Posted tagged ‘Islamic supremacy’

Liberal Submission: Protect Islam, Defame Christianity

October 23, 2016

Liberal Submission: Protect Islam, Defame Christianity

by Giulio Meotti

October 23, 2016 at 6:00 am

Source: Liberal Submission: Protect Islam, Defame Christianity

  • If an imam violently protests something, the liberal elite always supports the false charge of “Islamophobia.” If a peaceful protest is led by a Catholic bishop, the same elite always rejects it under the name of “freedom of expression.”
  • The “Caliph” of the Islamic State, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, ridiculed by Charlie Hebdo, triggered self-censorship because of “hate speech,” while the work of Chris Ofili “The Holy Virgin Mary,” in which the mother of Jesus is covered with feces and images of genitalia, was defended by the New York Times as “free speech.” Does this now mean that some religions are more equal than others?
  • On Halloween night, only the “Sexy Nun” is available, while “Caliph” Baghdadi can rape his Yazidi and Christian sex slaves with impunity.

The world’s biggest shopping portal, Amazon, sells many Halloween costumes. One of the novelties in 2016 has been the “Sexy Burka“, the typical obscurantist cloak that the Taliban and the Islamic State impose on women. But the sexy burqa, which on Amazon UK was priced at £18.99, did not last long.

The commercial colossus of Jeff Bezos removed the item from the website, after Amazon had been swamped with accusations of “racism”, “Islamophobia,” of marketing an Islamic garment with the white face of a model and using “a religious garment for commercial purposes”, they really could have used a SEO Imperator Agency to help them with the way they give out their content. “You are disgusting, my culture is not your costume”, wrote many users of the Islamic faith. Others used a less adorable tone: “Whoever you are, you should fear Allah. This is not a joke.”

A spokesman for Amazon promptly responded: “All Marketplace sellers must follow our selling guidelines and those who don’t will be subject to action including potential removal of their account. The product in question is no longer available”.

So that Halloween parody of the global symbol of female oppression has been censored. It is because Islamic veils contradict Western values of freedom, equality and human dignity so totally that this relativistic progressive mentality defends these Islamic veils, as it does the burkini, with loyalty.

But here also lies a double standard. What about the “Sexy Nun” Halloween costume that mocks the Catholic Church? Despite the protests of many Catholics customers, the “Sexy Nun” is still on sale at Amazon. Is it not a form of “Christianophobia”? Also, a nun is a religious figure, while a burqa is mere cloth.

Spot the offensive costume — or the hypocrisy. Online retailer Amazon removed the “Sexy Burka” costume (left) after accusations of “Islamophobia.” But despite the protests of many Catholics customers, the “Sexy Nun” (right) is still on sale at Amazon.

Take The Guardian, the most famous British liberal-left newspaper. When the Pussy Riot performers put on their supposedly offensive 3-minute show in Moscow’s Christ the Saviour Cathedral, for which two of the three performers served jail time rather than repudiate the text (the third apologized to avoid jail), the paper defended them as “pure protest poetry.” When the political group PEGIDA called to protest against Islamization in Germany, the same media blasted it as “a vampire we must slay.” The same double standard also emerged during the battle to build a mosque near Ground Zero, when the liberal media sided with the Muslim community.

In January 2006, Norway’s most famous cartoonist, Finn Graff, announced that he was censoring himself over Mohammed. Graff never had a problem in making fun of Christians, whom he depicted as wearing brown shirts and swastikas. Graff had also penned a number of controversial drawings against Israel, one of which showed the Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin as the commander of a Nazi concentration camp.

The same happened with German-American filmmaker Roland Emmerich, director of many disaster movies. He abandoned a plan to obliterate Islam’s holiest site on the big screen for fear of attracting a fatwa (religious opinion) calling for his death. For his movie, “2012”, Emmerich wanted to demolish the Kaaba, the iconic cube-shaped structure in the Grand Mosque in Mecca. “You can actually let Christian symbols fall apart, but if you would do this with [an] Arab symbol, you would have … a fatwa”, Emmerich said. At least he was honest.

After the massacre of most of the staff at the French satirical magazine, Charlie Hebdo, all major Western liberal newspapers, television networks and photo agencies, starting with the “Big Three” (MSNBC, CNN and AP), competed in justifying their shameful decision to censor the cover of Charlie Hebdo, in which the Islamic Prophet Mohammed says “all is forgiven.” CNN said it might offend “the sensitivities of a Muslim audience.” One year later, when Charlie Hebdo published a new cover depicting a Judeo-Christian “killer God” rather than the Islamic Prophet, CNN showed it.

