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An English Misunderstanding of Iran by Amir Taheri

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/14585/the-english-job-jack-straw

Jack Straw’s misunderstanding, perhaps caused by his “absolute infatuation” with his imaginary Iran, has three aspects.

The first is that he thinks that because Iran is an ancient civilization — and has produced great poets, weaves exquisite carpets and offers one of the world’s hautes cuisines — it deserves indulgence for its weird activities in other domains such as hostage-taking, hate-mongering, human rights violations and the export of terror in the name of revolution. It is like granting Stalin indulgence because one appreciates Pushkin and Tchaikovsky and enjoys a dish of borscht with a glass of “little water” on the side.

The trouble is that Straw is unable to cite a single reform proposed, let alone carried out, by his “reformist” faction in Tehran. Worse still, he forgets that there have been more executions and political arrests under Khatami and Rouhani than during the presidency of the supposedly “hardline” Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Straw offers no evidence than any deal made with the Islamic Republic in the past 40 years has had a long-lasting impact on the Khomeinist strategy and behavior. The Khomeinist rulers of Iran have perfected the art of diplomatic cheat-retreat-advance. Whenever their bones began to creak, they offered some concessions, which were subsequently withdrawn once the crushing of the bones ceased. More importantly, perhaps, Straw fails to realize that his “moderates” including Rouhani and Khatami, lack the popular support base needed to marginalize Khamenei let alone get rid of him.

The English Job
Understanding Iran and Why It Distrusts Britain
By Jack Straw
390 pages; published by Biteback Books, London 2019.

The subtitle of Jack Straw’s new book promises to help the reader in “understanding Iran”.

However, what one gets in 390 pages may best be described as a misunderstanding of Iran today — a misunderstanding that has prevented Britain, along with other Western powers, from developing a realistic Iran policy and has helped prolong the crisis caused by the Islamic Republic’s unorthodox behavior in the international arena.

Straw’s misunderstanding, perhaps caused by his “absolute infatuation” with his imaginary Iran, has three aspects.

Maccabi Haifa Fans Beaten in Strasbourg as Police Bans Israeli Flags from Tonight’s Game By David Israel 

https://www.jewishpress.com/news/global/europe/france/maccabi-haifa-fans-beaten-in-strasbourg-as-police-bans-israeli-flags-from-tonights-game/2019/07/25/

Three Maccabi Haifa soccer club fans who arrived in Strasbourg, France, ahead of a the Europa League match Thursday night between Haifa and the local club, were attacked by six or seven locals late Wednesday night, Israel Hayom reported. The Haifa fans did not sustain serious injuries, but a member of their team’s security filed a complaint with the police.

One of the three Israelis, who were not wearing their team’s shirts or paraphernalia at the time of the attack, told Israel Hayom the assailants demanded to see their passports and their phones, to check out their Facebook and Twitter accounts.

“Then they shouted that we were Maccabi Haifa. We told them we were just tourists, but really quickly they started slapping us, throwing chairs and hitting, and punching us in the face. Some of the locals got up to get them off us and they ran away. We’re really worried about what will happen next, and we don’t know if we’ll be at the game.”

Strasbourg hosts Maccabi Haifa for the second round of the Europa League, which starts today, Thursday, at 8:45 PM local time. Even before the Wednesday attack, Strasbourg police issued extremely restrictive instructions to the fans of Maccabi Haifa, warning them not to bring Israeli flags into the Mino des Champions de France stadium in Strasbourg. Police also limited the number of Israeli fans permitted to enter the stadium to 600.

Israeli Ambassador Aliza Ben Nun condemned the orders, calling them unacceptable.

Israeli Foreign Minister Yisrael Katz instructed the Israeli embassy in France to take immediate steps to remove the restrictions imposed on the fans, and said he expected to see “many fans waving many flags tonight at the stadium.”

Boris in Power By John O’Sullivan

https://www.nationalreview.com/2019/07/boris-in-power/It’s a virtual bloodbath for the Remainers.

