RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/14666/hamas-islamic-jihad-missiles

It seems, then, that for Islamic Jihad and Hamas, the ceasefire understandings, reached under the auspices of Egypt and the UN, are meant to give the Gaza-based groups a chance to continue building their military capabilities without having to worry about Israeli retaliatory measures.

Iranian media quoted Ayatollah Ali Khamenei as expressing satisfaction over the “progress” the Palestinians have made in the past few years. The “progress” Khamenei is talking about is not related to the building of a new hospital or school or a medical breakthrough in the Gaza Strip. Instead, the “progress” the Palestinians have achieved — according to Iran’s Supreme Leader — is that “while the Palestinians used to fight [Israel] with rocks, today they possess precise rockets.”

The Egyptian and UN mediators, in failing to call out the leaders of Hamas and Islamic Jihad for their deception and conflicting messages, are permitting the two groups to deploy the ceasefire with Israel as a cover to prepare for the next war.

The leaders of Hamas and Islamic Jihad and their patrons in Tehran… are dead-set on inflicting as much damage on Israel as possible. As per standard operating procedure, the biggest losers of all in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip will be the Palestinians.

As Egypt, the United Nations and other parties are pursuing their efforts to prevent an all-out military confrontation in the Gaza Strip, Hamas and its allies are forging ahead in their development of various types of weapons with which to attack Israel.

The Iranian-backed Islamic Jihad, the second largest armed group in the Gaza Strip after Hamas, recently revealed how it has managed to upgrade the rocket launchers that are being used to attack Israel.

According to the Islamic Jihad’s military wing, Al-Quds Brigades, it began developing its rocket launchers in 2007, when Hamas violently seized control of the Gaza Strip after overthrowing the regime of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/14630/india-caste-discrimination

In spite of these laws, the more than 160 million so-called “ex-untouchables” continue to be subjected to discrimination, oppression and violence.

“…this history of religious freedom has come under attack in recent years with the growth of exclusionary extremist narratives—including, at times, the government’s allowing and encouraging mob violence against religious minorities. Those have facilitated a pervasive and ongoing campaign of violence, intimidation, and harassment against non-Hindu and lower-caste Hindu minorities.” — United States Commission on International Religious Freedom: Annual Report, 2019

Prime Minister Narendra Modi must take effective steps to eliminate the discriminatory caste system not only in word, but in deed. He also needs to provide proper education and empowerment programs for the many impoverished and illiterate “untouchables.” Otherwise, India’s affirmative action policies, geared towards reserving slots for lower castes in government jobs, are of little practical significance.

To combat the evils of an age-old caste system — a form of hierarchical oppression enabling people born to upper-caste groups to discriminate against members of lower castes, particularly “untouchables” (Dalits) — the founding fathers of the democratic Republic of India, established in 1950, adopted a Constitution that guarantees all citizens equality before the law.

Articles 15 and 16 of the Indian Constitution forbid discrimination “against any citizen on grounds only of religion, race, caste, sex, place of birth or any of them… No citizen shall, on grounds only of religion, race, caste, sex, place of birth or any of them, be subject to any disability, liability, restriction or condition…”

Article 17 is even more specific:

“‘Untouchability’ is abolished and its practice in any form is forbidden. The enforcement of any disability arising out of ‘Untouchability’ shall be an offense punishable in accordance with law.”

India’s Constitution also directs the state to promote the educational and economic interests of weaker sectors, and protect them from all forms of exploitation (Article 46). As a result, New Delhi has instituted a policy resembling American “affirmative action,” reserving 15% of government jobs for members of scheduled castes.

In spite of these laws, the more than 160 million so-called “ex-untouchables” continue to be subjected to discrimination, oppression and violence.

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/274516/trinidads-darkest-hour-stephen-brown

Last month saw the 29th anniversary of an Islamic coup attempt to take over the government of the Caribbean island nation of Trinidad and Tobago.

