Thursday 30 December 2010

Belgian politician: Muslims are better integrated than Jews who dread foreign people

"The Jews still live off one of the greatest crimes in the history of mankind, but the Holocaust happened 65 years ago. You and I weren't responsible for it, period. You can, for that matter, wonder what's the difference between the Holocaust and that they're doing in Palestine. That is also mass murder. They salivate about apartheid, but they are building a wall and settlements on land that isn't theirs. And in our society they've really also built a wall around themselves. Although I understand that they have an enormous trauma and therefore dread foreign people."

Source: Islam in Europe

Belgian P Magazine interviewed politician Selahattin Koçak (Flemish socialist party) on integration policy. Following are selected segments:

Q: Do you think that Muslims are better integrated than Jews, who seldom commit crimes? [This is typical.  Jews have lived in Europe for many centuries, but Europeans still wonder if they are well integrated. Europeans believe that Jews are immigrants ...]
A: "Absolutely! Your article from several weeks ago about the way in which Jews have closed themselves off from the rest of our society, doesn't that say enough? I was shocked by it. Especially by the way in which they silence their own people. It's unfair that you can't criticize Jews in the least without being accused of antisemitism. Michael Freilich (editor of Jewish magazine Joods Actueel), is in my view a much more dangerous figure than Abu Imran (leader of Shariah4Belgium). He does nothing else than sifting every day through all the papers, looking for one slanted word about Jews, so he could respond very offended. He does his job very well, because he naturally draw all Jewish readers behind him. But he also creates 'we-them' thinking."

"The Jews still live off one of the greatest crimes in the history of mankind, but the Holocaust happened 65 years ago. You and I weren't responsible for it, period. You can, for that matter, wonder what's the difference between the Holocaust and that they're doing in Palestine. That is also mass murder. They salivate about apartheid, but they are building a wall and settlements on land that isn't theirs. And in our society they've really also built a wall around themselves. Although I understand that they have an enormous trauma and therefore dread foreign people."

"But it also has to do with money. A community that has enough money, can withdraw from the majority. You see that all over the world. A community that isn't as rich, is doomed to integrate, and I mean that positively."

Spain: Salafists organized 10 conferences in 2010

Sources: Islam in Europe and ABC (Spanish)

There were ten Salafist congresses in Spain during 2010, compared with only one in 2008.

Experts warn that 10% of the nearly 1,000 mosques in Spain preach Jihad during Friday sermons, with about 70-80 imams from Morocco and Algeria used for this radical discourse.

Salafists have spread from Catalonia to other areas in Spain: to the Ebro Valley in Basque Country and the Henares Corridor in the south, between Madrid and Guadalajara. Their main means of spreading their doctrine is through their congresses. In 2008 there was only one, in Reus (Catalonia). This year there were ten: eight all across Catalonia (three in Girona, two in Tarragona, two in Barcelona and one in Lleida), one in Basque Country (Biscay), and one in Castile-La Mancha (Guadalajara).

Salafist scholars from Jordan, egypt, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Belgium come to Spain to run workshops, usually attended by 2000-3000 people. These preachers have extensive religious training, coupled with a lot of charisma, and their visits are an effective tool for radicalization. Their speeches, in contrast to the limited knowledge of many local imams, have an impact on the Muslim community, and prevents their integration in Western society.

The conferences are also a source of funding. Significant amounts were collected in recent months to fund new Salafist mosques.  In addition, the Salafists want to export their 'religious police' from Catalonia to other places in the country, with one such force already growing in Olot (Girona) (see also T&P's report)

Wednesday 29 December 2010

Israel-hater and Nobel Peace Prize candidate Belgian priest admits child abuse 40 years ago

We wrote this post in October : François Houtart, Hamas supporter Belgian priest, the next Nobel Peace Prize laureate ? and this one in 2009 François Houtart, a Belgian anti-Zionist priest, awarded UNESCO prize for tolerance and non-violence.  One of his recent initiatives aiming at delegitimising Israel is his support for the Israel-bashing Russell Tribunal created by another Belgian Pierre Galand.

