TRUMP’S VISIT TO ENGLAND

At long last, some good news!

President Trump’s visit to the United Kingdom was very successful and has given the British people a much needed boost in the midst of Brexit.

The British would probably have been ok even without the US, but Trump’s promise of a trade deal couldn’t have come at a better time.   Mrs. May ceases to be prime minister at the end of the week, having failed in her bid to do a “deal” with Europe.  (She will continue in a caretaker role until a new leader of the Conservative Party is chosen.)

Mr. Trump made the effort to talk to Boris Johnson and to meet with both Jeremy Hunt and Michael Gove, the three most likely men to replace Mrs. May.   He already knew the first two.  He also spent some time with Nigel Farage, leader of the Brexit party.   Mr. Trump is firmly on the side of Brexit, which will put a dent in the European Union, arguably America’s greatest trade rival.

Some voices were raised against Trump.  PBS said the “streets were flooded” with demonstrators.  250,000 were expected; 75,000 turned up, according to organizers.   Others felt the number was considerably less.   Hardly a flood!   An opinion poll found that 46% of the British people supported the visit; only 40% were against. Those numbers were a lot better than on his previous visit.   People have seemingly become aware that he is in favor of a strong, individual nation state, and against globalization.

He was well received by the royal family, in spite of the revelation of a negative comment made by Meghan Markle prior to her marriage to Prince Harry.

Criticism from London’s mayor, Sadiq Khan, continues but it did not influence anybody else.   Mr. Khan, a Muslim, began his spat with Trump when the president introduced curbs on immigrants from Muslim countries.   His negativity only strengthens how actor John Cleese described London a few days ago as a non-English city – it’s unlikely to be in step with the rest of the country from now on. Jeremy Corbyn was another critical voice.   The leader of the Labor Party seems happy to meet with terrorist leaders but not with the US president.

President Trump extolled the virtues of the Anglo-American alliance, two nations that have been the greatest alliance in history. It took Robert Tuttle, a former US Ambassador to the UK on Sky TV, to add another three countries:   “Canada, Australia and New Zealand.”   The Australian prime minister sat behind the Queen and President for the celebrations commemorating D-Day.   The Canadian prime minister was also present.   All three countries contributed to the D-Day landings.

There are now two clearly defined ideas when it comes to the future of the western world.   Angela Merkel gave the commencement speech at Harvard University.   Her priority is still globalization.   While Trump’s speeches in England were all about the nation state.   Comments posted to websites talked about role reversal – that Merkel believes in freedom while Trump is for fascism.   Such comments show people’s ignorance.   Nationalism is a far cry from fascism.   And fascism is more likely to come out of the EU than the US.   Too many people on the left are too quick to label a conservative “fascist.”

CONSTITUTIONAL CHALLENGES

Other challenges lie ahead. Britain is in the midst of a constitutional crisis; the US seems headed for one.

Britain’s is all to do with Brexit.  And the referendum on the subject was won three years ago by supporters of the country leaving the EU.   Parliament will not support the British people’s vote and, instead, is split between those who support Brexit with a deal and those who wish to remain members of the EU.   Those supporting Brexit with a deal are not facing reality as the EU will not give them a deal it could accept.   The uncertainty has gone on for three years, eroding any respect for Britain that the EU might have had.   If they upset the EU any more, they may find themselves kicked out of the organization.

On the anniversary of D-Day today, June 6th, the Daily Express Head of News, Paul Baldwin, mused on the anniversary of the landings:  “It’s interesting and quite moving to think that 75 years ago today one of the biggest armadas ever assembled was about to set off and head for northern France and liberate Europe from the yoke of Nazism.   And we’re now seeing 75 years later that Britain is, at best, tolerated by our European neighbors and at worst, possibly despised.”   (Daily Express 6/6)

Not only is there uncertainty over Brexit.   There is also uncertainty over who will replace Mrs. May as PM.   The choice is most undemocratic.

“At some point in June or July roughly 124,000 people in Britain can expect to receive a ballot paper in the post.   It will offer them the names of two Conservative MPs (members of parliament).   The one they select will, shortly thereafter, enter 10 Downing Street as prime minister.   The rest of Britain’s 66 million inhabitants will have no say whatsoever.”   (“The Referendums and the damage done,” The Economist, 6/1).