In 2015, the BBC described the Charlie Hebdo‘s cover but did not show it, a choice that the British network did not repeat a year later when Charlie Hebdo released the new anti-Christian cover. The same double standard came from the British conservative paper the Daily Telegraph, which cut the cover with the caricature of Mohammed but published one with an Abrahamic God.

The Associated Press in 2015 censored the Islamic cartoons of Charlie Hebdo as well. The reason? “Deliberately provocative.” In 2016, the agency had no trouble in showing the new cover depicting not Mohammed but the Judeo-Christian God.

This double standard of the liberal elite had also emerged at the New York Times, which out of “respect” towards the Muslim faith censored the Mohammed caricatures of Charlie Hebdo — only to decide, in total disrespect, that the Gray Lady could and should publish the work “Eggs Benedict” by Nikki Johnson, exhibited at the Milwaukee Art Museum, in which condoms of various colors form the face of Pope Benedict XVI.

The “Caliph” of the Islamic State, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, ridiculed by Charlie Hebdo, triggered self-censorship because of “hate speech,” while the work of Chris Ofili “The Holy Virgin Mary,” in which the mother of Jesus is covered with feces and images of genitalia, was defended by the New York Times as “free speech.” Does this now mean that some religions are more equal than others?

If an imam violently protests something, the liberal elite always supports the false charge of “Islamophobia.” If a peaceful protest is led by a Catholic bishop, the same elite always rejects it under the name of “freedom of expression.”

Forget the “Sexy Burqa.” On Halloween night, only the “Sexy Nun” is available, while “Caliph” Baghdadi can rape his Yazidi and Christian sex slaves with impunity.

Giulio Meotti, Cultural Editor for Il Foglio, is an Italian journalist and author.

TEITEL Is free speech dying Islamism, ‘international law’ and the Obama administration

October 23, 2016

Published on Oct 22, 2016

Present news videos

The Lady is Brook Goldstein

http://thelawfareproject.org/attorneys/

H/T E.J.Bron

https://ejbron.wordpress.com/

Hamas: The unity of ‘Palestine’ is holy

October 23, 2016

Hamas: The unity of ‘Palestine’ is holy “Palestine borders Lebanon and Egypt, and extends from the River to the Sea.”

Dalit Halevy,
23/10/16 09:28

Source: Hamas: The unity of ‘Palestine’ is holy – Defense/Security – News –

Islamic Jihad rally in Gaza

Reuters

Mahmoud Al-Zahar, a senior official in the political branch of Hamas, said at an Islamic Jihad event on Friday in Gaza that Hamas extends its hand to anyone who helps to “liberate Palestine.”

“We will not accept compromise or any international conception, unless it serves the Palestinian interest,” he said.

In an apparent appropriation, for the purposes of Palestinian ideology, of the Jewish belief in the sanctity of the entire Land of Israel, Al-Zahar erased Israel from the map in his address, and referred to its geographical space as the Arab land of “Palestine.”

“We emphasize the unity of the land, the people, the struggle, and the history, and we do not recognize the terminology of ‘The [West] Bank and Gaza’ as an expression of Palestine; rather Palestine borders Lebanon and Egypt, and extends from the [Jordan] River to the [Mediterranean] Sea,” Zahar said, adding that the unity of the land was holy, permanent and unchanging.

He warned Israel against damaging Al-Aqsa Mosque and the “lions” guarding it. “He who tries to damage Al-Aqsa Mosque, and the lions around it, the ‘West Bank’ and Jerusalem, is delusionally mistaken that he can turn the clock back.”

SIGN THE PETITION

October 21, 2016

Help STOP the UNITED NATIONS attempt to wipe Israel from history

http://www.iltv.tv/unesco/?referrer=UnitedWithIsrael

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) passed a monumental draft resolution this past week denying the Jewish connections to the Temple Mount and Western Wall in Jerusalem.

Denying the Jewish connections to the Temple Mount and Western Wall in Jerusalem.

The draft will now move on to Unesco’s executive body, which will vote on whether to adopt it.

