Europe's salvation lies in Israel
Bret Stephens is spot-on about how Europe can save itself.
The answer lies in Israel.
Can the decline be stopped? Yes, but that would require a great
unlearning of the political mythologies on which modern Europe was
built.
Among those mythologies: that the European Union is the
result of a postwar moral commitment to peace; that Christianity is of
merely historical importance to European identity; that there’s no such
thing as a military solution; that one’s country isn’t worth fighting
for; that honor is atavistic and tolerance is the supreme value. People
who believe in nothing, including themselves, will ultimately submit to
anything.
The alternative is a recognition that Europe’s long
peace depended on the presence of American military power, and that the
retreat of that power will require Europeans to defend themselves.
Europe will also have to figure out how to apply power not symbolically,
as it now does, but strategically, in pursuit of difficult objectives.
That could start with the destruction of ISIS in Libya.
More
important, Europeans will have to learn that powerlessness can be as
corrupting as power—and much more dangerous. The storm of terror that is
descending on Europe will not end in some new politics of inclusion,
community outreach, more foreign aid or one of Mrs. Merkel’s diplomatic Rube Goldbergs. It will end in rivers of blood. Theirs or yours?
In
all this, the best guide to how Europe can find its way to safety is
the country it has spent the best part of the last 50 years lecturing
and vilifying: Israel. For now, it’s the only country in the West that
refuses to risk the safety of its citizens on someone else’s notion of
human rights or altar of peace.
Europeans will no doubt look to
Israel for tactical tips in the battle against terrorism—crowd
management techniques and so on—but what they really need to learn from
the Jewish state is the moral lesson. Namely, that identity can be a
great preserver of liberty, and that free societies cannot survive
through progressive accommodations to barbarians.
Of course for Europe to learn anything from Israel it will first have to overcome its longstanding and visceral hatred of Jews. Is it capable of doing so? If the past is any guide, we may have a Muslim-controlled Europe in the next 50 years.
Read it all.
Labels: Angela Merkel, European anti-Semitism, European Union, France, Francois Hollande, Germany, Manuel Valls
Europeans: 'Obama administration put more pressure on its friends in the negotiations than on the Iranians'
The Wall Street Journal reports that the Europeans - particularly France - are having some
buyer's remorse about the sellout to a nuclear Iran.
French President François Hollande ran into a
difficult question late last month about war and Iran. It’s time now to pay
attention to his answer.
Invited to dinner by members of the French
Presidential Press Association on July 27, the president was asked if he went
along with the contention of U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and
French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius, later voiced by President Barack Obama,
that war would inevitably follow rejection by the U.S. Congress of the nuclear
deal between the great powers and Iran.
Mr. Hollande, whose full-page photo on a French
magazine cover this week is headlined The Anesthetist, doesn’t do
alarmisme. He didn’t assert, as Mr. Obama so often has, that war is the
single alternative to the Iran nuclear agreement. No way.
My recollection of Mr. Hollande’s
response—jibing with that of the journalists seated to my left and right that
evening—is that he said disapproval by Congress meant new “uncertainty,” and
uncertainty in the Middle East could sometimes mean war.
A month later, this much is clear about the
approach of the other European parties to the deal: Neither German Chancellor
Angela Merkel nor
U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron
have made an explicit link between Congress’s possible September vote against
the agreement and anything resembling the Obama administration’s notions of
instant cataclysm.
After initially nodding “yes” to the deal, the
French have partially reverted to form reflecting their traditional hard-nosed
antinuclear proliferation position. It’s OK in Paris to acknowledge that the
accord is an oversold mediocrity, and its character nonhistoric. Mr. Obama’s
notions of co-opting a suddenly tranquilized Iran to embrace the Forces of Good
in the Middle East can get characterized as naive. American sanctions experts
say big French banks have informed them they are in no rush to return to
Iran.
Citing the profound weaknesses of an agreement
that allows controls over Iran to end after 15 years and the mullahs to keep an
absurdly high number of centrifuges, a French official told me he graded the
accord as C-plus. He expressed concern about America’s willingness over time to
continue paying the enormous expense of its vast Iranian surveillance
operations. And he also said that the deal’s concessions to Tehran made a
pressing reality of Saudi Arabia’s quest for an atomic weapon.
One of the toughest of the country’s hard-nosed
security experts, Bruno Tertrais, wrote last month in the Canadian newspaper Le
Devoir that “with pressure from the Obama administration” European negotiators’
original intent deteriorated from a rollback of Iran’s nuclear ambitions to
their containment.
Camille Grand, director of the Foundation for
Strategic Research—a think tank with a reputation for telling truths the French
government might prefer to avoid—told me how this slippage had come about. “From
2013 on,” he said, “the Americans gave the impression they wanted the deal more
than Iran did. The administration put more pressure on its friends in the
negotiations than on the Iranians.”
...
For now, even if there are French critics, there
is no political or governmental force actively fighting the deal. It creates the
impression of a French security establishment that will shoot from the cover of
the sidelines, yet isn’t mobilized to urge that the agreement be
renegotiated.
But shooting from the sidelines can still have
an effect. Consider the recent ado about reports that Jacques Audibert, Mr.
Hollande’s national security adviser, told a U.S. congressional delegation to
Paris in July that France, while supporting the deal overall, would view a move
by Congress to block the deal as manageable without causing a break between the
U.S. and Europe. Rep. Loretta Sanchez, a Democrat, described the conversation
later. Although the French denied her account, her colleagues on the delegation
affirmed it—and why would she concoct a story so inconvenient to a president of
her party anyway?
So how come didn’t France lie across the tracks
to block the accord? My explanation:
Because an economically nonperforming President
Hollande couldn’t say “no” to French industry wanting a shot at new Iranian
contracts. Because France no longer musters the international political levers
to shoulder splendid isolation. And because it would not assume the cost of
being regarded as Benjamin Netanyahu’s single objective ally.