The new leader will serve out the term of this government.   Then he will have to stand for election with everyone else and may be defeated.   More uncertainty.

The US has a constitutional crisis pending, as most Democrats want President Trump to be impeached, claiming his behavior warrants this.   More likely, it’s because they know there is no prospect of winning the 2020 election and want to find some way to get rid of him so that a Democrat is more likely to win.   In other words, it’s all politics.

But, the process of impeachment would damage the US considerably.   Financial markets hate instability.   Trump has been good for business; any attempt to remove him would likely have a negative effect on the economy.

So, both countries may have constitutional crises’ at the same time.

This would make ineffective the famed Anglo-American alliance, upon which the free world has been largely built.

LOOSE ENDS

HONOUR: King George V knights Lieutenant General John Monash at the Australian Corps headquarters in France on August 12, 1918. Photo: AWM E02964.

A friend in Australia pointed out something interesting about Lieutenant General John Monash, “the outsider who won a war” (the title of a biography about him published in 2004).   He did, indeed, receive a knighthood from King George V in 1918.   It was no ordinary knighthood.

The knighthood was unprecedented in that the King crossed the channel to present it to Sir John Monash at the Australian Army Corps headquarters in the Chateau where they were based.  This was during the First World War, on August 12^th, 1918.  It was the first time in 200 years that anybody had been knighted on the battlefield.

Clearly, Sir John was held in high esteem.

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DIABETES

My blood sugar has been worse since I returned to the US.   It’s difficult to say why.   I’m eating the same.    Stress is minimal.   I think the only difference is the quality of food.

There’s way too much garbage in our food (in bread, for example; the subject of an article in The Guardian newspaper this week.   We have the worst bread in the western world.   The bread contains additives, which are banned in other western nations.

Diabetes has restricted my mobility, which rules out hikes.   It also means that I need a wheelchair when going through airports.   The only airport that let me down was Detroit.

There’s only one solution – move to Australia!  I could eat cheesecake every day and still stay within the recommended range.

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CELL PHONE ADDICTION

Mobile phones are banned in Australia.   You can’t drive and use a phone, of any type.   You can’t even touch one in the car  even if the car is stationery – I know a lot of people who would find it hard to let go!

Not only does this cut down the accidents, it’s also a great stress reliever.

I mentioned last week that Australia is more relaxed that the US. One reason must be mobile phones.   When people are always on the phone, they don’t relax.   Take a four- or five-hour journey in Australia – without a phone, it’s pure relaxation!

I should add that hands-free phones are ok.

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DEATH OF BOB HAWKE

One of Australia’s most memorable prime ministers, Bog Hawke, died while I was visiting the country. He was PM from 1983-91.

News coverage was all positive.  One TV news program said that he was “a gambler, a womanizer and an adulterer.”   The same narrator added that he was “a great bloke.”

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CHURCHILL

I’ve started reading Andrew Roberts’ 1,000-page biography of Sir Winston Churchill.   This means I’m slowly progressing through two biographies at the same time, the one on Churchill and the one on Monash.   I got both out of the library.

I may post a few quotes on Churchill as I progress through the book.

“No less a figure than Mark Twain introduced Churchill at his first New York lecture, saying: “Mr. Churchill by his father is an Englishman, by his mother he is an American, no doubt a blend that makes the perfect man.”

At the Press Club, he made the following observation.   “After seeing many nations, after traveling through Europe, and after having been a prisoner of the Boers, I have come to see that, after all, the chief characteristic of the English-speaking people as compared with other white people is that they wash, and wash at regular periods. England and America are divided by a great ocean of salt water, but united by an eternal bathtub of soap and water.”   (p 78, Churchill, by Andrew Roberts).

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BORIS SET TO WIN?

Donald Trump isn’t the only leader going through constant efforts to discredit him.   Describing Boris Johnson as “a friend of mine,”   Mr. Trump came close to endorsing him Thursday.    Mr. Johnson is the favorite so succeed Theresa May. Is it just a coincidence that legal action is being taken against him when he is running for the Tory leadership?   He is being accused of lying.