Citing the “need” for “the safeguarding of the cultural heritage of Palestine and the distinctive character of East Jerusalem” The resolution refers to the Temple mount (the location of two Jewish Temples) only as the “Al-Aqsa Mosque and Al-Haram Al-Sharif” affirming the Muslim affinity to the holy site and erasing all Jewish connection to Judaism’s holiest site.

By failing to mention any connection to the Jewish people to the Temple Mount, UNESCO has declared it position to hand over the rights and authority of Judaism’s most holy sites to the Palestinians.

The resolution was hailed by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas as: “An important message to Israel that it must end its occupation and recognize the Palestinian state and Jerusalem as its capital”

We must share our voice to protest this!

“To say that Israel has no connection to the Temple
Mount and the Western Wall is like saying that China
has no connection to the Great Wall of China or that
Egypt has no connection to the pyramids”

Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu

“Nothing to Do with Islam”?

October 21, 2016

“Nothing to Do with Islam”? Gatestone Institute via YouTube, October 20, 2016

Report: US, Egypt, Asking PA Not to Approach UNSC before Nov. 8

October 21, 2016

By: JNi.Media Published: October 21st, 2016

Source: The Jewish Press » » Report: US, Egypt, Asking PA Not to Approach UNSC before Nov. 8

Secretary Kerry meets with PA Chairman Abbas
Photo Credit: Wikipedia commons

The US and Egypt, which is a temporary member of the UN Security Council, have recently passed on messages to the Palestinian Authority leadership asking them not to promote any move against Israel until after the Nov. 8 elections in the US, Ha’aretz reported, citing a senior PA source. The source claimed there have been several messages, direct and indirect—through Arab and Western go-betweens, warning that the US would veto any anti-Israel move initiated prior to the elections, including condemnation of the settlement enterprise.

The source noted that, despite their “dissatisfaction” with these requests, the PA leadership will restrain itself and avoid any UNSC move until after the elections. However, as soon as voting in the US is over, PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas is determined to accelerate his plan to promote an anti-settlements vote at the council, the source said. The same PA official admitted, however that “so far there has been no agreement on the final draft and we are not clear what the American position would be.”

Sources inside Abbas’s office have told Ha’aretz that the chairman’s recent contacts with US officials, including a meeting with Sec. John Kerry, have not created the impression that the Administration is planning to initiate a UNSC move, or even support another member country’s initiative. “We have no illusions or expectations that the Americans would not veto or torpedo a proposal submitted to the UNSC,” a senior Palestinian official said. “We also haven’t heard of an outline being worked on or any proposal to be put forth in the future. All we hear are ideas.”

A month ago, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that he “hoped” President Obama would not seek to establish a Palestinian state at the UN. Asked if Obama had promised him that he would not seek to establish a state of Palestine without Israel’s cooperation before the end of his term in January, Netanyahu told the Jerusalem Post: “If you’re asking if he spoke to me about this, the answer is no. If you’re asking me if I am hoping that he won’t do this, the answer is yes.”

Germans Leaving Germany ‘In Droves’

October 20, 2016

Germans Leaving Germany ‘In Droves’, Gatestone InstituteSoeren Kern, October 20, 2016

More than 1.5 million Germans, many of them highly educated, left Germany during the past decade. — Die Welt.

Germany is facing a spike in migrant crime, including an epidemic of rapes and sexual assaults. Mass migration is also accelerating the Islamization of Germany. Many Germans appear to be losing hope about the future direction of their country.

“We refugees… do not want to live in the same country with you. You can, and I think you should, leave Germany. And please take Saxony and the Alternative for Germany (AfD) with you…. Why do you not go to another country? We are sick of you!” — Aras Bacho an 18-year-old Syrian migrant, in Der Freitag, October 2016.

A real estate agent in a town near Lake Balaton, a popular tourist destination in western Hungary, said that 80% of the Germans relocating there cite the migration crisis as the main reason for their desire to leave Germany.

“I believe that Islam does not belong to Germany. I regard it as a foreign entity which has brought the West more problems than benefits. In my opinion, many followers of this religion are rude, demanding and despise Germany.” — A German citizen who emigrated from Germany, in an “Open Letter to the German Government.”

“I believe that immigration is producing major and irreversible changes in German society. I am angry that this is happening without the direct approval of German citizens. … I believe that it is a shame that in Germany Jews must again be afraid to be Jews.” — A German citizen who emigrated from Germany, in an “Open Letter to the German Government.”