It has now come to light that the "Pope of anti-globalisation" was a child molester.  His cousin was so shocked when she heard that he was being nominated for the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize and the way he was being celebrated as a great man in Belgium that she decided to speak out.  This is a translation of part of her account of the facts, which, unsurprisingly, differs from Houtart's own account minimising the horror of what happened :

"[...] the man committed the crime of rape on my brother 40 years ago. My father died this year and was the same age as A and was his friend. He venerated him as a great man until that night when he stayed over at my parents' home and broke twice into my brother's room to rape him. Before this happened a third time, my brother told my parents who kept him their own room. But the next morning over breakfast, they treated A as if nothing had happened so that he could give his lecture in Liège. My brother had been "left" with a neighbor. A few days later, my father went to find A in Leuven to speak with him about what he had done to his son and asked him to apologize. But he did not and went one further, he told my father that  "Nothing could be more normal!" After this my father banished him forever as a friend. My brother was never recognized as a victim of child abuse! It is hard to imagine that A has not committed other rapes on other children ...".

Source: Daily Mail

A Belgian Catholic priest and would-be Nobel Peace Prize holder has admitted that he sexually abused an eight-year-old boy 40 years ago.  The case only came forward when his cousin, the sister of his victim, came forward in reaction to a campaign to nominate Francois Houtart for the accolade.  She told the Belgian church authority that looks into child abuse, the Adriaenssens commission, that the abuse on her brother happened in 1970 while he stayed at their house.

Houtart, 85, was a prominent third world activist and chairman of a development agency that he founded in 1976, Center Tricontinental, until he resigned from the board in November in light of the allegations.
He is currently in Ecuador and was not responding to phone calls or emails but told Belgian newspaper, Le Soir, that he twice touched ‘the intimate parts’ of a boy he described as his cousin and said the incident was ‘inconsiderate and irresponsible’.

Tuesday 28 December 2010

Prominent Norwegians sympathetic to Hamas and hostile to Israel

"Norway, according to the cable, has engaged with Hamas, and the organization’s vow to destroy Israel “was ignored or characterized as only rhetoric by the Norwegians.” “Although the GON [Government of Norway] would deny it, there are clear signs that contacts with Hamas go beyond a tactical desire for dialogue to a level of sympathy for Hamas positions. The FM once told DCM [deputy chief of mission] for example that one could not expect Hamas to recognize Israel without knowing which borders Israel will have. While the FM expresses some sympathy for Hamas’ positions only in unguarded moments, other prominent Norwegians go further.”"

Source: TJP ('Norwegians in UNIFIL causing negative view of J'lem', by Herb Keinon) 

WikiLeaks doc.: Norway laboratory for understanding Israel’s difficulties in Europe: The country sanctifies dialogue, has an aversion to force.

Norway’s aspirations to be a “moral superpower” and play a key role in the Middle East peace process could be constrained by its tense relationship with Israel, anti-Semitism at home and its approach to Hamas, according to a WikiLeaks cable published by the Oslo-based Aftenposten paper.

The cable, written on February 13, 2009, by Kevin Johnson, the deputy chief of the US Embassy in Norway, summarizes Oslo’s aspirations to be a leader in the Middle East peace negotiations.  The cable could serve as an important source document for those seeking to understand the difficulty Israel has in getting its narrative across in Europe.

According to the analysis in this cable, the Oslo process seemed to herald a new peacemaker role for Norway, which it relished. But as the Oslo Accords crumbled, “ties between Norway and Israel weakened,” the cable read.  “The Lebanon wars had a major impact, with approximately 20,000 Norwegians serving in UN peacekeeping forces in Lebanon from 1978 to 1998. These soldiers came home with sympathetic reports about Palestinian refugees and negative impressions of Israelis. Israeli settlements and walls in the West Bank, and invasions of Lebanon and Gaza contributed to Norwegians’ increasingly negative view of Israel,” the US diplomat wrote.

“Norwegian society values dialogue above all,” the cable read. “Talk, even without any expectation of results, is seen as valuable. Anyone who draws a line and refuses to talk to an opposing party is seen as a radical unilateralist. Conversely, Norwegians are extremely opposed to the use of military force to achieve goals, no matter how laudable.”