And now, French buyer’s remorse? In theory, a
bit. But not enough to try holding off on its own what France knows is a lousy
Iran nuclear deal.
Is anyone in Congress listening?
For the record, France
opposed the 24-day wait period for inspections.
Labels: Barack Hussein Obama, France, Francois Hollande, Iran Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, Iran sanctions regime, Iranian nuclear threat, Jacques Audibert, John Kerry, Laurent Fabius, Loretta Sanchez
Netanyahu rains on another French parade
Prime Minister Netanyahu has once again
rained on French President Francois Hollande's parade.
Israel's prime minister said Sunday he will "fiercely reject" any
international proposals meant to bring about a solution to the conflict
with the Palestinians.
Benjamin Netanyahu made the remarks ahead of a visit by French
Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius. France has said it will propose a
resolution in the United Nations Security Council with a framework for
negotiations toward resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
"The way to reach an agreement is only through negotiations and we
will fiercely reject attempts to impose international dictates," he told
his weekly Cabinet meeting.
Netanyahu said that attacks against Israelis will continue with any
international proposal that does not take Israel's security concerns
into account.
...
Fabius is coming to the region to sound out leaders about a planned
Security Council resolution that aims to restart peace talks after a
more than year-long lull.
Palestinian officials and French diplomats have said the proposal
would call for basing the borders between Israel and a future
Palestinian state on the lines that existed before Israel captured the
West Bank, east Jerusalem and Gaza Strip in the 1967 Mideast war. It
also would set a two-year deadline for an agreement. Israel rejects a
return to its pre-1967 lines, saying they are indefensible. It also
opposes deadlines.
That's not Fabius in the picture with Netanyahu - it's French President Francois Hollande. In any event, the reaction is the same.
Heh.
Labels: Binyamin Netanyahu, France, Francois Hollande, Laurent Fabius, Palestinian state RIGHT NOW syndrome
Report: Obama green lights UN Security Council resolution on 'Palestinian state'
The ink isn't even dry yet on Prime Minister Netanyahu's new coalition agreement, and he may already be facing his first crisis. This crisis isn't with his coalition partners. It's with his supposed ally, the 'most pro-Israel administration evah.' I don't like to sole-source DEBKA, but this one rings true, and there have been enough
hints of it in the media to make it plausible: DEBKA is reporting that US President Hussein Obama has
green-lighted a Security Council resolution calling for a 'Palestinian State.'
Obama is reported exclusively by our sources to have given
the hitherto withheld green light to European governments to file a UN
Security Council motion proclaiming an independent Palestinian state.
Although Netanyahu left the foreign affairs portfolio in his charge and
available to be filled by a suitably moderate figure as per the White
House’s expectations did not satisfy the US President.
The White House is confident that, with the US voting in
favor, the motion will be passed by an overwhelming majority and
therefore be binding on the Israeli government.
To show the administration was in earnest, senior US
officials sat down with their French counterparts in Paris last week to
sketch out the general outline of this motion. According to our sources,
they began addressing such questions as the area of the Palestinian
state, its borders, security arrangements between Israel and the
Palestinians and whether or not to set a hard-and-fast timeline for
implementation, or phrase the resolution as a general declaration of
intent.
Incorporating a target date in the language would expose Israel to Security Council sanctions for non-compliance.
It was indicated by the American side in Paris that the Obama
administration would prefer to give Netanyahu a lengthy though
predetermined time scale to reconsider his Palestinian policy or even
possibly to broaden and diversify his coalition by introducing
non-aligned factions or figures into such key posts as foreign affairs.
At the same time, both American and French diplomats are already using
the club they propose to hang over the Netanyahu government’s head for
gains in other spheres.
French President Francois Hollande, for instance, the first
foreign leader ever to attend a Gulf Council of Cooperation summit,
which opened in Riyadh Tuesday to discuss Iran and the Yemen war, used
the opportunity to brief Gulf Arab rulers on Washington’s turnaround on
the Israeli-Palestinian issue.
And US Secretary of State John Kerry plans to present the
Obama administration’s new plans for Palestinian statehood to Saudi
leaders during his visit to Riyadh Wednesday and Thursday, May 6-7.
Kerry will use Washington’s willingness to meet Palestinian aspirations
as currency for procuring Saudi and Gulf support for a Yemen ceasefire
and their acceptance of the nuclear deal shaping up with Iran.
Mamzer.
Former Florida Congressman
Allen West adds:
This is the Obama Doctrine. When he cannot get what he wants via the
process of leading and making a case, he just side steps anyone deemed
an obstacle – not until demonizing them first. We have seen this with
the GOP legislative branch and now with Israel.
First, he is driven by the wanton desire to have an unprecedented
foreign policy achievement, albeit rather dubious, in nuclear
negotiations with Iran. Second, there will be a “Palestinian” state
before he departs the White House — come hell or high water!
So his preferred course of action will be to side with the other
despots, dictators, theocrats and autocrats that run the United Nations
and by force of will and coercion, cause Israel to capitulate. And I’m
quite sure if anyone were to query the former Secretary of State who is
running for president – which would be difficult, considering she’s not
answering any inquiries – she would most likely carry forth this aspect
of the Obama foreign policy doctrine.
You know there is a part of me – as well as many of you — who would
like to tell the American Jewish community, “I told ya so.” Then again,
what difference at this point does it make?”
...
These are indeed dark days for Israel and these final 18 months of
the Obama rule may prove a greater mountain to overcome than any of us
expected for Israel.
This goes beyond abandonment. It is the purposeful intent to
usher in Israel’s demise. When you consider the lack of regard and
recognition from most of its neighbors — except Egypt and Jordan — the
Israelis find themselves in a treacherous position.