His accusers say that his claim that the UK subsidizes the EU by 350 million pounds a week was a lie, which influenced voters in favor of Brexit.   “Remainers” are as bewildered as anti-Trump voters in the US – they cannot comprehend that others disagree with them!

Mr. Johnson has promised to deliver Brexit with or without a deal.   The British Foreign Office really doesn’t want to leave with “no deal.” Discredit Johnson and it’s likely the country will never leave the EU.

The European parliamentary elections were a mixed bag.   People turned away from the main parties in droves.   In Britain, the six-week-old Brexit party got more votes than anybody, but still not a majority. Some interpret this as the people supporting “Remain” in the EU.

A move toward the “extreme Right” was noticeable in many countries, including France and Germany; but, at the same time, there was also a move toward the Greens.

It will be some time before Europe settles down.

After all the upheavals, the prophesied ten nations will be in place (Revelation 17).

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LONDON NO LONGER LONDON

Actor John Cleese is having to defend himself after making the comment that “London isn’t really an English city any more.”    Of course it isn’t.   Over half the people of London are immigrants (first, second and third generation immigrants).   They are not ethnic Englishmen.

It’s a fact.   Just don’t mention it!

Pat Buchanan asked this week (May 30^th):   “Is the Liberal Hour ending in the West?”   With the rising tide of populist feeling in the West (and even in India), it seems that the ideas of “one worldism” are dying.

“Why is liberalism fading away, and nationalism ascendant?

“The former is an idea that appeals to the intellect; the latter, rooted in love of family, faith, tribe and nation, is of the heart.   In its potency to motivate men, liberalism is to nationalism what near beer is to Bombay gin.”

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DEATH OF FRANCE

The Middle East Forum saw symbolism in the fire at Notre Dame Cathedral and the death of the Judeo-Christian values in modern France.

“There was something darkly symbolic about the fire that nearly destroyed the cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris on April 15 – the morrow of Palm Sunday — and the fall amid heavy smoke of its 93-metre iron spire.   One couldn’t help linking the religious and architectural disaster with a deeper crisis:   the passing of France as a distinct country, or at least as the Western, Judeo-Christian nation it had hitherto been presumed to be.

“Writing in Causeur the morning after, Hadrien Desuin, a conservative journalist, conveyed some of these feelings as he observed:   “Beyond the cathedral’s fire, France itself is burning . . . We have witnessed the Church’s slow death . . . and now even the old stones are collapsing . . . Yes, France may die . . . That’s what Notre-Dame’s flames tell us.”   (Michel Gurfinkiel, 5/30).

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WHAT’S BEIJING DOING IN HAIFA?

“Below the radar screens of all but a few experts, a dispute is brewing with the potential to disrupt defense cooperation between the U.S. and Israel and embroil the Jewish state in America’s increasingly intense trade conflict with China.

“The story begins in 2015, when Israel’s Transportation Ministry accepted an offer from the Shanghai International Port Group to operate the port of Haifa for 25 years, starting in 2021, and invest $2 billion to expand the port into Israel’s largest harbor.   Notably, this decision was taken without the formal involvement of either Israel’s security cabinet or its National Security Council.

“As far as I can tell, this agreement went almost unnoticed for three years, until the transfer of part of the new port to Chinese control in the summer of 2018 sparked a furor in the Israeli media.   But it took a meeting this past August between a delegation from the Washington-based Hudson Institute and Haifa University’s Research Center for Maritime Policy and Strategy to make this issue a matter of international concern.

During this meeting, the U.S. delegation, which included retired Adm. Gary Roughead, former chief of naval operations, and ex-Pentagon official Douglas Feith, weighed in against the deal with a vehemence that reportedly stunned many Israeli participants.