“My husband sometimes says he has the feeling that we are now the largest minority with no lobby. For each group there is an institution, a location, a public interest, but for us, a heterosexual married couple with two children, not unemployed, neither handicapped nor Islamic, for people like us there is no longer any interest.” — “Anna,” in a letter to the Mayor of Munich about her decision to move her family out of the city because migrants were making her life there impossible.

 

A growing number of Germans are abandoning neighborhoods in which they have lived all their lives, and others are leaving Germany for good, as mass immigration transforms parts of the country beyond recognition.

Data from the German statistics agency, Destatis, shows that 138,000 Germans left Germany in 2015. More are expected to emigrate in 2016. In a story on brain drain titled, “German talent is leaving the country in droves,” Die Welt reported that more than 1.5 million Germans, many of them highly educated, left Germany during the past decade.

The statistics do not give a reason why Germans are emigrating, but anecdotal evidence indicates that many are waking up to the true cost — financial, social and cultural — of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s decision to allow more than one million mostly Muslim migrants to enter the country in 2015. At least 300,000 more migrants are expected to arrive in Germany in 2016, according to Frank-Jürgen Weise, the head of the country’s migration office, BAMF.

Mass migration has — among many other problems — contributed to a growing sense of insecurity in Germany, which is facing a spike in migrant crime, including an epidemic of rapes and sexual assaults. Mass migration is also accelerating the Islamization of Germany. Many Germans appear to be losing hope about the future direction of their country.

1963

At the height of the migrant crisis in October 2015, some 800 citizens gathered at a town hall meeting in Kassel/Lohfelden to protest a unilateral decision by the local government to set up migrant shelters in the city. The President of Kassel, Walter Lübcke, responded by telling those who disagree with the government’s open-door immigration policy that they are “free to leave Germany at any time.”

This attitude was echoed in an audacious essay published in October 2016 by the newspaperDer Freitag, (also published by Huffington Post Deutschland, which subsequently deleted the post). In the article, an 18-year-old Syrian migrant named Aras Bacho called on Germans who are angry about the migrant crisis to leave Germany. He wrote:

“We refugees… are fed up with the angry citizens (Wutbürger). They insult and agitate like crazy…. There are always these incitements by unemployed racists (Wutbürgern), who spend all their time on the Internet and wait until an article about refugees appears on the Internet. Then it starts with shameless comments….

“Hello, you unemployed angry citizens (Wutbürger) on the Internet. How educated are you? How long will you continue to distort the truth? Do you not know that you are spreading lies every day? What would you have done if you were in their shoes? Well, you would have run away!

“We refugees… do not want to live in the same country with you. You can, and I think you should, leave Germany. And please take Saxony and the Alternative for Germany (AfD) with you.

“Germany does not fit you, why do you live here? Why do you not go to another country? If this is your country, dear angry citizens (Wutbürger), then behave normal. Otherwise you can simply flee from Germany and look for a new home. Go to America to Donald Trump, he will love you very much. We are sick of you!”

In May 2016, the newsmagazine, Focus, reported that Germans have been moving to Hungary. A real estate agent in a town near Lake Balaton, a popular tourist destination in western Hungary, said that 80% of the Germans relocating there cite the migration crisis as the main reason for their desire to leave Germany.

An anonymous German citizen who emigrated from Germany recently wrote an “Open Letter to the German Government.” The document, which was published on the website Politically Incorrect, states:

“A few months ago I emigrated from Germany. My decision was not for economic gain but primarily because of my dissatisfaction with the current political and social conditions in my homeland. In other words, I think that I and especially my offspring may lead a better life somewhere else. ‘Better’ for me in this context is primarily a life of freedom, self-determination and decent wages with respect to taxation.

“I do not, however, want to close the door behind me quietly and just go. I would hereby like to explain in a constructive way why I decided to leave Germany.

1. “I believe that Islam does not belong to Germany. I regard it as a foreign entity which has brought the West more problems than benefits. In my opinion, many followers of this religion are rude, demanding and despise Germany. Instead of halting the Islamization of Germany (and the consequent demise of our culture and freedom), most politicians seem to me to be more concerned about getting reelected, and therefore they prefer to ignore or downplay the Islam problem.

2. “I believe that German streets are less secure than they should be given our technological, legal and financial opportunities.

3. “I believe that the EU has a democratic deficit which limits my influence as a democratic citizen.

4. “I believe that immigration is producing major and irreversible changes in German society. I am angry that this is happening without the direct approval of German citizens, but is being dictated by you to German citizens and the next generation.