Before Boris unveiled his new cabinet, the newspapers would have prepared a choice of three headlines: It’s Continuity Boris; Tory Unity Rules for Boris; and Boris’s Remainer Bloodbath! My guess would then have been that headline No. 2 would be chosen. And now that the list of cabinet ministers is almost complete, we can see it contains a respectable tally of (former) Remainers. In fact, there’s an almost 50–50 split between (former) Remainers and Leavers. But the third headline is the one that best reflects the massive transformation that the new Boris Johnson cabinet represents.

Forget that both the new and dismissed cabinet ministers are all Tories. That’s beginning to seem a historic description. What this new cabinet or — as some commentators have rightly observed — this new government signifies is that a Remainer administration has been replaced by a Brexiteer administration almost as completely as after a general election defeat.

That’s owing in part to the decision of six members of May’s cabinet to resign either as a protest against the new prime minister or to avoid being pushed out. They were not minor figures, either, but included the former chancellor Philip Hammond, the former justice secretary David Gauke, the former international-development secretary (and leadership candidate) Rory Stewart, and of course Theresa May herself.

In addition to those who left semi-voluntarily, Boris sacked another eleven ministers — and that number will certainly rise as the reshuffle continues. Again, those who got their pink slips included major figures in the last administration — notably, the former foreign secretary (and leadership runner-up) Jeremy Hunt, the former defense secretary Penny Mordaunt, the former trade secretary Liam Fox, and the former deputy prime minister David Lidington.

Radicalization of Kids: A Global Threat by Raheel Raza

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/14586/radicalization-children-threat

The issue of child radicalization has become a global horror-show….very few people are willing to speak about the dangers of the radicalization of youths.

Radicalization is now easy for the extremists, thanks to technology, the new weapon being brandished by Islamist terrorists….

As people who care deeply about human rights, we are extremely concerned about the way these children are being subverted and abused, as well as about the future of our next generation, and creating awareness is of utmost importance.

On July 12, a 13-year-old boy blew himself up in a suicide bombing at a wedding in eastern Afghanistan’s Nangarhar province, killing five people and injuring 40, local officials said.

The issue of child radicalization has become a global horror-show.

Radicalization is now easy for the extremists, thanks to technology, the new weapon being brandished by Islamist terrorists in accordance with the mandate of the Muslim Brotherhood to “weaken the West from within”.

Kids today, as early as three years old, are on YouTube watching videos. Unfortunately, it has never been easier for extremists — from white supremacists to radical Islamists — to target vulnerable children and penetrate a child’s consciousness.

According to the UN, there are more than 250,000 child soldiers fighting around the world in more than 20 different conflicts. The Combating Terrorism Center reports that ISIS had more than 1,500 kids on the front lines and trained 1,000 kids to become suicide bombers in the first six months of 2015.

The Lessons of the Versailles Treaty By Victor Davis Hanson

https://amgreatness.com/2019/07/24/the-lessons-of

The Treaty of Versailles was signed in Versailles, France, on June 28, 1919. Neither the winners nor the losers of World War I were happy with the formal conclusion to the bloodbath.

The traditional criticism of the treaty is that the victorious French and British democracies did not listen to the pleas of leniency from progressive American President Woodrow Wilson. Instead, they added insult to the German injury by blaming Germany for starting the war. The final treaty demanded German reparations for war losses. It also forced Germany to cede territory to its victorious neighbors.

The harsh terms of the treaty purportedly embittered and impoverished the Germans. The indignation over Versailles supposedly explained why Germany eventually voted into power the firebrand Nazi Adolf Hitler, sowing the seeds of World War II.

But a century later, how true is the traditional explanation of the Versailles Treaty?

In comparison to other treaties of the times, the Versailles accord was actually mild—especially by past German standards.

After the 1870-1871 Franco-Prussian war, a newly unified and victorious Germany occupied France, forced the French to pay reparations and annexed the rich Alsace-Lorraine borderlands.

