RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://asiatimes.com/2024/01/when-genosuicide-feels-like-genocide/

An American coalition consisting mainly of Iraqi forces destroyed the city of Mosul in northern Iraq in 2017, with civilian casualties estimated at somewhere between 2,500 and 40,000. The Associated Press count was 11,000 civilians dead but it might have been much higher. ISIS fighters prevented civilians from leaving as the US and its allies bombarded the town, and no one knows to this day how many are buried under the rubble.

No one called this genocide because it didn’t feel like genocide. Muslims killing Muslims is a tragedy but Jews killing Muslims feels like genocide in the mind of the Muslim world and some who sympathize with it. Humiliation equals death in traditional society, and it is not the death count in Gaza but the humiliation of Hamas that elicits the charge of genocide.

When Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh said, “We love death like our enemies love life! We love martyrdom, the way in which [Hamas] leaders died,” the world should have taken him at his word. Hamas leaders might experience martyrdom vicariously from hotel suites in Qatar but they are sincere about martyrdom and do not care how many martyrs they make among non-combatants. This is not genocide but rather genosuicide.

The purging of ISIS from Mosul parallels Israel’s efforts to root Hamas out of Gaza after the October 7 massacre of 1,200 Israelis accompanied by unspeakable sexual and other atrocities, and the abduction of another 240 Israeli hostages. 25,000 Gazans are alleged by the Hamas-controlled health ministry to have died, of which almost 10,000 are Hamas fighters by Israel’s count.

The civilian death toll is about the same as Mosul’s. With 2 million residents in 2014, Mosul had roughly the same population as Gaza so the per capita death rate of civilians is roughly the same—assuming that the unverified figures circulated by Hamas and echoed by the United Nations are accurate.

An Internet search for items posted before 2020 shows that the term “genocide” appeared frequently in connection with Mosul but only and exclusively in association with ISIS, which perpetrated genocide against the Yazidi religious minority, according to a UN commission. There is barely a single instance in which the term “genocide” was used to characterize the destruction of Mosul itself, apart perhaps from the heading of a 2017 Arab Center Washington DC think tank report.

Why then accuse Israel of genocide in Gaza for collateral damage among civilians in a similar campaign to extirpate a terrorist army? The charges brought against Israel at the International Court of Justice are absurd on the face of it.

https://www.frontpagemag.com/iran-backed-terrorists-kills-3-american-soldiers-injure-30/

Drone and rocket attacks by Iran and its Jihadist militias across the region have killed and injured American soldiers, but not this many, and this attack took place not in Iraq, but in Jordan, which is supposed to be safe territory and not a war zone.

The current reports are that three American soldiers were killed and over 30 wounded in an attack on a position known as Tower 22. This was a position that the United States was using to coordinate attacks on ISIS in Syria. (Jordan, with the typical fidelity we can expect of allies in the Muslim world, already declared that it considers the area to be Syria and has nothing to do with it.)

The drone was reportedly launched from an Iranian-backed Jihadist militia in Syria. There’s plenty of those since the Syrian government is effectively non-functional and a puppet of Iran and Russia which bailed it out during the civil war. Hezbollah and every bunch of Shiite Jihadists in the region have a presence in Syria.

The actual attack was labeled as coming from the Islamic Resistance in Iraq which is a name for an umbrella group of Shiite Jihadists which have been used by Iran to attack American targets providing some plausible deniability for the PMUs and Shiite militias linked to the Shiite regime in Baghdad which are actually behind it. But while the militias and Jihadists have previously aimed attacks at Israel, this is the first attack in Jordan. American forces were clearly not expecting an attack in Jordan.

https://www.jns.org/a-hollow-holocaust-remembrance-day/?_se=

Those who support a ceasefire to allow a genocidal antisemitic movement like Hamas to commit more slaughters of Jews shouldn’t pretend to mourn the Six Million.

It’s an important date on the international community’s calendar. Every year, the United Nations and many other institutions and organizations hold ceremonies on Jan. 27 commemorating the Holocaust. It’s long been clear that much of the world did so without actually thinking seriously about what allowed the Nazis’ campaign of extermination of European Jewry to succeed as well as it did. Nor do most of those going through the motions of mourning the systematic murder of 6 million Jews or making empty promises about “never again” think much about how a supposedly civilized people like the Germans, with the help of various collaborators from other nations, convinced themselves that it was not only acceptable to kill that many people but justified to do so.

