RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2018/07/29/jeremy-corbyn-could-end-anti-semitism-row-instant-choosing-not/
The party leader fails to control bigotry because 
he sees Israel as the Middle East’s worst offender

Anti-Semitism is like a virus. It can spread fast among a population. The history of continental Europe shows that otherwise kindly and rational people can be encouraged to start spouting odious prejudice.

Even in this country we have seen episodes in the past 1,000 years when that virus has raged through society, with catastrophic results; and we have also seen how it can then go dormant. The spores of hate will wait beneath the floorboards. Then all of a sudden, one day, the disease can flare up – but not spontaneously, not without help.

When anti-Semitism takes hold again, it is because that virus has been potentiated by the stupidity or opportunism of politicians. When you look at what is happening in the Labour Party today – the real fear and distress of Margaret Hodge MP – it is clear that something is going badly wrong.

Last week, all three main Jewish papers cleared their front pages for a joint editorial claiming that Jeremy Corbyn presented an “existential threat” to the Jewish community in Britain. At the very least there has been a disastrous breakdown of trust; and no wonder.

You will find Labour councillors – representatives of the main party of opposition in this country – sharing stuff on social media about blood-drinking and baby-killing that properly belong to the pogroms of the Middle Ages. Go on to the social media pages of these suspended councillors and you will find Holocaust denial and other vile lies.

How could anyone peddle this kind of thing? There is outrage and bafflement and pain; and amidst it all we have a leader of the Labour Party who is so boneheaded that he refuses to close down the furore in the way that everyone is urging – which is to adopt a definition of anti-Semitism that has been accepted by the police, the Crown Prosecution Service, the judiciary, and 130 local councils.

There is clearly something about the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) wording that sticks in Corbyn’s craw. What is it?

It seems, incredibly, that Corbyn really does dispute their examples of anti-Semitic behaviour. In a nutshell, the IHRA says that it would be hurtful and anti-Semitic to claim that the state of Israel is a “racist endeavour”; or to draw comparisons between Israeli policy and Nazi Germany. Corbyn thinks it should be acceptable to say both.

It is easy to see why he has caused such offence to so many Jewish people. Of course it is legitimate, and in my view wholly proper, to criticise both the Israeli government and Israeli policy. The UK has been fierce in its denunciation of illegal settlements, of the destruction of Bedouin villages and Palestinian homes, and of the firing on unarmed protesters in Gaza.

https://pjmedia.com/trending/lying-about-amsterdam/

“Why, then, did Arre Zuurmond give such a dishonest interview? I don’t know the man, but when I read AFP’s story (before I saw Moran’s), my first thought was that this silliness was part of a desperate attempt at deflection – an effort to draw attention away from Amsterdam’s real problem. And that problem has nothing whatsoever to do with young guys from Britain, let alone from the Dutch provinces, roaming the inner city at night. No, it’s about the Islamic communities on the fringes of downtown and in the city suburbs. Hand me a map of Amsterdam and I’ll show you just how far you can go in any direction from the center of the city before you start risking real trouble. It’s not that far – heading west, it’s only a matter of four or five tram stops.”

Writing at this website on Saturday, Rick Moran summarized a report from Agence France Presse about Amsterdam. In an interview with the Dutch daily Trouw, that city’s official ombudsman, Arre Zuurmond, had complained that its “city centre becomes an urban jungle at night.” There are, in AFP’s words, “illegal car and bike races zooming through the streets, open drugs sales and general mayhem.” As Zuurmond put it: “Criminal money flourishes, there is no authority and the police can no longer handle the situation….Scooters race through the pedestrian areas. There is a lot of shouting. Drugs are being bought. There is stealing. People pee and even poop on the streets.”

Who are the culprits here? Zuurmond was clear on that one: “enticed by cheap travel, groups mostly of young men – mainly from elsewhere in the Netherlands or Britain – frequently roam the inner city’s canal-lined streets at weekends, on pub crawls or to celebrate stag parties drawn by easy access to drugs and the notorious Red Light district.” Zuurmond singled out for concern the downtown square called Leidseplein, where, he claimed, “The atmosphere is grim, and there is an air of lawlessness.”