Berlin’s harsh 1914 plans for Western Europe at the onset of World War I—the so-called Septemberprogramm—called for the annexation of the northern French coast. The Germans planned to absorb all of Belgium and demand payment of billions of marks to pay off the entire German war debt.

Cometh the Hour, Cometh the Man: A Profile of Boris Johnson written by Toby Young

https://quillette.com/2019/07/23/cometh-the-hour-cometh-the-man-a-profile-of-boris-johnson/

“The rational part of my brain is still full of doubts and uncertainties. What sensible person would look at Boris’s peripatetic career and rakish personality and conclude that he is the right man to lead Britain at this moment of maximum danger? But at a more primitive level, a level impervious to reason, I cannot help but believe. From the first moment I saw him, I felt I was in the presence of someone special, someone capable of achieving great things. And I’ve never quite been able to dispel that impression.”

I first set eyes on Boris Johnson in the autumn of 1983 when we went up to Oxford at the same time. I knew who he was since my uncle Christopher was an ex-boyfriend of his mother’s and he had told me to keep an eye out for him, but I still wasn’t prepared for the sight (and sound) of him at the dispatch box of the Oxford Union. This was the world famous debating society where ambitious undergraduates honed their public-speaking skills before embarking on careers in politics or journalism, and Boris was proposing the motion.

With his huge mop of blond hair, his tie askew and his shirt escaping from his trousers, he looked like an overgrown schoolboy. Yet with his imposing physical build, his thick neck and his broad, Germanic forehead, there was also something of Nietzsche’s Übermensch about him. You could imagine him in lederhosen, wandering through the Black Forest with an axe over his shoulder, looking for ogres to kill. This same combination—a state of advanced dishevelment and a sense of coiled strength, of an almost tangible will to power—was even more pronounced in his way of speaking.

He began to advance an argument in what sounded like a parody of the high style in British politics—theatrical, dramatic, self-serious—when—a few seconds in—he appeared to completely forget what he was about to say. He looked up, startled—Where am I?—and asked the packed chamber which side he was supposed to be on. “What’s the motion, anyway?” Before anyone could answer, a light bulb appeared above his head and he was off, this time in an even more orotund, florid manner. Yet within a few seconds he’d wrong-footed himself again, this time because it had suddenly occurred to him that there was an equally compelling argument for the opposite point of view. This endless flipping and flopping, in which he seemed to constantly surprise himself, went on for the next 15 minutes. The impression he gave was of someone who’d been plucked from his bed in the middle of the night and then plonked down at the dispatch box of the Oxford Union without the faintest idea of what he was supposed to be talking about.

Boris Johnson appoints new cabinet with Sajid Javid, Priti Patel and Dominic Raab in top positions

https://www.standard.co.uk/news/politics/sajid-javid-appointed-chancellor-as-boris-johnson-names-new-cabinet-a4197671.html

Sajid Javid has been appointed chancellor, Priti Patel home secretary and Dominic Raab foreign secretary as Boris Johnson named his new cabinet.

Mr Johnson met with his new ministers this evening after he was given permission by the Queen to form a government.

Mr Raab was also appointed first secretary of state, effectively making him Mr Johnson’s deputy prime minister. The new cabinet will also see the return of Stephen Barclay as Brexit secretary.

Arch-Brexiteer Jacob Rees-Mogg has been made Leader of the House of Commons. He was also made Lord President of the Council and Downing Street said he would attend cabinet meetings.

Mr Johnson’s Tory leadership rival Michael Gove was named Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, while Ben Wallace was given the key role of defence secretary.

Gavin Williamson has returned to the government as education secretary after he was sacked by Theresa May earlier this year over leaked information about Chinese mobile giant Huawei.

Israeli Envoy Reveals Iran-Hezbollah Weapons Smuggling Routes Into Lebanon at UN Security Council Meeting

https://www.algemeiner.com/2019/07/23/israeli-envoy-reveals-iran-hezbollah-weapons-smuggling-routes-into-lebanon-at-un-security-council-meeting/

Israel’s Ambassador to the United Nations on Tuesday shared Israeli intelligence information with the UN Security Council showing Iran funneling weapons to the Hezbollah terrorist organization, highlighting the continuing threat posed by the Tehran regime and its Lebanese proxy along Israel’s northern border.