“Adm. Roughead noted that China’s presence in Haifa might force the U.S. Sixth Fleet to abandon the port and dock elsewhere.   As he explained in remarks reported in the Jerusalem Post, “The Chinese port operators will be able to monitor closely U.S. ship movements, be aware of maintenance activity, and could have access to equipment moving to and from repair sites and interact freely with our crews over protracted periods.”   He also expressed concern that the Chinese could use the new port’s information systems to conduct surveillance and threaten U.S. cybersecurity.”    (William Galston, WSJ, 5/28)

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GERMANY STRENGTHENS TIES WITH LATIN AMERICA

(Own report) – With a Latin America-Caribbean Conference, the German Foreign Ministry is launching a new political offensive in the struggle for influence in Latin America.   Germany and the EU’s influence on the subcontinent has been stagnating, while China’s importance is growing.   The government hopes to counteract this development by helping German companies to increase their opportunities in Latin America – and this at a time when massive protest is being raised against German companies’ activities, for example, in Brazil.   The Brazilian judiciary has currently taken action against the Technical Control Board (TÜV) South, for its alleged complicity in a dam burst in January of this year, killing more than 250 people.    Brazilian activists are also accusing the Bayer and BASF companies of selling agricultural poisons in their country, which are banned in the EU.   Over the past decade, more than 2,000 people have died in Brazil from agrochemicals. Berlin is also envisaging the inclusion of Latin American countries into NATO structures.   (German Foreign Policy, 5/29)

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MERKEL AT HARVARD

Angela Merkel gave the commencement address at Harvard University today.

She called for a strengthening of ties between Europe and the US, building on what has been accomplished in the last seven decades.

Politico reports:   “Angela Merkel urged Harvard graduates Thursday to “tear down walls of ignorance and narrow-mindedness” in a speech laced with apparent jibes at Donald Trump and his policies.

“Though she did not name the U.S. president, the German chancellor devoted much of her Harvard University commencement speech to attacking major pillars of Trump’s presidency:    protectionism, trade wars and building walls.

“She also warned of the “threat climate change poses to our planet’s resources” and called for the world to work together.   Trump announced in 2017 that he would pull the U.S. out of the Paris climate agreement.”

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Trump will win 2020 election unless Democrats impeach, says expert

(Independent, 5/30)

POLAND’S HOLOCAUST DENIAL

Bible prophecy is focused on the Middle East and Europe.   There’s a lot happening in the latter right now, as the following news items show.   Poland’s holocaust denial is likely to be followed by other European countries given time, as a new generation takes over and does not want to be blamed for the sins of their fathers.  

“Watch therefore and pray always.” (Luke 21:36)

 

A few years ago, I visited Auschwitz and Krakow in Poland.   I remember asking the tour guide about Polish involvement in the Holocaust.  He admitted that many Poles had aided the Nazis in rounding up the Jews and worked in the camps, helping the Nazis in killing Jews.

The upper house of the Polish parliament has now made it illegal to say such things.  Revisionist history now says that Poles played no role in the Holocaust.  Note the following from the Wall Street Journal:

“Poland’s parliament passed a libel bill imposing jail sentences for accusing the Polish population for collaborating in the Holocaust or other war crimes, sparking concerns from Israel and the United States that a close ally was limiting free expression and flirting with anti-Semitism.

“American and Israeli diplomats condemned the legislation, passed by the upper house of the country’s legislature on Thursday which would set up to three year’s imprisonment for blaming the wartime murder of roughly six million Jews on the Polish state or people.”   (“Poland pushes controversial libel law,” Wall St Journal, 2/2/18)

Under the new legislation, it will become illegal to write or talk about ‘Polish death camps.’

In Tuesday’s Wall Street Journal, Alan M. Dershowitz of Harvard University, wrote the article:   “Poland seeks to censor history.”   Here’s a paragraph from the article:

“True, the Germans built Auschwitz and other death camps on Polish soil.   But the Germans could not have murdered the Polish Jews, and millions of other Europeans imported to death camps in Poland, without the active assistance of many Poles in identifying and rounding up victims.   This complicity was incited by generations of anti-Semitic church sermons.   Poles also murdered Jews during and after the German occupation – including in the Jedwabne pogrom in July 1941 and in Kielce in July 1946.”