Monday 27 December 2010

Europe: antisemitism has entered the bloodstream

Antisemitism has entered the bloodstream, by Hans Rustad (via Norway, Israel and the Jews blog)

The revelation that Wikileaks’ contactpersons in Sweden and Russia are the notorious antisemite Israel Shamir and his son Johannes Wahlström, is an indication that antisemitism now has entered the bloodstream of the establishment.

For people outside of Europe this is very hard to fathom. It has to do with a much deeper development in Europe, one that should worry Americans. Europe is shifting, groping, undergoing a major transformation, and people within the media establishment are allowing extremists to play a role. That is because political correctness, as practised in Europe, dulls the senses and deprives people of normal reflexes. Extremists may enter the fray, unnoticed.

Under normal circumstances Wahlström would never have been given a second chance. He burned his bridges when he wrote an article for a leftist magazine, Ordfront, back in December 2005, alleging that Israel controls Swedish media. This in itself was not shocking. That is staple food on the left. What caused an uproar was that he cited two of Swedens most experienced and renowned Middle East correspondents, Peter Löfgren from Swedish Television, and Lotta Schüllerqvist from Dagens Nyheter. It was they who explained how Israel rules and manipulates and bullies Swedish editorial rooms and journalists. Except for one thing: they never said as much. It was all a lie. Wahlström invented the whole story. He met both of them, but never bothered to write down their real replies, instead he invented what he wanted them to say.

He used them cynically, arrogantly and one must say – stupidly. How could he possibly expect to get away with it? He did not of course. Both Löfgren and Lotta Schüllerqvist wrote scathing denounciations and the editor of Ordfront was obliged to retract.

Read the whole piece on Document.no

- Harry's Place has been following the Julian Assange/Israel Shamir connection

- Andrew Brown also wrote about the connection in The Guardian : WikiLeaks and Israel Shamir - WikiLeaks is represented in Russia and Scandinavia by a father and son team with a disturbing record of antisemitism

Sunday 26 December 2010

Germany: long-standing anti-Semitic, anti-Israel exhibit in Cologne city centre

Some say anti-Israeli sentiments are high in Cologne, and that this helps explains the civil society’s failure over the years to mount widespread protests against the “Cologne Wailing Wall.”

“If one shows a figure with an Israeli flag devouring a Palestinian child, this reminds us of the most scurrilous accusations of ritual murder in European anti-Semitism...”


In a recent op-ed in Le Monde, German writer Peter Schneider complained that when dealing with the Israel-Palestine conflit "Germany is still petrified by the notion of guilt" ...  Really ?  Another Germman Israel-basher is Prof. Christian Tomuschat.  There seems to be a lot of them.

German mayor slams ‘Cologne Wailing Wall’ exhibit, By BENJAMIN WEINTHAL (TJP)
City partners in Tel Aviv and Bethlehem blast ‘anti-Semitic, anti-Israel presentation.’

Mayor of Cologne Jürgen Roters (Social Democratic) and its sister city partnerships, Cologne-Tel Aviv and Cologne-Bethlehem, issued a joint statement last week blasting the long-standing anti-Israel exhibit in his community’s bustling Cathedral Square pedestrian-only zone.

According to the resolution, “The anti-Semitic and anti- Israel presentation of the socalled ‘Cologne Wailing Wall’ spreads hatred against humans and feeds anti-Israel resentments.”

RELATED:
Cologne tolerates 'anti-Semitic’ exhibit

Members of the major parties on the Cologne city council, representatives of the Catholic and Evangelical churches, the Society for Christian- Jewish Relations in Cologne, and the local Jewish community also signed the resolution.

Roters and the Cologne authorities called on Walter Hermann, the organizer of the “Cologne Wailing Wall,” to “immediately remove the installation that shows contempt for humanity” and said the city of Cologne would no longer accept Hermann’s exhibit and approach.  The resolution said that Hermann has displayed his hatefest against Israel since 2004.  During his visit to Israel earlier this month, Roters presented the resolution to his Tel Aviv counterparts.