There’s no doubt Israel can make a stand and fight, but who will
reinforce and support? Certainly not the Obama administration that
threatened to cut off Hellfire missile support during the last
conflagration with Hamas. And as it seems most Israelis know, as
Secretary of State during Obama’s first term in office, Hillary Clinton,
was a full partner in his foreign policy. She may try to appear less
ideologically-driven than Obama, but given her recent policy flip flops
on trade, immigration, and crime, the indications are already that her
basic world view is the same as his. After all, as first lady, she and
President Bill Clinton were all chummy with the original Islamic
terrorist, Yasser Arafat.
What West may not get is that most American Jews don't give a damn. That's the truth.
Labels: Allen West, Barack Hussein Obama, Binyamin Netanyahu, Francois Hollande, Palestinian state RIGHT NOW syndrome, United Nations Security Council
Obama going to Saudi Arabia, will skip Auschwitz liberation anniversary
Having
blown off France two weeks ago, Barack
HUSSEIN Obama will
skip the Taj Mahal next week to
visit the new king of Saudi Arabia. In case that doesn't make his priorities clear enough, the President of the United States will then
skip the 70th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz.
This is from the third link.
World leaders have been streaming into the country to pay their
respects to the powerful kingdom, which controls one of the world's
largest reserves of oil. The late King Abdullah had been a close friend
of the United States, but the new king, Salman bin Abdul-Aziz Al Saud is
less known in the West.
The president has been on a bad streak of late. He skipped the Paris
march after the massacre at the Charlie Hebdo magazine in Paris, instead
watching NFL playoof football. The White House later acknowledged that
it should have sent someone with a "higher profile" than just the U.S.
ambassador to France.
Then this week, the White House announced that Obama will not see the
Israeli Prime Minister on his March visit to address Congress, calling
the invitation from House Speaker John Boehner a breach of protocol. But
the president did make time on Thursday to visit with a YouTube star
who once took a bath in a tub filled with milk and Fruit Loops,
prompting much ridicule.
Now, with the change announced Saturday by the White House, Biden will
stay in Washington as Obama makes the trip to Saudi Arabia.
But once again, Obama will be a day late and a dollar short. He won't
stop in Riyadh until Tuesday, while Russia's Prime Minister Dmitry
Medvedev, Britain's Prime Minister David Cameron, French President
Francois Hollande and Japan's Crown Prince Naruhito will visit on
Saturday and Sunday to offer condolences.
Well, maybe Obama is afraid that Hollande will treat him about as well as Netanyahu does.
And then there's the
Auschwitz snub.
Treasury Secretary Jack Lew will represent the United States at the
70th anniversary ceremony for the liberation of the Auschwitz
concentration camp on Tuesday—rather than President Barack Obama or Vice
President Joe Biden—while other countries are slated to send their
heads of state.
Tuesday’s ceremony will likely be the last major anniversary where a
significant number of survivors of the Nazi camp are present. About 300
are expected to attend, and most of them are in their 90s or older than
100. Nazi authorities killed 1.1 million people at the camp, mostly Jews, which was liberated by the Soviet army in January 1945.
The New York Times reported on the foreign dignitaries that would be present:
A preliminary list of those attending includes President
François Hollande of France, President Joachim Gauck of Germany and
President Heinz Fischer of Austria, as well as King Philippe of Belgium,
King Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands and Crown Prince Frederik of
Denmark. The United States delegation will be led by Treasury Secretary
Jacob J. Lew.
The White House claims that Obama will be in India on a 'long-scheduled' trip. As if they didn't know when the liberation of Auschwitz took place. At least he'll avoid Hollande there too.
Labels: Auschwitz, Barack Hussein Obama, France, Francois Hollande, India, Saudi Arabia, Saudi King Abdullah, Saudi King Salman bin Abdul-Aziz Al Saud, Taj Mahal
A 'Palestinian' rips Hollande for inviting Abu Mazen
An anonymous 'Palestinian' has written a letter to French President Francois Hollande criticizing Hollande for inviting '
moderate' '
Palestinian' President
Mahmoud Abbas Abu Mazen to participate in this past Sunday's
Paris unity march.
Second, I want to apologize to Your Excellency for not revealing my
true identity. After you read my letter, you will realize why people
like me are afraid to reveal their real identity.
I decided to write to you this letter after hearing my president, Mahmoud Abbas, declare that you had invited him to attend the anti-terror rally in Paris earlier this week.
Like many Palestinians, I see President Abbas's participation
in a rally against terrorism and assaults on freedom of speech as an
act of hypocrisy -- a condition that is not alien to Palestinian
Authority leaders.
In fact, many Palestinians nearly fell off their chairs upon seeing
their president march in the front row of a rally in your capital, in
protest against terrorism and assaults on freedom of the media.
President Abbas's participation in the rally is an insult to the
victims of the terror attacks. It is also an insult to Western values,
including freedom of expression and democracy.
Your Excellency, myself and other journalists living under the rule
of the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank were the first to be
offended by the invitation you extended to President Abbas to attend the
anti-terror rally.
Undoubtedly, you are unaware of the fact that Abbas is personally
responsible for punishing Palestinian journalists who dare to criticize
him or express their views in public. Of course, Your Excellency, we
cannot blame you for being unaware of this assault on public freedoms
because the mainstream media, including French newspapers and magazines,
deliberately turn a blind eye to these practices. Every day we see that
the Western media does not care about such violations unless they are
committed by Israel.
That is why, Your Excellency, you are probably unaware of the cases
of several Palestinian journalists who have been arrested and
intimidated by President Abbas's security forces over the past few
years. Yes, this is the same Abbas who came to Paris to express his
condolences over the brutal killing of the Charlie Hebdo journalists.