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Merkel warns of rising anti-Semitism on Holocaust remembrance day  (AFP / 27 January 2018)

German Chancellor Angela Merkel warned of rising anti-Semitism in her country on International Holocaust Remembrance Day, calling the need to protect Jewish buildings “shameful.”   “It is inconceivable and shameful that no Jewish institution can exist without police protection, whether it is a school, a kindergarten or a synagogue,” she said.    The chancellor also reaffirmed her support of creating the position of anti-Semitism commissioner in the next German government, if her party can finalize tortuous negotiations to forge a coalition.  The commissioner would be appointed to counter growing hate speech against Jews and Israel in German from both its home-grown far-right and some recent migrants in the Muslim community.

https://www.thelocal.de/20180127/merkel-warns-of-rising-anti-semitism-on-holocaust-day

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‘Verbal attacks have become part of everyday Jewish life in Germany’

The head of the Central Council of Jews in Germany argued in an interview that much more educational work needs to be done in schools to combat anti-Semitism.  (25 January 2018 / The Local Germany)

Dr. Josef Schuster, head of the Central Council of Jews, spoke with the founder of the initiative Faces of Democracy, Sven Lilienström, about the importance of German democracy,   Donald Trump’s decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and modern anti-Semitism in Germany.   Surveys have shown for decades that about 20 to 25 percent of the population have anti-Jewish resentment.   However, these attitudes have been articulated more openly for some time now.   The internet plays a major role here.   In the social networks we find a verbal lack of inhibition which is dangerous, especially on the far-right of the political spectrum. Therefore, it is good that the Network Enforcement Act now provides an instrument to better prevent “hate speech.”

Unfortunately, however, an anti-Israeli attitude is also spreading in society.   It is then no longer a matter of factual criticism of Israel, but Israel’s right to exist is called into question, or Jews in general are held liable for the policies of the Israeli government.   That’s anti-Semitism.

https://www.thelocal.de/20180125/verbal-attacks-have-become-part-of-everyday-jewish-life-in-germany

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Germany’s AfD is ‘destructive power,’ Jewish leader warns

The ex-president of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, Charlotte Knobloch, says the party Alternative for Germany endangers democracy.

 It could soon become the biggest opposition party in the German parliament.

 

©27 Jan 2018 Deutsche Welle

 

The former president of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, Charlotte Knobloch, has expressed her concern at the fact that the right-wing populist party Alternative for Germany (AfD) has entered the German Bundestag. “It pains me that a party that tolerates not just historical misrepresentation and anti-Semitism but also racism, far-right extremism and populist nationalism in its ranks was able to become the third-strongest in Germany,” Knobloch told the Passauer Neue Presse in an interview published on Saturday for International Holocaust Remembrance Day. “Here, an anti-modern, anti-democratic and anti-liberal destructive power is at work that challenges the prevailing collective consensus” formed on the basis of the lessons of history, Knobloch said. Knobloch also warned of what she described as a “very strong and very aggressive” form of anti-Semitism present among Muslims living in Germany and called on Muslim associations and institutions to combat radical elements in their own communities. (http://www.dw.com/) 

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Son of Nazi leader’s warning about Germany — HARDtalk interviews Niklas Frank, son of Hans Frank, brutal Nazi Governor of Poland executed for war crimes 

Germany could return to authoritarianism if the economic conditions were to seriously worsen in the country, the son of Hans Frank the governor general of Nazi occupied Poland during World War Two, has told BBC Hardtalk.   “As long as our economy is great, and as long as we make money everything is very democratic,” said Niklas Frank, but “if we have five to 10 years heavy economic problems the swamp is a lake, and is a sea and will swallow again, everything,” he added.

Niklas Frank said he “despises” his father for the crimes he committed while he was governor-general of Poland from 1939 to 1945, and tours Germany giving speeches about his father and the legacy of the Nazi era.  Hans Frank was convicted of war crimes and crimes against humanity at the Nuremberg trials and executed in 1946.  (Released:  25 April 2017)

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Germany’s push for EU army:   Merkel developing networks with EU members for military union

Germany has been pushing for greater military co-operation amongst European Union member states, setting up a network between the Bundeswehr and other Brussels partners.  (29 Dec 2017 * Express UK)

