RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://www.algemeiner.com/2020/04/13/concern-grows-in-germany-over-antisemitic-propaganda-tied-to-coronavirus-pandemic/

A prominent psychologist in Berlin who deals with extremist groups has expressed fear that the coronavirus pandemic will encourage a further wave of antisemitism in Germany.

“An attempt is being made to spread the image of an enemy that people are already familiar with,” psychologist Ahmad Mansour told the Tagesschau news outlet over the weekend, when asked about a rash of antisemitic images associating Jews with the virus.

Mansour — an Israeli Arab and former Islamist who now works on counter-extremism programs in the German Muslim community — observed that the “images are very popular and widespread, online and offline.”

One image being shared by antisemitic agitators depicts crudely-stereotyped Jews smuggling the virus into a city in a Trojan Horse, along with an accompanying text railing against the “devious Jewish Orthodox Freemason sect, aka Zionists.”

Mansour warned that antisemitic messages increasingly urged violence against Jews.

“I don’t just see conspiracy theories,” he said. “I see incitement, calls for injuries to Jews.”

German government officials monitoring extremist activity quoted in the same article concurred that the danger was growing.

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/15861/palestinians-human-rights-syria

Those in the international community expressing concern about the possible spread of the virus in the Gaza Strip are ignoring the existing tragedy of the Palestinians in Syria, particularly those held in various Syrian government-controlled prisons.

While Palestinian Authority leaders have been urging Israel to release Palestinian prisoners in Israel out of fear they may be infected with coronavirus, these same leaders have left, without saying a word, hundreds of Palestinians held in Syrian jails.

“Such practices represent flagrant violations of international law which criminalizes all forms of torture and mistreatment against civilians,” the Action Group for Palestinians of Syria (AGPS) stated.

An Arab persecuting or torturing an Arab never seems to be condemned by the international community…. The reason the world does not care about the atrocities committed against Palestinians in Syria: they cannot blame Israel for them.

Unfortunately, the Palestinians of Syria live in an Arab country. Were those Palestinians living in the West Bank or the Gaza Strip, the international media, the United Nations and human rights organizations would have interrupted the daily media fare of coronavirus by shouting day and night about Israel’s purported persecution of the Palestinians.

As the world is busy combating the spread of the coronavirus pandemic, Palestinians are continuing to “disappear” in Syrian prisons — or otherwise die. Those in the international community expressing concern about the possible spread of the virus in the Gaza Strip are ignoring the existing tragedy of the Palestinians in Syria, particularly those held in various Syrian government-controlled prisons.

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2020/04/venezuelas-beleaguered-president-waiting-david-paulin/

The Trump administration has implicitly acknowledged that its Venezuela policy has a major problem: Juan Guaidó. Venezuela’s beleaguered president-in-waiting, a leftist at heart, has gotten considerable support from the Trump administration to achieve a major U.S. policy goal: ease out Venezuela’s socialist dictator Nicolás Maduro, a stooge of Cuba and Russia. Guaidó would then serve as interim president in a democratic Venezuela.

The 36-year-old Guaidó, a professional politician backed by Venezuela’s democratically elected National Assembly, has nevertheless let down the Trump administration, and he may even be playing the president for a chump if recent comments by his ad hoc adviser are anything to go by. Maduro, meanwhile, has doubled down on the late President Hugo Chávez’s socialist policies, ensuring that oil-rich yet impoverished Venezuela remains an economic basket case and authoritarian hell-hole.

Political allies, of course, are expected to behave in a certain way: friendship is a two-way street. Trump, for his part, has bent over backwards to support Guaidó, a self-declared political independent who previously was a member of Popular Will, a left-wing political party with socialist ties. Guaidó’s fruitless quest to assume Venezuela’s presidency also has gotten steadfast support from some 60 countries. But Maduro hasn’t budged.

Now that the Trump administration has wised up to Guaidó, it has asked him to renounce his claim to Venezuela’s presidency while nevertheless continuing to support him. Under this plan, Maduro and Guaidó would establish an interim government and agree to elections in six to 12 months. In exchange, Washington would ease up on sanctions against Maduro’s regime. Guaidó is seen as a shoo-in over Maduro in a general election. Not surprisingly, Maduro has rejected the plan, for now, while using the cornonavirus pandemic as an excuse to crack down on political opponents.