The most recent example of Abbas's crackdown on Palestinian
journalists occurred shortly before Your Excellency phoned President
Abbas to invite him to Paris. The case involves my female colleague, Majdolin Hassouneh, who was detained for "extending her tongue," or insulting, President Abbas.
Your Excellency, please allow me to tell you that you are completely
mistaken if you ever thought that President Abbas and his Palestinian
Authority are tolerant toward satire or any form of criticism. And of
course, you haven't heard of the Palestinian Authority's decision to cancel the only popular satirical show on Palestine TV, Watan ala Watar (Country on a String).
The show was forced off the air in 2011 because President Abbas
believed it had "crossed a line" by mocking his top officials in
Ramallah. This is the same Abbas who came to Paris to protest the
massacre at the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo.
...
Undoubtedly, now Palestinians like me will now pay a heavier price
because President Abbas has been emboldened by his participation in the
Paris rally. President Abbas will now step up his assaults on public
freedoms because he knows that the international community will only see
photos of him marching together with Your Excellency and other world
leaders in defense of freedom of expression.
By extending the invitation to President Abbas, you have caused
damage to Palestinians like me who have been hoping that someone --
maybe even a leader like you -- would finally expose the dictatorship of
the Palestinian Authority for what it is. President Abbas's
participation in the Paris rally is a severe blow to people like me who
are genuinely opposed to terrorism and suppression of free speech.
Your Excellency, now that the damage has already been done, all that
is left for people like me is to beg you to take all what I have said
into account in your future dealings with President Abbas. Please do not
hesitate to raise these issues with President Abbas the next time he
requests your support for the creation of an independent Palestinian
state. Otherwise, France will be helping to establish another corrupt
and repressive Arab dictatorship -- one that glorifies and rewards
terrorists no different from those who carried out the Paris attacks.
Finally, Your Excellency, I hope that by now you understand the reason why I am too scared to reveal my identity.
Sincerely,
A Palestinian Journalist with No Name or Voice
Read the whole thing. If only the West would listen....
Labels: Abu Mazen, Charlie Hebdo, France, Francois Hollande, freedom of the press, human rights, Islamic terrorism, Palestinian Authority, Paris
Hollande asked both Netanyahu and Abu Mazen not to come
There have been a lot of stories in the Israeli media on Monday, about how Prime Minister Netanyahu was
asked to stay home by French President Hollande. And that story is apparently true. But Netanyahu was not the only one who was asked to stay home. So was '
Moderate' '
Palestinian' President
Mahmoud Abbas Abu Mazen. This is from the first link.
After the French government began to send invitations to world leaders to participate
in the rally against terror, Hollande’s national security adviser,
Jacques Audibert, contacted his Israeli counterpart, Yossi Cohen, and
said that Hollande would prefer that Netanyahu not attend, the source
said.
Audibert explained that Hollande wanted the event to focus on
demonstrating solidarity with France, and to avoid anything liable to
divert attention to other controversial issues, like Jewish-Muslim
relations or the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Audibert said that
Hollande hoped that Netanyahu would understand the difficulties his
arrival might pose and would announce that he would not be attending.
The source noted that one of the French concerns - not conveyed to
representatives of the Israeli government - was that Netanyahu would
take advantage of the event for campaign purposes and make speeches,
especially about the Jews of France. Such statements, the Elysee Palace
feared, would hurt the demonstration of solidarity the French government
was trying to promote as part of dealing with the terror attacks.
According to the source, Netanyahu at first acquiesced to the French
request. In any case, the Shin Bet security service unit that protects
public figures considered the arrangements for the prime minister’s
security to be complex. And so, on Saturday evening, Netanyahu’s people
announced that he would not be flying to Paris because of security
concerns. Netanyahu told the French he would come to France on Tuesday
for a Jewish community event.
The French apparently sent the same message to Palestinian Authority
President Mahmoud Abbas. Like Netanyahu, Abbas acceded to the French
request and released a strange statement about the same time Netanyahu
released his, that he would not be attending the event because of the
bad weather.
However, on Saturday night, Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman and
Economy Minister Naftali Bennett announced their intention to go to
Paris and take part in the march and meet with the Jewish community.
When Netanyahu heard they were going, he informed the French he would be
attending the march after all.
According to the source, when Cohen informed Audibert that Netanyahu
would be attending the event after all, Audibert angrily told Cohen that
the prime minister’s conduct would have an adverse effect on ties
between the two countries as long as Hollande was president of France
and Netanyahu was prime minister of Israel.
Audibert made it clear that in light of Netanyahu's intention to
arrive, an invitation would also be extended to Abbas. And indeed,
several hours after Abbas announced that he would not be traveling to
Paris, his office issued a statement stating that he would in fact be at
the march.
Hollande's anger at Netanyahu was evident during the ceremony held
Sunday evening following the march at the Grand Synagogue in Paris, an
event attended by hundreds of members of the local Jewish community.
Hollande sat through most of the ceremony, but when Netanyahu's turn at
the podium arrived, the French president got up from his seat and made
an early exit.
Netanyahu's office has denied most of this story.
Read the whole thing. I think that given the Friday night massacre at the Kosher supermarket, it would have been outrageous for Netanyahu not to have been there - election campaign or no election campaign. Tzipi Livni and Buzi Herzog could have written this story.
Labels: Abu Mazen, Avigdor Lieberman, Binyamin Netanyahu, feckless French, Francois Hollande, Islamic terrorism, Naftali Bennett, Paris
Breaking: Hollande to accompany Netanyahu to Paris Grand Synagogue
Heavy symbolism here.
This past Sabbath was the first time the Grand Synagogue had been closed since the Nazi occupation in the 1940's.