Hermann’s display of an anti-Semitic cartoon in January triggered a legal complaint and a grassroots campaign from the non-Jewish theater director Gerd Buurmann. The cartoon showed a man sporting a Star of David on his bib as he devoured a young Palestinian boy with a fork while draped in an American flag and a knife with the word “Gaza.” A glass filled with blood stood next to to his dinner plate.

Friday 24 December 2010

Brussels : IDF child killer Christmas demonstration

"NGOs are exploiting Christmas for radical attacks against Israel, through politicized carols, cards, and messages." (NGO Monitor)

An anti-Israel march (yet another one) will take place in Brussels on 26 December.  The demonstration poster carries a drawing by Brazilian caricaturist Carlos Latuff (who won 2nd prize in the 2006 Iranian International Holocaust Cartoon Competition). The drawing shows - birth of Jesus and Christmas reference - a pram being hit by an Israeli missile. The coordinator is Nordine Saïdi, a Belgian politician, who is a Dieudonné supporter.  He has been called admiringly and approvingly by Baudouin Loos of Le Soir as an "educator and militant for the autodetermination of the peoples" (understandanbly that means focusing on the Palestinian people)A number of revolutionary (read anti-Israel) NGOs subsidised by taxpayers' money will also take part in the demonstration

We have been told that a demonstration was held yesterday at the Free University of Brussels (a hotbed of anti-Israel militancy).  Demonstrators wore T-shirts with the printed image of a pram being hit by a missile . The same ?

May 2010 in Brussels  :
Brussels: demonstration against Israeli blood drinkers - blood libel revisited

On Nordine Saidi, see Brussels: Jihad by vuvuzela !

Wednesday 22 December 2010

The call to boycott Jewish commerce is Europe’s oldest political appeal, Denis MacShane

"Kauft nicht bei Juden" will worsen the conflict, JPost

The call to boycott Jewish commerce is Europe’s oldest political appeal.

Kauft nicht bei Juden – “Don’t buy from Jews” – is back. The call to boycott Jewish commerce is Europe’s oldest political appeal. Once again, as the tsunami of hate against Israel rolls out from the Right and the Left, from Islamist ideologues to Europe’s cultural elites, the demand is to punish the Jews. That the actions of the Israeli government are open to criticism is a fact. But what are the real arguments?

Firstly, that Israel is wrong to defy international law as an occupying force on the West Bank. But what about Turkey? It has 35,000 soldiers occupying the territory of a sovereign republic – Cyprus. Ankara has sent hundreds of thousands of settlers to colonize the ancient Greek owned lands of northern Cyprus. Turkey has been told again and again by the UN to withdraw its troops. Instead, it now also stands accused of destroying the ancient Christian churches of northern Cyprus.  Does anyone call for a boycott of Turkey, or urge companies to divest from it? No. Only the Jews are targeted.

Or take India; 500,000 Indian soldiers occupy Kashmir. According to Amnesty International, 70,000 Muslims have been killed over the past 20 years by these soldiers and security forces – a number that far exceeds the Palestinians killed by Israeli forces in the same period. But the Islamic ideologues focus on Jews, not Indians.

Sunday 19 December 2010

We can't rely on Europe, warns Israel ambassador

"When push comes to shove, no-one in Israel really thinks that Europe will come to its aid." After Frits Bolkestein's warning, here comes another similar warning.
 
"A stark warning that Israel cannot rely on the support of European leaders in the battle against the deligitimisation and demonisation of the Jewish state was issued this week by Israeli ambassador Ron Prosor.

Source: Jewish Chronicle

At a packed meeting at London's New West End Synagogue, the envoy warned: "When push comes to shove, no-one in Israel really thinks that Europe will come to its aid."

He lambasted politicians who felt they were taking a sufficiently principled stand by simply stating that Israel had "a right to exist."  If he had found it necessary to state that Britain has a right to exist ,"people would wonder what I had been drinking?" he declared.

The ambassador also slated those who professed Israel's right to defend its people, yet took every opportunity to criticise it over actions such as the war against missile attacks, or the building of the anti-terror wall.

