Gatestone Institute

Biden's New Policy Funds China's Military, Supports Slavery, Achieves Nothing
by Peter Schweizer  •  June 15, 2022 at 5:00 am

Facebook Twitter WhatsApp Telegram Send Print
Previously, U.S. policy was that Americans were forbidden to invest in companies included in a "blacklist" of Chinese companies directly involved in China's military, and in producing applications used by the Communist regime to oppress its own people and threaten its neighbors. The new "answers" amount to a wholesale abandonment of a policy Americans of all political stripes supported.

[I]t can also be seen as part of a long easing of economic sanctions imposed by the Trump administration, without obtaining any benefit for American prestige or negotiating leverage with China in return.

The 48 companies included on the initial Trump administration blacklist all work directly with the People's Liberation Army, Chinese intelligence, or otherwise provide artificial-intelligence products and services used by Beijing to deny the human rights of its Uighur minority.

While Hikvision and Sinochem's listed subsidiaries are not traded on major U.S. exchanges, they have been included in index funds carried by such giants as Vanguard and BlackRock.

There is no penalty for investors who continue to hold these stocks after the grace period, which ended in June 2022. All the order says is they may not buy any more shares, nor can they (after the grace period) sell what they have, without OFAC approval.

[M]oves like this should be offered only in negotiation with the Chinese over things important to American national security, and the peace and freedom of our allies. Giving up on it because it was "confusing" to international financial institutions is a sad excuse.

And it comes at a time when the Biden administration has also announced a tariff waiver on solar panels coming from Cambodia, Malaysia, Thailand, and Vietnam. This action, explained as a "bridge" while domestic solar panel manufacturing ramps up, re-opens a previously closed door to China's dumping solar panels into the U.S. market.

At the same time, China is these days more belligerent, more aggressive, and more of a problem than ever. What exactly is the Biden administration getting for its quiet retreat from the tougher trade policies of the Trump administration?

Not a more conciliatory stance on Taiwan. China will "definitely not hesitate to start a war" over a Taiwan split, Chinese Defense Minister General Wei Fenghe warned the U.S recently.

Not help for American business.

China remains a long-term strategic threat to the United States and policy towards it should reflect the US government understands the nature of that threat. Unilateral trade concessions do not do that. (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)
Recently the Biden administration issued new answers for Americans invested in Chinese companies with direct ties to Beijing's military. Previously, U.S. policy was that Americans were forbidden to invest in companies included in a "blacklist" of Chinese companies directly involved in China's military, and in producing applications used by the Communist regime to oppress its own people and threaten its neighbors. The new "answers" amount to a wholesale abandonment of a policy Americans of all political stripes supported.

Just ahead of a deadline last Friday for U.S. investors to cease trading in the stocks and bonds of companies officially linked to the Chinese military, the U.S. Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) quietly notified investors that they would not be punished for holding onto such securities.

Continue Reading Article https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/18616/biden-china-policy-support

Why Biden Needs to Fight, Not Appease, the Enemies of Peace
by Bassam Tawil  •  June 9, 2022 at 5:00 am
While Hamas and the Houthis target Israel, the Palestinian Authority (PA) leadership, in addition to that, continues to act against the interests of its own people. PA President Mahmoud Abbas appears to be encouraged by the unconditional support he is receiving from the Biden administration, to the point where he feels free to continue denying his people good governance and judicial due process.

All signs now indicate that most people in the region are fed up with the anti-peace camp in the Arab and Muslim world, especially with Iran's proxies Hamas, the Houthis and Hizbollah, all of which have offered the region, including the Palestinians, nothing but violence and bloodshed.

Whenever Abbas feels encouraged by the US, he sees that support as a green light, this time from the Biden administration, to impose more suppression on his people and to whip up violence in the region.

Does the Biden administration really want as its legacy that it backed, encouraged and funded unscrupulous, violent regimes – the Taliban in Afghanistan, the Chinese Communist Party, the state sponsor of terrorism Iran, the illegitimate rule of Venezuela's Maduro – and the corrupt government of Mahmoud Abbas?

Meanwhile, Iran's proxy, Hamas -- whose charter calls not only for the elimination of peace but also of all Jews -- continues to urge Arabs and Muslims not to normalize their ties with Israel.

Iran, among other atrocities, imprisons attorneys for defending human rights, executes minors, and criminalizes human rights activism. If that is how Iran's regime treats its own people, what makes anyone think it will treat other countries -- in the region or in Europe -- any better?

And in a rare occurrence, according to the veteran Iranian journalist Amir Taheri, demonstrators in Iran have recently been publicly calling for regime change.

The Pakistani minister, however, is mistaken if she thinks that firing a journalist will support the rights of the Palestinians. Such myopic measures only support and embolden the enemies of peace, stability and human rights in the Middle East: Hamas, Hezbollah, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, the Houthis, the Muslim Brotherhood, Turkey and Iran.

People who say they care about the Palestinians can genuinely support them by defending journalists and human rights activists who are being persecuted, harassed and even killed by the Palestinian Authority. People who claim they are "pro-Palestinian" can truly help the Palestinians by coming to the West Bank and defending freedom of speech and the press, and teaching Palestinians about democracy and respect for human rights. Spreading hate against Jews does not make one "pro-Palestinian."

The Pakistani government's decision is a big prize to despots and tyrants in the region, such as Iran and its many proxies, and a severe blow to attempts to build bridges between Arabs and Muslims and Christians and Jews.

A sure-fire way for Biden to get immediate and full cooperation from the Saudis would be, on his planned visit, to commit to entirely eliminating Iran's nuclear weapons program. The US has the capability, apparently just not the will. To begin with, any country that is officially on the US list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations should not be allowed to possess nuclear weapons, period. It is what all serious discussions in the region are about. For everyone in the region except fundamentalist Qatar -- and including the Iranian people, the mullahs' regime is a mortal threat.

If Biden, as the leader of the Free World, would totally remove this threat, it would not only go a long way to preventing a nuclear war and regional arms race, and persuade the Saudis to export more oil, but after the threat is eliminated, it would send a message of deterrence to Russia, China, North Korea and other adversaries about what they could expect, and turn Biden's poll numbers around overnight.

These increased efforts to foil peace are the main reason that the Biden administration needs to work toward strengthening and expanding the entities in the Middle East who want peace. President Joe Biden's planned visit to Saudi Arabia is a praiseworthy first step. Saudi Arabia may not be perfect -- no country is -- but at least it not aggressively trying to take over its neighbors.

It is crucial that the Biden administration throw its full weight behind encouraging Saudi Arabia to be a leader for peace, stability and, as it has been doing, if slowly, advancing human rights.

Any efforts to cozy up to Iran will only be seen as hugging and empowering ruthless despots. It is more important to seek allies, wherever they can be found, that are eager to discard aggression and violence. Failing to do so will just plunge the region into a massive war -- which Iran, its terrorist groups and the US administration unfortunately seem to be working toward day and night.

Whenever Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas (pictured) feels encouraged by the US, he sees that support as a green light, this time from the Biden administration, to impose more suppression on his people and to whip up violence in the region. (Photo by Alaa Badarneh/Pool/AFP via Getty Images)
The enemies of peace in the Middle East are continuing their efforts to destroy any effort to normalize relations between Israel and the Arab and Muslim countries.

The enemies of peace want Arabs and Muslims to remain in a continual state of war with Israel. They want more violence and bloodshed, not Arabs and Muslims and Jews working together in various fields, including technology or anything that might bring economic prosperity.

Does the Biden administration really want as its legacy that it was the first in American history to be for oppressors and against human rights, freedom and prosperity for the downtrodden?

There are no human rights to speak of in entities such as Iran, Pakistan or the Palestinian Authority.
Continue Reading Article https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/18596/biden-fight-enemies

The Liberation of a Continent and the Fall of the Nazi Third Reich
by Lawrence Kadish  •  June 6, 2022 at 11:00 am

Understanding who we are today as Americans living in a democracy -- because of the sacrifices of those we honor on June 6th -- is a solemn responsibility for every American. Pictured: US Army infantrymen wade ashore at Omaha Beach in France, during the D-Day invasion on June 6, 1944. (Photo by Robert F. Sargent/STF/National Archoves/AFP/Getty Images)
Understanding who we are today as Americans living in a democracy -- because of the sacrifices of those we honor on June 6th -- is a solemn responsibility for every American. Yet few will acknowledge the date or the solemn obligation.

On that date, June 6, 1944, more than 160,000 Allied troops landed along a 50-mile stretch of heavily-fortified French coastline, confronting Nazi troops that had conquered much of Europe. General Dwight D. Eisenhower commanded the invasion, reminding his troops, "We will accept nothing less than full victory."

More than 5,000 Ships and 13,000 aircraft supported the D-Day invasion, and by day's end, the Allies had begun to push the Germans back, but some 10,000 Allied soldiers were killed or wounded that day.

Continue Reading Article
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/18593/europe-liberation-d-day

NATO Should NOT Pay Ransom to Turkey; Instead, Should Amend Rules to Expel It
by Burak Bekdil  •  June 5, 2022 at 5:00 am

Facebook Twitter WhatsApp Telegram Send Print
"Turkey is a member of NATO, but under Mr. Erdoğan, it no longer subscribes to the values that underpin this great alliance. Article 13 of the NATO charter provides a mechanism for members to withdraw. Perhaps it is time to amend Article 13 to establish a procedure for the expulsion of a member nation." — Former US Senator Joe Lieberman and Mark D. Wallace, Wall Street Journal, May 18, 2022.

"[G]iving in to Ankara's demands amounts to letting an autocrat design the security architecture of Europe and shape the future of the Western system." — Cengiz Çandar, journalist, Al-Monitor, May 24, 2022.