But this year, perhaps they shouldn’t bother to pretend to care about the subject. After the Hamas atrocities on Oct. 7 and, even more importantly, the reaction of much of the civilized world to what happened, the meaninglessness of most of what passes for the commemoration of the Shoah by the international community and the West has become painfully obvious.

It goes beyond hypocrisy

To describe those who are indifferent to the mass slaughter of Jews today but still prepared to mouth words of indignation about those killed by the Nazis in the 1930s and ’40s as merely hypocritical is insufficient.

The willingness of the world, including many of the educated elites in the West to dismiss the importance of the crimes perpetrated in southern Israel three months ago, to be effectively neutral about the murders, rapes, torture and kidnapping committed by Hamas and the Palestinians—or actually to take the side of the murderers, rapists, torturers and kidnappers—isn’t just shocking. It’s a seminal moment in modern history that not only illustrates the moral bankruptcy of a significant segment of contemporary opinion but also provides an explanation for how the Holocaust happened. As hard as it may be for us to accept, this demonstrates that Holocaust commemorations or even education programs about the destruction of European Jewry in the mid-20th century either don’t make people less likely to support more Holocausts; even worse, all this might be counterproductive.

The surge in antisemitism throughout the West in the aftermath of Oct. 7—with mobs marching in the streets of major cities and on college campuses proclaiming their support for the destruction of the one Jewish state on the planet (“from the river to the sea”) and for terrorism against Jews in Israel and everywhere else (“globalize the intifada”)—and the support such positions have received in much of the corporate media was surprising to those Jews who thought such sentiments were only held by marginal extremists. Nor can they be explained as an understandable reaction to a supposedly disproportionate Israeli response to terrorism or as sympathy for Palestinians caught up in a war that Hamas started.

https://www.frontpagemag.com/davos-2024-agenda-revealed-and-now-in-crosshairs-of-u-s-congress/

“Rebuilding Trust” was the theme of the 2024 five-day meeting at Davos of the World Economic Forum (WEF), which just adjourned on January 19. No doubt Klaus Schwab, the founder and chairman of WEF, produced that theme as a good faith attempt to appease a growing number of regular Davos attendees who can no longer support WEF’s incredulous agenda. That agenda is all about draconian control over people’s lives and replacing individual nation-states with some kind of unwieldy and unaccountable new world order.

Part of the genius of Davos has been cultivating the elite with a myriad of private receptions, glitzy parties, and boundless opportunities for wheeling and dealing, which provide a smokescreen of legitimacy for the radical global agenda of WEF. Attendees are certainly disinclined to speak ill of such a lavish host and his swanky resort venue that makes bringing together the rich and famous possible. And Klaus appears beyond reproach with his disarming, cute, contrived, broken English accent.

But for those paying attention to the specifics of the Davos pronouncements and agenda, there is more reason than ever to distrust the WEF. Schwab stated the quiet part aloud—openly dissing common citizens and dismissing the need for elections. He said such choices should not be left to the people but rather to elites and their artificial intelligence (AI). “You do not even need to have elections anymore,” said Schwab, “because you can already predict… because we know the results.” Thus, Schwab, speaking for Davos 2024, justified the subversion and cancellation of the U.S. election in November.

Indeed, when one surveys WEF goals for 2024, there is more reason than ever for alarm. Americans face many dangers, including the flood of illegal migrants—now approaching ten million; domestic terrorist attacks from fifth column cadre among that massive number of migrants; elite capture and corruption; breakdown of law and order and civil unrest; demoralization of the American military; economic recession; and accelerating growth of national debt. Another reason for pause and distrust of WEF is its close collaboration with the U.N.’s World Health Organization (WHO) and its director-general Tedros Ghebreyesus.

https://www.frontpagemag.com/womens-rights-in-iran/

The Iranian regime’s approach towards women’s rights is an appalling testament to their deeply entrenched misogyny and disregard for human dignity. Through systematic repression and abuse, the regime has created a society where women are subject to discrimination, restriction, and the denial of basic human rights. For far too long, the international community has opted for appeasement when dealing with the Iranian regime, pursuing a futile policy of ‘constructive engagement’. This approach of compromise and negotiation has only emboldened the mullahs, allowing them to pursue their destructive and repressive agenda unchallenged. It is time to break free from the shackles of appeasement and acknowledge the necessity of regime change as the only viable solution for lasting peace in the region.