5. “I believe that the German media is increasingly giving up its neutrality, and that freedom of expression in this country is only possible in a limited way.

6. “I believe that in Germany sluggards are courted but the diligent are scourged.

7. “I believe that it is a shame that in Germany Jews must again be afraid to be Jews.”

Many Germans have noted the trend toward reverse integration, in which German families are expected to adapt to the customs and mores of migrants, rather than the other way around.

On October 14, the Munich-based newspaper Tageszeitung published a heartfelt letter from “Anna,” a mother of two, who wrote about her decision to move her family out of the city because migrants were making her life there impossible. In the letter, addressed to Munich Mayor Dieter Reiter, she wrote:

“Today I want to write you a kind of farewell letter (Abschiedsbrief) about why I and my family are leaving the city, even though probably no one cares.

“I am 35 years old, living here with my two young sons and my husband in an upscale semi-detached house with parking. So you could say we are very well off for Munich standards…. We live very well with plenty of space and next to a green park. So why would a family like us decide to leave the city? ….

“I assume that your children do not use public facilities, that they do not use public transportation, and that they do not attend public schools in “problem areas.” I also assume that you and other politicians rarely if ever go for walks here.

“So on a Monday morning I attended a neighborhood women’s breakfast that was sponsored by the City of Munich. Here I met about 6-8 mothers, some with their children. All of the women wore headscarves and none of them spoke German. The organizers of the event quickly informed me I will probably find it hard to integrate myself here (their exact words!!!). I should note that I am German. I speak fluent German and I do not wear a headscarf. So I smiled a little and said I would try to integrate myself. Unfortunately, I brought a salami and ham sandwich to the breakfast, to which everyone was asked to bring something. So of course I had even less chance of integrating.

“I was not able to speak German to anyone at this women’s breakfast, which is actually supposed to promote integration, nor was anyone interested in doing so. The organizers did not insist on anyone speaking German, and the women, who appeared to be part of an established Arab-Turkish group, simply wanted to use the room.

“I then asked about the family brunch…. I was advised that the brunch would be held in separate rooms. Men and women separately. At first I thought it was a bad joke. Unfortunately, it was not. ….

“So my impression of these events to promote integration is miserable. No interchange takes place at all!!! How can the City of Munich tolerate such a thing? In my view, the entire concept of these events to promote integration must be called into question…. I was informed that I am not allowed to include pork in my child’s lunchbox!!! Hello?! We are in Germany here! ….

“In summary, I find conditions here that make me feel that we are not really wanted here. That our family does not really fit in here. My husband sometimes says he has the feeling that we are now the largest minority with no lobby. For each group there is an institution, a location, a public interest, but for us, a heterosexual married couple with two children, not unemployed, neither handicapped nor Islamic, for people like us there is no longer any interest.

“When I mentioned at my son’s preschool that we are considering moving out of the city and I told them the reasons why, I was vigorously attacked by the school’s leadership. Because of people like us, they said, integration does not work, precisely because we remove our children. At least two other mothers have become wildly abusive. The management has now branded me “xenophobic.”

“This is exactly the reason why people like me lose their patience and we choose to vote for other political parties…. Quite honestly, I have traveled half the world, have more foreign friends than German and have absolutely no prejudices or aversions to people because of their origin. I have seen much of the world and I know that the way integration is done here will cause others to come to the same conclusion as we have: either we send our children to private schools and kindergartens, or we move to other communities. Well then, so long!!!!!!!!!!!”