With its $8,000 per capita GDP, Erdoğan's ailing Turkey is not more powerful than the other 29 NATO allies combined. NATO's political leaders must stop acting as if it is.


In a historic move, Sweden and Finland recently submitted their written applications to join NATO but Turkey's Islamist strongman, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan (pictured), is threatening to use his country's veto power to block the Nordic nations coming under the Western security umbrella. This is putting NATO's renewed credibility at stake, presumably to the delight of NATO's nemesis, Russian President Vladimir Putin. (Photo by Chris McGrath/Getty Images)
Just when, after years of idling around, NATO appears to be gaining some strategic prominence following Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the only Muslim member of the alliance is holding 29 other members as hostage, blocking the most critical move in its history. Surrendering to an Islamist's well-known oriental bargaining tactics will mean the demise of the alliance.

In a historic move, Sweden and Finland recently submitted their written applications to join NATO but Turkey's Islamist strongman, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, is threatening to use his country's veto power to block the Nordic nations coming under the Western security umbrella. This is putting NATO's renewed credibility at stake, presumably to the delight of NATO's nemesis, Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Continue Reading Article https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/18586/nato-expel-turkey

To Biden Administration on Iran: Do Not Leave Americans, Allies, in the Dark
by Majid Rafizadeh  •  June 4, 2022 at 5:00 am
"By every indication, the Biden Administration appears to have given away the store. The administration appears to have agreed to lift sanctions that were not even placed on Iran for its nuclear activities in the first place, but instead because of its ongoing support for terrorism and its gross abuses of human rights. The nuclear limitations in this new deal appear to be significantly less restrictive than the 2015 nuclear deal, which was itself too weak, and will sharply undermine U.S. leverage to secure an actually 'longer and stronger' deal. What is more, the deal appears likely to deepen Iran's financial and security relationship with Moscow and Beijing, including through arms sales." — 49 U.S. Senators, press release, March 14, 2022.

Now, Iran's negotiating team -- with which U.S. interests are being negotiated by the same Russia currently trying to crush the Western-backed democracy, Ukraine -- has excluded not only the U.S., but also those countries directly impacted by the Iran's nuclear breakout and terrorism: the latest countries it is devouring: Syria and Iraq.

The Biden administration must not exclude the U.S. regional allies and the American people from the ongoing negotiations with the Iranian regime and keep them in the dark: they are the ones directly affected by any "deal." Pictured: Iran's chief nuclear negotiator Ali Bagheri Kani (R) and his delegation leave a negotiating session at Coburg Palais in Vienna, Austria on December 3, 2021. (Photo by Joe Klamar/AFP via Getty Images)
The Biden administration must not exclude the U.S. regional allies and the American people from the ongoing negotiations with the Iranian regime and keep them in the dark: they are the ones directly affected by any "deal."

How could America allow Israel -- not to mention itself -- to be excluded from the negotiations to lift sanctions on the Iranian regime when the ruling mullahs have made it clear that their top ideological priority is to eradicate the Jewish state and "wipe Israel off the map"? Recently, Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, known as the "butcher of Tehran" after reportedly being involved in the 1988 massacre of nearly 30,000 political prisoners, openly called again for the destruction of Israel:

"This great movement that we are witnessing today in the form of protests is a symbol of the solidarity of the Muslim people that will lead to the destruction of the Zionist regime."

Continue Reading Article https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/18582/us-iran-allies

Iran Not Waiting for Nuclear Weapons to Destabilize the Middle East
by Khaled Abu Toameh  •  June 1, 2022 at 5:00 am
The goal of Iran's mullahs is to spread their control to as many countries as possible by using their terrorist proxies, including Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad in the Gaza Strip, Hezbollah in Lebanon, and the Houthi militia in Yemen.

Iran's rulers are also seeking to increase their political influence in these countries. They aim to turn Iran into a superpower and major player in the Middle East at a time when US influence in the region appears to be dwindling.

Needless to say, Iran's mullahs are not only opposed to peace with Israel. They and their proxies have repeatedly stated that their real goal is to eliminate Israel.

Some even warned that Iran's real intention is to destroy and isolate Iraq....

"Iran, not Israel, is the greatest affliction for Iraq." — Farouk Yusef, Iraqi author, Al Arab, May 29, 2022.

The Iraqis, Yusef added, would have preferred to see a law criminalizing working for Iran because they do not want to end up like Lebanon, which has been destroyed by Hezbollah.

"The forces affiliated with Iran accuse everyone who refuses to be subordinate to Iran of seeking normalization with Israel." — Hamid Al-Kifaey, Iraqi journalist, Sky News Arabia, May 15, 2022.

This is how Arab dictatorships regularly seek to discredit the opposition or anyone who speaks out against corruption and bad government: by accusing them of being Israeli or American spies and traitors.

[T]he law may be used to target political opponents who have been protesting against the corruption of the ruling elite in Baghdad. The anti-corruption activists have often been accused by the government of being "agents of Israel." — Akeel Abbas, Iraqi academic and author, Al Hurra, May 28, 2022.

The law "radically and explicitly violates two of the basic principles stipulated in the Iraqi constitution, which prohibits enacting a law that contradicts the principles of democracy and basic rights and freedoms." — Akeel Abbas, Sky News Arabia, May 29, 2022.

Additionally, while Russia has been losing thousands of soldiers trying to take over Ukraine, Iran, without so much as swatting a fly, has been quietly filling the void left by Russians abandoning Syria.

Iran is not waiting until it possesses nuclear weapons to proceed with its schemes. Instead, it is spreading its aggression like a deadly virus to other Muslim nations.

Or do the Biden administration and the international community secretly want the destruction of Israel and the Gulf States?

Continue Reading Article

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/18580/iran-destabilizing-iraq

Nuclear Iran NOT an "Acceptable Risk"
by Peter Vincent Pry  •  May 31, 2022 at 5:00 am

One might well wonder if the CNAS study is a "trial balloon" from the Biden Administration to begin preparing the nation and world psychologically for the advent of Iran's "Islamic bomb."

One might also wonder if the CNAS study is an attempt to justify consequent U.S. retreat from the Middle East, not as another humiliating defeat, but as a prudent and wise reprioritization of resources to meet the threat from China.

President Biden is defunding nuclear weapons critical to U.S. national security, such as the SLCM-N and B-83. He is also still seriously considering abolition of U.S. intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs), and is doing nothing to accelerate desperately needed modernization of the U.S. nuclear deterrent -- despite increasing nuclear threats from Russia, China, North Korea, and Iran.

If America, the most benign and humane civilization that has ever existed in history, is capable of using nuclear weapons, what can be expected from the evil empires that are Russia, China, North Korea, and Iran?

At minimum, a nuclear Iran will be even more aggressive supporting terrorism against moderate Arab states, Israel, and the U.S.. Iran might well also arm its proxies -- many of which are officially designated as Foreign Terrorist Organizations -- with weapons of mass destruction, while relying on anonymity and its nuclear deterrent to escape retaliation.

Unlike North Korea, whose overt pursuit of nuclear weapons is used for atomic diplomacy and blackmail, Iran's nuclear weapons program is clandestine and may remain covertly secret -- because Iran plans actually to use its "Islamic bomb."

Expect the Center for a New American Security to weave more fig leaves rationalizing Biden Administration blunders and irresponsible policy as a species of wisdom. Coming soon, U.S. nuclear inferiority to Russia and China will be called an "acceptable risk."


Unlike North Korea, whose overt pursuit of nuclear weapons is used for atomic diplomacy and blackmail, Iran's nuclear weapons program is clandestine and may remain covertly secret -- because Iran plans actually to use its "Islamic bomb." (Image source: iStock)
The Center for a New American Security (CNAS), comprising largely former, mostly Democrat administration foreign policy and defense officials, in a new study — "Risk and Responsibility: Managing Future Iranian Weapons of Mass Destruction Threats" — tries to sell the notion that Iran armed with nuclear, biological and chemical offensive weapons will be an acceptable risk. CNAS is a source of staff and "expertise" to the Biden Administration. Unfortunately, their idea is preposterous.

Based on three tabletop exercises, the CNAS report concludes that "even if Iran acquires a nuclear weapon, the likelihood the regime will use it is low."

Therefore, according to CNAS, the Biden Administration is justified in its plans to "accept risks in the Middle East and against future Iran threats" in order to "better address the long-term 'pacing challenge' posed by China."

The CNAS report states:

Continue Reading Article https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/18568/nuclear-iran-risk

Why, for the UN, Is One Mosque Massacre So Much Worse than Countless Church Massacres?
by Raymond Ibrahim  •  May 30, 2022 at 5:00 am

Facebook Twitter WhatsApp Telegram Send Print
[I]f one non-Muslim attack on a mosque is enough for the UN to institutionalize a special day for Islam, what about the countless, often worse, Muslim attacks on non-Muslim places of worship? Why have they not elicited a similar response from the UN?

The above list, it should be noted, is hardly comprehensive; there have been many similar attacks on churches — in Egypt alone. But because there were few, if any, fatalities, they received little or no coverage in the Western press.

This dismissal is especially true for those remote — and, apparently, in the views of Western media, "unimportant" — regions, such as Nigeria, where Christians are being purged hourly in a Muslim-produced genocide. Thus, after noting that Muslims have eliminated 60,000 Christians between just 2009 and 2021, an August 2021 report states that, during that same time frame, Muslims also destroyed or torched 17,500 churches and 2,000 Christian schools. How many undocumented souls perished in those largely unreported terror attacks?

Therefore, the original question: If one non-Muslim attack on a mosque, which claimed 51 Muslim lives, was enough for the UN to establish an "international day to combat Islamophobia," why have so many Muslim attacks on churches, which have claimed thousands of Christian lives, not been enough for the UN to establish an "international day to combat Christianophobia"?