Labels: Binyamin Netanyahu, European Jews, France, Francois Hollande, Islamic terrorism, Paris
Why Europe won't learn the lesson of Charlie Hebdo
Melanie Phillips (writing before Friday's attack on the Kosher supermarket in Paris) explains why last week's Charlie Hebdo attack
will not awaken the West.
The fact is that Islamic terrorism and intimidation against the West
have been going on for decades, matched by displays of Western weakness
which merely encourage an enemy it refuses properly to identify.
Over
and over again, the West denies that these attacks have anything to do
with Islam. First it blamed poverty and exclusion among Muslims. Then
it blamed grievances around the world – Bosnia, Chechnya, Kashmir,
Palestine.
Then it blamed isolated madmen whose Muslim identity was irrelevant.
In
France before Christmas, attacks in which cars were used as battering
rams against crowds amid shouts of “Allahu akbar” were said by French
authorities to be unconnected with each other.
Yet Muslim
violence in France has clearly been out of control for years. Just look
at the repeated Islamic pogroms against French Jews, which have driven
thousands of them to emigrate. Yet none of those attacks provoked the
kind of outrage that followed this week’s atrocity. Is free speech more
important than the lives of French Jews? But the West refuses to join
up the dots. The Charlie Hebdo attackers shouted “Allahu akbar” and “We
are avenging the Prophet Muhammad.”
Yet Obama, Cameron, and
Hollande condemned the attack as merely “terrorism,” carefully omitting
to say what kind of terrorism this was.
This follows their
absurd statements that the Islamic State terrorist group has “nothing
to do with Islam” and that “no religion” condones that kind of
barbarism.
Really? What links Islamic State, al-Qaida, Hamas,
and Boko Haram? It’s a religion beginning with the letter I and ending
with M.
A very senior British civil servant once told me that
Islamist terrorism couldn’t be about Islam, because that would
“demonize” all Muslims. This absurd non-sequitur was like saying the
Inquisition had nothing to do with Catholicism, in order not to
demonize Catholics.
For sure, many Muslims are not only opposed
to Islamist terrorism but are its principal victims. But to pretend
that it is not rooted in a legitimate interpretation of the religion,
backed up by the historical evidence of centuries of aggressive and
violent Islamic conquest, is ridiculous.
If the West cannot even bring itself to acknowledge what it is up against, then it will surely be defeated by it.
Read the whole thing.
Labels: Barack Hussein Obama, Caliphate, David Cameron, France, Francois Hollande, Islam, Islamic terrorism, political correctness
4 hostages killed in Paris Jewish supermarket
Shavua tov, a good week to everyone.
Four people were killed on Friday when an Islamic terrorist entered a Paris Kosher supermarket on Friday afternoon. 15 other hostages escaped when police stormed the supermarket. The terrorist who perpetrated the attack (and also murdered a Paris police officer on Thursday) was killed, as were the two Charlie Hebdo terrorists who took hostages in a printing plant outside Charles DeGaulle Airport. The three terrorists were in constant contact with each other.
Let's go to the videotape.
Exclusif France 2 : les images du face-à-face... by francetvinfo
Anyone who can translate the French, please do.
Here's a bit
more.
Four of the hostages who were held at the kosher supermarket were
murdered by terrorist Amedy Coulibaly when he entered the store, just a
few hours before French President Francois Hollande denounced what he
called “an appalling anti-Semitic act.” Fifteen other hostages survived
the ordeal.
...
Yesterday, Coulibaly murdered a police officer in Montrouge, south of
Paris. His female companion, Hayat Boumeddiene, is said to still be at
large. During the simultaneous sieges, the couple reportedly spoke
more than 500 times to the Charlie Hebdo killers, Charif and Said
Kouachi, who were cornered by police at a printing shop to the northeast
of Paris.
According to French media reports, Coulibaly and Cherif Kouachi were
two of the most committed followers of convicted terrorist Djamel
Beghal. Telephone conversations reveal that the pair visited Beghal’s
home in Murat in the south of France.
French President Francois Hollande described the events as “a tragedy for the nation”.
In a national address, he thanked the security forces for their
“courage, bravery and efficiency,” but added that France still faced
threats.
“We have to be vigilant. I also ask you to be united – it’s our best weapon,” he said.
“We must be implacable towards racism,” he added, saying that the supermarket attack was an “appalling anti-Semitic act.”
Read it all.
It's too late for France - they let too many Islamic terrorists in and now they cannot get rid of them all. Let the rest of Europe - which is headed in the same direction - learn before it is too late.
Labels: Charlie Hebdo, European Jews, feckless French, France, Francois Hollande, Islamic terrorism, Islamophobia
As nuke talks begin, Khameni attacks Israel and France
With the latest round of nuclear talks beginning in Geneva on Wednesday, the real power behind the Iranian regime, Ayatollah Ali Khameni,
attacked Israel and France.
Khamenei took swipes at Israel and France during his speech to tens of
thousands of volunteer Basij militiamen in Tehran, broadcast live on
Iran's Press TV.
“Zionist officials cannot be called humans, they are like animals, some of them,” said Khamenei.
“The Israeli regime is doomed to failure and annihilation,” he said.
The
“Zionist regime” says things that “only bring humiliation on
themselves,” he said adding that it is a regime that “emerged through
force and no phenomenon that has emerged through force has continued to
exist, and this regime will not continue to exist either.”
The
allegation that Iran poses a threat to the world are the “words of
enemies,” he said referring to some countries, such as the “rabid dog of
the region, namely the Zionist regime,” as quoted by Iran’s Tasnim News
Agency.
The leader also criticized France. French President
Francois Hollande assured Israel on Sunday that France would continue to
oppose an easing of economic sanctions against Iran until it was
convinced Tehran had given up any pursuit of nuclear weapons.
French
officials, Khamenei said, were "not only succumbing to the United
States, but they are kneeling before the Israeli regime".
