Gatestone Institute

The Return of ISIS is a Challenge Biden Must Not Ignore
by Con Coughlin  •  February 14, 2021 at 5:00 am
A recent United Nations Security Council report concluded that ISIS currently controls more than 10,000 fighters, organized in small cells in Syria and Iraq.

To date most of the Biden administration's policy announcements have been aimed at reducing tensions with Iran, such as freezing arms sales to Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states and easing restrictions on the Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen.

By concentrating the new administration's foreign policy resources on reviving the Iran deal and restoring relations with the Palestinian leadership, however, President Biden risks overlooking the extremely significant threat posed by the fanatical supporters of ISIS which, if left unchecked, could once again wreak havoc across the Middle East.
The most recent manifestation of the deadly effectiveness of the Islamic State (ISIS) was demonstrated last month when it carried out a double suicide bombing at a Baghdad street market that killed 32 people and wounded 75 others. Pictured: The scene of the double suicide bombing in Baghdad on January 21, 2021. (Photo by Sabah Arar/AFP via Getty Images)
As the Biden administration prepares to implement its new policy on the Middle East, it is vital that its preoccupation with reviving the Iran deal does not result in the White House overlooking the considerable threat the Islamist fanatics of ISIS continue to pose to global security.

Since taking office, the main priorities of President Joe Biden's newly-appointed foreign policy team, so far as the Middle East is concerned, have been to consider the prospects of reopening negotiations with Tehran over its nuclear programme, and to establish a dialogue with Palestinian leaders, who spent the past three years boycotting President Donald Trump over his decision to relocate the US Embassy to Jerusalem.

By taking this somewhat narrow view of the numerous challenges facing the region, there are mounting concerns that the Biden team will not pay sufficient attention to the mounting threat posed by ISIS terrorists.

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https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/17023/isis-return-biden

EU's Covid-19 Vaccination Debacle: "Epochal Failure"
by Soeren Kern  •  February 13, 2021 at 5:00 am

The vaccination rollout has been plagued by bureaucratic sclerosis, poorly-negotiated contracts, penny-pinching and blame shifting — all wrapped in a shroud of secrecy. The result is a needless and embarrassing shortage of vaccines, and yet another a crisis of legitimacy for the EU.

"The European Commission ordered too late, limited its focus to only a few pharmaceutical companies, agreed on a price in a typically bureaucratic EU manner and completely underestimated the fundamental importance of the situation. We now have a situation where grandchildren in Israel are already vaccinated but the grandparents here are still waiting. That's just completely wrong." — Markus Söder, Bavarian premier and possible future German chancellor.

"I now fear that the European Union will find itself in the impossible situation of having to prolong some of the existing [Covid-19] restrictions beyond the summer, while both Britain and the United States start to normalize. That is the cost of the vaccine delays: a very high cost in lives, prestige and further economic losses." — Bruno Maçães, political scientist and former Portuguese Europe Minister.

"The commission decided to aggrandize its competence and it wasn't up to the job — it didn't have the right people or the right skills." — Adrian Wooldridge, political editor, The Economist.

"In the dispute over the delivery delay of the AstraZeneca vaccine, the EU Commission is currently making the best advertisement for Brexit: It is acting slowly, bureaucratically and protectionist. And if something goes wrong, it's everyone else's fault." — Bettina Schulz, commentator, Die Zeit.


The EU's Covid-19 vaccination campaign rollout has been plagued by bureaucratic sclerosis, poorly-negotiated contracts, penny-pinching and blame shifting, resulting in a needless and embarrassing shortage of vaccines. Pictured: People await their vaccination at the Robert-Bosch hospital in Stuttgart, Germany on February 12, 2021. (Photo by Thomas Kienzle/AFP via Getty Images)
The European Union's much-touted campaign to vaccinate 450 million Europeans against Covid-19 has gotten off to an inauspicious start. The vaccination rollout has been plagued by bureaucratic sclerosis, poorly-negotiated contracts, penny-pinching and blame shifting — all wrapped in a shroud of secrecy. The result is a needless and embarrassing shortage of vaccines, and yet another a crisis of legitimacy for the EU.

As of February 11, the EU had administered vaccines to approximately 4.5% of its adult population, compared to 14% in the United States, 21% in the United Kingdom and 71% in Israel, according to statistics compiled by Our World in Data. The EU's vaccination fiasco comes as many European countries are struggling to combat an extremely virulent third wave of the coronavirus and healthcare systems across the continent are once again at breaking points.

Continue Reading Article https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/17052/eu-vaccination-failure

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/17042/palestinians-corruption-financial-aid
Palestinians: More Corruption as Biden Resumes Financial Aid
by Bassam Tawil  •  February 12, 2021 at 5:00 am

The assumption that renewed financial aid would lead the Palestinian leadership to make "concessions" has proven, over the past three decades, to be completely baseless. Anyone in the Biden administration who thinks that the Palestinian leadership would make real "concessions" to Israel in return for hundreds of millions of dollars is living under an illusion.

Last year, the Palestinians rejected Trump's $50 billion Middle East economic plan that would create a global investment fund to lift the Palestinian and Arab state economies. The Palestinians dubbed it an "attempted bribe."

The "innocent Palestinians" the Biden administration is talking about would undoubtedly be happy to receive financial aid from the US or the European Union. These Palestinians, however, are concerned that their leaders will continue to deprive them of the financial aid, and that the money, ever-fungible, would, as usual, just end up in the pockets of Palestinian leaders as well as to incentivizing murder for "pay-for-slay" terrorists.

A recent public opinion poll showed that a majority of Palestinians are still worried about the corruption of their leaders, especially the Palestinian Authority.

The majority of Palestinians believe that corruption is concentrated among senior public sector employees, particularly in the executive public institutions (the ministries, the presidency and the security services). The Palestinians continue to believe that senior employees are the most corrupt individuals among the Palestinians.

All this means that, if and when the general elections take place, Hamas is well on its way to score another easy victory.

The message that the findings send to the Biden administration and other Western donors: The funds you are sending to Palestinian leaders are being stolen. If you want to send money, you must ensure that the money does not end up in the private bank accounts of Palestinian leaders.

If, as the poll shows, a majority of Palestinians continue to see their leaders as corrupt, this means that Abbas's rivals in Hamas are again likely to win the vote.


A recent public opinion poll showed that a majority of Palestinians are still worried about the corruption of their leaders. The findings send a message to the Biden administration and other Western donors: The funds you are sending to Palestinian leaders are being stolen. If you want to send money, you must ensure that the money does not end up in the private bank accounts of Palestinian leaders. Pictured: Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas speaks in Ramallah on May 19, 2020. (Photo by Alaa Badarneh/Pool/AFP via Getty Images)
Ignoring rampant corruption in the Palestinian Authority (PA), the US administration of President Joe Biden says it is preparing to resume unconditional financial aid to the Palestinians.

"The suspension of aid to the Palestinian people has neither produced political progress nor secured concessions from the Palestinian leadership," US State Department Spokesman Ned Price said at a press briefing earlier this month. "It has only harmed innocent Palestinians."

In 2018, the administration of President Donald Trump announced that it would not spend more than $200 million set aside for Palestinian aid on the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
Continue Reading Article https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/17042/palestinians-corruption-financial-aid

Turkish Reforms: From Imperial Repression to Thuggish State
by Burak Bekdil  •  February 11, 2021 at 4:00 am

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The Turks' political journey toward the West began a century and a half ago, but Turkey now remains as distant from universal democratic values as the Ottoman Empire was at its collapse.

Modern Turkey's darkest years came between 1976 and 1980, when a campaign of political violence, wrought by a multitude of far-left and far-right urban guerilla groups, killed more than 5,000 people. That era only came to an end when the military took over the country in a completed coup d'état and the violence subsided.

Twenty years later, a militant Islamist, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, pledged radically to reform Turkish democracy and make it an inseparable part of Europe -- via full membership in the European Union. Two decades after that pledge Turkey's democracy remains as remote from Europe's civil liberties, democratic culture and checks and balances as Abdulhamid's empire was in 1876.


The Turks' political journey toward the West began a century and a half ago, but Turkey now remains as distant from universal democratic values as the Ottoman Empire was at its collapse. Pictured: Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan is surrounded by a ceremonial palace guard in Ankara on January 12, 2015. (Photo by Adem Altan/AFP via Getty Images)
The Turks' political journey toward the West began a century and a half ago, but Turkey now remains as distant from universal democratic values as the Ottoman Empire was at its collapse. The parallels between failed Ottoman and Turkish reforms are worth a look.

During that 150-year period, in addition to building railway systems on imperial soil, systems for registering the population and control over the press were established, along with the first local modern law school in 1898. The most far-reaching reforms occurred in education: many professional schools were established for fields including the law, arts, trades, civil engineering, veterinary medicine, customs, farming and linguistics.

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https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/16978/turkish-reforms-repression
Turkish Reforms: From Imperial Repression to Thuggish State
by Burak Bekdil
February 11, 2021 at 4:00 am
The Turks' political journey toward the West began a century and a half ago, but Turkey now remains as distant from universal democratic values as the Ottoman Empire was at its collapse.

Modern Turkey's darkest years came between 1976 and 1980, when a campaign of political violence, wrought by a multitude of far-left and far-right urban guerilla groups, killed more than 5,000 people. That era only came to an end when the military took over the country in a completed coup d'état and the violence subsided.

Twenty years later, a militant Islamist, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, pledged radically to reform Turkish democracy and make it an inseparable part of Europe -- via full membership in the European Union. Two decades after that pledge Turkey's democracy remains as remote from Europe's civil liberties, democratic culture and checks and balances as Abdulhamid's empire was in 1876.

The Turks' political journey toward the West began a century and a half ago, but Turkey now remains as distant from universal democratic values as the Ottoman Empire was at its collapse. Pictured: Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan is surrounded by a ceremonial palace guard in Ankara on January 12, 2015. (Photo by Adem Altan/AFP via Getty Images)

The Turks' political journey toward the West began a century and a half ago, but Turkey now remains as distant from universal democratic values as the Ottoman Empire was at its collapse. The parallels between failed Ottoman and Turkish reforms are worth a look.

During that 150-year period, in addition to building railway systems on imperial soil, systems for registering the population and control over the press were established, along with the first local modern law school in 1898. The most far-reaching reforms occurred in education: many professional schools were established for fields including the law, arts, trades, civil engineering, veterinary medicine, customs, farming and linguistics.

It was Sultan Abdulhamid II who was under Western pressure to reform his ailing empire. On December 23, 1876 the Ottoman constitution was solemnly promulgated with the aim of winning the hearts and minds of the Great Powers of Europe, only to be suspended when external pressure abated, and its author sent to exile. At the beginning of the 20th century, another constitutionalist reformer group, the Committee of Union and Progress, threatened the sultan with a coup d'état, ending Abdulhamid's reign.

Modern Turkey's darkest years came between 1976 and 1980, when a campaign of political violence, wrought by a multitude of far-left and far-right urban guerilla groups, killed more than 5,000 people. That era only came to an end when the military took over the country in a completed coup d'état and the violence subsided. Twenty years later, a militant Islamist, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, pledged radically to reform Turkish democracy and make it an inseparable part of Europe -- via full membership in the European Union. Two decades after that pledge Turkey's democracy remains as remote from Europe's civil liberties, democratic culture and checks and balances as Abdulhamid's empire was in 1876.