The UN, it seems, would have us ignore and brush aside all these ongoing massacres of Christian church worshippers as unfortunate byproducts of misplaced "Muslim grievances" — and instead fixate on this one singular, if admittedly horrendous, incident.

For the UN, evidently, one incident constitutes a "pattern" — one in dire need of recognition and response. The response is to silence, ignore or attack all those who expose the heavily documented real pattern of abuse and violence against non-Muslims — which, make no mistake, is precisely what "combatting Islamophobia" is all about.


On Easter Sunday, April 21, 2019, Muslim terrorists bombed three churches and three hotels in Sri Lanka; 359 people were killed and more than 500 wounded. Pictured: The wreckage of St. Sebastian's Church in Negombo, Sri Lanka, on April 21, 2019, following the bomb attack. (Photo by Stringer/Getty Images)
The United Nations recently named March 15 as "international day to combat Islamophobia." That date was chosen because it witnessed one of the worst terror attacks on Muslims: on March 15, 2019, an armed Australian, Brenton Tarrant, entered two mosques in New Zealand and opened fire on unarmed and helpless Muslim worshippers; 51 were killed and 40 wounded.

Not only has this incident been widely condemned throughout the West — and rightfully so. It has also caused the UN to single out Islam as needing special protection.

This response, however, raises a critically important question: if one non-Muslim attack on a mosque is enough for the UN to institutionalize a special day for Islam, what about the countless, often worse, Muslim attacks on non-Muslim places of worship? Why have they not elicited a similar response from the UN?

Continue Reading Article https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/18532/mosque-church-massacres

The Real Purpose of the Iran Nuclear Deal
by Soeren Kern  •  May 27, 2022 at 5:00 am

Facebook Twitter WhatsApp Telegram Send Print
Many analysts argue that the nuclear deal — original and revised — is primarily about legitimizing Iran's nuclear program. The deal, they say, is designed to strengthen, not weaken, the Islamic Republic.

Statements by Obama and his senior foreign policy advisors, the same people who are now advising President Biden, reflect a belief — a naïve one, many say — that if Iran were stronger, and traditional American allies — Israel, Saudi Arabia and Turkey — were weaker, the Middle East could achieve a new balance of power that would result in more peaceful region.

"The catch to Obama's newly inclusive 'balancing' framework was that upgrading relations with Iran would necessarily come at the expense of traditional partners targeted by Iran — like Saudi Arabia and, most importantly, Israel. Obama never said that part out loud, but the logic isn't hard to follow: Elevating your enemy to the same level as your ally means that your enemy is no longer your enemy, and your ally is no longer your ally." — Lee Smith, Middle East analyst, Tablet magazine.

"The Realignment rests on, to put it mildly, a hollow theory. It misstates the nature of the Islamic Republic and the scope of its ambitions. A regime that has led 'Death to America' chants for the last 40 years is an inveterately revisionist regime. The Islamic Republic sees itself as a global power, the leader of the Muslim world, and it covets hegemony over the Persian Gulf — indeed, the entire Middle East." — Tony Badran and Michael Doran, Middle East analysts, Tablet magazine.

"After oil, the Islamic Republic's major export item is the IRGC-commanded terrorist militia — the only export that Iran consistently produces at a peerless level. Malley and Sullivan got it exactly wrong when they argued, in effect, that allies are suckering the United States into conflict with Iran. It is not the allies but the Islamic Republic that is blanketing the Arab world with terrorist militias, arming them with precision-guided weapons, and styling the alliance it leads as 'the Resistance Axis.' It does so for one simple reason: It is out to destroy the American order in the Middle East." — Tony Badran and Michael Doran.


U.S. Special Envoy for Iran Robert Malley confirmed this week that the Biden administration is seeking a new nuclear deal with Iran that is "shorter" and "weaker" than the original deal. Malley also admitted that the Biden administration does not have a back-up plan to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon. Pictured: Malley, testifies at a hearing of the Senate Foreign Relations on May 25, 2022, in Washington, DC. (Photo by Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images)
U.S. Special Envoy for Iran Robert Malley has confirmed that diplomatic efforts to revive the Iran nuclear deal originally signed by U.S. President Barack Obama are at an impasse. "We do not have a deal with Iran, and prospects for reaching one are, at best, tenuous," Malley told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee during a hearing on May 25.

Malley also admitted that the Biden administration is seeking a new deal that is "shorter" and "weaker" than the original deal. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, during his confirmation hearing in January 2021, promised that the administration would pursue a new deal that is "longer" and "stronger."

When asked if he knew about efforts by Iran to hide its prior nuclear work from the International Atomic Energy Agency, Malley responded: "Senator, did Iran lie? Of course. Did Iran have a covert nuclear program? Absolutely. That's the reason why prior administrations imposed such crushing sanctions on Iran."

Continue Reading Article https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/18564/iran-nuclear-deal-purpose

How The Biden Administration Is Getting Erdoğan's Moves All Wrong
by Burak Bekdil  •  May 26, 2022 at 5:00 am

Facebook Twitter WhatsApp Telegram Send Print
After Russia's invasion of Ukraine, when every sane country is staying away from wiring even a few cents to Russia, NATO "ally" Turkey is still talking about buying a second S-400 system.

The result? The U.S. is further appeasing [Turkish President Recep Tayyip] Erdoğan.

Erdoğan has long been playing the old oriental carpet-selling game: pitting potential buyers against each other to get the best price -- Turkey is hoping to be sold to the highest bidder.

The West's appeasement will just further embolden Erdoğan to keep blackmailing it: If you do not sell me F-35s or F-16s, I will buy fighter jets from Russia. Erdoğan then turns to Putin: I am your man in NATO. If you do not want me to be a real NATO ally, you must give me something. Erdoğan's double-play has to be stopped. For that, is needed a determined Western bloc who will remind him that he will not get what he wants from his (theoretical) allies in the West by blackmailing them.


The West's appeasement will, unfortunately, only embolden Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and push him further into the Russian orbit, both politically as a covert ally and militarily as a client of critical weapons systems. Pictured: Erdoğan holds a press conference with Russian President Vladimir Putin on October 22, 2019 in Sochi, Russia. (Image source: kremlin.ru)
Russia's invasion of Ukraine has revived an old, outdated, near-defunct concept: a Western habit of overrating Turkey's "geo-political importance." Totally blind to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's anti-Western policy calculus, the Biden administration is pushing Turkey's Islamist strongman into further stealth hostility toward the civilized parts of the world.

"For better or for worse, Turkey is a NATO ally and will remain so. After Russia's invasion of Ukraine, global politics are rapidly evolving in an unpredictable direction. The U.S. has, therefore, an interest in Turkey maintaining a robust air force," wrote Henri J. Barkey, a professor of international relations at Lehigh University. Ironically, Turkish court indictments mention Barkey, a former member of the U.S. state department's policy planning staff, as the key CIA operative behind the failed coup against Erdoğan's government in July 2016. Barkey, in Turkey, is a wanted man.

Continue Reading Article https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/18483/getting-erdogans-moves-wrong

Palestinians: A Vote to Destroy Israel
by Bassam Tawil  •  May 24, 2022 at 5:00 am

Facebook Twitter WhatsApp Telegram Send Print
These Palestinians are evidently fed up with the rampant corruption and bad governance of the Palestinian Authority leadership. Moreover, these Palestinians who no longer support Abbas are stating that they have no interest in any peace process with Israel.

As the last poll showed, 70% of the Palestinians are opposed to an unconditional return to peace negotiations with Israel. Another 58% expressed opposition to the two-state solution.

The truth is that Abbas called off the elections [in 2021] because he was afraid that Hamas would defeat his Fatah faction in the parliamentary election, as took place in 2006.

The results of the Birzeit University elections prove that Abbas's fears were not unfounded. Had he insisted on proceeding with the presidential and parliamentary elections, it is most likely.... that Hamas would have taken control of the Palestinian presidency and parliament.

Hamas, for its part, said that it sees the results of the university election as a vote of confidence in its policy of pursuing deadly terrorist attacks against Israel.

The students who voted in support of Hamas fully identify with the terrorist group's covenant, which states that "Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it, just as it obliterated others before it."

Palestinians have been radicalized by their leaders and media to a point where they do not want to hear anything about a peace process with Israel. In fact, they want to see Israel vanish from the map, as the results of the student council elections and the polls clearly illustrate.

The results of the Birzeit University elections and the polls stand in sharp contrast to the views expressed by the Biden administration concerning the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Over the past year, Biden administration officials have repeatedly stated their commitment to the "two-state solution" while totally ignoring the widespread support among the Palestinians for the elimination of Israel.

The Hamas victory at the university's student council should sound alarm bells in the Biden administration, especially the State Department, regarding the true intentions of the Palestinians – that their sole commitment is to have a state that would replace Israel, not one that would exist peacefully alongside Israel. That is why it is nonsensical to pressure Israel to make any territorial (or non-territorial) concessions to the Palestinians, who are openly proclaiming that they want to establish a Palestinian state on the ruins of Israel and the bodies of dead Jews.


Hamas sees the results of its landslide victory in Birzeit University student council elections as a vote of confidence in its policy of pursuing deadly terrorist attacks against Israel. Pictured: Hamas supporters celebrate victory at Birzeit University, near Ramallah, on May 19, 2022. (Photo by Abbas Momani/AFP via Getty Images)
The Palestinians have once again shown that they have not given up the dream of destroying Israel and replacing it with an Islamist state funded by Iran and its terrorist proxies, including Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) and Hezbollah.