And Obama thinks that this regime can be trusted to use nuclear energy for 'peaceful purposes' and not to develop nuclear weapons? Well, at least one Israeli expert thinks this is all a show:
Brandon Friedman, a lecturer at Tel Aviv University and a researcher
at its Moshe Dayan Center for Middle Eastern and African Studies, told The Jerusalem Post that Khamenei gave a hardline speech because “he wants to set the stage for a deal.
If
Iran is going to compromise with the US and the West, then its
leadership “needs to reinforce the remaining pillar of ideology: the
little Satan, or Israel.”
“As Iran approaches some kind of détente with the West, we can expect its rhetoric on Israel to become harsher,” said Friedman.
Commenting
on how much of the Western press did not report some of Khamenei’s
harsher remarks, Friedman said it was disappointing that the press seems
reluctant to report both images coming out of Iran.
“They prefer
the image of a new regime,” he said, “but the fact is to understand the
Islamic republic, the supreme authority resides with Khamenei.”
“It
seems curious that Khamenei’s denigrating and insulting remarks about
Israeli officials went under-reported in the Western media,” he said.
Curious? No, sadly it's typical. The world likes to pretend that Iran is something different from its reality. I fear that the world will awaken to that reality far too late to do anything about it.
Labels: Ayatollah Ali Khameni, Barack Hussein Obama, France, Francois Hollande, Iran sanctions regime, Iranian nuclear threat, Israel, P 5+1
Maybe this will dampen Israelis' enthusiasm for Francois Hollande
Israelis have been giving a warm reception to French President Francois Hollande in light of what's seen as his much-stronger-than-Obama's stance on the Iranian nuclear program. Perhaps the picture above (word is that
the rais was in the grave today) and the story below will
dampen Israelis' enthusiasm for Hollande.
"For the sake of peace and to reach a deal, France calls for the
total and definitive end to settlement building because it compromises
the two-state solution," Hollande said at a news conference with
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
Abbas described settlements as "the greatest threat that could end the peace process and lead to its failure."
...
Hollande held talks on Sunday with Israeli leaders in Jerusalem which
focused on international efforts to reach an agreement with Iran over
its disputed nuclear program.
He met Abbas in Ramallah, the
Palestinians' seat of government in the occupied West Bank, and laid a
wreath on the grave of Yasser Arafat, their guerrilla leader and first
president who died in 2004.
After a public signing of economic aid
and development agreements, Hollande said France had donated more in
budget support to the Palestinians than to any other nation.
The continued existence of the 'settlements' and the continual increase in the number of Israelis living in them are the only incentives that Abu Mazen has to 'negotiate.' Without the 'settlements,' he could just refuse to even sit at the table and feel that he has nothing to lose.
Oh wait... he feels that anyway, doesn't he?
Labels: Abu Mazen, Francois Hollande, Yasser Arafat
National Security Adviser: Israel can stop Iran 'for a long time,' expect Netanyahu to act
Yaakov Amidror, who until very recently was Prime Minister Netanyahu's National Security Adviser, has told the Financial Times of London that Israel is capable of stopping Iran's nuclear program '
for a long time,' and that Prime Minister Netanyahu will not hesitate to act alone if he feels that Israel is threatened.
[Netanyahu's] comments came as Israel’s former national security adviser, Yaakov
Amidror – one of Mr Netanyahu’s closest associates until he stepped down
in October – told the Financial Times that his country’s military could
stop Iran’s nuclear programme “for a very long time”.
There was “no
question” that Mr Netanyahu would be prepared to make the decision to
strike unilaterally if necessary.
“We don’t need permission from anyone – we are an independent state,”
said Mr Amidror, who has known Mr Netanyahu since 1969 and served as
his national security adviser for two-and-a-half years. “We have our own
sovereignty. If Israel is in a position in which Israel must defend
itself, Israel will do it.”
Mr Amidror also told the FT that Israel’s air force had been
conducting “very long-range flights . . . all around the world” as part
of its preparations for a possible military confrontation with Iran.
Defence experts have expressed scepticism over Israel’s ability or willingness to strike Iran’s nuclear sites, including the underground enrichment facility at Fordow, on its own, without the backing of the US military.
The US has consistently opposed a unilateral Israeli strike, which
could put its military installations in the Gulf at risk, bring massive
retaliation against Israel, and draw Washington into a broader regional
war.
On the other side, military intelligence chief Amos Yadlin published a major paper last month in which he said that Israel can '
easily handle' any Iranian response to an Israeli attack (pdf link) (Hat Tip:
IMRA).
Iran could respond to an attack in two main arenas: against Israel,
or in the Persian Gulf against the United States and/or the Sunni Gulf
states, mainly Saudi Arabia. The common Western assessment, which
envisions a horror scenario of Iranian responses and consequent
developments, serves as an excellent deterrence tool for the Iranians by
undermining the threat of the military option and reducing the likelihood
that the regime in Tehran will agree to a diplomatic solution.
This paper challenges the commonly held Western view through a
systematic analysis of Iran’s capabilities and the possible range of Iranian
strategies to be used against Israel. The analysis complements studies
that have been conducted on the Iranian response in the Gulf,
4
and takes
into account the response capability of Iran’s ally Syria and that of Iran’s
Lebanese and Palestinian proxies. In addition, this paper makes four
policy recommendations to reduce the possibility of regional escalation,
which in any case is unlikely, considering the interests of the relevant
actors. The main conclusion is that the possibility of a strike against Iran
is a pivotal instrument of diplomacy. A measured but credible use of this
tool can help achieve the goals of the international campaign:
to pressure Iran so that it agrees to concessions regarding its nuclear program, which
will ensure that it does not possess military nuclear capabilities, and to
reduce the likelihood of regional escalation.