Cornered by the threat of EU sanctions, Erdoğan tactically said in November that "Turkey's future was in Europe" and that "democratic and economic reforms would follow quickly." On January 10, he repeated that Turkey wants to "turn a new page in its relations with the EU in the new year." Turkey claimed that it was once again back at its reform agenda.

Meanwhile, Utku Çakırözer, an opposition member of parliament, said that five journalists were physically attacked in the first 15 days of 2021. "This shameful track record on impunity regarding physical attacks should come to an end," he said.

Three of the attacks were particularly indicative. During the first incident, Selçuk Özdağ, deputy chairman of an opposition party, Future, was attacked by a gang of five men in front of his home. The attackers were armed and used sticks to hit Özdağ on the head. He was rushed to an emergency room for surgery. "This is political terror," said Future's chairman and former prime minister Ahmet Davutoğlu. Apparently, Özdağ had angered supporters of Erdoğan's ultra-nationalist coalition partner, MHP. An MHP official "congratulated" the attackers.

Ultra-nationalists also attacked journalist Orhan Uğuroğlu and television anchorman Afşin Hatipoğlu, whose anti-Erdoğan reporting had angered MHP loyalists. In his column on January 13, Uguroğlu had interviewed Future's Özdağ.

Ankara's police directorate tweeted that three suspects in the attack had been taken into custody, and that the police were searching for a fourth. Before the fourth attacker was caught, the others were released. The police were hardly convincing, given the Erdoğan government's track record of totally failing to punish crimes against his opponents.

In a Februry 2020 report, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said that the violence comes after years of authorities harassing and jailing journalists who are critical of the ruling party or its political allies. The CPJ noted:

"While no clear motive has been established in the attacks last year, local journalist associations have speculated that the general climate of hostility has made journalism riskier. In May, local journalist unions told the Turkish service of the BBC the violence was in part due to a climate of impunity, with authorities not effectively investigating violence and the government targeting journalists and not publicly condemning attacks."

After recounting recent examples of how Turkish courts unconstitutionally refused to comply with rulings handed down by supreme courts such as the Turkish Constitutional Court and the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR), columnist Mehmet Ocaktan wrote: "If this is your understanding of reforming... there is nothing more to say." His column's sarcastic title was "We are begging you; do not reform!" -- as all of that repression and violence are happening after Erdogan pledged democratic reforms, do not reform, do not make things worse.

A December 29 report from Expression Interrupted gloomily noted:

"Of all 47 members of the Council of Europe, Turkey has the most violations of freedom of expression under Article 10 of the Convention. Of the 845 judgments ECtHR delivered between 1959 and 2019, 356 were against Turkey — almost five times as many as against the distant runner-up, Russia."

It went on to note: "Turkey also tops the list of rights violations pertaining to all articles of the constitution. "Between 1959 and 2019, 3,645 of the 22,535 judgments delivered by the Court were against Turkey, making it the country against which the ECtHR has delivered the most judgments." Out of 5,231 cases currently pending execution by signatory parties, 689 of them are against Turkey."

A century and a half after Ottoman efforts to reform and more than 15 years since EU accession talks began, Turkey is further away from joining the rich club than ever.

Burak Bekdil, one of Turkey's leading journalists, was recently fired from the country's most noted newspaper after 29 years, for writing in Gatestone what is taking place in Turkey. He is a Fellow at the Middle East Forum.


Richard Kemp: The International Criminal Court Threatens Middle East Peace
The International Criminal Court Threatens Middle East Peace
by Richard Kemp  •  February 11, 2021 at 5:00 am

The International Criminal Court (ICC) has long had its sights on what it no doubt considers an unholy trinity: Israel, the US and Britain.... First, these are the three Western democracies most active in using legitimate military force to defend their interests. This is anathema to the left-liberal doctrine of ICC officials and their soul-mates in such morally dissipated places as the UN Human Rights Council. Second, they wish to virtue signal, deflecting criticism that the court is biased against African states....

Yet by its charter, dealing with countries that lack the will or capability to bring their own to justice is the sole purpose of the ICC. This does apply to some states in Africa and elsewhere but demonstrably does not apply to Israel, the US or Britain, each of which have long-established and globally respected legal systems.

The ICC's design against Israel is the latest in a long history of endeavours to subjugate and scourge unwilling Jewish people deemed incapable of regulating themselves. When you examine the unexampled contortions the court has gone through just to get to this point, you have no choice but to question whether antisemitism is the motive.

The effects of the ICC's decision will be profound. This is only the end of the beginning. Unless halted, investigations into spurious allegations of war crimes will go on for years, perhaps decades, creating a global bonanza for all who hate Israel, including at the UN, the European Union, various governments and in universities and so-called human rights groups.

But the most detrimental effect of the ICC's decision will be felt by Palestinian Arab people who, for decades, have been abused as political pawns by their leaders and who would be the greatest beneficiaries of any peace agreement with Israel. The ICC's ruling makes such a deal even more remote today.

In an unprecedented move early last year Germany, Austria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Australia, Canada, Uganda and Brazil petitioned the ICC, of which all are members, arguing that a formal investigation could not be launched as the Palestinian Authority does not meet the definition of a state under the Rome Statute that established and governs the court.


The International Criminal Court's imperious judgement on its own authority over Israel is not only detrimental to peace, it also undermines the credibility of the court itself. Pictured: The ICC building in The Hague, Netherlands. (Image source: OSeveno/Wikimedia Commons)
The International Criminal Court (ICC) waited until after US President Joe Biden took the oath of office before unilaterally handing itself territorial jurisdiction over Israel — more than a full year since the pre-trial chamber was asked to rule on the matter. Mindful of President Donald J. Trump's sanctions against ICC staff, including revoking Chief Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda's US entry visa, and his warnings against efforts to brand Israel and other allies as war criminals, court officials lacked the steel to make an announcement while he remained in the Oval Office.

Continue Reading Article https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/17051/international-criminal-court-threatens-peace

Is Palestine a State?
by Alan M. Dershowitz  •  February 9, 2021 at 5:00 am
The highly politicized International Criminal Court just declared statehood for Palestinians. They did it without any negotiation with Israel, without any compromise, and without any recognized boundaries. They also did it without any legal authority, because the Rome Statute, which established the International Criminal Court, makes no provision for this criminal court to recognize new states.

The International Criminal Court is not a real court in any meaningful sense of that word. Unlike real courts, which have statutes and common law to interpret, the International Criminal Court just makes it up. As the dissenting judge so aptly pointed out, the Palestine decision is not based on existing law. It is based on pure politics.

The Palestinians — both in the West Bank and Gaza — who have refused to negotiate in good faith and have used terrorism as their primary claim to recognition, have been rewarded for their violence by this decision.

The real victims of such selective prosecution are the citizens of these third world countries whose leaders are killing and maiming them.

All in all, the International Criminal Court decision on Palestine is a setback for a single standard of human rights. It is a victory for terrorism and an unwillingness to negotiate peace. And it is a strong argument against the United States and Israel joining this biased "court," and giving it any legitimacy.

The highly politicized International Criminal Court (ICC) is not a real court in any meaningful sense of that word. Unlike real courts, which have statutes and common law to interpret, the International Criminal Court just makes it up. Pictured: The ICC's chief prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda, holds a press conference on May 3, 2018 in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo. (Photo by John Wessels/AFP via Getty Images)
The highly politicized International Criminal Court just declared statehood for Palestinians. They did it without any negotiation with Israel, without any compromise, and without any recognized boundaries. They also did it without any legal authority, because the Rome Statute, which established the International Criminal Court, makes no provision for this criminal court to recognize new states. Moreover, neither Israel nor the United States ratified that treaty, so the decisions of the International Criminal Court are not binding on them. Nor is this divided decision binding on signatories, since it exceeds the authority of the so-called court.

Continue Reading Article https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/17047/is-palestine-a-state

If You Thought the 2020 Elections Were Chaotic, Just Wait
by J. Christian Adams  •  February 8, 2021 at 5:00 am

H.R.1 packs into one 791-page bill every bad idea about how to run elections and mandates that the states must adopt the very things that made the election of 2020 such a mess. It includes all of the greatest hits of 2020: Mandatory mail ballots, ballots without postmarks, late ballots, voting in precincts where you do not live.... The Senate companion bill, S.1, might be even worse.

In 2020, states such as Nevada and New Jersey sent ballots through the mail to anyone on their registration lists despite having voter rolls full of errors. The Public Interest Legal Foundation documented thousands of ineligible registrations in Nevada alone that received mail ballots. Some were sent to vacant lots, abandoned mines, casinos and even liquor stores.

States also would be blocked by H.R.1 from signature verification procedures.

H.R.1 rigs the system for any lawsuits challenging the constitutionality of the law. All lawsuits can only be filed in one court -- federal court in the District of Columbia. And all opposition must be consolidated into one brief with only one attorney being able to argue the merits.

There is a federal mandate, passed in the 19th Century, to have one single election day.... Like Obamacare earlier, H.R.1 transitions our federalist Republic to some other brave new system that purports to right generations of structural wrongs, while at the same time entrenching other wrongs.


(Image source: iStock)
H.R.1 packs into one 791-page bill every bad idea about how to run elections and mandates that the states must adopt -- the very things that made the election of 2020 such a mess. It includes all of the greatest hits of 2020: Mandatory mail ballots, ballots without postmarks, late ballots and voting in precincts where you don't live. It includes so many bad ideas that no publication has satisfactory space to cover all of them. The Senate companion bill, S.1, might be even worse.

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https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/17031/hr1-chaotic-elections

‘Iran's Role in Yemen: US, EU Go Wobbly
by Majid Rafizadeh  •  February 6, 2021 at 5:00 am

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Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC)... is a key supporter and sponsor of the Houthis, and has been stepping up its weapons supply to Yemen.... Saudi Arabia, Iran's rival, has been the main target of Iran's supply of weapons to the Houthis.

After the attack on Saudi Arabia's oil installations, Iran's major state-owned newspaper, Kayhan, whose editor is a close adviser of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and was appointed by him, had a front-page headline saying: "The Houthis fired a missile into Riyadh. Dubai is next."

The Houthis, already in 2019, fired a missile at an Abu Dhabi nuclear facility -- an act most likely meant to create mass civilian casualties. Thankfully, the missile fell short.

Even the Iranian leaders have admitted they are helping the Houthis. Influential cleric Mehdi Tayeb said the failed Houthi attack on Abu Dhabi's nuclear facility had been carried out in stages by the IRGC with the support of the navy.

By appeasing the ruling mullahs of Iran, the EU and Biden administration are empowering Tehran regime and its terror group, the Houthis.


The Iranian regime is delivering sophisticated weapons to Yemen's Houthi militia group, which was designated as a terrorist organization by the previous US administration. Where are the European Union and the Biden administration on this issue? Pictured: Houthi militiamen in Sanaa, Yemen on January 11, 2021. (Photo by Mohammed Huwais/AFP via Getty Images)
More evidence is emerging, including a recent report by the United Nations, showing that that the Iranian regime is delivering sophisticated weapons to the Houthi militia group in Yemen. The Houthi group was designated as a terrorist organization by the previous US administration.

Where are the European Union and the Biden administration on this issue? The Biden administration has suspended some of the terrorism sanctions that the previous administration imposed on the Houthis, and the Biden administration is reviewing the Houthis file to possibly remove it from the terrorist list. Secretary of State Antony Blinken stated that he has "deep concern about the designation" of the Houthis as a terrorist organization. The EU and Biden administration also appear to be busy charting ways to return to the nuclear deal -- which Iran never signed and which enables Iran ultimately to possess nuclear weapons -- and lift sanctions against the theocratic regime.