Israel, he said, was facing a "new kind of warfare," aimed at attempting to cast it out of the family of nations. "Our adversaries are crossing the line every day. There is more pressure, more demonisation."  It was also important to state, he said, that the international campaign in favour of a Palestinian right of return "would not result in a two-state solution but in the destruction of the state of Israel.""

More HERE

Friday 17 December 2010

Minuscule Luxembourg wants to punish Israel

"There is growing frustration with Israel after its refusal to commit to a new settlements freeze," (European diplomat)

See also by Melanie Phillips The Europeans move in for the kill

Europe being Europe, even tiny Grand Duchy of Luxembourg with a population of  barely half a million wants to punish Israel.

BRUSSELS (AFP-EJP)---The European Union on Monday reaffirmed its readiness to recognize a Palestinian state at an "appropriate" time but stopped short of outright recognition despite mounting pressure to break the Middle East impasse.


Pressure has built on the European Union to flex muscle after Israel refused to extend a moratorium on construction in the West Bank, with 26 former European leaders last week demanding sanctions, and Argentina and Uruguay joining Brazil in recognizing an independent Palestinian state. [...]

"There is growing frustration with Israel after its refusal to commit to a new settlements freeze," a European diplomat told AFP as negotiators quibbled and clashed over a joint EU stand.

But after long and prickly negotiations, Foreign Ministers meeting in Brussels adopted a statement that "notes with regret that Israel has not extended the moratorium as requested by the EU, the US and the Quartet," describing settlements as "illegal" and "an obstacle to peace."

In the letter to Ashton released last week, 26 former EU leaders, including her predecessor Javier Solana, urged her to threaten Israel with sanctions for failing to respect the freeze.  But the idea was apparently rejected by a majority at the ministerial meeting although some among them, like Luxembourg Foreign Minister Jean Asselborn, were in favour of a "tougher" stance against Israel.

Tuesday 14 December 2010

WikiLeaks: US diplomats find Norwegian anti-Israel FM arrogant and not smart

"How could it not occur to Mr. Støre, that constantly changing tack – without consulting senior partners – that, one day having tea with Hamas, another day, choosing foolishly, and as the only Western representative, to sit and listen to Ahmadinejad’s foul ranting at UNs Durban 2 conference in Geneve in 2009, would have a very high political price?"

Source: Norway, Israel and the Jews (All is fine in my little belly button, sulks Støre)

Our FM Jonas Gahr Støre reacts with incredulity to WickedLeaks that US embassy crew find him not smart, arrogant, in it for himself and with an attitude problem. "Sincerely, I have not heard any of this conveyed to me in Washington", he says – adding that perhaps this might have been the case for US diplomats during the Bush Administration, because they interpreted any sign of independent thinking as something inherently bad.

Too bad for him, then, that US diplomats posted in Oslo in the reign of Obama, continue to sound alarms that all is not well with Norway’s foreign policy. A diplomat wrote in 2009 this about Støre: "Although smart and dynamic, some people wonder if his arrogance might not work too well in negotiations".

Ouch! And with that zinger, the bubble vision he wanted to present to us, of himself as a worldly leader, standing up to the big wigs, burst – and there he was, left with his tiny fig leaf, too small to cover the bald patches where normally you would have expected to see experience, political clout, and maybe even integrity.

Thursday 9 December 2010

Netherlands: Al-Qaeda mouthpiece run by Dutch extremists

Source: Islam in Europe

The Jihadist Ansar Al Mujahideen site is mostly run by Dutch Muslim extremists.

The Dutch behind Al Ansar not only fill the website with English and Dutch hate-texts and propaganda, but also use computer servers in Amsterdam. These Dutch Muslim extremist had close ties with the Hofstad Group in the past.

The terror cell which was recently arrested in Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany and Austria discussed attacks in the Jewish Quarter in Antwerp, train routes, and crowded locations [Jewish community in Belgium was target of major terror attack, according to magazine], and used the site collect money and recruit fighters for a Chechen Jihad group. The site is registered by Ali Mahmoud, with a Brussels PO Box. New members are only accepted to the site if they're trusted by the other Jihadists.