But Israel Radio reports this morning that Israeli policymakers expect that there will be an interim deal between Iran and the P 5+1 this week or next - possibly as soon as Wednesday, and that the existence of such a deal will make it politically more difficult for Prime Minister Netanyahu to order an attack on Iran. According to the report, French President Francois Hollande, who is visiting Israel today (and wreaking havoc on Jerusalem's traffic), has told Prime Minister Netanyahu that he cannot resist the enormous American pressure that is being placed on him to approve a deal. The Prime Minister will meet with Russian President Putin on Wednesday - the same day that the next round of P 5+1 talks open in Geneva, but no one really expects anything to come from that meeting.
Israel Radio also reports that despite the French saying that the deal to be signed with Iran is 'improved' and includes a halt to construction of the plutonium reactor at Arak and to the further enrichment of uranium to the 20% level, the expectation here is that even if those items are included in any eventual deal, Iran will follow in North Korea's footsteps and violate the deal almost immediately.
So despite our military people saying that we can handle this, we're going to sit on the sidelines and watch Obama bungle it and possibly get a lot of us killed, God forbid.
What could go wrong?
Labels: Barack Hussein Obama, Binyamin Netanyahu, Francois Hollande, Iran sanctions regime, Iranian nuclear threat, Israeli attack on Iran, P 5+1, Vladimir Putin
France has been consistent about Iran
In the JPost, Benny Weinthal argues that despite the surprise of many commentators, France has actually been
consistent about Iran.
The BBC’s State Department correspondent Kim Ghattas wrote on Sunday,
“French diplomats have told me in recent years they believed the Obama
administration was willing to concede too much too soon.”
The French-born Israeli political scientist Dr. Emmanuel Navon told the Post
that France sees “the Americans and Germans as giving too much to
Iran.” He cited French President François Hollande’s interventionist
foreign policy. He is “not a pacifist” and showed his willingness to use
“military force” in Mali to stop an al-Qaida insurgency earlier this
year.
Navon, the director of the political science and
communications department at the Jerusalem Orthodox College, and teacher
of International Relations at Tel Aviv University and at the
Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya, said France sees an agreement that
“must remove the threat of Iran reaching military capability” with
respect to its nuclear program.
Navon pointed to Hollande’s
willingness to confront Iran’s proxy – the regime of President Bashar
Assad in Syria, which was a French Mandate following the collapse of the
Ottoman Empire – with military force.
He “gave the orders to
shoot” but US President Barack Obama pulled the plug on missile strikes
and deferred the dispute to Congress for approval.
Richard Landes, a distinguished historian at Boston University with an expertise in French history, told the Post, “The fact is that his [Hollande] administration has proven to be tougher than [former French president Nicolas] Sarkozy.”
Landes noted that Hollande rapidly made the decision to go into Mali. Commentators “did not anticipate this kind of backbone.”
The
perceived lack of US tenaciousness and seriousness toward Iran’s drive
to build a nuclear weapons device was captured in the US media.
Read the whole thing.
Labels: France, Francois Hollande, Iranian nuclear threat, Laurent Fabius
Boycott threat or shared interest in stopping Iran?
The Algemeiner is reporting that French President Francois Hollande
will address the Knesset during his trip here next week. It had previously been reported that Hollande would not address the Knesset, causing speaker Yuli Edelstein to post on his Facebook page that he would
boycott Hollande's visit.
The Algemeiner implies that Hollande's apparent change of heart is due to
Edelstein's boycott threat. I would guess that France's newly discovered joint interest with Israel in stopping Iran has a lot to do with Hollande's decision.
Labels: France, Francois Hollande, Iranian nuclear threat, Israeli Knesset, Yuli Edelstein
French President Hollande declared 'persona non grata'
Knesset speaker Yuli Edelstein has declared French President Francois Hollande persona non grata for
choosing to address university students in a visit here three weeks from now, rather than addressing the Knesset.
"Whoever disrespects the Knesset does not deserve the Knesset's
respect," Edelstein wrote on Facebook. "International leaders cannot
belittle the Knesset, the elected parliament of the State of Israel, and
ignore it. As speaker of the Knesset I am determined to protect the
dignity of our nation and its representatives, the MKs. I will not allow
Israeli democracy to be humiliated and turned into a doormat."
Then why not go all the way and not allow him into the country? (Answer: Edelstein doesn't have the power to do that). This sounds a bit like the mirror image of Groucho Marx's famous quip....
Let's go to the videotape. The story starts at the 4:00 mark.
And if the story of Francois Hollande sounds familiar to you, it should. There was another 'world leader' who recently
addressed university students rather than the Knesset. At the time, I wrote:
Given his refusal to speak at the Knesset as well, maybe Obama is trying
to avoid recognizing the State of Israel. If so, that should be deeply
troubling to all Israelis... I don't why we invited him, but maybe we can still retract....
So what's the difference? Why wasn't Obama at least declared persona non grata in the Knesset? How's this for a
lame excuse....
As for how Hollande is different from US President Barack Obama, who also chose to address students and not the Knesset,
Edelstein said he was disappointed then, too, but Obama visited Israel
shortly after the government was formed and the situation in the Knesset
was messier than it is now.
Right.... The person who is going to 'suffer' from this is not Hollande, but rather French Ambassador to Israel, Patrick Maisonnave.
New French Ambassador to Israel Patrick Maisonnave will not be
invited to any official Knesset ceremonies, nor will any other French
dignitaries or ministers visiting Israel.
"There are plenty of
events in universities. I'm sure the French officials will be too busy
to find time for the Knesset," Edelstein remarked sarcastically.
And the French reaction?
A French Embassy spokeswoman said she was "surprised" to see
Edelstein's reaction, because Hollande's schedule is not finalized yet.