Continue Reading Article https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/17027/iran-role-yemen

Will the Trump Successes in the Middle East Survive?
by Guy Millière  •  February 7, 2021 at 5:00 am

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The Abraham Accords -- between Israel, the UAE and Bahrain -- will lead to billions of dollars of investment and trade between Israel and its partners in peace. The Accords will also allow the Emirates and Bahrain to benefit from Israeli technology, and see their defense strengthened against Iran.

Sudan, freshly removed from the list of terrorist states, now has help from Israel, one of the world-leaders in agricultural technologies, and will be able to improve its food production.

President Trump added to the agreement the recognition of Moroccan sovereignty over Western Sahara, a territory claimed by a guerrilla group supported by Algeria and more recently by the Islamic Republic of Iran and Hezbollah. President Trump's decision strengthens Morocco, an ally of the United States, and refuses to reward enemies of the United States.

Saudi Arabia's educational curricula are being modified in a direction of tolerance and all traces of anti-Semitic and anti-Israeli statements have been removed. The religious discourse in the country is also changing.... Saudi Arabia's Grand Mufti, now says that religion should be spread through words, not through the sword....Saudi Arabia is... moving in an extremely promising direction. Let us hope that outside forces do not thwart it.

The outline of a more stable Middle East, less marked by war, appears to be taking shape – if other countries will just let it. The mullahs' regime, no longer a major nuisance, seems on the road to asphyxiation. Let us hope that process is not thwarted, either.

The new Biden administration, in under two weeks, is already threatening to undermine these and other victories. It had indicated...that it would like to return to the catastrophic nuclear "Iran deal".... [New] conditions seem to boil down to a demand that Iran respect the terms of the JCPOA, which Iran has, in fact, never respected. Evidently perceiving an American wishing to appease it, the mullahs announced on January 4 that they had decided to resume enriching uranium to the 20% level, close to the purity used for nuclear weapons. The same day, the mullahs seized a South Korean-flagged chemical tanker in the Strait of Hormuz.

The Biden administration also seems eager to restore U.S. aid to the Palestinian Authority and reconnect with its leaders -- without talking to them about their support for terrorism, treating them again, as "partners for peace", no matter how much evidence there is to the contrary, and attempting to move toward renewed support yet again for a potentially lethal "two-state solution".

Presumably Iran can only want to weaken the agreements between Israel, Bahrain, the Emirates, Morocco and Sudan.


The Abraham Accords, solemnly signed on September 15, 2020 at the White House by Israel, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and the United States, set in motion a new peace process that many observers would have considered unimaginable just a few years ago. Pictured from left to right: Bahrain Foreign Minister Abdullatif al-Zayani, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, US President Donald Trump, and UAE Foreign Minister Abdullah bin Zayed Al-Nahyan participate in the signing of the Abraham Accords. (Photo by Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images)
December 22, 2020. 9:30 am. A plane takes off from Ben Gurion Airport in Israel for Morocco's capitol, Rabat. Economic, political, cultural and strategic agreements between Morocco and Israel are signed for a full normalization of relations between the two countries. Morocco is the fourth Arab Muslim country in 2020 to sign such an agreement with Israel.

The Abraham Accords, solemnly signed on September 15, 2020 at the White House by Israel, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and the United States, set in motion a new peace process that many observers would have considered unimaginable just a few years ago. This new peace process has continued well beyond the 2020 U.S. elections and are at the heart of a broader revolution that has changed the Middle East and the Arab world. It is a revolution that is one of the major achievements of the Trump presidency.

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https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/17032/trump-successes-middle-east

Human Rights Violations No One Talks About
by Khaled Abu Toameh  •  February 5, 2021 at 5:00 am

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Last year, the Palestinian Authority (PA) in the West Bank revealed that Hamas was planning to confiscate large areas of privately-owned lands in the Gaza Strip. According to the PA, Hamas formed the Palestinian Land Authority in the Gaza Strip to facilitate "land-theft."

A recent report by the Al Mezan Center for Human Rights documented the death in 2020 of at least 30 Palestinians in various "internal violence" incidents in the Gaza Strip, including six children and four women. Another 155 Palestinians were injured, including 17 children and 19 women.

The ongoing human rights violations by Hamas show that the Islamist movement does not care about reports issued by Palestinian human rights groups such as the Al Mezan Center. The Hamas rulers of the Gaza Strip know that they can continue doing anything they want there because the international community only pays attention when there is way to blame Israel.

In 2006, the US and European Union made a mistake by allowing Hamas, whose charter openly calls for the annihilation of Israel, to participate in the parliamentary election. If the Americans and Europeans repeat the same mistake, Palestinians in the West Bank will join their brothers in the Gaza Strip and find themselves also living under Hamas's repressive Islamist regime, which has no respect for human rights.


Last month, the Hamas-controlled Palestinian Land Authority in the Gaza Strip "removed" three houses, bulldozed about 30 dunums (7.4 acres) of agricultural land, and notified several farmers that it will confiscate their land for the purpose of expanding the Rafah border crossing with Egypt. Pictured: Hamas militiamen at the Rafah border crossing in Gaza, on February 1, 2021. (Photo by Said Khatib/AFP via Getty Images)
On January 3, 2021, the Hamas-controlled Palestinian Land Authority (PLA) in the Gaza Strip "removed" three houses -- one of which had been inhabited by a family of three -- and bulldozed about 30 dunums (7.4 acres) of agricultural land in the as-Salam neighborhood west of the Rafah border crossing with Egypt.

The decision to bulldoze the houses and fields -- which came on short notice and did not include direct notifications to those affected by it -- inflicted financial damage on farmers and displaced several Palestinians from their houses, according to the Gaza-based Al Mezan Center for Human Rights.

"The decision also sparked public outrage, with some protesters clashing with [Hamas] police," the center said.

Continue Reading Article https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/16964/gaza-human-rights

Wed, Feb 3 at 10:18 Am
Palestinians: No to Normalization with the 'Zionist entity'
by Khaled Abu Toameh  •  February 3, 2021 at 5:00 am
The anti-normalization campaign, which is also waged by Palestinians, means that any Palestinian leader or negotiator who is seen sitting with an Israeli will be condemned by Palestinians and possibly other Arabs as a traitor.... and accused of committing treason.

The last thing any Palestinian officials wants is to be labeled a traitor because, in the world of Fatah and Hamas, that crime is punishable by death.

If... Abbas wants to avoid such a fate, he must do an about-face and put an end to the anti-Israel incitement that is coming, first and foremost, from his very own loyalists.


If Palestinian journalists are banned from meeting Israelis, what will be the Palestinians' reaction the day they see Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas or his officials sitting at a negotiating table with Israel? The Palestinian representatives will undoubtedly be accused of committing treason, a crime punishable by death. Pictured: Palestinian protesters carry portraits of Abbas at a demonstration against the peace agreement between Israel and the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, in the city of Tubas, near the Jordan Valley, on September 27, 2020. (Photo by Jaafar Ashtiyeh/AFP via Getty Images)
If and when the Biden administration manages to revive the peace process between Israel and the Palestinians, it will have to take into consideration that the Arab campaign against normalization with Israel remains as aggressive as ever.

The anti-normalization campaign, which is also waged by Palestinians, means that any Palestinian leader or negotiator who is seen sitting with an Israeli will be condemned by Palestinians and possibly other Arabs as a traitor.

Two recent examples of the ongoing campaign:

On January 6, the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate (PJS), a body dominated by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas's ruling Fatah faction and representing hundreds of Palestinian journalists, issued a warning to its members against engaging in normalization activities with Israelis.

Continue Reading Article  https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/17024/palestinians-normalization-
israel…

Russia: Putin Shoots Himself in the Foot
by Judith Bergman  •  February 1, 2021 at 5:00 am

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Navalny has been in and out of Russian jails more than ten times since 2011, when he first became the face of Russian opposition to Putin and coined the phrase that the ruling United Russia party was "the party of crooks and thieves".

"We came up with this investigation, while I was in intensive care, but we immediately agreed that we would release it when I returned home, to Russia, to Moscow, because we do not want the main character of this film to think that we are afraid of him and that I will tell about his worst secret while I am abroad." — Alexei Navalny, YouTube video, "Putin's Palace", January 19, 2021.

Thousands demonstrated -- and were arrested by police armed with stun guns and batons -- this weekend as well, voicing anger over falling living standards, shrinking political freedoms, "corruption, a skewed court system" and a political system that is rigged before "another round of fraudulent elections," possibly this spring and no later than next fall.

Putin, ironically, may largely have himself to thank. If it had not been for the arrest and jailing of Navalny, the current protest movement might have remained dormant.


Across Russian, thousands demonstrated -- and were arrested by police armed with stun guns and batons -- this weekend as well, in support of jailed opposition leader Aleksei Navalny, and voicing anger over falling living standards, shrinking political freedoms, corruption, "a skewed court system and rigged elections" and a political system that is rigged before "another round of fraudulent elections", possibly this spring and no later than next fall. Pictured: Police detain a protestor in Moscow on January 31, 2021. (Photo by Alexander Nemenov/AFP via Getty Images)
Aleksei Navalny, opposition leader, anti-corruption activist and fierce critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin, returned to Russia on January 17 after recovering for five months in Germany from having been poisoned with a military grade nerve agent, Novichok. It was an event widely reported to have been an assassination attempt by Russian state agents.

Upon landing, Navalny was immediately arrested on charges that he had violated the parole terms from a suspended sentence received in 2014 for alleged fraud, a conviction that the European Court of Human Rights ruled was "arbitrary and manifestly unreasonable".

Upon his arrest, Navalny was denied access to a lawyer, and -- after a hearing that took place in a police station, which only pro-Kremlin media were allowed to attend -- ­­jailed for an initial term of 30 days. He is due to go on trial on February 2.

Continue Reading Article https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/17014/russia-putin-navalny-protests

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Iran Turns Gaza Into Storehouse for Weapons
by Khaled Abu Toameh  •  January 29, 2021 at 5:00 am


Instead of storing medicine and vaccines, Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad are busy storing rockets and explosive devices.
The Palestinian terror groups that moan about a crippling economic crisis in the Gaza Strip somehow always seem to find enough money to purchase, smuggle or manufacture weapons.

In addition, Hamas and other Palestinian terror groups have frequently violated the laws of war by firing rockets from within populated areas.

It is important to stress that Hamas is planning to participate in the election while continuing to store weapons in residential areas in the Gaza Strip.

Had the explosion in Bet Hanoun been caused by Israel, international media outlets would have been falling over themselves to shout about another Israeli "war crime." Perhaps it is time to heed the postings.... that call out the true enemy: Hamas, PIJ, and other Palestinian terrorist groups.

Rather than doing anything to secure COVID-19 vaccines for the two million Palestinians living under their rule in the Gaza Strip, the Palestinian terror groups Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad are continuing to do what they have proven themselves experts at doing: prepare for war against Israel and endanger the lives of innocent civilians, Israelis and Palestinians alike. Pictured: A spokesman for Gaza-based terrorist groups speaks at a press conference during joint military exercises led by Hamas, in Gaza City on December 29, 2020. (Photo by Mohammed Abed/AFP via Getty Images)
As many in the international community express more and more concern about the economic and humanitarian crisis in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip, the Palestinian terror groups there seem less and less concerned about improving the living conditions of their people.