The Iranian regime’s systemic oppression of women has long been a cornerstone of their rule. From forcing women to adhere to strict dress codes to limiting their access to employment, and political participation, the regime acts as an enforcer of patriarchal oppression. Such practices not only violate the principles of equality and freedom, but also undermine progress and opportunity for women in Iran. Perhaps one of the regime’s most odious acts is the constant denial of women’s basic human rights. Women in Iran are subjected to domestic violence, sexual discrimination, and arbitrary arrests without due process. Add to this the grossly unfair legal system, where women face unequal treatment, harsh punishments, and a lack of legal recourse, and it becomes painfully evident that change is long overdue.

In January, a young woman, Roya Heshmati, 33, was sentenced to the vicious punishment of 74 lashes, on the fictitious charge of improper veiling. She was accused of encouraging permissiveness by refusing to cover her hair. Showing incredible courage, Ms. Heshmati continued to defy the strict dress code even as she was taken to be whipped in Tehran, refusing to wear the veil. This cruel and degrading punishment was simply the latest manifestation of the repressive treatment of women by the theocratic regime. The brutal murder in custody of the young Kurdish girl, 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, by the so-called ‘morality police’ in September 2022, again for the alleged offence of not properly covering her hair, ignited a nationwide uprising that raged for almost nine months. 

https://dailycaller.com/2024/01/18/opinion-the-left-finds-a-new-terrorist-group-to-enthusiastically-support-shoshana-bryen/

“From the River to the Sea” is the chant of left-wing activists who have joined with “pro-Palestinian” (actually pro-Hamas) demonstrators in the US and Western Europe. Which river? Which sea? The few times protestors have actually been asked the question, their lack of familiarity with the issues – and the geography – have been clear. It is stupefying to see “Queers for Palestine” on placards.

Now there is a new meme.

Extolling Iranian-armed and trained Houthi terrorists who were firing on American and other shipping, kidnapping crewmen from the ships, and firing missiles at southern Israel, and have now fired on American warships, the minions in the West wave signs proclaiming, “I stand with Yemen.” And “Hands off Yemen.”

Amazon helps.

One protester told The New York Post, “The Yemeni people and the Palestinian people are the only free people because we resist by any means necessary…  As long as there is resistance in Palestine and Yemen, as long as there is a blockade on Yemen and Gaza, we will stand up to resist it.”

Really? The Houthis ARE NOT YEMEN. And the only people attacking Yemen ARE THE HOUTHIS, who were listed as a sponsor of terror by the Trump administration after an attack on a Yemeni civilian airport.

Yes, the Republic of Yemen is at war with the Houthis.

https://www.frontpagemag.com/hamas-howl-in-amsterdam/

For a while there it looked as though my semi-annual long weekend in Amsterdam would come to naught. Several days of massive snowfall made travel impossible in our part of Norway and closed down Oslo Airport for most of a day. Thanks to the snow, the usually reliable bus to Oslo pulled into the station a couple of hours behind schedule; and the airport express trains, which are never so much as a minute late, were delayed by an hour or so.

There was one surprise on the express train. In every car, they have these big video screens on which they give you a couple of the latest headlines, current temperatures in major European cities, stock market news, and flight departure times. Somewhere in there, there’s always an ad – invariably innocuous, instantly forgettable. Not this time. The ad – big blood-red letters on black backgrounds – was placed by Doctors without Borders, and it demanded an end to the “genocide” in Gaza.

Having allowed plenty of time because of the chaos, I got to the airport several hours early. I killed part of the time watching a couple of new YouTube videos in which the U.K. podcaster Konstantin Kisin interviewed participants in a pro-Palestinian rally in London. It wasn’t a particularly dense crowd, and it consisted mostly of young English people. They carried signs, distributed by the Socialist Workers Party, calling for a ceasefire in Gaza and demanding that Palestine be free “from the river to the sea.”

A brief, polite questioning by Kisin established that they didn’t know what that meant, and that none of them really knew much of anything, for that matter, about Islam or Israel or the history of the Middle East. They’d spent four years learning that white is bad, darker shades good. They had yet to discover that there was more in heaven and earth than was dreamt of in the lyrics to “Imagine” and “Give Peace a Chance.”