On May 18, Hamas, on the US list of Foreign Terrorist organizations, and which does not believe in Israel's right to exist, scored a landslide victory in the elections for Student Council at Birzeit University, one of the most important Palestinian academic institutions in the West Bank.

The Hamas-affiliated Islamic Bloc won 28 of the 51 seats of the council; by contrast, the list belonging to Fatah, the ruling Fatah faction headed by Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas, got only 18 seats.

A third list belongs to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), another Palestinian Foreign Terrorist Organization that does not believe in Israel's right to exist, won five seats.

Continue Reading Article https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/18553/palestinian-vote-destroy-israel

"They Consider Us Inferior and Want to Rule Us": The Persecution of Christians, April 2022
by Raymond Ibrahim  •  May 22, 2022 at 5:00 am
On Good Friday, Fulani [Muslim tribe] kidnapped eight Christians. Four were released after paying a hefty ransom. One of the women released said that she was "raped several times by two leaders of the Fulani Militants." A "militant told us, after receiving the ransom money, that they got money to kill more Christians." — International Christian Concern, April 18, 2022, Nigeria

"It is not the first time that we ourselves have been attacked in Italy because we are Christians... It makes me angry to think that this discrimination also exists here." — Daughter of a Coptic Christian man who was attacked for smoking during Ramadan, medforth.biz, April 23, 2022, Turin, Italy.

"They want to apply Sharia law because they consider us inferior and want to rule us." — Coptic Christian man who was attacked for smoking during Ramadan, medforth.biz, April 23, 2022, Turin, Italy.

"They destroyed almost everything in the house, shot holes in the new truck and tried to burn it. The house itself is OK, but its contents are "They seized Sister Suellen from her bed in her nightclothes, with "no glasses, shoes, phone, medicine, etc." She has not been heard from since. — Marianite Sister Ann Lacour, congregational leader, Clarion Herald, April 5, 2022, Burkina Faso.

"Inside the police station, I was surprised by attempts and pressure to conciliate. The perpetrator's lawyer steered the writing of the report [in a manner] that contradicted reality, and they forced me to sign the report which contained statements from the pharmacist's lawyer without taking my statements. .... We were especially shocked to see the report said that 'the pharmacist is a friend of the family, who was just bantering and joking around with Mrs. Nevin, because he is close to the family.'" — Christian woman who was violently slapped by a pharmacist for entering his store without a head covering during Ramadan; Coptic Solidarity, April 27, 2022, Egypt.

On April 8, a Muslim man from North Africa entered the Saint-Étienne Cathedral in Toulouse, France during the 8am mass, and left a homemade explosive device near the altar. Pictured: Saint-Étienne Cathedral in Toulouse. (Image source: Felipeh/Wikimedia Commons)
The following are among the abuses Muslims inflicted on Christians throughout the month of April, 2022:

The Muslim Slaughter of Christians
Egypt: On April 7, a Muslim man wielding a long knife lunged at and repeatedly stabbed a Coptic Christian priest, killing him. The attack occurred in a crowded street in Alexandria. Fr. Arsenius Wadid, 56, who was leading his church's youth group on a field trip, was stabbed in the throat three times. Passersby captured the assassin and handed him over to police.
Continue Reading Article
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/18547/persecution-of-christians-april-2022

Lebanon Gives Tehran a Double Whammy
by Amir Taheri  •  May 22, 2022 at 4:00 am
[A]s official results came in, [Iran's Supreme Guide Ali] Khamenei and [Major General Esmail Qaani, chief of the Quds Force who is supposed to rule the "Resistance Front" countries as a satrap]... realized that the Lebanese electorate, or at least the 49% who went to the polls, had denied Tehran the "crushing victory" it had hoped for.

That meant a double whammy in two of the four Arab capitals that Ayatollah Ali Yunesi boasts are now under Tehran's control; the others being Sanaa and Damascus.

What is certain is that a majority of politically active Lebanese seek a new departure for the country.

Numerous direct and indirect messages from Shiites inside Lebanon indicate a growing weariness with a scheme that sees the country, in the words of Tehran's Kayhan daily, as nothing but a "shield for Islamic Republic" of Iran. Large chunks of the Shiite community have seen the prosperity they had secured since the 1980s melt away as a result of the economic crisis that has plunged 70% of the Lebanese into poverty.

Granting Lebanon urgent relief from its current pains would send a positive message that even a slight distancing of Hezbollah from full control could bear fruits for the average Lebanese. That, in turn, would strengthen the message that Lebanon could do better without a politico-military Trojan Horse in its midst.

There is no doubt that Hezbollah is an illness and the key cause of Lebanon's sorry state today.... The latest election could signal the start of that process which is bound to be accelerated by positive developments in Iraq and, eventually, in Iran itself.


As official results came in, Iran's Supreme Guide Ali Khamenei and Major General Esmail Qaani, chief of the Quds Force who is supposed to rule the "Resistance Front" countries as a satrap... realized that the Lebanese electorate, or at least the 49% who went to the polls, had denied Tehran the "crushing victory" it had hoped for. Pictured: Khamenei meets with Hassan Nasrallah, head of Lebanon's Hezbollah terrorist organization. (Image source: khamenei.ir
It was only a couple of weeks ago that the general election in Lebanon made the headlines in Tehran's official media. "Supreme Guide" Ali Khamenei had labeled the election as "a referendum on the Resistance Front", a coalition of Iran-controlled groups that have struck roots in Iraq, Syria, north Yemen, Gaza and Lebanon. He had also publicly donated an extra $25 million to the Lebanese branch of Hezbollah to ensure its victory.

Certain about securing a "crushing victory", partly thanks to the misguided boycott declared by Lebanon's former Prime Minister Saad Hariri, the Tehran media had started speculations about whom Khamenei might choose as the next president if Lebanon were to replace the current octogenarian incumbent. The matter had been raised in the audience that Khamenei granted to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on a lightning visit to Tehran.

Continue Reading Article
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/18548/lebanon-iran-double-whammy

Concerning 'China's Master Plan to Destroy America'
by Lawrence Kadish  •  May 19, 2022 at 9:30 am
(Image source: iStock)
China has been unabashed about making its intentions known. Already in 1999, two colonels in China's People's Liberation Army, Qiao Liang and Wang Xiansui, wrote, "Unrestricted Warfare: China's Master Plan to Destroy America." In it, the authors "suggest the significance of alternatives to direct military confrontation, including international policy, economic warfare, attacks on digital infrastructure and networks, and terrorism. Even a relatively insignificant state can incapacitate a far more powerful enemy by applying pressure to their economic and political systems." Ideally, "one might not even know that one is the target."

Continue Reading Article https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/18544/china-plan-destroy-america

[T]he removal of the IRGC from the list of terrorist organizations would cause massive damage to the interests of the US. It will lose all its Arab friends, who will stop working with the Americans in a number of fields, including the war on terrorism.

It now remains to be seen whether the Biden administration will continue with its benighted policy of appeasing the mullahs or heed the insistent wake-up calls of America's real allies.

Iran is trying to delay the signing of the nuclear agreement so that the mullahs succeed in forcing the Biden administration to accept all their demands, especially the removal of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) from the list of foreign terrorist organizations. Pictured: Members of the IRGC march during the annual military parade marking the anniversary of the 1980-1988 war with Iraq, in Tehran, on September 22, 2018. (Photo by STR/AFP via Getty Images)
As the European Union is trying to revive the stalled talks on restoring Iran's nuclear deal with world powers, many Arabs are again warning the Biden administration against rushing to strike a deal with the mullahs, saying this could jeopardize Washington's relations with its Arab allies in the Middle East.

The Arabs are saying that they cannot understand why Biden is prepared to allow Iran's mullahs to "humiliate" the US by setting their own conditions for restoring the nuclear agreement, including the demand to remove the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) from the list of terrorist organizations.

The Arabs are also reminding the Biden administration and the other world powers that Iran's mullahs have not changed their dangerous policies that threaten the security and stability of a number of Arab countries.
 Continue Reading Article https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/18543/iran-us-demands

Why Erdoğan's NATO Blackmail Is Subversion
by Burak Bekdil  •  May 18, 2022 at 5:00 am

Facebook Twitter WhatsApp Telegram Send Print
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, is trying to turn what appears to be the most strategic move in NATO's history into carpet-trading at Istanbul's Grand Bazaar.

"The Russian-Kurdish nexus has been a recurring feature of Middle Eastern geopolitics for more than two hundred years, since Catherine the Great commissioned the publication of a Kurdish grammar in 1787." — Michael A. Reynolds, The National Interest, March 1, 2016.

None of the many examples of Russian appeasement of Turkey's "Kurdish terrorists" is secret. Russia has been doing all it could for its Kurdish friends overtly, with Erdoğan completely silent. Now the same Erdoğan is by trying to blackmail NATO by vetoing membership for two Western European countries on the grounds that these countries, threatened by Russia, are supporting Kurdish terrorists.

The Western military alliance should be strong enough to tell Erdoğan what he needs to hear

Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, is trying to turn what appears to be the most strategic move in NATO's history into carpet-trading at Istanbul's Grand Bazaar. Pictured: Erdoğan arrives for the NATO summit in Watford, England, on December 4, 2019.
Once again, Turkey is the odd one out in the NATO alliance. The country's Islamist strongman, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, is trying to turn what appears to be the most strategic move in NATO's history into carpet-trading at Istanbul's Grand Bazaar.

Erdoğan said on May 13 that his country is "not favorable" toward Finland and Sweden joining NATO, indicating Turkey could use its membership in the Western military alliance to veto moves to admit the two countries.

Erdoğan explained his opposition by citing Sweden and other Scandinavian countries' alleged support for Kurdish militants and others whom Turkey considers to be terrorists. That denunciation cannot be taken seriously. Erdoğan has the habit of calling anyone who is politically and religiously different from his own worldview a terrorist.