These groups, specifically Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), are not doing anything to secure vaccines against COVID-19 for the two million Palestinians living under their rule in the Gaza Strip.

Instead, Hamas and PIJ are continuing to do what they have proven themselves experts at doing: prepare for war against Israel and endanger the lives of innocent civilians, Israelis and Palestinians alike.

Continue Reading Article

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Soeren Kern: Germany: Meet Angela Merkel's Second Successor
Burak Bekdil: Turkey and Greece: Still More Peace Talks
Germany: Meet Angela Merkel's Second Successor
by Soeren Kern  •  January 27, 2021 at 5:00 am
"You get the impression that Armin Laschet still believes in a partnership with Putin's Russia. He ignores the fact that there simultaneously is both a geopolitical and a value conflict with Moscow. This conflict requires a certain degree of severity, a policy of deterrence and also a policy of sanctions. It is wishful thinking that all foreign policy conflicts can be resolved through dialogue and goodwill." — Ralf Fücks, former Green Party politician and head of the think tank, Center for Liberal Modernity.

"Mr Laschet's first priority will be uniting the party. It will not be easy. He beat Mr Merz by 53 to 47 per cent of the vote. There is a large minority in the party who want it to take a clearer conservative direction. When he lost the 2018 leadership contest, Mr Merz retreated. This time, he seems determined to weigh on the party's future." — Editorial Board, Financial Times.

"The new CDU chairman faces a difficult task of maintaining coherence in a party that is struggling to find its identity while simultaneously trying to lure voters from the environmentalist Green Party and the right-wing AfD." — Oliver Hackel, senior financial strategist, Kaiser Partner Privatbank.

"German politics is drifting away from Mrs. Merkel's breed of consensus. Despite winning a leadership election among delegates to the CDU party conference, Mr. Laschet's soft foreign-policy views are increasingly at odds with prominent CDU figures who advocate a sterner approach to Russia and China. The Greens are on the rise as a mainstream center-left party on the back of their foreign-policy hawkishness and hostility to crony capitalism at home." — Editorial Board, Wall Street Journal.
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https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/16990/your-government-is-afraid-of-you?fbclid=IwAR1CdbAovwikZEMOofTQHlzPbPdh6CnklQ8U-D_qfN0W4ng1fneCxaUohjM
Your Government is Afraid of You
by Chris Farrell
January 25, 2021 at 5:00 am
The Swamp is terrified of Trump – still. That explains their fixation on eradicating him and his movement.
You are also supposed to ignore the facts concerning months-long violent protests with killings and burnings across America's cities by Antifa and BLM. Months ago, Washington DC mayor Muriel Bowser, demanded that the National Guard withdraw from her city amid violent demonstrations. She then named a street after those demonstrators and allowed them to paint their motto across the entire street.

Watch for the same sort of public treatment and language applied to Trump supporters going forward. It is consistent with a government that is in fear of its own people. The type of government that has 25,000 soldiers guarding a few politicians in an empty city.


The Swamp is terrified of Trump – still. Pictured: President Donald Trump boards Marine One as he departs the White House on his last day in office, January 20, 2021. (Photo by Eric Thayer/Getty Images)

The Swamp is terrified of Trump – still. That explains their fixation on eradicating him and his movement. "Trumpism" was not extinguished when Joe Biden raised his right hand to become the 46th president.

Fear grips The Swamp. Here is some evidence: the military occupation of Washington, DC; claims of "insurrection"; Speaker Pelosi's interference with the military command structure; more baseless claims of dark Russian conspiracies; serious discussion of reeducation camps for Trump supporters; marginalizing and criminalizing all things "Trump" – those are all expressions of fear.

Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer and President Biden keep using the word "insurrectionists" to describe the rowdy Trumpsters who raided the Capitol building unlawfully two weeks ago. That is deliberate. It makes all the respectable, career politicians, government drones and DC political operatives appear to be "victims" – draped in the flag and bravely defending the Constitution. It also criminalizes all of their opposition. Not just the protestors who raided the Capitol, but all Trump supporters – across the USA – and those opposed to The Swamp mentality to which we have now returned.

There were more troops in Washington, DC guarding the inauguration of Joe Biden than are in Iraq and Afghanistan, combined. 25,000 National Guardsmen from 13 states, plus more than 2,000 Active Duty military from the Metro DC region. There was also the full panoply of federal and D.C. law enforcement. From Metropolitan Police to the Postal Service. Remember: No one was allowed to go to the Inauguration. The National Mall was closed. Blocks and blocks of downtown DC were shutdown with jersey barriers, 12-foot metal fencing and armed checkpoints. You are supposed to believe this is a "normal" security precaution. You are not supposed to question if the reaction is excessive, heavy-handed or unprecedented.

In two weeks, they have made Washington DC look and feel like the Brandenburg Gate area of Cold War Berlin; Nancy Pelosi unlawfully interfered in the National Military Command Authority; and Hillary Clinton suggested Trump coordinated the activities of the protestors with Putin.

You are also supposed to ignore the facts concerning months-long violent protests with killings and burnings across America's cities by Antifa and BLM. Months ago, Washington DC mayor Muriel Bowser, demanded that the National Guard withdraw from her city amid violent demonstrations. She then named a street after those demonstrators and allowed them to paint their motto across the entire street.

The crowd of Trumpsters who raided the Capitol building unlawfully two weeks ago brought about 5 deaths: 3 "medical emergencies" (read: heart attacks); Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick reportedly succumbing to a fire extinguisher blow to the head; and, unarmed, female, civilian, Air Force veteran Ashli Babbitt shot point-blank by Capitol Police in the chest while crouched in a window frame. Capitol Police failed miserably. There is clear video evidence of Capitol Police opening gates for some of the protesters to approach the building. You do not hear a word about accountability for law enforcement actions during the raid, nor about the Babbitt shooting. No marches by any groups seeking justice or an investigation. Nothing.

There is also a growing drumbeat for having Trump supporters "deprogrammed." Immediately following the election, the suggestion of reeducation camps was played-off as just a snarky remark, but in the last couple of weeks the sentiment has grown in frequency and sincerity. It is a threat we should all take seriously.

This is an attempt by The Swamp to place all Americans that supported Trump into a state of neurotic acute anxiety. This type of psychological conditioning is documented as what Communist propagandists tried to do to the West throughout the Cold War. The Castro regime had a technique for isolating and criminalizing resistance, and a particular word assigned to all who opposed their regime – "gusano" – worm.

Watch for the same sort of public treatment and language applied to Trump supporters going forward. It is consistent with a government that is in fear of its own people. The type of government that has 25,000 soldiers guarding a few politicians in an empty city.

Chris Farrell is a former counterintelligence case officer. For the past 20 years, he has served as the Director of Investigations & Research for Judicial Watch. The views expressed are the author's alone, and not necessarily those of Judicial Watch.

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/16092/turkey-erdogan-conquests?fbclid=IwAR29AuydmwjNJ0xMw8hzenZ2IZ_d-vqnsqIS7j-iXr1Npl0YBSSB6yWfjCo
 Turkey: Erdoğan Wishes "Many More Happy Conquests"
by Burak Bekdil
June 20, 2020 at 5:00 am
In Turkish jargon, the difference is simple: It is "conquest" when we do it and "invasion" when others do it.

In this year's celebrations, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan raised the stakes when he spoke of the conquest prospectively not just retrospectively. "I am wishing that God grant this nation many more happy conquests," he said....

A serious question remains to be asked: When Erdoğan wished God to grant Turks "many more happy conquests" which non-Turkish lands is he hoping to "conquer"?


The venue for this year's Turkish celebrations of the 1453 conquest of Constantinople was not chosen randomly: it was the stunning edifice of the Hagia Sophia Cathedral (pictured), built in the sixth century Byzantine Empire as the centerpiece of its capital. President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan personally commemorated the conquest with Islamic prayers at the Hagia Sophia, a UNESCO world heritage site. (Photo by Chris McGrath/Getty Images)

In Turkey, every May 29 brings up the country's "conquest fetish." Turks are proud that their Ottoman ancestors, in 1453, "conquered" (not "invaded") then-Constantinople, today's Istanbul. It is bizarre enough that a proud nation is commemorating, every year, the capture from another nation of its biggest city by the "force of sword." This year's 567th anniversary was no exception: The celebrations euphemistically referred to the fall of Constantinople as "conquest" -- not "invasion."

In Turkish jargon the difference is simple: it is "conquest" when we do it and "invasion" when others do it. In this year's celebrations, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan raised the stakes when he spoke of the conquest prospectively not just retrospectively. "I am wishing that God grant this nation many more happy conquests," he said at a celebration where he recited from the Quran.

The venue for this year's celebrations was not chosen randomly: it was the stunning edifice of the Hagia Sophia Cathedral, built in the sixth century Byzantine Empire as the centerpiece of its capital, Constantinople. Erdoğan personally commemorated the conquest with Islamic prayers at the Hagia Sophia, a UNESCO world heritage site. The church was converted into a mosque after the fall of Constantinople. But Atatürk, the secular founder of modern Turkey, converted it into a museum.

The Hagia Sophia has been emblematic in the Turkish Islamist politics from whose ranks Erdoğan emerged. It reflects Islam's "spread by force," the capture of another Christian monument by Muslims, therefore a Muslim victory over "infidels." The Hagia Sophia has been a source of political tension between secular Turks who want it to remain a museum out of respect for Christians and Islamists who want it to become a mosque for the sake of the spirit of "conquest".

In 2016 the Erdoğan government issued a directive to allow the recitation of Islamic call for prayers inside the Hagia Sophia. It then assigned an imam into a small chamber (masjid) within the church compound where Muslims had been allowed to pray since 1991. More recently Erdoğan said he would convert the Hagia Sophia into a mosque in retaliation to U.S. President Donald Trump's recognition of Israel's "claims to East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights."

The childish Turkish hypocrisy over "conquest vs. invasion" came most clearly from a fiercely pro-Erdoğan columnist. A Hürriyet newspaper columnist and former member of parliament, Fuat Bol , wrote on June 1: "[Ottoman Sultan] Mehmet the Conqueror converted the Hagia Sophia into a mosque as required by the right of sword." ["Right of sword" refers to the Ottoman narrative that it supposedly has the right of a successful invader to rule an invaded land in line with its rules and wishes. Ed.] In the same article, Bol then mentioned "those shameless Greeks who converted [Ottoman] mosques into churches."

The "spirit of conquest" keeps poisoning the ordinary minds, too, and slowly winning over respect from the people who have remained secular.

On May 23, just a few days before the anniversary of the "conquest" of Constantinople, an attacker dismantled a cross outside an Armenian church in Istanbul's historical Kuzguncuk neighborhood. Two weeks earlier, on May 9, another Armenian church in Istanbul's Bakırköy district, had also been also attacked. Garo Paylan, a Turkish-Armenian lawmaker for the opposition Peoples' Democratic Party, called it a hate crime. "Attacks continue on our churches. The cross of our Surp Krikor Lusaroviç Armenian Church was removed and thrown away. Hate speech made by the ruling power normalizes hate crimes," he said in a tweet.