Palestinians: Fatah Prepares for War with Israel

October 19, 2016

Palestinians: Fatah Prepares for War with Israel

by Khaled Abu Toameh

October 19, 2016 at 5:00 am

Source: Palestinians: Fatah Prepares for War with Israel

  • “We have pledged to prepare an army of fighters by devoting our full abilities and energies to consolidate the option of armed struggle as the only means to liberate Palestine.” — The armed wing of Fatah, Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, Martyr Nidal Al-Amoudi Division.
  • The international community continues to perceive Fatah as the “moderate” Palestinian party with whom Israel should make peace. Yet Fatah is far from a single united bloc; many groups within the faction continue to seek the “liberation of Palestine” through armed struggle. Moreover, neither Abbas nor any of his senior Fatah loyalists have repudiated the war-set Fatah militias. Crucially, many of these Fatah militiamen continue to receive salaries from the Palestinian Authority.
  • These Fatah gunmen who are preparing for war with Israel are indirectly receiving their salaries from Western donors, including the US and many EU countries, who fund the Palestinian Authority.
  • These groups believe that they represent the real Fatah, the one that never recognized Israel’s right to exist and holds on to armed struggle as the only way to “liberate Palestine.” They are not breakaway groups. That is why they continue to operate under the name of Fatah.
  • Fatah is a two-faced hydra; one face tells the English-speaking international community what it wants to hear, namely, that it supports a two-state solution and seeks a peaceful settlement to the conflict with Israel, while the other tells the truth: it is committed to an armed struggle and the “liberation of Palestine,” and is even preparing for war with Israel.

Some 300 members of the Palestinian Fatah faction, headed by Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas, have begun receiving “military training” in the Gaza Strip in preparation for war with Israel.

The armed wing of Fatah, Aqsa Martyrs Brigades – The Martyr Nidal Al-Amoudi Division, announced that its members have been enrolled in a new military academy for training “fighters” in the Gaza Strip. The academy, inaugurated recently in the Gaza Strip, would train the “fighters” on various fighting methods “in the context of a program for preparing for any future battle” with the “Zionist enemy.”

The Nidal Academy was named for Nidal Al-Amoudi, a top Fatah militant killed by the Israel Defense Forces on January 13, 2008, after he carried out a series of armed attacks against Israeli civilians and soldiers during the Second Intifada. “The academy has been named after the commander Nidal Al-Amoudi (Abu Hussein) to fulfill his dream of qualifying the fighters militarily, morally, religiously and revolutionarily,” explained a statement released by the Fatah armed group. Noting that some 300 “fighters” have already joined the academy, the group said that they have begun undergoing training in various methods of warfare.

“We have pledged to prepare an army of fighters by devoting our full abilities and energies to consolidate the option of armed struggle as the only means to liberate Palestine,” the group declared.

The Martyr Nidal Al-Amoudi Division is one of several Fatah-affiliated militias that continue to operate in the Gaza Strip despite Hamas’s violent takeover of the area in the summer of 2007. These groups pose no threat to the Hamas regime, which is why they are allowed to operate freely in different parts of the Gaza Strip. The groups’ explicit policy is to prepare for war with Israel and launch terror attacks against Israelis. Hamas, however, which expelled their leaders from the Gaza Strip and continues to persecute dozens of Fatah activists in the Gaza Strip, is not on their hit list.

The Fatah-affiliated militia inauguration of its own “military” academy in the Gaza Strip is a novel move. In recent years, Fatah armed groups have posted videos of their men undergoing military training orchards and fields, far from the watchful eyes of their rivals in Hamas. Now it seems that Hamas has nothing to fear from the Fatah militants, as Israel is the sole target.

Thus instead of training their men to retake the Gaza Strip and liberate it from the oppressive regime of Hamas, the Fatah “fighters” are busy preparing for war with Israel or fighting among themselves. Indeed, it appears that the Fatah armed groups are actually competing with Hamas for the title of “Most Prepared to Destroy Israel.” Like Hamas, they wish to win the hearts and minds of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip by showing that they too support the “armed struggle” against Israel and seek to “liberate Palestine.”

Fortunately for Hamas, the Fatah militias are rather preoccupied with internecine struggles. This leaves precious little time to think about ways of improving their people’s lives.

Today, at least five other Fatah armed groups function in the Gaza Strip: The Abu Rish Brigades, the Jihad Jibril Brigades, the Abdel Qader Husseini Brigades, the Aqsa Martyrs Brigades and the Fatah Sukkur (Hawks). Some of these groups have in the past claimed responsibility for firing rockets at Israel. And there is not much harmony or love between these Fatah groups, whose members regard each other as rivals and political foes rather than comrades and colleagues.

Sources in the Gaza Strip point out that many of the members of these groups are former Palestinian Authority policemen who lost their jobs after the Hamas takeover of the Gaza Strip. As such, many of them remain on the payroll of the Palestinian Authority, despite the fact that they are more than willing to lambast Mahmoud Abbas and his policies. In other words, these Fatah gunmen who are preparing for war with Israel are indirectly receiving their salaries from Western donors, including the US and many EU countries, who fund the Palestinian Authority.