Continue Reading Article https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/18541/erdogan-nato-blackmail

Biden's Unwise Attempts to Save the Iran Deal
by Con Coughlin  •  May 17, 2022 at 5:00 am

Facebook Twitter WhatsApp Telegram Send Print
Mr Biden's hopes of pressing ahead with the nuclear talks suffered a significant setback the other week when a bipartisan super-majority of US Senators voted to endorse a Republican-led measure insisting that any future agreement with Tehran must address Iran's support for terrorism in the region, and that Washington should not lift sanctions against the IRGC. Tehran is unlikely to concede to either measure.

Iran's refusal to clarify the true extent of its undeclared nuclear activities is entirely consistent with the uncooperative stance it has adopted in its dealing with the IAEA over many years.

In an indication of how desperate the Europeans are to revive the deal, Mr Borrell said the EU was giving serious consideration to the ludicrous proposition whereby the terrorist designation against the IRGC was lifted, but kept in place on other parts of the organisation, which has several arms across the security apparatus and a sprawling business empire.

The EU initiative is not dissimilar to other hare-brained options being considered by the Biden White House, with analysts recommending that one compromise option for the US is to lift the terrorist designation against the IRGC while keeping it on the Quds Force, the unit responsible for the IRGC's foreign operations and which arms and backs militant groups throughout the Middle East.

The lengths to which some naive politicians on both sides of the Atlantic are prepared to go to revive the nuclear deal is nothing less than shameful, especially at a time when the world is struggling to deal with another tyrannical regime following Russia's unprovoked invasion of Ukraine.

Hopefully, the more Iran refuses to cooperate with international bodies such as the IAEA, the more it will become clear that any hopes of securing a new deal with Tehran would not only upend the region but the president's legacy as well.


The lengths to which some naive politicians on both sides of the Atlantic are prepared to go to revive the Iran nuclear deal is nothing less than shameful... Hopefully, the more Iran refuses to cooperate with international bodies such as the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the more it will become clear that any hopes of securing a new deal with Tehran would not only upend the region but President Biden's legacy as well. Pictured: IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi (L) meets with Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian in Tehran on March 5, 2022. (Photo by Atta Kenare/AFP via Getty Images)
The utter futility of the Biden administration's obsession with reviving the Iran nuclear deal has been laid bare by the latest damning assessment by the head of the UN's nuclear watchdog.

US President Joe Biden has indicated to Tehran that he is willing to rejoin the deal so long as Iran agrees to fall back into compliance with the terms of the original Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) negotiated by the former Obama administration in 2015.

Continue Reading Article https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/18540/biden-attempts-iran-deal

Should Protesters Be Allowed to Shout in Front of Justices' Homes?
by Alan M. Dershowitz  •  May 16, 2022 at 5:30 pm

Facebook Twitter WhatsApp Telegram Send Print
I think interfering with the personal lives of judges, whether in their homes, the restaurants they eat in, or their children's schools, goes beyond what should be acceptable in a democracy. Such actions, even if constitutionally protected, should be condemned by descent people.

We live in an age where many, on both sides of the political spectrum, believe, and act on the belief, that noble ends justify ignoble means. That of course is a matter of degree. There may well be extreme situations where such intrusive protests might, under some circumstances, be morally acceptable. But this should not apply to protesting unjust judicial decisions of a divided court.

Most non-violent protests are constitutionally protected. Violent ones are not. And there are close cases that may turn on the specific facts, such as entering the Capitol to protest the counting of the votes of presidential electors. (I am representing one such defendant).

So I will protest the morality of those who are demonstrating in front of US Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito's home, while defending their right to do so peacefully and within constitutional limits.


Interfering with the personal lives of judges, whether in their homes, the restaurants they eat in, or their children's schools, goes beyond what should be acceptable in a democracy. Such actions, even if constitutionally protected, should be condemned by descent people. Pictured: Demonstrators march to the house of US Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito in Alexandria, Virginia, on May 9, 2022. (Photo by Stefani Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images)
Pro-abortion protestors have assembled in front of Justice Samuel Alito's family home in an obvious effort to intimidate or punish him. It will not change his draft opinion regarding the overruling of Roe v. Wade, but the question arises: are such protests legal and/or desirable?

As to the legality there is a specific statute that criminalizes protest in front of the residences of judges, jurors or witnesses, that are intended to interfere with or obstruct justice. While that statute might be constitutional as it related to efforts to influence the verdicts of jurors, the testimony of witnesses or possibly even the decisions of elected judges during a trial, it is probably unconstitutional as applied to justices and appellate judges with lifetime appointments who are deemed to be immune from outside pressures.
 
Continue Reading Article https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/18539/protesters-justices-homes

The EU and the Biden Administration Give in to Iran's Mullahs
by Majid Rafizadeh  •  May 14, 2022 at 5:00 am

The European Union is basically admitting that it views the nuclear deal with Iran's ruling clerics from the perspective of economic opportunity. That should not be the objective of the nuclear talks. Instead, European leaders ought to be seeking a strong deal that will prevent the Iranian regime from acquiring nuclear weapons, especially -- as they should have learned from Russia by now -- because those nukes may soon be aimed at their countries.

By revealing its desperation to buy oil, the EU is empowering Iran's ruling clerics to gain the upper hand in the nuclear talks and obtain even more concessions to revive the nuclear deal. Desperation, to the Iranian regime, means weakness.

To appease Iran's mullahs, the EU and the Biden administration are also turning a blind eye to China's violating the sanctions on Iran... Reportedly, the Iranian regime is exporting more than 1.5 million bpd. The ruling mullahs of Iran are exporting approximately 80% of the oil they used to export before the sanctions. Iran's revenues heavily rely on oil exports; the sale of oil accounts for more than 50% of the regime's export revenues.

The EU, moreover, has yet to join the US in imposing sanctions on the Iranian regime. In fact, European countries are still trading with Tehran in spite of the US sanctions. Tehran Times reported: "The value of trade between Iran and the European Union reached €4.863 billion in 2021, registering a nine-percent growth compared to the previous year...."

It seems clear that the nuclear deal was never about stopping the predatory regime of Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons. For the EU, the nuclear deal is about trade, making money and buying oil from the world's leading state sponsor of terrorism; for the Biden administration, it is about a "diplomatic win". In return, the ruling mullahs will have a legal path to blackmail the world, using nuclear weapons and missiles, into sending Iran's regime billions for their terror and militia groups to torment everyone.


The European Union is basically admitting that it views the nuclear deal with Iran's ruling clerics from the perspective of economic opportunity. By revealing its desperation to buy oil, the EU is empowering Iran's ruling clerics to gain the upper hand in the nuclear talks and obtain even more concessions. Desperation, to the Iranian regime, means weakness. Pictured: EU foreign affairs representative Josep Borrell (left) is hosted by Iran's then foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, in Tehran on February 3, 2020. (Photo by Atta Kenare/AFP via Getty Images)
The Biden administration and the European Union are trying hard to appease the Iranian regime in order to revive a nuclear deal that will provide the ruling mullahs of Iran with additional billions of dollars of revenue, enhance the regime's legitimacy on the global stage, and actually open the path for Iran to have a nuclear arsenal.

The EU recently dropped its own bomb when it unabashedly said that it wanted new nuclear deal so that EU countries could buy oil from Iran -- one of only four countries on the US State Department's list of state sponsors of terrorism (the other three are Cuba, Syria and North Korea). Josep Borrell, the EU's foreign affairs representative, recently said:

"We Europeans will be very much beneficiaries from this [nuclear] deal, the situation has changed now. For us it was something . . . 'well we don't need it', [but] now it would be very much interesting for us to have another [crude] supplier."

Continue Reading Article https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/18531/eu-biden-iran-mullahs

UK: New Plan to Tackle Illegal Immigration
by Soeren Kern  •  May 13, 2022 at 5:00 am

The plan to outsource the processing of asylum applications overseas — if it survives legal challenges that are certain to come from human rights groups and the European Court of Human Rights — could become a model for other European countries seeking to crack down on illegal immigration.

The legal basis for the plan is enshrined in a new Nationality and Borders Act 2022 approved by Parliament on April 28. The new law, which integrates changes to British immigration law, includes offshoring asylum — processing claims at overseas facilities — and making it a criminal offense to knowingly arrive in the UK illegally.

"Access to the UK's asylum system should be based on need, not on the ability to pay people smugglers.... If you illegally enter the UK via a safe country in which you could have claimed asylum, you are not seeking refuge from imminent peril — as is the intended purpose of the asylum system — but are picking the UK as a preferred destination over others." — New Plan for Immigration, UK Home Office.

"We cannot sustain a parallel illegal system.... We can't ask the British taxpayer to write a blank cheque to cover the costs of anyone who might want to come and live here.... Nor is it fair on those who are seeking to come here legally, if others can just bypass the system. It's a striking fact that around seven out of ten of those arriving in small boats last year were men under 40, paying people smugglers to queue jump and taking up our capacity to help genuine women and child refugees." — British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, April 14, 2022.

"We can no longer accept the status quo. People are dying and the global migration crisis requires new ways to find new partnerships and to find new solutions." — British Home Secretary Priti Patel, April 14, 2022.


The British government has announced a new plan to fight illegal immigration by giving some migrants seeking asylum in the United Kingdom a one-way ticket to Rwanda to have their applications processed in the East African country. Pictured: Illegal migrants arrive at Dover port after being picked up in the English Channel by the UK Border Force on April 14, 2022. (Photo by Dan Kitwood/Getty Images)
The British government has announced a new plan to fight illegal immigration by giving some migrants seeking asylum in the United Kingdom a one-way ticket to Rwanda to have their applications processed in the East African country.