On the day the Turks celebrated the "conquest" of Constantinople, an Istanbul-based Armenian foundation received death threats by email. The threat to the Hrant Dink Foundation, named after the Turkish-Armenian journalist who was assassinated in 2007, included the phrase "We may turn up one night, when you least expect it." This is a slogan used frequently by Turkish ultra-nationalist groups -- "and the very same slogan we were well used to hearing before Hrant Dink was assassinated, and within the knowledge of officials," the foundation said.

After all that gloom, the good news was that the Turkish police quickly found and detained the suspects responsible for the threats to the Hrant Dink Foundation and church attacks. The not-so-good news is that the suspects will probably get a red-carpet treatment under detention, be brought to a prosecutor for a brief testimony and released immediately, and then receive several official and unofficial pats on the shoulder for their "heroic" acts.

In all this typically Turkish "conquest" fanfare a serious question remains to be asked: When Erdoğan wished God to grant Turks "many more happy conquests" which non-Turkish lands is he hoping to "conquer"?

Burak Bekdil, one of Turkey's leading journalists, was recently fired from the country's most noted newspaper after 29 years, for writing in Gatestone what is taking place in Turkey. He is a Fellow at the Middle East Forum.

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/15918/palestinians-virus-normalization?fbclid=IwAR3MrrFaiOe3KoVAGNvkM4eaEU6TLlT6g9bapaZEWTqtfPwtSdgj643RKkc
Palestinians and the Virus of Normalization
by Khaled Abu Toameh
April 27, 2020 at 5:00 am
If Hamas is opposed to any form of cooperation with Israel, why does it continue to allow medical supplies to be transferred from Israel into the Gaza Strip on an almost weekly basis?... It was also revealed that the sister of senior Hamas official Musa Abu Marzouk had been admitted to an Israeli hospital for two weeks for cancer treatments.

Yet, Hamas is now saying that the Palestinian "peace activists" who talked to Israelis through an online videoconference will face legal measures for their "crime."

If Hamas does not want any contact with Israel, it should close the Gaza Strip border with Israel and refuse to medical supplies or truckloads of goods and fuel. If Hamas does not want any contact with Israel, it should stop sending family members of its leaders to receive medical treatment in Israel. If Hamas does not want any form of contact with Israel, it should stop sending Palestinian doctors to receive training from Israelis.

If and when the "peace activists" go on trial in the Gaza Strip, the international community and all those who describe themselves as pro-Palestinian advocates will have a golden opportunity to call out Hamas for its hypocrisy and lies. Failing to do so will directly facilitate the intimidation that Hamas and Palestinian extremists apply to anyone who seeks a better future for the Palestinians or peace with Israel.


If Hamas is opposed to any form of cooperation with Israel, why does it continue to allow medical supplies to be transferred from Israel into the Gaza Strip on an almost weekly basis? It was also revealed that the sister of senior Hamas official Musa Abu Marzouk (pictured) had been admitted to an Israeli hospital for two weeks for cancer treatments. (Photo by Khaled Desouki/AFP via Getty Images)

Rami Aman, a Palestinian journalist and "peace activist," has been under detention by Hamas since April 9 on charges of holding a videoconference chat with Israelis to discuss the situation in the Gaza Strip and the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic.

Eyad al-Bozom, a spokesperson for the Hamas-controlled Ministry of Interior, said that Aman and other Palestinians who participated in the videoconference with the Israelis are suspected of "holding a normalization activity with the Israeli occupation via the internet." According to al-Bozom, "holding any contact with the Israeli occupation is a crime punishable by law and a betrayal of our people and their sacrifices."

The arrest of Aman and his friends surprised none of those familiar with Hamas's repressive measures against the two million Palestinians living under its rule in the Gaza Strip. Moreover, the arrest of the "peace activists" is right in line with the Palestinian and Arab anti-normalization campaign that prohibits any form of contact between Palestinians and Israelis.

While Hamas says that it considers a videoconference chat between young Palestinians and Israelis as a "betrayal of Palestinians and their sacrifices," the organization has also made it clear that it still seeks Israel's help in curbing the spread of the coronavirus pandemic.

In the eyes of Hamas and other Palestinians, a videoconference chat about peace and co-existence is a "form of normalization with the Zionist entity." If that is true, why does Hamas continue to seek medical assistance from Israel to combat the coronavirus pandemic?

Days after Aman and his friends were arrested, Hamas admitted that dozens of doctors from the Gaza Strip have been trained in recent weeks by Israeli doctors to deal with the coronavirus epidemic.

Kamal Musa, a spokesperson for the Hamas-controlled Ministry of Health, wrote on his Facebook page that the meeting with the Palestinian doctors was held at an Israeli military base near the Erez border crossing between Israel and the Gaza Strip. "Why the media embarrassment and hustle following the meeting of the doctors at the Erez Crossing?" Musa wondered in the post, which he deleted shortly after it was published on Facebook.

In his deleted post, Musa also admitted that Israeli medical teams have been training Palestinian physicians at the Jericho Military Academy in the West Bank.

Musa has not offered an explanation as to why he removed the post about Israelis training Palestinian medical teams. The most likely reason is that he fears that Palestinians will use the post to accuse Hamas of engaging in normalization activities with Israel by allowing Palestinian doctors to be trained by Israel. Clearly, Musa was afraid that his post would expose the hypocrisy of Hamas in dealing with Israel. How could Hamas justify such medical cooperation with Israel while Hamas security forces are arresting Palestinian "peace activists" for the "crime" of chatting online with young Israelis?

If Hamas is opposed to any form of cooperation with Israel, why does it continue to allow medical supplies to be transferred from Israel into the Gaza Strip on an almost weekly basis? Last week, 96 tons of medical supplies were transferred from Israel through the Kerem Shalom Crossing into the Gaza Strip. In addition, some 1,368 truckloads of goods from Israel entered the Gaza Strip through the same border crossing. The week before, another 88 tons of medical supplies were transferred from Israel into the Gaza Strip along with 1,116 truckloads of goods.

Earlier this month, a PCR machine, an advanced medical device used for detection of the coronavirus, was transferred into the Gaza Strip with the coordination of the Israeli Ministry of Defense. The machine, which costs tens of thousands of dollars, was donated by an international organization with the help of the World Health Organization and will double the rate of examinations for the disease in the Gaza Strip.

Hamas's security crackdown on Palestinians who dare to engage in dialogue with Israelis obviously does not apply to Hamas's senior officials and their family members in the Gaza Strip. These officials have no problem seeking medical treatment in Israel for themselves and their relatives, even while their movement has launched countless rockets at Israel.

In 2018, Israel's High Court ruled that five critically ill women from the Gaza Strip could enter Israel for urgent medical treatment despite a government decision preventing relatives of Hamas members from entering Israel. The five women had appealed to the court after their requests to seek help in Israel were originally rejected on the grounds of their relation to members of Hamas.

In 2014, Israel's Ichilov Hospital confirmed that it had treated the daughter of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh. The hospital revealed that Haniyeh's daughter had been admitted for a number of days, noting that she was one of more than 1,000 Palestinians from the Gaza Strip that the hospital treats all the time.

During the same year, It was also revealed that the sister of senior Hamas official Musa Abu Marzouk had been admitted to an Israeli hospital for two weeks for cancer treatments.

Yet, Hamas is now saying that the Palestinian "peace activists" who talked to Israelis through an online videoconference will face legal measures for their "crime."

Clearly, as far as Hamas is concerned, receiving medical assistance from Israel is not a "crime," particularly if the patients are family members of senior Hamas officials. It is worth noting that Hamas has refused publicly to acknowledge the medical aid that its leaders' family members have been receiving in Israel. Hamas is also hiding from its people in the Gaza Strip the fact that it has authorized Palestinian doctors to receive training from Israeli doctors. Such reports are exquisitely embarrassing for the Hamas leaders, particularly at a time when they are arresting young Palestinians for chatting with Israelis.

It is hard to find Palestinians in the Gaza Strip who have the courage to call out Hamas for its hypocrisy. Even more disturbing is that the number of Palestinians who seem to support Hamas's arrest of Aman and his friends is higher than those who have denounced the crackdown.

Although Aman is a journalist, the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate saw no need to condemn Hamas for arresting him and his friends. Instead, the syndicate has condemned criticism of another journalist, Hind Khoudary, for alerting Hamas officials to the videoconference -- a move that prompted Hamas to arrest the "peace activists." Shortly after the videoconference was posted on the internet, Khoudary posted a comment on Facebook denouncing the event as a form of normalization. Khoudary, a former researcher for Amnesty International, tagged three senior Hamas officials to make sure they were aware of the videoconference.

Worse, several Palestinian factions in the Gaza Strip have come out in support of the arrest of Aman and his friends, repeating their vehement opposition to any form of normalization with the "Zionist enemy." One group, the Association of Palestinian Independent Personalities, praised Hamas for its actions, saying in a statement:

"We affirm our respect for and appreciation of the [Hamas] security forces to prosecute all those who engage in such behaviors that contradict our national values and harm our people's interests, and we demand that that they hold them accountable."

Hamas leaders have every reason not to boycott Israeli medical aid and treatment in Israeli hospitals. Rather than investing in the health system in the Gaza Strip, Hamas has for many years preferred to spend millions of dollars on manufacturing rockets and building tunnels to attack Israel.

If Hamas does not want any contact with Israel, it should close the Gaza Strip border with Israel and refuse to medical supplies or truckloads of goods and fuel. If Hamas does not want any contact with Israel, it should stop sending family members of its leaders to receive medical treatment in Israel. If Hamas does not want any form of contact with Israel, it should stop sending Palestinian doctors to receive training from Israelis.

If Hamas does not want any contact with Israel, it should turn to the Egyptians, who are sitting on the other side of the border with the Gaza Strip and demand that Egypt and other Arab countries provide them with medical aid. Last week, senior Hamas official Khalil al-Haya warned that "all scenarios are available" for his movement to force Israel to supply the Gaza Strip with medical equipment to combat the coronavirus. The Hamas official, in other words, is warning that his movement will resort to terrorism if Israel does not help the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. Would al-Haya issue a similar warning to the Egyptians, who are in control of the Rafah border crossing with the Gaza Strip? Of course not. Would he or any other Hamas leader dare to threaten any other Arab country for failing to supply the Gaza Strip with medical aid? Of course not.

If and when the "peace activists" go on trial in the Gaza Strip, the international community and all those who describe themselves as pro-Palestinian advocates will have a golden opportunity to call out Hamas for its hypocrisy and lies. Failing to do so will directly facilitate the intimidation that Hamas and Palestinian extremists apply to anyone who seeks a better future for the Palestinians or peace with Israel.

Khaled Abu Toameh, an award-winning journalist based in Jerusalem, is a Shillman Journalism Fellow at Gatestone Institute.

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/15776/coronavirus-china-propaganda?fbclid=IwAR1lbN_Z2wQSihTgu5GsIrnxW039Y-B4B1v5qD6XhIbPzjdmB-oQp6NpKMM
Coronavirus: China's Propaganda Campaign in Europe
by Soeren Kern
March 22, 2020 at 5:00 am
What remains unclear is if European publics, which are bearing the brunt of the suffering caused by the epidemic, will be as easily willing to overlook the malfeasance of Chinese officials.

"This is a propaganda operation that hides various truths. The first and most important is that the culprit for this pandemic is the Chinese regime. It does not take any conspiracy theory to point it out." — Emilio Campmany, Libertad Digital, March 3, 2020.