German Defence Minister Ursula von der Leyen has been working on establishing the groundwork for an European Union army, in particular developing a network of co-operation between troops from Germany and others from countries that are part of Pesco – Permanent Structured Co-operation.  The bloc comprises 25 EU countries with only Denmark, Malta and the UK remaining outside. The move largely comprises of co-operation in training the troops, with the Bundeswehr training a number of soldiers from various EU countries and similarly,   German troops visit their counterparts.  But the plan does not just comprise the army but also the navy and air force.   The aim is deeper European integration in defence, which could already be realised ahead of the aims of Pesco.   The German Ministry of Defence has said it is open to the creation of a single EU academy for its military elite but there has been no firm commitment to such a project due to concerns that Germany could end up paying the bulk of the cost to train soldiers from around the bloc. . . .   The move by Ms. von der Leyen comes after Brussels announced EU military cooperation is a now a “tangible reality” after signing off a huge new project . . .   The European Defence Fund has received its first grant from the bloc for a €1million research programme called Pythia.   Named after the Priestess of Ancient Delphi, Pythia will see countries including France and Italy join forces to research cutting-edge military technology.   The UK also forms part of the programme, despite leaving the bloc in 2019, alongside Bulgaria, Poland and Romania.   A further €90million will be dished out from the EU budget in the next two years as Brussels chiefs look to strengthen military ties across the bloc.

https://www.express.co.uk/news/world/897773/EU-army-Germany-Bundeswehr-military-co-operation-training-Merkel-Macron

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Austrian right-wing Chancellor Sebastian Kurz welcomes Hungary’s Orban, says tensions have grown in the EU since the migrant crisis.  (AFP•January 30, 2018)

Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz said Tuesday that he aimed to ease east-west tensions within the European Union, as his new right-wing government welcomed Hungary’s incendiary Prime Minister Viktor Orban in Vienna.   “In particular since the start of the migrant crisis (in 2015) tensions have grown in the European Union,” Kurz told a joint news conference with Orban in the Austrian capital. “Our great aim in Austria is to be a bridge-builder in this respect between the Visegrad states and the countries in western Europe,” the 31-year-old conservative said.

. . .  A rift has emerged in recent years between Brussels and the Visegrad group of Hungary, Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovakia — and in particular with Warsaw and Budapest.   A sweeping revamp of state institutions by the nationalist governments in both countries have raised worries about the rule of law, judicial independence and media freedom.   Both have been the subject of legal action by the European Commission and they have refused to take part in a scheme to share out migrants around the 28-nation bloc.

. . .  Orban has called immigration the “Trojan Horse of terrorism” and earlier this month called migrants “Muslim invaders” of a Christian Europe.   “The biggest danger today to the hopeful future of central Europe is migration of peoples,” Orban told the news conference with Kurz on Tuesday.   “When I say that the future needs to be protected I mean that we have a culture, a Christian culture . . .   We have a way of life, and we want to protect this way of life,” Orban said.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/austrian-wing-govt-welcomes-hungarys-orban-162849205.html

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MIDEAST

“215 million Christians experience high levels of persecution” around the world, according to Open Doors, a human rights organization.   On its recently released World Watch List 2018, which ranks the world’s 50 worst nations wherein to be Christian, 3,066 Christians were killed, 1,252 abducted, and 1,020 raped or sexually harassed on account of their faith; and 793 churches were attacked or destroyed.

The Islamic world had the lion’s share of this persecution; 38 of the 50 worst nations are Muslim-majority.   The report further cites “Islamic oppression” behind the “extreme persecution” that prevails in eight of the 10 worst nations.   In short, the overwhelming majority of persecution that these 215 million Christians experience around the world — especially the worst forms, such as rape and murder — occurs at the hands of Muslims.”  (215 million Christians persecuted – mostly by Muslims,” Raymond Ibrahim, MEF, 1/21)

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REAL PROBLEM WITH MIDEAST PEACE TALKS

The root cause of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict has not been an Israeli refusal to concede, or an American unwillingness to bend: it has been the ongoing Palestinian rejection of Israel as the homeland of the Jewish people.   (E.J. Kimball, The Daily Caller, Middle East Forum, 2/2)

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SYRIA

“Idlib province is home to a wide range of groups opposed to President Bashar al-Assad.   His efforts to crush rebels there come after the government successfully reasserted control over large parts of the country, thanks to firepower from the regime’s Russian and Iranian allies.   But the offensive on Idlib is moving into risky territory, with foreign powers maneuvering in proximity to each other as alliances that used to fight Islamic State fray.”   (“Syrian Offensive strains foreign powers”, WSJ, 2/5/18).