“In the years 2018-2019, Israel found that dual-use items are smuggled into Lebanon to advance Hezbollah’s rocket and missile capabilities,”  Danny Danon — Israel’s envoy to the UN — revealed to the Security Council.

Danon said that the Quds Force of  the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), which directs Iranian interventions abroad, had begun “to advance the exploitation of the civilian maritime channels, and specifically the Port of Beirut.”

Said Danon: “The Port of Beirut has become the Port of Hezbollah.”

THE EUROPEAN UNION’s APPEASEMENT OF IRAN Endless concessions didn’t stop Hitler, nor will they stop the Mullahs. Joseph Puder

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/274365/european-unions-appeasement-iran-joseph-puder

The European Union (EU) leaders are anxious to preserve the nuclear deal with Iran at all costs, and they are willing to ignore Iran’s breaking the deal by enriching its uranium stockpile to 4.5%. An act that is a clear violation of the nuclear agreement, formally titled the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) signed by Iran, Britain, France, Germany, China, Russia and the U.S. (the U.S. withdrew from the deal last year). The EU efforts are reminiscent of the way Neville Chamberlain, the former British Prime Minister, believed that he could preserve the peace in Europe by having a deal with Hitler. Hitler however, never meant to adhere to the (Munich) agreement and end his aggression, and neither does Iran. The EU’s endemic predisposition toward appeasement would inevitably lead to a catastrophe. Iran would produce a nuclear bomb long before the EU agreed to take military action against the terror sponsoring, and doomsday seeking Ayatollahs.

Iran’s tactics of intimidation and provocations supplemented with violent acts by its Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) or its proxies in Afghanistan, Iraq, Lebanon, and Yemen, resemble Hitler’s tactics in Nazi Germany’s late 1930’s. Iran’s protégé, the Hezbollah terror organization, serves as its Nazi-like SS enforcer in Lebanon, and increasingly elsewhere in the Middle East and beyond. Earlier this month the IRGC attempted to capture a British tanker in the Persian Gulf. Prior to that it had downed a U.S. drone, as well as being implicated in the damaging of oil tankers in the Gulf of Oman.

Lessons for America From India’s War Against Illegal Muslim Migrants Imagine if we had India’s immigration policy. Daniel Greenfield

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/274331/lessons-america-indias-war-against-illegal-muslim-daniel-greenfield

India’s 2,582 mile border with Bangladesh is even longer than America’s 1,954 mile border with Mexico.

The two countries are divided not only by that border, but by religion. India has an 80% Hindu majority and a rising 13% Muslim minority. Bangladesh has a 90% Muslim majority. And the tide of Muslim migration from Bangladesh to India began to shift the population balance in some Indian states.

India has spent decades building fences, topping them with barbed wire, and installing lights. The lights are there so that the guards can see. Unlike America, there are guards, they have guns, and they shoot.

What makes America’s border different from those of so many other countries isn’t the lack of fencing. Smugglers, traffickers, and assorted criminals can often find weak points in any security setup. In most countries, the defense of the border is seen as a national security issue backed by real firepower.

America’s Border Patrol has less than 20,000 people. India’s Border Security Force has 186 battalions and 257,363 people. It’s a paramilitary organization with an intelligence network, ten artillery units, air and marine wings, and canine and even camel units. And the weapons aren’t just there for show.

Over 1,000 illegal infiltrators have been killed trying to enter India from Bangladesh in over a decade.

BSF personnel are allowed to shoot on sight. Boats are used to monitor river areas that can’t be fenced in. Air units watch from the sky. And intelligence units gather information on smuggling gangs. The first and final line of defense though comes from men with rifles watching the fences and the shadows.

When a Bangladeshi teenage girl illegally entering India was shot, leftist activists hoped to use her to stop the zero-tolerance border security policy. But India kept building fences and defending them.