"China wants to take advantage of this calamity to wrest global leadership from the United States. It will be the communist country that makes us the most energetic medicines to fight the virus. It will discover the vaccine before anyone else and distribute it worldwide in record time. It will buy our assets and invest in our countries to rescue our economies. Ultimately, it will claim to be our savior." — Emilio Campmany, Libertad Digital, March 3, 2020.


On March 12, China sent to Italy a team of nine Chinese medical staff along with some 30 tons of equipment on a flight organized by the Chinese Red Cross. Pictured: Francesco Vaglia, medical director for infectious diseases of Spallanzani Hospital (right) speaks next to members of a delegation of Chinese doctors in Rome on March 14, 2020. (Photo by Andreas Solaro/AFP via Getty Images)

The Chinese government has been fast-tracking shipments of medical aid to Europe, which has become the epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic that first emerged in the Chinese city of Wuhan. The largesse appears to be part of a public relations effort by Chinese President Xi Jinping and his Communist Party to deflect criticism over their responsibility for the deadly outbreak.

Beijing's campaign as a global benefactor may deliver results in Europe, where pandering political leaders have long been notoriously fearful of antagonizing the European Union's second-largest trading partner. What remains unclear is if European publics, which are bearing the brunt of the suffering caused by the epidemic, will be as easily willing to overlook the malfeasance of Chinese officials.

In what can only be described as a geopolitical humiliation, Ursula Von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, the administrative arm of the European Union, which touts itself as the "largest economy in the world," heaped praise on Communist China for donating an inconsequential amount of medical equipment to the bloc. On March 18, she tweeted:

"Spoke with Chinese PM Li Keqiang who announced that China will provide 2 mil surgical masks, 200,000 N95 masks & 50,000 testing kits. In January, the European Union helped China by donating 50 tons of equipment. Today, we're grateful for China's support. We need each other's support in times of need."

The European Union has been incapable of providing meaningful assistance to Italy, the bloc's third-largest member, which has been especially hard hit by the virus. After Germany, the EU's most powerful member, banned the export of medical protection gear to avoid its own supply shortages of masks, gloves and suits, China stepped in.

On March 12, China sent to Italy a team of nine Chinese medical staff along with some 30 tons of equipment on a flight organized by the Chinese Red Cross. The head of the Italian Red Cross, Francesco Rocca, said that the shipment "revealed the power of international solidarity." He added:

"In this moment of great stress, of great difficulty, we are relieved to have this arrival of supplies. It is true that it will help only temporarily, but it is still important. We have a desperate need for these masks right now. We need respirators that the Red Cross will donate to the government. This is for sure a really important donation for our country."

In recent days, China has also sent aid to:

Greece, March 21. An Air China plane carrying 8 tons of medical equipment — including 550,000 surgical masks and other items such as protective equipment, glasses, gloves and shoe covers — arrived at Athens International Airport. The Chinese Ambassador to Greece, Zhang Qiyue, referred to words by Aristotle: "What is a friend? A single soul living in two bodies." He said that "difficult times reveal true friends" and that China and Greece are "working closely together in the fight against the coronavirus." This, he said, "confirms once again the excellent relations and friendship between the two peoples."

Serbia, March 21. China flew six doctors, ventilators and medical masks to Serbia to help Belgrade halt spreading of the coronavirus infection. "A big thank you to President Xi Jinping, the Chinese Communist Party and the Chinese people," said Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic. China's ambassador to Belgrade, Chen Bo, said the aid was a sign of the "iron friendship" between the two countries. The Chinese news agency Xinhua reported: "President Xi attaches great importance to the development of China-Serbia relations, and believes that through the joint battle against the epidemic, the two countries' time-tested traditional friendship will gain more hearty support from their people, and their comprehensive strategic partnership will grow deeper and rise to a higher level.

Spain, March 21. The founder and president of the Chinese technology company Huawei, Ren Zhengfei, donated one million face masks. They were expected to arrive at Zaragoza Airport in northeastern Spain on March 23. The masks will be stored at a warehouse belonging to the Spanish apparel retailer Zara. From there, Zara will put its logistics network at the service of the Spanish government. This shipment could be the first of several, as dozens of Chinese suppliers that have worked with Zara for years are reportedly showing a willingness to send material. The United States has warned Spain about the security risk inherent in opening its fifth-generation communications networks to Chinese mobile technology providers, including Huawei.

Czech Republic, March 21. A Ukrainian cargo plane reportedly carrying 100 tons of medical supplies from China arrived at the airport in Pardubice, a city situated 100 kilometers east of Prague. On March 20, a Chinese plane carrying one million masks arrived in the Czech Republic, which reportedly ordered another 5 million respirators from China along with 30 million masks and 250,000 sets of protective clothing.

France, March 18. China sent to France, the second-most powerful country of the European Union, a batch of medical supplies, including protective masks, surgical masks, protective suits and medical gloves. The Chinese Embassy in France tweeted: "United we will win!" The following day, China sent a second batch of supplies. The Chinese Embassy tweeted: "The Chinese people are next to the French people. Solidarity and cooperation will allow us to overcome this pandemic."

The Netherlands, March 18. China Eastern Airlines, China Southern Airlines and Xiamen Airlines, codeshare partners with KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, donated 20,000 masks and 50,000 gloves. The shipment arrived at Amsterdam Airport Schiphol on a Xiamen Airlines flight. "These are extremely difficult times for our country and our company, so we are very happy with this help for KLM and for the Netherlands," KLM CEO Pieter Elbers said. "Less than two months ago, KLM made a donation to China and now we are being helped so wonderfully and generously."

Poland, March 18. The Chinese government pledged to send Poland tens of thousands of protective items and 10,000 coronavirus test kits. On March 13, the Chinese Embassy in Warsaw sponsored a videoconference during which experts from China and Central Europe shared their knowledge on tackling the coronavirus. Police Foreign Minister Jacek Czaputowicz thanked China for its support and stressed the need for continued cooperation with Beijing, including sharing experience in combating the pandemic.

Belgium, March 18. A Chinese cargo plane carrying 1.5 million masks landed at Liege Airport. The masks, which will be distributed to Belgium, France and Slovenia, were donated by Jack Ma, the founder of Alibaba, a Chinese ecommerce giant known as the "Amazon of China."

Czech Republic, March 18. A plane carrying 150,000 test kits for coronavirus landed in Prague. The Ministry of Health paid about CZK 14 million ($550,000) for 100,000 testing kits, while another 50,000 kits were paid for by the Ministry of the Interior. Transport was provided by the Ministry of Defense.

Spain, March 17. A Chinese plane carrying 500,000 masks arrived at Zaragoza Airport. "The sun always rises after the rain," Chinese President Xi Jinping told Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez. He said that the friendship between China and Spain will be stronger and bilateral ties will have a brighter future after the joint fight against the virus. Xi said that after the pandemic, both countries should intensify exchanges and cooperation in a wide range of fields.

Belgium, March 16. Another shipment of medical supplies donated by the Jack Ma Foundation and Alibaba Foundation for epidemic prevention in Europe arrived at Liege Airport.

Fortune magazine explained the motivation behind China's propaganda push:

"For China, the outreach to Europe is part of an effort to claw back an international leadership role after early cover-ups helped the virus spread well beyond its borders. President Xi Jinping's government has sought to silence critics, including reporters and online commentators, and also spread conspiracy theories about where the virus originated.

"Geopolitically, China's move to brand itself as Europe's savior aims to improve its standing on a global stage as both spar with the Trump administration. China and the U.S. have continued a wider fight for global influence — Beijing kicked out more than a dozen American journalists this week — while also seeking to deflect blame for their handling of the disease."

In an interview with the UK-based newspaper Guardian, Natasha Kassam, a former Australian diplomat, said:

"Now we see Chinese officials and state media claiming that China bought the world time to prepare for this pandemic. We know the propaganda machine within China is able to rewrite history but now we are seeing that replicated overseas. China's victory over Covid-19 has already been written and authorities are trying very hard for that message to be received overseas."

In an essay for the Spanish publication Libertad Digital, commentator Emilio Campmany astutely explained:

"The huge Chinese propaganda apparatus has been launched. In Italy they feel, with good reason, abandoned by the European Union and are grateful for the help that the Asian country is giving them. This has been suitably amplified by the Italian media.

"This is a propaganda operation that hides various truths. The first and most important is that the culprit for this pandemic is the Chinese regime. It does not take any conspiracy theory to point it out. It was widely recognized that Chinese live animal markets are a very serious epidemic hazard. The very severe communist regime of the people's republic, which controls everything for the welfare of the citizens, has been unable to shut them down. When the first cases emerged, it took forever for the highly efficient Communist Party to react and instead devoted its myriad resources just to hiding the truth. When it could no longer hide what was happening, it intervened brutally, and only in this way has it managed to stop the epidemic, not without first giving rise, due to its negligence, to the virus spreading throughout the world.

"The second is that communist bestiality is not necessary to effectively combat the virus. Infinitely better results can be achieved with capitalist intelligence, as has been shown by South Korea, which, having been much more capable than China, is not dedicated to paying for items in the West. For days now, this country has shown how valuable it can be to carry out massive tests. That is the best way for now, and the incredible thing is how long it took the Italians and the Spanish to realize this. However, this delay is not a consequence of not being blessed with two communist regimes, but rather of being governed by incompetents who, above all in our case, are that, socialists and communists.

"China wants to take advantage of this calamity to wrest global leadership from the United States. It will be the communist country that makes us the most energetic medicines to fight the virus. It will discover the vaccine before anyone else and distribute it worldwide in record time. It will buy our assets and invest in our countries to rescue our economies. Ultimately, it will claim to be our savior."

Soeren Kern is a Senior Fellow at the New York-based Gatestone Institute.

Spain: European Court Approves Summary Deportations of Illegal Migrants
by Soeren Kern  •  February 17, 2020 at 5:00 am
The Strasbourg-based court — which has jurisdiction over 47 European countries, and whose rulings are binding on all 27 member states of the European Union — ruled that in order for migrants to benefit from certain human rights protections, such as access to lawyers, interpreters and the right to remain in Europe, they must first enter European territory in a legal, as opposed to an illegal, manner.

The ruling is being viewed as a major victory for those who believe that sovereign nation states have the right to decide who is and is not allowed to enter their territory.

"The ECHR's ruling determines that a nation state has the right to defend its borders. When someone is dedicated to violating those borders, the nation state has the right to return that person to their place of origin as quickly as possible." — Iván Espinosa de los Monteros, spokesman for the Vox Party, November 13, 2020.

It remains unclear if the ECHR's ruling will have a deterrent effect. Migrants, often using extreme violence, are increasingly using the tactic of mass attacks against the border fences in Ceuta and Melilla in an effort to overwhelm border police.


Migrants, often using extreme violence, are increasingly using the tactic of mass attacks against Spain's border fences in Ceuta and Melilla in an effort to overwhelm border police. During the past 18 months, thousands of migrants equipped with gloves, spike shoes and makeshift hooks have attempted to scale the fences. Pictured: The border fence between Morocco and Ceuta, a Spanish exclave in North Africa. (Photo by Jorge Guerrero/AFP via Getty Images)
In a landmark decision that will have potentially seismic implications for immigration policy in Europe, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has ruled that Spain acted lawfully when it summarily deported two migrants who illegally tried to enter Spanish territory.