Sorry, but this is all the purest of nonsense. I’m in Amsterdam quite frequently – most recently in June, when, as it happened, on several days in a row, I walked a great deal around parts of the city center, including Leidseplein and the fringes of the Red Light District. I did much if not most of my walking during the hours between midnight and six A.M. I like walking, and after forty years in New York City I know how to keep my eyes open – and I know Amsterdam well enough to know where I’m likely to be safe.

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/12773/germany-salafists

“Salafists see themselves as defenders of an original, unadulterated Islam…. As a consequence, Salafists want to establish a ‘theocracy’ according to their interpretation of the rules of sharia, one in which the liberal democratic order no longer applies.” — Annual Report of Germany’s Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV).

“Under the guise of humanitarian aid, Islamists succeed in radicalizing migrants. In the past, Salafists in particular tried to reach out to migrants. They visited refugee shelters for this purpose and offered assistance. The target group was not only adult migrants, but also unaccompanied adolescents, who, due to their situation and age, are particularly susceptible to Salafist missionary activities.” — Annual Report of Germany’s Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV).

The BfV report makes a direct link between the increase in anti-Semitism in Germany and the rise of Islamist movements in the country: “The ‘enemy image of Judaism’ therefore forms a central pillar in the propaganda of all Islamist groups…. This poses a significant challenge to the peaceful and tolerant coexistence in Germany.”

The number of Salafists in Germany has doubled over the last five years and now exceeds 10,000 for the first time, according to Germany’s BfV domestic intelligence agency. BfV estimates that Germany is home to more than 25,000 Islamists, nearly 2,000 of whom pose an immediate threat of attack.

The new figures are included the latest annual report of the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (Bundesamt für Verfassungsschutz, BfV), and presented by Interior Minister Horst Seehofer and BfV President Hans-Georg Maaßen in Berlin on July 24.

The report, considered the most important indicator of internal security in Germany, draws a bleak picture. The BfV estimates that the number of Islamists in Germany increased to at least 25,810 by the end of 2017, up from 24,425 in 2016.

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/12774/turkey-brunson-vilification

It appears that Pastor Andrew Brunson, as both an American and a Christian, has become a perfect scapegoat for the Turkish government and its media outlets. If Ankara were a genuine ally of the West, Brunson — who lived and worked peacefully at a small Protestant church in Izmir for 23 years — would not have been arrested in the first place, let alone robbed of his freedom and prevented from returning to the US.

Andrew Brunson, the American pastor detained in Turkey for two years on false terrorism and espionage charges, was released from prison on July 25, only to be put under house arrest until the resumption of his trial in October. The court ordered him to wear an electronic ankle-bracelet at all times and banned him from traveling outside Turkey.

Moreover, according to the Washington Post’s Carol D. Leonnig:

“President Trump thought he had a deal with Turkish President Erdogan to free Andrew Brunson, the American pastor imprisoned in Turkey for the last two years on what the administration considered bogus terrorism charges.

“As part of the deal, on July 14, Trump asked Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu to release Ebru Ozkan, 27, a Turkish woman who was detained in Israel on charges of acting as a smuggler for Hamas. The day after Trump and Netanyahu spoke, Ozkan was deported from Israel.

“Several U.S. officials insisted there had been no misunderstanding of the terms of the deal, but the Turks, transferring Brunson to house arrest, failed to send the pastor home.”

Brunson, detained in October 2016, is accused, with no evidence, of working for two groups that Turkey lists as terrorist organizations. One is a movement led by the US-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gülen, referred to by the Turkish government as the Fethullahist Terrorist Organization (FETO), and whom President Recep Tayyip Erdogan accuses of organizing the failed military coup attempt in July 2016. The other is the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). If convicted, Brunson faces up to 35 years behind bars.

Erdogan has made it clear that his intention is to make the US administration extradite Gülen in exchange for Brunson’s release. In September 2017, Erdogan said:

“America wants us to return a priest… You also have a priest. You should give him to us too. Then we will try and return the one here.”

Brunson’s 62-page indictment states, among other allegations:

“The suspect… under the guise of being an evangelical church pastor… acted as an agent of unconventional warfare, per the doctrine of intelligence and psychological warfare and… acted within a group of personnel, most of whom had received special training and had military and intelligence backgrounds.”