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HOLOCAUST DENIAL — 2

In a TV interview, Egyptian historian and Egyptologist Bassam El Shammaa downplayed the Holocaust, saying that the figure of six million Jews killed was “disputed among historians” and that “at the time, there weren’t six million Jews in the world.”   “How come nobody talks about the ‘counter Holocaust’? he asked, claiming that after Hitler’s defeat, “the Jews in Europe captured the Germans, put them in camps, and started to kill them.”   The interview aired on the Egyptian Mehwar TV channel on December 17, 2017.   (MEMRI)

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DEMOGRAPHICS

All that matters is immigration…

Republicans who treat immigration as a backburner issue should be required to run on the issues they consider more important — in California.   See how your arguments fare in a state that’s already been transformed by immigration.   That’s your new country.  (Steynonline)

How stupid do you have to be to carry on about taxes, defense spending, ISIS, abortion or the Ten Commandments while intentionally losing on the one issue that will determine the outcome of all these other issues?   Too stupid to be of any real help.   (Ann Coulter, January 2018)

• In Germany, 47% of Muslims believe Sharia is more important than German law.   In Sweden, 52% of Muslims believe that Sharia is more important than Swedish law.
• The studies are supported by European intelligence reports. In Germany, intelligence agencies warned in the early fall of 2015 that, “We are importing Islamic extremism, Arab anti-Semitism, national and ethnic conflicts of other peoples, as well as a different understanding of society and law.”
• A recent Belgian study, in which 4,734 Belgians were polled, showed that two-thirds of Belgians feel that their nation is being “increasingly invaded.”

(Europe: Making Islam Great Again. Gatestone 2/3)

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Special Dispatch No. 7305

Former Basij Commander Gen. Mohammad Reza Naqdi:  ‘The European Continent Is Gradually Giving Way To The Asiatic And African Genes; In The Next Century, They’ll Have To Look For The European Gene In Museums’

THE COST OF ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION                                                          By Ruthie Blum, Gatestone 2/5/18

• “At the federal, state, and local levels, taxpayers shell out approximately $134.9 billion to cover the costs incurred by the presence of more than 12.5 million illegal aliens, and about 4.2 million citizen children of illegal aliens.” — Matt O’Brien and Spencer Raley
• It is also rather more than the single payment of $25 billion that it will cost to build a wall — five and a half times more, and every year.
• “Undocumented immigrants are at least 142% more likely to be convicted of a crime than other Arizonans.   They also tend to commit more serious crimes. . . . ” — John R. Lott.
• In 2015, included in the DEA’s drug-threat assessment was the fact that drug overdoses killed more people in the United States than car accidents or guns. Many of these drugs [were] smuggled in large volumes by drug cartels.”

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An Italian man went on a shooting spree in the central town of Macerata, wounding six African immigrants before getting out of his car and doing the fascist salute, police said.

“The 28-year-old suspect drove through Macerata on Saturday, shooting in an area where police had arrested a Nigerian man suspected of killing an 18-year-old Italian woman, a spokesman for the Interior Ministry said.” (WSJ, 3/5)

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BERLUSCONI WANTS TO DEPORT 600,000 IMMIGRANTS

Silvio Berlusconi has pledged to deport 600,000 illegal immigrants from Italy should his centre-right coalition enter government after elections on 4 March, as tensions simmer over the shooting of six Africans by a far-right extremist on Saturday.

The 81-year-old rightwing former prime minister said in a TV interview that immigration was a “social bomb ready to explode in Italy” and that the shooting in Macerata posed a security problem.

“Immigration has become an urgent question, because after years with a leftwing government, there are 600,000 migrants who don’t have the right to stay,” said Berlusconi.   “We consider it to be an absolute priority to regain control over the situation.”

Berlusconi’s Forza Italia has forged an alliance with two far-right parties, the Northern League and the smaller Brothers of Italy, for the elections.   (The Guardian, 2/5)

ISIS IS THE TRUE FACE OF ISLAM

Graeme Wood graduated from Harvard University in 2001 and speaks fluent Russian and some Arabic.   He is a Canadian journalist.

Mr. Wood has written an in-depth, thought-provoking article in the March issue of The Atlantic, on “What ISIS really wants.”

It’s likely to be the most discussed article on the subject for some time.

The article stands in complete contrast to statements made by western leaders, who claim that ISIS does not represent Islam and that terrorism is not Islamic.