The Strasbourg-based court — which has jurisdiction over 47 European countries, and whose rulings are binding on all 27 member states of the European Union — ruled that in order for migrants to benefit from certain human rights protections, such as access to lawyers, interpreters and the right to remain in Europe, they must first enter European territory in a legal, as opposed to an illegal, manner.

Continue Reading Article https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/15615/spain-migrants-deportations

UK Court: Sharia Marriages Not Valid Under English Law
by Soeren Kern  •  February 19, 2020 at 5:00 am 
"We sought to inform the Court of Appeal that many minority women, especially Muslim women, are deceived or coerced by abusive husbands into only having a religious marriage, which deprives them of their financial rights when the marriage breaks down...." — Southall Black Sisters, an advocacy group for South Asian women, February 14, 2020.

In February 2018, an independent review of the application of Sharia law in England and Wales...recommended changes to the Marriage Act 1949 and the Matrimonial Causes Act 1973 that would require Muslims to conduct civil marriages before or at the same time as the nikah ceremony. This would bring Islamic marriage in line with Christian and Jewish marriage in the eyes of British law.

"The Assembly is concerned that the rulings of the Sharia councils clearly discriminate against women in divorce and inheritance cases." — Council of Europe (COE), January 2019.

As of now, neither the British government, nor the British Parliament has introduced legislation that would require Muslims to conduct civil marriages before or at the same time as the nikah ceremony...[but] The court's decision effectively reaffirms the principle that immigrants who settle in Britain must conform to British law, rather than the other way around.


The Court of Appeal, the second-highest court in England and Wales after the Supreme Court, has ruled that the Islamic marriage contract, known as nikah in Arabic, is not valid under English law. Pictured: The Royal Courts of Justice in London, seat of the Court of Appeal. (Image source: Anthony M/Wikimedia Commons)
The Court of Appeal, the second-highest court in England and Wales after the Supreme Court, has ruled that the Islamic marriage contract, known as nikah in Arabic, is not valid under English law.

The landmark ruling has far-reaching implications. On the one hand, the decision strikes a blow against efforts to enshrine this aspect of Sharia law into the British legal system. On the other hand, it leaves potentially thousands of Muslim women in Britain without legal recourse in the case of divorce.

The case involves an estranged couple, Nasreen Akhter and Mohammed Shabaz Khan, both of Pakistani heritage, who took part in a nikah ceremony officiated by an imam in front of 150 guests at a restaurant in London in December 1998.

Continue Reading Article https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/15623/britain-sharia-marriages

The Intolerance of the "Tolerant" Left: The End of Liberal Democracy?
by Elisabeth Sabaditsch-Wolff  •  February 19, 2020 at 4:00 am

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"Germany is witnessing the gradual erosion of democracy and the rule of law, a process that began in 2015 [during the migrant crisis] and which has become even more visible since and has ended in putsch against democracy." — Vera Lengsfeld, political analyst, February 7, 2020.

"The vote is unforgivable and must be reversed." — German Chancellor Angela Merkel, regarding a duly elected German state premier.

"Why bother exercising the right to vote when the 'wrong' choice can be annulled by the media and the chancellor through propaganda and veto?... Do we stand for democracy or for elections until the results suit the ruler?" — Dushan Wegner, political commentator, February 7, 2020.

Josef Hueber explains in a commentary how in a pseudo-democracy, elections mean voting until the result is "correct"...

We are presently faced with yet more politically-based show trials: of the parliamentarian Geert Wilders in The Netherlands and of Matteo Salvini in Italy. It is up to the population and voters to decide whether liberal democracy is worth fighting for.


When Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi ripped up a copy of President Donald Trump's State of the Union address, she showed a disappointing lack of argumentative abilities. If tolerance is to mean anything, Pelosi and her fellow Democrats should have exhibited just that. Instead, she, as a role model, did the opposite by engaging in petty and irresponsible behavior. (Photo by Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images)
We recently witnessed two events that indicated the possible demise of liberal democracy. The implications should frighten supporters of democratic forms of government in which individual rights and freedoms are officially recognized and protected, and the exercise of political power is limited by the rule of law.

The growing intolerance of many "left-wing" groups is apparent in the uproar of the democratic election of the state premier of the German state of Thuringia as well as in the performance of the Speaker of the US House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, publicly ripping up US President Donald J. Trump's State of the Union address. It was an official document that belongs not to her but to the public, and of which she was merely its custodian.

Continue Reading Article https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/15600/intolerant-left-liberal-democracy

"They Came to Kill Him": The Persecution of Christians - November 2019
by Raymond Ibrahim  •  February 16, 2020 at 5:00 am

"He was a 15-year-old adolescent. He was so deeply asleep in his bed that he didn't hear any of the noise around him. They thrust the blade of the axe so deeply into his skull, to the point we had to use a hammer to get it out of his head." Many Christians have been displaced by these ongoing attacks and live in "extreme misery," added another local: "This is beyond persecution. It is a dramatic situation, plunging thousands of families into a deplorable humanitarian crisis." — Rebecca, a witness, Barnabas Fund, November 15, 2019, Cameroon.

A group of Muslims beat, robbed, and threatened to kill a Christian evangelist if he did not convert to Islam.... [T]he Muslims indicated that they had physical pains and injuries. Fløttum offered to pray for them, they accepted, and he complied. They said they felt better and urged him to go with them and pray for another of their friends who was also suffering from a foot injury.... "They were very nice and I couldn't believe they would deceive me," he later said. They took him to a backyard, pushed him down a cellar staircase, and began to beat and kick him in the face...."While they kept me there, they threatened me and said they would kill me if I did not convert to Islam....I was scared and actually thought they were going to kill me because they said they had a knife and didn't want witnesses." — Idag.no, November 28, 2019, Norway.

"...although the Egyptian government has made some modest progress toward legalizing informal churches around the country and improving public discourse about Coptic rights, it has taken few steps toward systematically improving religious freedom conditions for vulnerable Christian populations, particularly in rural areas." — United States Commission on Interreligious Freedom (USCIRF), Annual Report 2019, Egypt.


Turkey's Council of State recently approved converting Istanbul's historic Chora Church, currently a museum, into a mosque. Chora Church's uniquely old and surprisingly intact artwork was first made in 1315 — more than a century before the Turkish invasion and conquest of Constantinople in 1453. (Image source: Gryffindor/Wikimedia Commons)
The Slaughter of Christians

Syria: On November 11, Islamic gunmen opened fire on a vehicle known to be carrying Christian leaders. Two Armenian priests, Father Abrahim Petoyan and Father Hovsep Petoyan, a father and son, were killed and a deacon was seriously wounded. ISIS claimed responsibility. The Armenians had been going to inspect repairs on an Armenian Catholic church that had earlier been damaged in Deir ez-Zor. "We continue to feel the presence of ISIS," responded the Armenian Catholic Archbishop Boutros Marayati of Aleppo, adding that Deir ez-Zor "is a very important town for us, because it is there that many of our martyrs were killed as they fled the Turkish genocide of 1915. Today there are no Armenian Catholics left there. Undoubtedly, the Turks don't want us to return, because our presence would be a reminder of the Armenian genocide."

Continue Reading Article https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/15598/persecution-of-christians-november

Ouyar Hassan Invited to the Polls... Again
by Amir Taheri  •  February 16, 2020 at 4:00 am

For four decades, Ouyar Hassan has put up with an ochlocracy disguised as a theocracy. Wearing an Anatolian smile, he has seen Iran become the only country in the world, perhaps with the exception of Zimbabwe, poorer than it was 40 years ago. He has seen Iran top the list of infamy in the word for the number of political prisoners and executions. He has witnessed the establishment of widespread corruption not as an aberration but as a way of life. For four decades, Ouyar Hassan has turned up at polling stations to cast his vote in fake elections for an ersatz parliament and an actor playing President of the Republic.

For the first time since the mullahs seized power, almost all political groups associated with them from the beginning... have publicly called for a boycott of the polls. Even some of the so-called "moderate-reformists", better known for their sheer opportunism than their moral courage, are calling for a boycott of the fake elections.

As usual, the authorities could try to manipulate the results in a number of ways such as refusing to register many would-be voters, pre-filling polling boxes and inflating the number of ballots cast in the provinces. Nevertheless, a massive boycott would be hard to camouflage. Such a massive refusal to play extras in a sinister masquerade would show that Ouyar Hassan is no longer prepared to let "those better than us" walk all over him.

Once again, Iran's kleptocrat ruling elite is now trying to organize a general election to burnish its so-called "Islamic democracy". As usual, the authorities could try to manipulate the results in a number of ways such as refusing to register many would-be voters, pre-filling polling boxes and inflating the number of ballots cast in the provinces. Pictured: Iranian President Hassan Rouhani casts his ballot for the presidential elections in Tehran on May 19, 2017. (Photo credit should read Majid Azad/AFP via Getty Images)
Since the 19th century, caricature has been used to highlight in a humorous mode the key features of famous persons or even a whole nation. In the latter case, some well-known examples include Uncle Sam, with his top-hat and carefully trimmed Van Dyke, representing the United States. England is represented by John Bull with his bowler hat, belly and rosy cheeks. French are made fun of with Gaston Dupont, wearing a beret, and with a baguette under his arm and a Gauloise in his mouth, who doesn't know whether his name should end with a D or a T neither of which are pronounced in any case. For its part, Iran is represented by Ouyar Hassan wearing a felt cap, long shirt and baggy trousers.
Continue Reading Article  https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/15599/ouyar-hassan

Copyright Gatestone Institute, All rights reserved.

The Terrorists Migrating into Europe
by Judith Bergman  •  February 15, 2020 at 5:00 am

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"Most migrant terrorists involved in thwarted or completed attacks were purposefully deployed to the migration flows by an organized terrorist group to conduct or support attacks in destination countries." — Todd Bensman, "What Terrorist Migration Over European Borders Can Teach About American Border Security", Center for Immigration Studies.

Bensman's report indirectly proves that the three EU countries -- Hungary, Poland and the Czech Republic -- which refused to take in any of the migrants that came during the migrant crisis, citing security concerns, were right.

The leadership of the European Union, however, initiated legal proceedings at the Court of Justice of the European Union against the three countries over the issue.... A ruling on the issue by the Court is expected early next year.

In response to the Advocate General, Polish government spokesman Piotr Muller, said that "ensuring security for our citizens is the most important goal of the government's policies. Our actions were dictated by the interests of Polish citizens and the need for protection against uncontrolled migration". — Polish government spokesman Piotr Muller, Reuters, October 31, 2019.


Todd Bensman, a senior national security fellow at the Center for Immigration Studies, describes in a new report the extent to which terrorists disguised as migrants have entered the European Union to commit terrorist attacks. (Image source: Elekes Andor/Wikimedia Commons)
A new report, "What Terrorist Migration Over European Borders Can Teach About American Border Security", by Todd Bensman, a senior national security fellow at the Center for Immigration Studies, describes the extent to which terrorists disguised as migrants have entered the European Union to commit terrorist attacks. Although the study was written primarily for an American audience to prevent the same mistakes from being made on US borders, the study is extremely relevant for the European public -- especially as Germany recently warned of a repeat migration crisis, similar to the one that occurred in 2015. According to Bensman:

Continue Reading Article https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/15290/the-terrorists-migrating-into-europe

Italy: Salvini Facing Show Trial for "Kidnapping" Migrants
by Soeren Kern  •  February 14, 2020 at 5:00 am

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In September, Sicilian prosecutor Carmelo Zuccaro said that the kidnapping accusations against Salvini were "groundless" and recommended that he be acquitted of all charges. The Court of Ministers, however, overruled Zuccaro, who is now, paradoxically, required to proceed with prosecuting Salvini, even though he has already found him to be innocent.