The five-year pilot project, aimed at deterring migrants from crossing the English Channel, will initially focus on single males arriving illegally to the UK on boats or trucks.

The plan to outsource the processing of asylum applications overseas — if it survives legal challenges that are certain to come from human rights groups and the European Court of Human Rights — could become a model for other European countries seeking to crack down on illegal immigration.

Denmark, frustrated by the European Union's dysfunctional migration and asylum system, recently announced that it, too, is seeking to send asylum-seekers to Rwanda.

Continue Reading Article https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/18529/britain-illegal-immigration

The Badly Needed EastMed Pipeline Awaits Approval
by Judith Bergman  •  May 12, 2022 at 5:00 am

"Germany must be prepared that it could be the next country to which Gazprom cuts gas deliveries. Europe, therefore, needs a multitude of alternatives to the Russian energy supply." — German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, The New York Times, April 28, 2022.

The pre-feasibility studies [of the EastMed pipeline that would transport gas to Europe from Israel and Cyprus through Greece], conducted from 2015-18 and paid for by the European Union, found that the project is "technically feasible, economically viable and commercially competitive."

"The analysis conducted for the activity related to the economic, financial and competitiveness studies, evidenced that the [EastMed] Project contributes to the improvement of market integration of currently isolated countries such as Cyprus and some Greek regions, to the enhancement of energy security diversifying the supply sources for Europe and to the reduction of the EU-wide consumers' gas bill." — Conclusion of pre-feasibility studies published by European Commission, July 2019.

"Moreover, taking into account the need of additional net imports to satisfy EU gas demand by 2030 and the risk associated to the current production availability, procurement and transport of gas supply, the Project provides strategic contribution to the EU security of supply." — Conclusion of pre-feasibility studies published by European Commission, July 2019.

The significant rise in natural gas prices in Europe favors the economic viability of the pipeline, according to energy expert Michalis Mathioulakis, of the ELIAMEP think tank.

[US Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Victoria] Nuland's comments appeared especially odd as, after meeting with her counterparts in Turkey on April 4, she told the Turkish newspaper Hurriyet that more pipelines were needed in the Eastern Mediterranean. The US, it appears, prefers to steer the business to Turkey's strongman, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, rather than to America's democratic allies, Cyprus, Israel and Greece.

According to the Biden administration, therefore, pipelines that go via Turkey are apparently acceptable, Algerian gas pipelines are also acceptable, but the long-planned Israeli-Greek-Cypriot EastMed pipeline is not acceptable.

"What we are waiting for is the final report which is financed by the EU. And I repeat, the position was from the start – and that is why the study is being carried out – if it is viable, if there are investors, if the seabed permits, then it will be carried out. The US government does not decide about a European project. What everyone can see, and this is very important, is the need for the EU to cease being dependent on specific markets and the alternative channels for natural gas to Europe and the closest is none other than the basin of the eastern Mediterranean." — Cyprus President Nicos Anastasiades, Cyprus Mail, April 8, 2022.

"[I]t must not be up to one of the parties, the United States, to impose its own energy policy upon the parties, but rather, it should be up to the parties to arrive at an energy policy that best serves their collective interest. Under Secretary Nuland's contradictory messaging on Eastern Mediterranean pipeline projects.... gives the appearance of appeasement of Turkey." — Nick Larigakis, American Hellenic Institute, Ekathimerini, April 12, 2022.

Turkey has been opposed to the EastMed pipeline project all along... [W]hen the Biden administration first announced its unofficial opposition to the project, the reasons given by the US were primarily environmental and financial. Then, suddenly, Nuland claimed that the timeline for the project is too long because Europe needs gas "now." Whatever the reasons given, they come across as an ill-disguised attempt at placating Turkey at the expense of Europe's energy security, and attempts to free itself of Russian energy dependency. The Biden administration is once again demonstrating how, unfortunately, it prefers to do business.
The European Union is finding it more than difficult to beat its dependence on Russian oil and gas, thereby, sadly, financing Russia's war effort. One alternative is the proposed EastMed pipeline, which would carry natural gas extracted from fields under the waters of Israel's and Cyprus's Exclusive Economic Zones, to Greece and from there to other European countries. Pictured: Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiadis (left), Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis (center) and then Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu shake hands in Athens on January 2, 2020, ahead of signing the pipeline agreement. (Photo by Aris Messinis/AFP via Getty Images)
Russia is expected to make almost $321 billion from its energy exports this year -- over a third more, according to Bloomberg, than last year.

Twenty-seven European Union member states, despite adopting five packages of sanctions since Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, have nevertheless spent at least around 35 billion euros -- around $38 billion -- in payments to Russia for its oil and gas since the invasion, according to the EU's foreign-policy chief, Josep Borrell.

The EU is finding it more than difficult to beat its dependence on Russian oil and gas, thereby, sadly, financing Russia's war effort. Thirty-six percent of Russia's revenues last year came from the sale of oil and gas. "Oil revenue makes up a large share of Moscow's budget. It is a key funding source for Putin's invasion of Ukraine. Slashing Russia's oil revenue could hasten an end to the conflict," American Enterprise Institute resident scholar Michael R. Strain recently wrote.

Continue Reading Article https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/18509/eastmed-pipeline-awaits-approval

Palestinians Lie to Murder Jews; U.S. Rewards Them
by Bassam Tawil  •  May 11, 2022 at 5:00 am

Facebook Twitter WhatsApp Telegram Send Print
The terrorists and their families are saying that they actually believe the lies of the Palestinian leaders that the mosque is being attacked, violated and desecrated by Jews. They are saying that this is the reason they are sending Palestinians to murder Jews on the streets of Israeli cities.

Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas, with whom the Biden administration is currently talking, even had the gall to repeat the blood libel against Israel and Jews when he issued a statement "condemning" the murder of Israeli civilians in Elad.

Please note: in the very same breath that Abbas "condemns" the murders of Israeli civilians, he continues to push his people to murder Jews for allegedly desecrating the holy sites in Jerusalem.

Palestinian leaders not only normally lie to their people about the fictitious "danger" facing the mosque; they also lie to the Americans and Europeans, who continue to believe that Abbas and his team are sincere about making peace with Israel.

Americans and Europeans additionally fail to grasp that by using the Aqsa Mosque as a pretext for terrorism against Jews, the Palestinian leaders are also aiming to rally Muslims against Western "infidels" around the world.

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has said that the Jews "have no right to defile with their filthy feet" the Aqsa Mosque and the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. "We salute every drop of blood spilled for the sake of Jerusalem. This blood is clean, pure blood, shed for the sake of Allah, Allah willing. Every martyr will be placed in Paradise, and all the wounded will be rewarded by Allah." Pictured: Abbas speaks on PA television, September 16, 2015. (Image source: MEMRI)
The Palestinian terrorists who used axes to murder three Israeli Jewish men in the city of Elad on May 5 have cited the recent violence at the Aqsa Mosque compound (Temple Mount) in Jerusalem as their main motivation for the attack. The violence began when Palestinian rioters attacked Israeli police officers at the compound with fireworks, stones and other objects during the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan. The goal of the rioters: to prevent Jews from conducting peaceful walking tours of the Temple Mount, as has long been officially agreed.

The rioters attacked the police because Palestinian leaders had told them that Jews were planning to "storm into the mosque" during the Jewish holidays.

Continue Reading Article https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/18515/palestinians-murder-us-rewards

More Islamic Death Threats in Europe: Dutch MP Targeted Twice
by Pete Hoekstra  •  May 11, 2022 at 4:00 am

Geert Wilders has dedicated his life to supporting freedom of speech and religious tolerance...

What seems to have earned him these death threats is his unrelenting passion for freedom. To others, it seems, this commitment, is not a plus. Radical cleric Muhammad Abdullah Ahsan, for instance, recently proclaimed: "The rascals like Geert Wilders can't be stopped by mere condemnation. He must be handed over to Muslims for public execution to ensure world peace."

"It is no use threatening me, Muslims in Pakistan, Netherlands or anywhere else. Fatwas won't stop me.... Freedom is my ideology. And no one will stop me." — Geert Wilders, Twitter, April 15, 2022.

"An Imam who wants a politician dead is—however reprehensible—allowed to say so." — Geert Wilders, NIS News Bulletin. March 15, 2005.

Islam is the Trojan Horse in Europe." — Geert Wilders, speech in the Dutch Parliament, September 6, 2007.

"There is no such thing as 'moderate Islam'. As Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan said the other day, and I quote, 'There is no moderate or immoderate Islam. Islam is Islam and that's it."' — Geert Wilders, speech in the Dutch Parliament, September 6, 2007.

"We must never give a free hand to those who want to subjugate us." — Geert Wilders, Middle East Online, May 31, 2011.

"'I feel that the more Islam that we get in our societies the less freedom we get.' He opened the press conference with a quote from George Orwell's preface to Animal Farm: 'If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they don't want to hear'". — Margaret Davis, quoting Geert Wilders, in The Independent, October 16, 2009.

The American version [of George Orwell's Ministry of Truth, the US Disinformation Governance Board] is to be headed by a supposed "expert" on disinformation, Nina Jankowicz, who already has a record of unexpertly dismissing Hunter Biden's easily verifiable laptop as a "Trump Campaign product;" supporting the notoriously false "Steele Dossier;" saying on National Public Radio: "I shudder to think about if free speech absolutists were taking over more platforms," and, while discussing "online abuse" against women, she actually recommended deploying the police...

"Liberty is meaningless where the right to utter one's thoughts and opinions has ceased to exist. That, of all rights, is the dread of tyrants. It is the right which they first of all strike down. They know its power.... Equally clear is the right to hear. To suppress free speech is a double wrong. It violates the rights of the hearer as well as those of the speaker." — Frederick Douglass, freed slave, December 9, 1860.