Mr. Wood delves deep into Islamic history and shows that, in fact, the opposite is the case, that ISIS is the real face of Islam and represents the true face of the religion.   He makes such a convincing case to support his argument that I doubt anybody will sit down and argue with him.   The facts fit.   The question is:   what are we going to do about it?

Today, the BBC World Service revealed that the number of Christians abducted by ISIS fighters on Monday from villages in North-East Syria is between 370 – 500, not the 70 originally thought to have been kidnapped.   To say that fears are growing for their safety is an understatement.   They may be used as hostages and traded for ISIS fighters taken as prisoners.   According to Mr. Wood:   “Exempted from automatic execution, it appears, are Christians who do not resist their new government.   Baghdadi permits them to live, as long as they pay a special tax, known as the jizya, and acknowledge their subjugation.   The Koranic authority for this practice is not in dispute.”

It has also been confirmed that three teenage girls who left England last week for Turkey crossed the border into Syria to join ISIS.   The fact that they all went to an exclusive private school is further proof that joblessness and poverty do not cause terrorism, as the US Administration claims.

Earlier today, three Americans were charged with trying to leave the country to join ISIS.   One of them even promised to kill the President of the United States if asked to do so.

Others, in both countries, have already gone to Syria to join the organization.   ISIS is said to be attracting hundreds of new fighters each day.

“Tens of thousands of foreign Muslims are thought to have immigrated to the Islamic State.   Recruits hail from France, the United Kingdom, Belgium, Germany, Holland, Australia, Indonesia, the United States, and many other places.   Many have come to fight, and many intend to die.”   (Wood, What ISIS Really Wants)

Meanwhile, as the threat from ISIS increases, the US and UK are continuing to reduce the size of their militaries, according to reports on today’s Fox News website and in last week’s Economist.   The report on Fox News was based on the Heritage Foundation’s “2015 Index of US Military Strength,” which concluded that, for the first time in decades, the US can no longer fight and win two wars at the same time.   During the last decade, the country and its allies fought two simultaneous wars, in Iraq and Afghanistan, arguably losing both wars.   There is a very real possibility that wars against ISIS, al-Qaeda and Boko Haram may have to be fought in three different regions while, at the same time, there is also a very real prospect of a proxy war with Russia in Ukraine or maybe even the Baltic states.

A few days ago, I posted an article to my blog, titled “What If The President Is Wrong?”   This was just after his claim that terrorism is caused by joblessness.

A few days later, I read Mr. Wood’s article in The Atlantic.   Joblessness is not the problem.   Rather, we have here a fundamentalist movement that is returning Islam to its 1400-year-old roots and copying Muhammed in the way he dealt with infidels and those in conquered lands.

Monday’s Chicago Tribune put it well:   “What motivates these people?   Why do so many of them, Westerners included, eagerly come to the desert to fight and die?

“The best examination we’ve seen appears in the current issue of the The Atlantic.   “What ISIS Really Wants,” by Graeme Wood, argues that Islamic State is not a death cult that distorts Islam in a bid to gain political power.   Rather, it is a fanatically rigid religious movement based on specific teachings and traditions of seventh century Islam, which it implements to a dangerously literal        degree . . .”

“In the view of Islamic State leaders, there is only one extremely narrow belief path to follow – its own puritanical Salafist branch of Sunni Islam.   The rest of us, even practicing Muslims, are infidels to be subjugated or killed . . . ”  (Knowing Islamic State and Its Vision)

What is particularly interesting in Graeme Wood’s article is the conviction that ISIS has, that they are to play a significant role in world history leading up to the apocalypse.   Christians will see in part a distortion of their own beliefs regarding end-time events.

“These include the belief that there will be only 12 legitimate caliphs, and Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi is the eighth; that the armies of Rome will mass to meet the armies of Islam in northern Syria; and that Islam’s final showdown with an anti-Messiah will occur in Jerusalem after a period of renewed Islamic conquest.”

This paragraph alone should tell us one thing – that ISIS is here to stay and will remain with us until the end-time events that Christians believe will see the return of Jesus Christ.

“What ISIS Really Wants” gives us a clear understanding of the beliefs and goals of ISIS.   The question now is how is the West going to react?