The charges against Salvini appear to be part of a political vendetta against him as well as his opposition to mass migration. Case in point: Although the decision to prevent those onboard the Gregoretti from disembarking in July 2019 was made by Salvini in close coordination with senior members of the Italian government, only Salvini is facing prosecution.

"No contrary position was taken by the Prime Minister Conte.... This makes the hypothesis of individual action by Minister Salvini completely improbable." — Senator Erika Stefani, Lega Party, presenting documents showing that other ministers were deeply involved in discussions over the Gregoretti.

"If I have to go to court, I will explain to the judges that defending the borders of my country and protecting citizens was my duty and, serenely, I will go to that courtroom to represent millions of Italians, because I simply did what they asked me to do: to control who enters and who leaves Italy." — Former Interior Minister Matteo Salvini in a tweet, February 12, 2020.

Like Trump, Salvini's legal troubles are fuelling his approval ratings.... Surveys indicate that if Italy held elections now, Lega would win a majority together with its conservative allies.


The Italian Senate has voted to strip former Interior Minister Matteo Salvini of parliamentary immunity so that he can face kidnapping charges for refusing to allow migrants to disembark from a ship at a port in Sicily. This is in spite of Sicilian prosecutor Carmelo Zuccaro saying in September that the kidnapping accusations against Salvini were "groundless" and recommended that he be acquitted of all charges. Pictured: Salvini (center) at a rally in Policoro, on August 10, 2019. (Photo by Alberto Pizzoli/AFP via Getty Images)
The Italian Senate has voted to strip former Interior Minister Matteo Salvini of parliamentary immunity so that he can face kidnapping charges for refusing to allow migrants to disembark from a ship at a port in Sicily.

If Salvini, who leads the anti-mass-migration party, Lega (League), is found guilty, he faces a ban on holding political office and up to 15 years in prison. He has said that he acted in Italy's national interest and that the charges against him are politically motivated, aimed at silencing criticism of the country's open-door migration policy.

Under Italian law, ministers enjoy immunity for actions taken while in office — unless the Senate votes to lift that protection. On February 12, the Italian Senate voted 152-76 in favor of lifting Salvini's immunity, after a parliamentary committee on January 21 recommended the action.

Continue Reading Article https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/15597/italy-salvini-show-trial

Iran, Not Saudi Arabia, Is to Blame for Yemen's Humanitarian Crisis
by Con Coughlin  •  February 13, 2020 at 5:00 am

Now, with the humanitarian crisis reaching a critical juncture with an estimated 80% of Yemen's 24 million population in need of assistance, aid organisations are finally waking up to the central role the Iranian-backed Houthis have played in creating the disaster.

As humanitarian officials prepare to meet in Brussels this week -- Thursday -- to discuss the Yemeni aid crisis, the main topic of discussion will be what has been described as the unprecedented and unacceptable obstruction tactics being employed by the Houthis that are preventing vital aid supplies from reaching the country's starving population.

In their latest bid to seize control of the aid distribution, the Houthis have recently imposed a 2 percent levy on all the international aid agencies operating in the country, prompting one aid worker to claim that the Houthis could be using the aid money to finance the war.

Whatever the outcome, no one will be in any doubt that it is the Iranian-backed Houthis, and not the Saudi-led coalition, who are primarily responsible for creating Yemen's disastrous humanitarian crisis.


As Yemen's humanitarian crisis reaches a critical juncture, with an estimated 80% of the country's 24 million people in need of assistance, aid organisations are finally waking up to the central role the Iranian-backed Houthis have played in creating the disaster. Pictured: Displaced persons fill water containers at a makeshift camp in a village in Hajjah province, Yemen, on May 9, 2019. (Photo by Essa Ahmed/AFP via Getty Images)
In the five years since Yemen was plunged into its bitter civil war, it has invariably been the Saudi-led coalition, which enjoys the support of the US, Britain and France, that has been blamed for causing what is widely regarded as the world's greatest humanitarian disaster.

Throughout the conflict the main focus of coverage in most of the Western media has been on the role played by the Saudi military in intensifying the conflict, with Riyadh taking the lion's share of the blame for the estimated 100,000 Yemenis that have died.

The Saudis, it is true, have not always covered themselves in glory in the way they have conducted the military campaign, with frequent reports of Saudi warplanes attacking civilian targets.

Continue Reading Article https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/15581/iran-not-saudi-arabia-is-to-blame-for-yemen

Qassem Soleimani: Iran's Latest 'King of Martyrs'?
by Denis MacEoin  •  February 13, 2020 at 4:30 am
Esmail Ghaani, Soleimani's successor as head of the Quds Force, has promised: "to continue martyr Soleimani's path with the same force and the only compensation for us would be us would be to remove America from the region."

So much terrorism has come from Tehran.... as distant as Latin America.

One might also ask why has the United Nations never held Iran accountable for these violations?

One might also ask if the time has finally come for the UN's largest donors -- read the US -- to rethink their generosity? Why not, as Ambassador John R. Bolton long ago recommended: "that we should pay for what we want and insist that we get for what we pay for."


Esmail Ghaani, Qassem Soleimani's successor as head of Iran's Quds Force, has promised: "to continue martyr Soleimani's path with the same force and the only compensation for us would be us would be to remove America from the region." (Image source: Tasnim News [CC by 4.0])
When news broke on the morning of January 3 that Qassem Soleimani, an Iranian general who for many years had headed the Quds Force, the powerful extraterritorial operations arm of the regime's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), had been assassinated -- along with Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, head of the Iraqi Ketaib Hezbollah militia -- in a US drone strike at Baghdad airport, pundits across the globe burst into print, some to condemn, others to praise his killing.

Neither side seems to want an all-out war. On October 7, 2019, US President Donald J. Trump tweeted:

"... it is time for us to get out of these ridiculous Endless Wars, many of them tribal, and bring our soldiers home. WE WILL FIGHT WHERE IT IS TO OUR BENEFIT, AND ONLY FIGHT TO WIN."
Continue Reading Article https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/15518/qassem-soleimani-iran-martyrs

Coronavirus: Death of Dr. Li Wenliang Rocks China
by Gordon G. Chang  •  February 12, 2020 at 5:00 am
[T]he disease ravaging the country could be, as is now said, China's "Chernobyl," the cover up of a disaster eventually leading to the downfall of the regime.

Many analysts expect Beijing to stimulate the economy, but stimulus works only if there is underlying economic activity. With much of the economy shut down, there is not much to stimulate. A dead economy is an existential crisis for a regime whose primary basis of legitimacy is the continual delivery of prosperity.

The boldness of recent demands shows that, due to the outbreak, the Chinese people are starting to lose their fear of Xi and the Communist Party. Rudd and Chinese propagandists are saying the Party will weather this crisis, but when people are no longer afraid, anything can happen.

"If they do not give us an explanation, we will not give up," said Lu Shuyun, the mother of Dr. Li Wenliang, demanding to know why Wuhan police harassed him while he was trying to save patients.

In this contest, bet on the mother. After all, she has about 1.4 billion angry people on her side.

Dr. Li Wenliang, who died from the coronavirus on January 31, had been reprimanded by the Chinese government, with seven other doctors, for warning of the outbreak in December. He was accused of "spreading false rumors" and "disrupting social order" and, for his brave efforts, was briefly detained and interrogated. Pictured: A vigil to mourn Wenliang on February 7 in Hong Kong. (Photo by Anthony Kwan/Getty Images)
On hearing the news that Dr. Li Wenliang had died from the coronavirus on January 31, people in the central Chinese city of Wuhan, under strict quarantine, opened their windows and cried. Others took to the streets to blow whistles for the whistleblower. Grief and anger, expressed from China's streets and balconies and social media platforms, has reached almost unprecedented levels in recent days.

Li, reprimanded with seven other doctors for warning of the outbreak in December, was accused of "spreading false rumors" and "disrupting social order" and, for his brave efforts, was briefly detained, interrogated, and forced to sign an "admonishment notice." Li undoubtedly contracted the virus treating patients at Wuhan Central Hospital.

Continue Reading Article https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/15576/china-coronavirus-li-wenliang

Russia's 'Wagner Group' Doing Its Dirty Work?
by Lawrence A. Franklin  •  February 12, 2020 at 4:00 am

The Kremlin under President Vladimir Putin still manages to exploit opportunities in Africa and Latin America that threaten to diminish U.S. influence. To this end -- to extend its power to regions beyond its borders and limited resources -- Moscow established the Wagner Group.

The Wagner Group masquerades as a private commercial enterprise, but it is actually a mercenary arm of the Russian Defense Ministry, run by a long-time Putin associate, the oligarch Yevgeny Prigozhin.

Putin has pledged support to rebel leader General Khalifa Haftar and his Libyan National Army (LNA), in his effort to overthrow the UN-recognized government in Tripoli.

One motivation for Putin's support for Haftar's rebel army may be Moscow's desire to gain access to Libya's oil wells, almost all of which are under Haftar's control.

The Wagner Group provides Putin with an aggressive force to safeguard his interests, while allowing him plausible deniability in the event of a confrontation with Washington.... One hopes the White House is listening.


The Wagner Group, a mercenary arm of Russia's Defense Ministry, provides President Vladimir Putin with an aggressive force to safeguard his interests, while allowing him plausible deniability in the event of a confrontation with Washington. Pictured: Putin at the military Patriot Park in Kubinka, Russia, on September 19, 2018. (Photo by Alexey Nikolsky/AFP via Getty Images)
Although Russia is no longer the superpower it was during the days of the Soviet Union, when it posed a genuine threat to U.S. interests around the world, the Kremlin under President Vladimir Putin still manages to exploit opportunities in Africa and Latin America that threaten to diminish U.S. influence. To this end -- to extend its power to regions beyond its borders and limited resources -- Moscow established the Wagner Group.

Continue Reading Article https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/15557/russia-wagner-group


Demonizing Defense Lawyers: The True Road to Tyranny
by Alan M. Dershowitz  •  February 12, 2020 at 1:00 am

I said that if a president did something entirely legal, with a mixed motive that included his desire to be re-elected, that mixed motive could not turn a legal act into an impeachable offense. I also said that a good motive could not turn a criminal act into a lawful one.

Those lawyers were demonized as I am being today. I have a thick skin, developed over many years of defending controversial and unpopular clients and causes. But I am concerned that young lawyers will be deterred from representing such clients and causes for fear it will destroy their careers. I am hearing that from young lawyers and students.

Demonizing defense lawyers for representing politically incorrect clients and causes is the true road to tyranny.


Pictured: Alan Dershowitz speaks in the United States Senate during impeachment proceedings against President Donald Trump, on January 27, 2020. (Photo by Senate Television via Getty Images)
I grew up in the age of McCarthyism, when lawyers who represented suspected communists were blamed for the alleged sins of their clients. I never expected to see a return to that benighted time, especially by self-proclaimed progressives. But it's back.

I appeared on the Senate floor as constitutional counsel against impeachment, not as a regular, full time counsel for US President Donald J. Trump. As I said in my opening remarks: I come not as a partisan but to " defend the constitution" from partisan misuse. I laid out the constitutional arguments in an academic manner.

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