Freedom of speech in free nations should supersede imposing even more limitations on freedom.

As the powers that be continue clamping down on the free speech we all should cherish, we must recognize the value and strength that people like Wilders, and even those who burn flags, bring to the public square. We may or may not agree with their views, but should recognize that through their freedom of expression they enrich the debate and discourse. They make us stronger, not weaker.

Geert Wilders, a Dutch Member of Parliament, has dedicated his life to supporting freedom of speech and religious tolerance... What seems to have earned him these death threats is his unrelenting passion for freedom. Pictured: Wilders speaks to the media outside the Dutch Parliament on March 22, 2021. (Photo by Phil Nijhuis/ANP/AFP via Getty Images)
Last month, a Dutch Member of Parliament, Geert Wilders -- the leader of the Party for Freedom, which is the largest opposition party in the Netherlands' Parliament -- received two fatwas. Fatwas, officially, are Islamic religious opinions; they sometimes contain calls, however, to kill whomever might be considered insufficiently supportive of Islam or its prophet, Mohammad.

Wilders has dedicated his life to supporting freedom of speech and religious tolerance, and pointing out problems in radical, violent Islamist extremism. Because of this, he has been the target of frequent death threats by Islamist leaders. There are many who appear to prefer religious conformity, restricted speech and often the death penalty for what they might consider blasphemy.

Continue Reading Article https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/18516/wilders-islamic-death-threats

Will NATO Fight?
by Richard Kemp  •  May 10, 2022 at 5:00 am

Facebook Twitter WhatsApp Telegram Send Print
If NATO blood would in fact be spilt should Russia invade Poland or the Baltic states, why have we utterly rejected the prospect of spilling it to help protect Ukraine from Putin's mass killings, torture, rape and destruction? Ukraine is not a NATO member and NATO states have no treaty obligation to come to its defence as they do to each other. But that is surely just a technicality, a few lines on a page. There is no practical or moral difference between protecting a friend who is a member of the alliance and one who is not.

[I]f nuclear terror applies to Ukraine, why doesn't it apply to any NATO country that becomes the target of Russian military aggression? Why would NATO leaders fear Putin's nukes any less if he takes a bite out of Poland or the Baltic states? The reality is, if it is true that NATO could not risk intervention over Ukraine for fear of Russian nuclear retaliation, it could not risk intervention over, say, Latvia for the same reason.

On top of that, every country in the West has capitulated to a concerted and systematic assault on its history, its virtue and its self-worth. Past glories are denigrated because they are not in line with 21st century wokeism... Governments, including defence and foreign ministries, the very people that must lead any fight against Russian attack, have succumbed to this sickness to the extent that even they abrogate their own past and repudiate their own present.

Meanwhile, in pursuit of a superstate, the European Union and its cheerleaders have been doing their level best to openly undermine and cancel national or patriotic spirit in member countries...

Can we expect Europeans to fight and die for countries whose histories and modern sense of worth have been roundly denounced and condemned by their own leaders?

No such feeling exists for the EU even as it seeks to replace national loyalty. Allegiance to Brussels is transactional and in only one direction. People ask not what they can do for the EU but what the EU can do for them. Of course many of our young people would fight for their country — with as much courage and commitment as their ancestors ever did — and we witness this whenever we send them into battle. But when the time comes to expand our forces, how many more will answer the call after being educated to despise their own country and the very notion of fighting for it?

If somehow the political and popular will to defend NATO member states did materialise, what would European countries fight with? Constantly expanding social welfare programmes have driven the military out of the marketplace across the continent.

While he remains in the Kremlin, Putin's objective is the neutralisation of NATO. He knows that the alliance's failure to fight for its own under his provocation would spell its final humiliation and signal the end of the US-led world order. For the liberty, prosperity and security of future generations, this cannot be allowed to happen.

This is not a rehearsal; it is a foretaste of the far greater threat that will be coming from President Xi Jinping's Chinese Communist Party.

If NATO blood would in fact be spilt should Russia invade Poland or the Baltic states, why have we utterly rejected the prospect of spilling it to help protect Ukraine from Putin's mass killings, torture, rape and destruction? (Photo by Kenzo Tribouillard/AFP via Getty Images)
Great Britain is Russian President Vladimir Putin's public enemy number one. In March the Kremlin branded UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson the most active anti-Russian leader. A few days ago on television, Putin's propagandist Dmitry Kiselyov fancifully suggested Russia should drown Britain in a radioactive tsunami created by Poseidon nuclear torpedos that would leave survivors in "a radioactive desert, unfit for anything for a very long time".

Putin is upset about Britain's stance over Ukraine, leading Europe and much of the world in aggressive sanctions against Russia; and pouring in financial and military aid plus decisive secret intelligence to help keep Kiev in the fight.

Continue Reading Article https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/18514/will-nato-fight

Harvard President Should Use His First Amendment Right to Condemn The Harvard Crimson's Antisemitism
by Alan M. Dershowitz  •  May 9, 2022 at 12:00 pm

Facebook Twitter WhatsApp Telegram Send Print
The Crimson editors justify their bigotry by subtly invoking the classic antisemitic trope of Jewish "power," and by presenting a one-sided history that places no fault on the Palestinian leadership, ignores the threats faced by Israel from Palestinian terrorist and Iranian nuclear threats, and mendaciously omits the numerous Palestinian rejections of Israel's offers to accept a two-state solution.

Would a similar refusal to condemn explicitly other bigoted editorials that singled out other groups or nations be deemed acceptable by the Harvard community? Such as:

An editorial supporting the overruling of Roe v. Wade and calling for the banning of all "baby killing" abortions;

An editorial blaming race-based affirmative action for lowering standards throughout the country...

[I]t was less than 90 years ago that the Harvard Crimson supported giving an honorary doctorate to the official spokesperson for Hitler's Nazi Germany. Harvard's then president, James B. Conant, did not condemn the editorial. Indeed, he himself supported Nazi Germany in many ways.

An editorial singling out Black African nations for human rights violations that are worse in other parts of the world;

An editorial declaring Donald Trump the legitimate winner of the 2020 election.

The question [Harvard President Lawrence] Bacow should ask himself is whether he would refuse to comment on any of the hypothetical editorials were The Crimson to publish them.

Harvard cannot have a double standard regarding matters Jewish or the nation state of the Jewish people, even if some radical students demand it.

Bacow should reconsider his no comment stance and use his bully pulpit to say what I'm sure he believes in his heart: that The Crimson's editorial was a bigoted, mendacious and irresponsible attack on the nation state of the Jewish people and its supporters.


Pictured: Harvard President Lawrence Bacow. (Photo by Paul Marotta/Getty Images)
The President of Harvard — a proud Jewish supporter of Israel and a good person— has thus far refused explicitly to condemn The Harvard Crimson's blatantly anti-Semitic editorial singling out Israel for a political boycott. The Crimson editors justify their bigotry by subtly invoking the classic antisemitic trope of Jewish "power," and by presenting a one-sided history that places no fault on the Palestinian leadership, ignores the threats faced by Israel from Palestinian terrorist and Iranian nuclear threats, and mendaciously omits the numerous Palestinian rejections of Israel's offers to accept a two-state solution.

The former president of Harvard, Lawrence Summers condemned the editorial as antisemitic in both "intent and effect." But Harvard President Lawrence Bacow refused to condemn the editorial, limiting himself to the following:

Continue Reading Article https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/18513/harvard-crimson-antisemitism

China Accelerates Nuclear Buildup, Military Modernization; Biden Speeding U.S. to Defeat
by Judith Bergman  •  May 9, 2022 at 5:00 am

Facebook Twitter WhatsApp Telegram Send Print
"The PRC likely intends to have at least 1,000 warheads by 2030, exceeding the pace and size the DoD projected in 2020." — Military and Security Developments Involving the People's Republic of China 2021, US Dept. of Defense.

"In space, China is putting up satellites at twice the rate of the United States and "fielding operational systems at an incredible rate." — General David Thompson, the Space Force's first vice chief of space operations, quoted in The Washington Post, November 30, 2021.

"Look at what they [CCP) have today.... We're witnessing one of the largest shifts in global geostrategic power that the world has witnessed." — General Mark Milley, Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, breakingdefense.com, November 4, 2021.

"he Chinese are building up their military capabilities in space, cyberspace, and in the conventional force. It's all happening at the same time." — Timothy Heath, senior international and defense researcher at Rand Corporation, Business Insider, January 4, 2022.

"To fully assess the China threat, it is also necessary to consider the capability of the associated delivery system, command and control, readiness, posture, doctrine and training. By these measures, China is already capable of executing any plausible nuclear employment strategy within their region and will soon be able to do so at intercontinental ranges as well." ­­ — Admiral Charles Richard, Commander of U.S. Strategic Command, Senate Committee on Armed Services, April 20, 2021.

There is now as well the added probability of China and Russia engaging in military coordination.... a strategic partnership of "no limits" and with "no forbidden areas" in an agreement that they said was aimed at countering the influence of the United States.

This cooperation has already seen China undermining Western sanctions on Russia and supplying Russian President Vladimir Putin with the lifeline he needs to continue his war in Ukraine.

"The friendship between the two peoples is iron clad." — Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, Associated Press, March 7, 2022.

"For the first time in our history, the nation is on a trajectory to face two nuclear-capable, strategic peer adversaries at the same time, who must be deterred differently." ­­ — Admiral Charles Richard, Senate Committee on Armed Services, April 20, 2021.

[T]his is NOT the time for the US to cancel the sea-launched nuclear cruise missile (SLCM-N), as President Joe Biden plans to do.