It was the first and only such Islamic terrorist attack in the Western Hemisphere attempting to overthrow an elected government. At the time, the coup was much underreported by the media due to the First Gulf War in Kuwait, occurring simultaneously.

On Friday, June 27, 1990, 114 members of a Trinidadian Islamic group, Jamaat al Muslimeen, stormed the Trinidadian parliament, also called the Red House, and Trinidad’s television and radio station.

By the time it was over six days later on August 1, 24 people were dead, including one Member of Parliament, a policeman and security guards. Much of the country’s capital, Port-of-Spain, was left a burnt-out ruin. This tragic event has been called Trinidad’s “darkest hour,” shaking the country “to its foundations.”

“The coup staggered the Caribbean country’s sense of itself as an easygoing land of calypso, cricket and British-style democracy,” stated an Associated Press report, sounding like Trinidad’s 9/11 moment.

Forty-two rebels took over the parliament building, taking 50 people hostages including the prime minister, ANR Robinson, while another 72 seized the Trinidad and Tobago television and radio station. The television station was the only one in the country.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1&v=H_FIPO1Iv7U

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KElidy8Luk4&t=326s

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/14650/russia-turkey-iran-adversaries-nato

Germany’s outright rejection of Washington’s request [to support Washington’s proposal for a maritime protection force in the Arabian Gulf to protect shipping from attacks by Iran] is likely to inflame tensions further between Washington and Berlin. U.S. President Donald J. Trump is already at odds with German Chancellor Angela Merkel on a range of issues, from Germany’s obstinate refusal to meet its Nato funding commitments to its pursuit of closer energy ties with Russia through the construction of the controversial Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline.

Mr Trump is highly critical of the project. He argues that it will make Europe, and especially Germany, too dependent on Moscow for its energy needs, which could undermine the resolve of the Nato alliance to take a robust stand against Moscow in any future confrontation.

So, at a time when the Western alliance is already struggling with how to respond to Turkey’s deepening military ties with Russia, Germany’s refusal to fulfil its obligations to protect shipping in the Gulf will be interpreted by adversaries of the West such as Moscow and Tehran as yet further evidence of what would doubtless please them very much: deepening divisions within the Western alliance.

Germany’s point-blank refusal to support Washington’s proposal for a maritime protection force in the Arabian Gulf to protect shipping from attacks by Iran is yet another example of Berlin’s diplomatic and economic sabotage of the Western alliance.

Following the recent upsurge in Iranian aggression in the all-important Strait of Hormuz, the Gulf shipping artery through which flows one-fifth of the world’s energy needs, Washington has sought international backing for Operation Sentinel, its naval operation to protect shipping in the region.

This search follows a series of Iranian attacks, including the shooting down of a US Navy drone operating in international waters in the Strait of Hormuz, as well as a number of attacks against merchant shipping, such as last month’s seizure of the British-registered oil tanker Stena Impero.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/iran-seizes-vessel-in-persian-gulf-accused-of-smuggling-fuel-11564916008

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps has seized a vessel accused of smuggling fuel and detained its crew, Iranian state television reported, in another case of Tehran interdicting ships in the volatile Persian Gulf.

The report on Sunday said the Guard’s Navy patrol forces seized the vessel, along with 700,000 liters of smuggled fuel and, in coordination with Iranian judicial authorities, impounded it near Farsi Island in the Persian Gulf.

Iranian state news agency IRNA reported that a video of the moment the vessel was interdicted showed it was Iraqi. Maritime confrontations between Iran and Iraq are considered rare. The Iraqi ship’s seizure would follow July’s visit to Tehran by Prime Minister Adel Abdul-Mahdi, who has sought to ease tensions between the U.S. and Iran, both close allies of Iraq.

The Iraqi Oil Ministry said it had no relation to the detained vessel. Spokesman Assem Jihad said the ministry was gathering information on the vessel, describing it as smaller than those that officially market its oil and products.