The Martyr Nidal Al-Amoudi Division recently launched a scathing attack on Abbas for attending the funeral of former Israeli President Shimon Peres in Jerusalem. Masked members of the group posted a video on social media in which they strongly condemned Abbas for attending the funeral, saying they are opposed to any form of “normalization” with Israel. They demanded that Abbas apologize to the Palestinians and Fatah, adding that the “armed struggle was the only way to “liberate Palestine.”

Members of Fatah’s Martyr Nidal Al-Amoudi Division read a statement condemning Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas for attending the funeral of former Israeli President Shimon Peres.

More recently, the same group “welcomed” the shooting attack that was carried out in Jerusalem by Musbah Abu Sbeih and in which two Israelis were killed — a 60-year-old grandmother and a 29-year-old police officer. “This heroic operation is a clear message that the armed struggle is a deeply-rooted doctrine among Palestinians,” the group stated. “The operation is a natural response to the crimes of the occupation.”

Make no mistake. These groups believe that they represent the real Fatah, the one that never recognized Israel’s right to exist and holds on to armed struggle as the only way to “liberate Palestine.” They are not breakaway groups. That is why they continue to operate under the name of Fatah. In their view, they are following the principles of their former leader, Yasser Arafat, who launched Fatah as a “national liberation movement” and never truly abandoned the option of an armed struggle against Israel. It is Abbas and his colleagues in Fatah, they say, who have deviated from Fatah’s doctrine and true goals.

The power play among Fatah militias in the Gaza Strip reflects the wider division among Fatah’s political leaders. According to Palestinian sources, Fatah leaders in the Gaza Strip have truly become disassociated from the faction’s leadership in the West Bank. Abbas’s aides blame exiled Fatah strongman Mohammed Dahlan for the schism, claiming that he provides dissenting Fatah officials with money, in an attempt to undermine the Palestinian president, who is also head of Fatah. Abbas recently summoned Fatah leaders from the Gaza Strip to an emergency meeting in Ramallah to discuss Dahlan’s growing influence in the Gaza Strip and the rifts in Fatah. The move came after thousands of Fatah members who are loyal to Dahlan staged a large demonstration in the Gaza Strip against Abbas. During the protest, they burned and trampled on pictures of Abbas.

Such developments in Fatah are notable for a specific reason: by and large, the international community continues to perceive Fatah as the “moderate” Palestinian party with whom Israel should make peace. Yet Fatah is far from a single united bloc; many groups within the faction, in their own words, continue to seek the “liberation of Palestine” through armed struggle. Moreover, neither Abbas nor any of his senior Fatah loyalists in the West Bank have repudiated the war-set Fatah militias. Crucially, many of these Fatah militiamen continue to receive salaries from the Palestinian Authority.

Fatah is, in fact, a two-faced hydra; one face tells the English-speaking international community what it wants to hear, namely, that it supports a two-state solution and seeks a peaceful settlement to the conflict with Israel, while the other tells the truth: it is committed to an armed struggle and the “liberation of Palestine” and is even preparing for war with Israel. Worth noting as well is that some of these Fatah militias also continue to operate in some parts of those territories controlled by Abbas’s security forces in the West Bank. And like their cohorts in the Gaza Strip, they too receive salaries from the Palestinian Authority.

Abbas has lost the Gaza Strip not only to Hamas, but also to his own erstwhile Fatah supporters, who are marching in a totally different direction from the Fatah leadership in the West Bank. The dispute between Fatah and Hamas, which has effectively split the Palestinians into two entities, one in the West Bank and the other in the Gaza Strip, is one reason Palestinians are farther than ever from achieving an independent Palestinian state. The infighting in Fatah and the gulf separating its leaders is another. Abbas’s claim to sole Fatah leadership is hardly credible to even the most credulous of Abbas backers: thousands of his “fighters” are preparing for war with Israel.

Khaled Abu Toameh, an award-winning journalist, is based in Jerusalem.

Jihadi rehab: Swedish city plans free driver’s license, housing & tax perks for returning fighters

October 19, 2016

Jihadi rehab: Swedish city plans free driver’s license, housing & tax perks for returning fighters

Published time: 19 Oct, 2016 08:02 Edited time: 19 Oct, 2016 08:24

Source: Jihadi rehab: Swedish city plans free driver’s license, housing & tax perks for returning fighters — RT News

© Reuters

A Swedish city is considering giving jihadists returning from Syria and Iraq free housing, a driver’s license, and tax benefits to ease their reintegration, but social media users have slammed the proposal, saying it ignores the terrorists’ victims.