Meanwhile, Biden's proposed defense budget risks speeding the US to defeat by insufficiently taking into account the current skyrocketing inflation, as acknowledged in early April by Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Pentagon comptroller Mike McCord. "This budget assumes an inflation rate of 2.2%, which is obviously incorrect because it's almost 8%," said Milley. "Because the budget was produced quite a while ago, those calculations were made prior to the current inflation rate."

"Nearly every dollar of increase in this budget will be eaten by inflation. Very little, if anything, will be left over to modernize and grow capability." — Representative Mike Rogers, (R-Ala.) House Armed Services Committee, Defense News, April 5, 2022.

The accelerating pace of China's nuclear buildup is concerning in itself, but even more so given that the military buildup constitutes just one, but significant, part of China's general military buildup and modernization. Pictured: DF-17 hypersonic missiles at a military parade in Beijing, China, on October 1, 2019. (Photo by Kevin Frayer/Getty Images)
When the Pentagon assessed China's nuclear arsenal in its annual report to Congress on China's military power in November 2020, it projected that China's nuclear warhead stockpile, which the Pentagon then estimated to be in the low 200s, would "at least double in size" over the next decade. The Pentagon also estimated that China was "pursuing" a "nuclear triad", meaning a combination of land-, sea- and air-based nuclear capabilities.

Just one year later, in November 2021, the Pentagon found itself acknowledging that China's nuclear buildup was taking place at an astonishing speed, with the nuclear warhead stockpile now possibly quadrupling from the estimated low 200s in 2020 over the next decade:

"The accelerating pace of the PRC's nuclear expansion may enable the PRC to have up to 700 deliverable nuclear warheads by 2027. The PRC likely intends to have at least 1,000 warheads by 2030, exceeding the pace and size the DoD projected in 2020."

Continue Reading Article  https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/18472/china-nuclear-buildup

Sweden Would Strengthen the NATO Alliance
by Lawrence A. Franklin  •  May 9, 2022 at 4:00 am
The Swedes need little proof of Russia's disregard for the sovereignty of nation states.
After the end of the Soviet Union and the Cold War in 1991, Sweden downgraded its defense posture -- until Putin's Russia invaded Georgia in 2008, and seized Ukraine's Crimea in 2014. Sweden has continued the upgrade of its national defense ever since.

In addition, Sweden possesses a historic sensitivity to democratic values and to global crises and humanitarian needs. When, for instance, other nations closed their doors to Jews attempting to escape German-occupied Europe in the early 1940s, it was Sweden -- even though caught between two totalitarian states, Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia -- that extended a merciful welcome to Jewish refugees... Now NATO will have the opportunity to extend a welcome to Sweden.


The Swedes need little proof of Russia's disregard for the sovereignty of nation states. After the end of the Soviet Union and the Cold War in 1991, Sweden downgraded its defense posture -- until Putin's Russia invaded Georgia in 2008, and seized Ukraine's Crimea in 2014. Sweden has continued the upgrade of its national defense ever since. Pictured: A Swedish Air Force JAS 39 Gripen fighter jet takes off from the F17 Blekinge Air Force Wing, based in Kallinge, on April 2, 2011. (Photo by Patric Soderstrom/AFP via Getty Images)
The Swedes need little proof of Russia's disregard for the sovereignty of nation states.

Several Russian fighter aircraft were intercepted near NATO airspace over the Baltic and Black Seas several times in late April by alliance Quick Reaction Alert (QRA) warplanes. On April 29, a Russian spy plane also violated Sweden's sovereign airspace. NATO fighter interceptors from Denmark, Poland, Spain, and France responded to the Russian challenge over Baltic Sea airspace. Romanian and British fighters intercepted Russian aircraft over the Black Sea.

The Swedish government and people apparently now favor NATO's defensive umbrella. This became especially true after a March violation of Swedish airspace by Russian SU-27 Flanker Fighters and SU-24 Fencer Bombers, which were reportedly carrying nuclear weapons.

Continue Reading Article https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/18508/sweden-nato

New Views of Moderation, Resistance and the Holocaust in the Middle East
by Najat Al-Saied  •  May 8, 2022 at 5:00 am

The real danger lies not only in denying that the Holocaust took place, but, worse, in rewriting history, especially by those who oppose peace and stability. Their main motive seems to be to perpetuate hatred and hostility so that the conflict -- their raison d'être and possibly also their careers -- remains continuous and immortal.

The real dispute in the Middle East is actually between two axes: an Axis of Moderation and an Axis of Resistance (to moderation, non-violence, normalization and peace).

Nothing, it seems, infuriates extremist groups or the Axis of Resistance more than bringing them face-to-face with such historical facts, and being able to cast aside all doubt about everything that is going on in Israel and that has been so maliciously and falsely reported

If matters were more peaceful and normal, everyone could go there and see the reality for themselves. This suppression of the truth seems, in fact, the main reason that so many are against normalization and fostering relationships between people across cultural and political divides: they want their own people to see only their version of reality.

Mohammad Dajani, a former Palestinian professor at Al-Quds University, had a different experience: he still lives in the midst of the conflict. His life is at risk because of the pragmatic position he chose: to solve the conflict rather than to perpetuate it.

[The Abraham Accords] made the voice of the Axis of Moderation louder and bolder. Supporters of the Axis of Resistance can no longer embarrass supporters of the Axis of Moderation, as they have done in the past, simply by accusing them of treason, or for doing nothing for the Palestinians or the Palestinian cause.

Peace cannot be built as long as extremism and ideological terrorism exist, and there can be no independent Palestinian state if generations are raised on violence and hatred in the absence of reason and logic.

Through the new Abraham Accords, which differ from previous models in that they actively promote peace and prosperity for the civil society, there is finally a glorious opportunity for people to see for themselves the reality of the Holocaust, for example, and better understand the dangers of radicalism, intolerance and racism to their own societies.


This year, His Excellency Ahmed Obaid AlMansoori, the Emirati founder of the Crossroads of Civilizations Museum in Dubai, led this history-making delegation from the UAE to Poland along with Eitan Nichloss, the newly-appointed ambassador of the International March of the Living in the Gulf States. Such delegations that expose people to historical evidence and facts that counter the radicals' manipulation of history, could go a long way to having a refreshingly positive influence in helping to solve the conflict still underway in the Middle East. Pictured: The Crossroads of Civilizations Museum in Dubai. (Image source: أمين علوان/Wikimedia Commons)
For the first time in history, a delegation of journalists, academics and influencers from across the Arab and Muslim world -- including citizens from states that have not yet signed peace agreements with Israel, such as Saudi Arabia, Syria and Lebanon – came to see first-hand the horrors of the Holocaust and to promote education and awareness of them in their societies.

The delegation was organized by Sharaka, a grassroots organization based in Israel, the UAE, Bahrain, and Morocco, and made up of young social activists from Israel, the Arab Gulf States and others in the region who are dedicated to promoting warm ties and citizen-diplomacy. The group learned about the pre-WWII Jewish community, about the Holocaust, including touring the Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination camp in Poland, and then took part in the International March of the Living, also there, an annual event in which thousands march in memory of the victims of the Holocaust.

Continue Reading Article https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/18511/middle-east-moderation-holocaust



Perils of Putin's Victory Parade
by Amir Taheri  •  May 8, 2022 at 4:00 am

Facebook Twitter WhatsApp Telegram Send Print
Rather than signaling the end of hostilities, Putin may announce a widening of the perimeters of a war he no longer controls.

The invasion [of Ukraine] has led to an unexpected strengthening of creaking political and military bonds among Western powers and whetted their appetite for regime change in Moscow, something that many, perhaps even most, would have shied away from before Putin began raining his missiles on Kiev.

US President Joe Biden has publicly called for ending Putin's domination of Russia. British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss says the Western aim is to so weaken Russia that it is never again able to invade another country. French Minister of Finance and Economy Bruno Le Maire says the aim of the war is to "destroy the Russian economy." Other senior Western officials speak of bringing Putin and his close associates to justice on charges of genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity. The British government has already asked a commission to start working on that scheme.

Like Hussein and Milosevic, Putin dreams of surrounding Russia with countries with regimes that resemble his, ignoring the fact that reality was developing in the opposite direction with Russia or Iraq or Serbia, ending up resembling the geopolitico-cultural sphere in which fate or events of history has located them. Putin invaded to prevent Ukraine from becoming European, not knowing that Russia itself will eventually have to bury its Slavophile illusions and adopt the "Westernization" strategy supported by such unlikely partners in a dream as Peter the Great, Herzen, Turgenev and Belinsky.


The invasion of Ukraine has led to an unexpected strengthening of creaking political and military bonds among Western powers and whetted their appetite for regime change in Moscow, something that many, perhaps even most, would have shied away from before Putin began raining his missiles on Kiev. Pictured: Russian President Vladimir Putin makes a speech in Red Square during a Victory Day military parade marking the 75th anniversary of the victory in World War II, on June 24, 2020 in Moscow, Russia. (Photo by Sergey Guneev - Host Photo Agency via Getty Images )
What do you do when you have called a victory parade but have no victory to parade?

This is the question that Russian President Vladimir Putin faces as his faction factory prepares to churn out a gigantic street show in Moscow with Tsarist eagles with varvels bearing Volodya's coat of arms.

The answer is that Putin is likely to keep the parade on May 9 and invent a victory to go with it. Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, an erstwhile chum of Putin, even claims that Tsar Vladimir will declare victory in his war against Ukraine in tune with his cheat-and-retreat tactic of one step backwards to prepare for the next two steps forward.

We shall soon know whether Orbán's prophesy is anything but wishful thinking. Rather than signaling the end of hostilities, Putin may announce a widening of the perimeters of a war he no longer controls.

Continue Reading Article https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/18510/putin-victory-parade