Gen. Ramezan Zirahi, a navy forces commander in the Guard, was quoted by Iran’s Fars News Agency as saying the fuel had been transferred to the vessel from another ship, and was bound for Arab countries in the region when it was stopped. The seven detained crew members were foreign, he said, without naming their nationality or that of the vessel.

The ship’s seizure took place last on Wednesday, Sepah News, the Revolutionary Guard’s official news service, reported, a day after United Arab Emirates officials traveled to Iran to discuss maritime border cooperation and the flow of shipping traffic, including illegal movements.

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/14631/un-christian-refugees

Jordan is supposed to be their transit country; they are seeking resettlement to other countries via the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the Australian Special Humanitarian Program.
The registration with the UNHCR gives them the protective status of refugee as they await resettlement. Yet, the process of resettlement takes at minimum several months and sometimes even years due to the growing refugee backlog….. “The majority of those stuck in limbo have been waiting more than two years—some since the rise of ISIS in 2014,” according to the report.
“Since January, the process has become even slower and more difficult. The UNHCR has not even granted newcomers refugee status since. They just give them an appointment date, then they cancel the date and give them a new one. So we all keep waiting.” — Lorance Yousuf Kazqeea, a Christian originally from Baghdad, has been an asylum seeker in Jordan with his wife and two children since September 2017; to Gatestone Institute.
“You can contact the local UNHCR office in your country and demand answers – why Iraqi Christians have been waiting for resettlement for years and why the West continuously rejects them.” — Juliana Taimoorazy, founding president of the Iraqi Christian Relief Council, which has been active in Jordan since 2015; to Gatestone Institute.

Since the 2014 invasion and genocide by the Islamic State (ISIS) in Iraq, at least 16,000 Assyrian Christians from Iraq have become refugees in Jordan. Most are still suffering economically and psychologically there, under extremely difficult circumstances.

These Assyrian Christians are in Jordan on a temporary basis with plans to emigrate to a third country. However, as they have not been given official work permits by the Jordanian government, they largely rely on their savings, remittances sent by relatives abroad or aid from charity organizations and churches. Jordan is supposed to be their transit country; they are seeking resettlement in other countries via the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the Australian Special Humanitarian Program.

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/14649/iran-flog-dead-donkey

The Europeans pretend to be working on a magic potion that shall have the dead donkey up and running in no time. For their part, Tehran’s Khomeinist leaders insist that the donkey is alive and well but continue to pull off its legs one by one. The Russians and the Chinese serenade the dead donkey every now and then but are clearly not interested in whether it is dead or alive.

Trump may have done everyone a service by exposing the fraudulent nature of the JCPOA and seeking a fresh round of negotiations to address the totality of issues that have kept relations between Iran and the outside world in a state of crisis for the past four decades. The wisest course in the interest of all concerned is to bury the dead donkey and clear the deck for new initiatives on a solid legal basis.

The failure of the G7 summit to come up with a united and constructive stance on the “Iran problem” would encourage the mullahs to pursue policies that have done so much harm to Iran, indeed to the whole Middle East, in the past four decades.

Of all the futile things one could imagine, beating a dead donkey in the hope of forcing it to move on is the proverbial example. Right now, we are witnessing an example of that in the diplomatic gesticulations designed to maintain the so-called “Iran nuclear deal” on a life-support machine.

The Europeans pretend to be working on a magic potion that shall have the dead donkey up and running in no time. For their part, Tehran’s Khomeinist leaders insist that the donkey is alive and well but continue to pull off its legs one by one. The Russians and the Chinese serenade the dead donkey every now and then but are clearly not interested in whether it is dead or alive.

In theory, the “deal”, also known as Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) was the fruit of collective efforts by the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council plus Germany on one side and Iran’s Khomeinist establishment on the other. However, in reality, it was a diabolical elixir that President Barack Obama concocted by using every dubious ingredient he could get hold of.