The support for extremists was proposed by Anna Sjöstrand, a municipal coordinator against violent extremism in the city of Lund in southern Sweden.

“There may be criticism, but [I think] that you should get the same help as others who seek help from us. We can’t say that because you made a wrong choice, you have no rights to come back and live in our society,” Sjöstrand said on Swedish Sveriges Radio.

Sjöstrand’s proposal was based on a report written by author and criminologist Christoffer Carlsson, who says that it is difficult for people to abandon extremism and reintegrate into society without support.

“It’s a straight social, economic and material question. You need to be able to reintegrate into the job market, you may need to have a driving license, debt settlement and shelter,” he said.

According to Carlsson, “the risk is great that they [Islamist extremists] are unable to leave the extremist environment” without support, so “they might make an attempt and fail because they have nothing to keep them out, and there is always something to return to, namely the organization they left.”

The proposal has been eviscerated on social media, however, with users saying that Sweden is forgetting about the terrorists’ victims.

“Lund wants to help terrorists with housing, driver’s license and job, but forgets the victims,” one user wrote on Twitter, while another added: “Rapists, child murderers, terrorists. Everyone should be treated equally.”

Some users were calling for Sjöstrand’s resignation.

“Anna Sjöstrand, of course you should say ‘You have made a choice and are never welcome back,’” added @I_was_Sweden.

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Sweden's flag waves near the Stockholm Cathedral in Gamla Stan or the Old Town district of Stockholm, Sweden © Bob Strong I

According to Sveriges Radio, a similar ‘welcoming’ approach is also being considered in the Swedish cities of Malmö, Borlänge, and Örebro.

Örebro was severely criticized in January after two IS terrorists – Liban Qadar, 23, and Mahamed Farah Osman, 24 – were offered internships in the municipality, but chose to return to Syria, where they were later killed in battle.

The incident has been classified as a clear failure for Thomas Gustafsson, Orebro’s head of partnership.

READ MORE: Swedish court allows the flying of ISIS flag

Research from the International Centre for Counter-Terrorism (ICCT) shows that at least 300 Swedish citizens had traveled to Iraq and Syria to join IS extremists as of April of this year.

Meanwhile, some 140 terrorists had already returned to Sweden as of October of this year, local media reported.

Also an April, a report appearing in the Swedish media claimed that Islamists have successfully infiltrated Sweden’s Green Party. Lars Nicander from the Swedish National Defense University said there is “a very similar effect today, in which people close to the Muslim Brotherhood, an Islamist party, are apparently gaining large footholds in the Green Party.”

UNESCO Executive Board Adopts Resolution to Erase Jewish History From Jerusalem

October 18, 2016

UNESCO has adopted the controversial resolution advanced by the Palestinian Authority obliterating the historic link between Judaism and Jerusalem’s holy sites.

By: Hana Levi Julian

Published: October 18th, 2016

Source: The Jewish Press » » UNESCO Executive Board Adopts Resolution to Erase Jewish History From Jerusalem

UNESCO revised edition of the Bible.
Photo Credit: courtesy, PM Benjamin Netanyahu / Facebook

The United Nations Education, Science and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Executive Board voted Tuesday in Paris to accept the “Occupied Palestine” resolution advanced in Paris last week by the Palestinian Authority, which erases the connection between Judaism, Jews, Christianity and holy sites in Jerusalem.

The resolution has not only deepened the divide between member nations in the organization, but may have also further threatened the funding of the world body.

Mexico had announced its intention to trigger a special clause designed to force a new vote on the issue, but at the end, the nation’s representative elected to issue a statement on its changed position on the resolution. The statement was echoed by Brazil, who also announced it had changed its position as well. Neither statement, in the long run, made any difference in the vote, which has further embittered nations where Christianity is treasured as a natural growth from Judaism.

The resolution has obliterated any mention of the historic link between Jews and the holy sites in Jerusalem and instead refer to Judaism’s holiest sites in Judaism – the Temple Mount and the Western Wall – solely by their Islamic names and referring to them as Muslim holy sites.

Israel suspended its funding to UNESCO when the body approved membership for the Palestinian Authority, as did the United States, which used to provide nearly one quarter (22 percent) of the organization’s budget.

Japan has now also threatened to withdraw its funding as well, warning last week that it withheld its annual dues from UNESCO, pending a review to ensure the world body is properly functioning to “foster trust” between its member nations.