the country’s already limping democracy and paralyzed legal system. Problematic reactions by a significant majority of the public, exposed to media illusion, do not look promising for the future of the country. Nevertheless, we cannot lose our hope in the nation as it has a tendency to play an affirmative role with its conscience and problem-solving stance even in the darkest, most chaotic and most complicated periods. If people refuse to wake up to the realities, if they refuse to reject efforts to paralyze their will under the heavy media bombardment of lies and slander as well as fear and worry, I am afraid they will lend a helping hand to the creation of a terrible dictatorship in the presidential elections. A significant portion of the public, whose willpower has been trapped with various devilish methods, will pave the way, through democratic means, for the birth of a despotic Frankenstein whom they will find very difficult to get rid of in the future. To understand what sort of despot might result from this likely imprudence and lack of foresight by the public, we don’t have to wait for the outcome of the elections. Even a cursory look at what Erdoğan promises in his election rallies is enough to reveal the dictatorship awaiting Turkey. A leader who has undermined his own prestige in the eyes of many social groups and foreign countries due to his anti-democratic, unlawful and unethical actions cannot promise anything but dictatorship and tyranny. Isn’t it nonsensical to expect this leader to comply with democratic principles, rights and laws — a leader who believes he represents both the nation and the state, who believes both the nation and the state will become manifest in his personality in Sunday’s elections and who sees this as his most natural right? As you know, Louis-Dieudonné de France, or Louis XIV, underwent a serious erosion of personality after ruling France for 72 years between 1643 and 1715. He was not satisfied with being referred to as Louis Le Grand or Le Roi-Soleil, and he had become a symbol of absolutist dictatorship with his infamous phrase, “L’État, c’est moi.” Yet, Louis XIV was only claiming to be the state. He hadn’t gone further to claim that he was both the state and the nation, as a certain leader is currently doing in his election rallies. Don’t you think a leader who chose to follow in the footsteps of Louis XIV some 300 years later — taking the will of the public hostage through propaganda decorated with lies and slander — is in a situation that is more scandalous than that of Louis XIV? This is not a joke. It is true. But, unfortunately, Prime Minister Erdoğan is coming with new and terrible scandals each day. So much so that the shocking words he uttered during his rally in Tokat on July 9, 2014 — in which he said he was both the state and the nation — were not noticed by anyone. In that speech, Erdoğan argued that he, instead of deputies in Parliament, will directly represent the public, and thus, in addition to identifying himself with the state, he promised that the nation will be manifest in him. In other words, in addition to declaring that he will not comply with the limits defined under the Constitution, Erdoğan promised that he will unify the state and the nation in his personality. If Le Roi-Soleil was alive today and saw Erdoğan’s audacity, I am sure he would be very jealous of him. Therefore, before going to the polls on Sunday, people should make up their minds about whether they will lend support to the birth of a despot who would be envied by Louis XIV or they will elect a president who will set the country’s course back to democracy, human rights, and rule of law.

OFF-TOPIC: Beduin safety will only come with equal enforcement of law

July 30, 2014

OFF-TOPIC: Beduin safety will only come with equal enforcement of law

By ARI BRIGGS | Jerusalem Post 07/29/2014 23:26

By demanding Israel equip illegal houses with shelters, they further seek to legitimize Beduin illegal occupation of state land.

Beduin womenBeduin women in the Negev Photo: HADAS PARUSH

(The New Israel Fund and associated do-gooders do not seek to do good at all. Rather they seek to undermine Israel’s sovereignty .  Encouraging illegal Beduin building is just one method of theirs. — AP)

Beduin in the Negev have been among the hardest hit by the relentless Hamas bombardment.

Two sisters from the illegal Beduin outpost of Awajan are healing from wounds caused by shrapnel from a Hamas rocket.

A 32-year-old from an illegal Beduin outpost near Dimona was killed and four others wounded, including his daughter.

NGOs funded by the misguided New Israel Fund are cynically exploiting these causalities to open a new legal front against Israel even as the country is burying its dead and protecting its citizens from continuous rocket attacks. Bear in mind, these same NGOs (now receiving generous “emergency funding” from the NIF) are preparing “Goldstone Report 2.0” to once again wrongly accuse Israel of war crimes.

The Beduin casualties have afforded these NIF grantees the opportunity to file a petition to Israel’s High Court appealing for government provision of protective shelters. Under the pretext that they care for Beduin safety in the face of alleged government discrimination, these NGOs are using the courts to slander Israel, alienate Beduin from Israeli society and endanger them even further.

By demanding Israel equip illegal houses with shelters, they further seek to legitimize Beduin illegal occupation of state land.

Awajan is among more than 2,000 illegal outposts set up by the Beduin in the Negev. They extend over 200,000 acres of state-owned land between Beersheba, Arad and Dimona. Currently, 60,000 illegal structures overrun the Northern Negev, with approximately five new illegal structures added every day, making it nearly impossible for law enforcement authorities to keep up. Contrary to popular stereotype, these illegal settlements do not consist merely of tents and tin huts.

Dedicated to ensuring the responsible and legal use of state land, Regavim has discovered and photographed thousands of multi-story concrete block and cement houses, all built illegally since the 1990s.

DURING THE recent legal stunt pulled for political and PR purposes, NGOs added insult to Beduin injury by lamenting Israel’s discriminatory treatment of the unrecognized (read: illegal) “villages.”

Israeli law since the early 1990s makes it the responsibility of every home and property owner to build a safe room.

In flouting Israeli law, these Beduin put themselves at risk and essentially rendered themselves illegible for services that would better guarantee their well-being.

Any democratic country would come down hard on such lawbreakers. In Israel, however, Arabs are given a pass, in part thanks to protection by these NGOs, who then blame Israel for any injury resulting from such violations.

Regavim seeks to prevent such illegal, hazardous building from the outset by petitioning the government to enforce equal rule of law. The Israeli government indeed discriminates in cases of land-use violation, but to the Beduin’s seeming benefit. Compared to its treatment of Jewish builders, the government turns a blind eye to rampant Arab illegal settlement throughout Israel, leaving Regavim supervisors to alert and press authorities about violations.

The majority of Negev Beduin who do live in legal cities, towns and villages are protected today from the terrorist rocket onslaught against Israel.

Take, for example, the city of Hura.

The mayor of Hura, Dr. Mahmoud Nabari, has publicly stated that every house in Hura has a safe room.

The Israeli government has invested hundreds of millions of shekels toward supporting legal cities, towns and villages for the Beduin in an attempt to improve their lives. Every Beduin family living in an illegal outpost has been offered a free 1/4-acre plot in and around such neighborhoods as Rahat, Lakiya and Hura, not far from the site of the recent casualties. Equipped with full infrastructure for utilities and services, these neighborhoods are ready for construction. Instead, they have become ghost towns.

Even pasture land has been offered for lease exclusively to Beduin at the price of one shekel per quarter acre in an attempt to convince the Beduin squatting illegally to join a legal community. However, approximately 70,000 Beduin – with the help of NIF grantee NGOs – have preferred to stake their claim on state land, thus putting themselves at risk. The financial support for such illegal behavior by the NIF’s grantee NGOs is not only misguided in this case, it is heartless and cruel.

Instead of expecting the Home Front Command to chase after every illegal house with a shelter in hand during a war, it is time for the Beduin to accept the magnanimous terms being offered by the State of Israel so they can start living as responsible, law-abiding citizens, which is what any democracy should expect from its people.

The author is the director of Regavim, a research-based legal advocacy organization, dedicated to ensuring responsible, legal and accountable use of Israel’s national land. For more information, visit http://www.regavim.org.il/en.