"There
is no need to react like this. The president wants to show his
attachment to Israeli democracy and its representatives and wants to go
to the Knesset. We are in touch with the Knesset to find the best time
for [Hollande] to come, working with the Knesset's scheduling
constraints. We're working on options and trying to be accommodating,"
the French Embassy spokeswoman stated.
Isn't it the Knesset that would need to be accommodating in this case? After all, they are the would-be hosts.
Don't get me wrong - I'm all in favor of banning Hollande from the Knesset for this. In fact, I'm in favor of banning him from the country altogether if he won't come address the Knesset.
But we should have done the same to Obama. The mistake was allowing Obama to set the precedent of going over the heads of Israel's elected representatives in the form of a speech to 'university students.'
Labels: Barack Hussein Obama, Francois Hollande, Israeli Knesset, persona non grata, Yuli Edelstein
France was ready to strike Syria, Obama decided to go to Congress instead
France was all ready to strike Syria. The strike had even been scheduled for August 31. But then, President Hussein Obama
decided to go to Congress instead.
France was ready for a strike on chemical weapons facilities in Syria
on the day US President Barack Obama decided to seek approval from
Congress for the strike, French weekly Le Nouvel Observateur reported on Sunday.
...
Rafale fighter jets, armed with Scalp cruise missiles with a range of
250 km, were ready to fire at targets in western Syria, including
Damascus, the paper reported. The jets were to attack while flying over
international waters in the Mediterranean, avoiding Turkish airspace to
prevent Syrian retaliation against its neighbor.
...
The
strike was due to start at 3 a.m. on September 1, while everyone are
asleep, to minimize civilian casualties, a government official told the
paper.
After receiving indications from the Americans that the
strike was imminent in the days leading up to the US president's
announcement, Obama called Hollande on Saturday August 31 at 6:15 p.m.,
telling him he had decided to ask for Congress's approval before going
ahead with the strike.
Hollande was stunned, the paper reported, and tried to convince Obama to reconsider, but was unsuccessful.
And you can bet that the next time that the US wants to enlist France in military action, the French will just be rarin' to go....
Labels: Barack Hussein Obama, Bashar al-Assad, chemical weapons, France, Francois Hollande, Syria, US attack on Syria
Moron alert: France's Hollande calls on Iran to help Syrian rebels
At the 'Friends of Syria' conference in Doha on Sunday, French President Francois Hollande
called on Iran to help the Syrian rebels reverse the gains over the last couple of months by Bashar al-Assad's troops.
The
countries agreed on Saturday to give urgent military support to the rebels,
channeled through the Western-backed Supreme Military Council, a move that
Washington and its European allies hope will prevent weapons falling into the
hands of Islamist radicals.
Hollande said the countries still needed to
work out how to supply arms to the Syrian opposition and that deliveries were
conditional on the rebels organizing politically and militarily.
"We
cannot imagine delivering weapons to groups which could use them to the
detriment of interests of a democratic Syria or eventually against us," he
said.
The aim, he said, was to assert military pressure on Assad, because
doing nothing would benefit "Assad on the one hand and the most radical elements
on the other ... We refuse that." He also called on Iran's new President Hassan
Rohani to use his influence to help the Syrian situation.
"Elections have
taken place in Iran, (there is) a new president. It's up to him to show he can
maybe be useful, that he can also exert pressure on Bashar Assad to find a
solution."
In those days when there was no superpower in the world, each 'ruler' did what he thought was proper.
What could go wrong?
Labels: al-Qaeda, Bashar al-Assad, Francois Hollande, Free Syrian Army, Hassan Rohani, Nusra Front, Syria, Syrian uprising
The latest news from Occupied France
I'm passing on this email from Ricky G verbatim, and you can all make of it what you will:
This photo was taken at La Bastille Plaza in Paris, during the election celebration for the comrade socialist president Hollande. See any French flags? Anywhere? Actually, there is ONE towards the bottom right. The other flags are in order of appurtenance, Palestinian (2 flags top right+1 center left), Algerian, Turkish (towards center), Syrian (towards left of pic + below Palestinian flag), Moroccan (w. star in center), and European Union flag. The other flags I can’t recognize, there are also Syndicates or Unions’ flags. That's France in a nutshell.
Also please read below the picture from a French citizen.
This e-mail was sent from xxxx in France -
Hello to my American friends,
As you know, the Socialist François Hollande won the presidential elections in France, last Sunday. It is a catastrophe for France.
Hollande was elected by the Muslims:
A survey (of 10,000 Muslims) shows that 93% of the Muslims voted for him.(that's a large sample--why so large? was it scientifically sound?--the only qualm I have with this is the not knowing how the numbers were derived---nrg)
As 2 million Muslims participated in this election, Hollande got 1,720,000 Muslim votes more than Sarkozy did: (0.93-0.07) x 2,000,000 = 1,720,000. But at the end, from the entire population, he got only 1,139,316 votes more than Sarkozy. So, without the Muslims' votes, Sarkozy would have been re-elected.
All the Muslim criminals feel now empowered. Criminality is already on the rise (1,700 cars were burnt in France for the first night). Muslims are screaming anti-French and anti-Jews watchwords in our streets.
Veiled women, wearing the illegal burqa, are strolling in our streets.
And, as if this wasn't enough, Hollande wants to give to all the foreigners the right to vote in our elections!!
France will face a very hard situation. We are heading for civil war in a few years.
That's the last news from occupied France.
xxxxxx
French governments have been bringing this on themselves for years with their unrestricted immigration policies and their bending over backward to accommodate Muslims. Does anyone not think that French Jew-hatred had something to do with their fawning attitude toward Muslims?
I hope the Jews will leave (all indications are that is starting to happen) and then let France rot. Who needs them?
Labels: feckless French, France, Francois Hollande, French anti-Semitism