Ansar Al Mujahideen – one of the most important propaganda mouthpieces of al-Qaeda worldwide - is carefully watched by security services, also in the Netherlands. Sources confirm that the website is not only facilitated by the Dutch, but also financed in the Netherlands. The website publicizes official announcements by al-Qaeda.

Intelligence sources confirm that the English part of the website is run by a dozen Dutch Muslim extremists, including several women. Those Dutch members were formerly the driving force behind the now-defunct Dutch extremist website Thabaat, which was tried to members of the Hofstad Group.
Read the full article HERE

- Former EU Commissioner Frits Bolkestein: "No future for Orthodox Jews" in Holland
- NGO Monitor reveals Dutch gov´t funding for Electronic Intifada

Wednesday 8 December 2010

Positively Moore-ish - Charles Moore on Israel, its Foes, and the Battle for Public Opinion

"All I want to ask my fellow Europeans is this: are you happy to help direct the world's fury at the only country in the Middle East whose civilisation even remotely resembles yours? And are you sure that the fate of Israel has no bearing on your own?"

Source: Daphne Anson

There are two observations that some historians make about post-Reformation Britain. The first is that the sixteenth-century abolition of Romanish superstitions and of medieval cults such as that of “Little St Hugh”, the boy allegedly ritually murdered by Jews at Lincoln and venerated as a martyr, and that century’s introduction of the Bible in the vernacular into parish churches, prepared the way for the philosemitism that underlay Cromwell’s decision formally to admit Jews to England in 1656. The second is that antipathy to the Church of Rome and its adherents has always been far stronger in modern Britain than antipathy to Jews; in other words, that anti-Catholicism has been the British equivalent of continental antisemitism.

I believe this interpretation of British history to be broadly true, and we might perhaps cite the so-called 1904 Limerick “pogrom” (an exaggeration, to be sure, since it lacked bloodshed), which entailed rioting and a mass boycott of Jewish shopkeepers following a local priest’s ranting that Jews were usurious “leeches”, as an example of Catholic prejudice in the non-Protestant component of the United Kingdom.

Nevertheless, since Pope John XXIII’s Nostra Aetete document of 1961, which absolved Jews from the “deicide” calumny and asserted that Jews “should not be presented as rejected or accursed by God”, there have been Roman Catholics – such as the late Irish-born Father William Smith, who headed Australia’s Institute of Social Order, and the Sisters of Sion – who have worked tirelessly to forge robust links with Jewry.
This photograph shows the non-Catholic judeophile Margaret Thatcher (remember her attachment to the former Chief Rabbi, Lord Jakobovits, and to the Conservative Party intellectual Sir Keith Joseph, and how her Cabinet was jocularly said – by a former prime minister, Harold Macmillan – to contain “more Old Estonians than Old Etonians”?) in Rome last year; flanking her are two notable judeophile British Catholics – on her right, former New Statesman editor Paul Johnson, an acclaimed historian of Jewry, and on her left, former Daily Telegraph and Spectator editor Charles Moore.

I’d like to share with you extracts from some of the superb articles that Mr Moore, who writes an occasional op-ed piece for the Telegraph, has written – they are magnificent in the case they make for traduced and beleaguered Israel, and deserve to be more widely known. Please note especially Moore's observations on Israel's poor PR efforts, which I quote at the end.

‘As a boy ... I cheered as Israeli courage swept away the outnumbering Arabs who tried to destroy it again and again. I bought books about the Six-Day War, many of which carried pictures of glamorous female Israeli soldiers.

But then a different narrative supervened. People called "the Palestinians" began to be mentioned. Once upon a time, the word "Palestinian" had no national meaning; it was simply the description on any passport of a person living in British-mandated Palestine. During the 19 years to 1967 when Jordan governed the West Bank, the people there had no self-rule, and no real name. UN Resolution 242, which calls for Israel to leave territories it occupied in 1967, does not mention Palestinians; it speaks only of "Arab refugees". Palestinian nationality came along, as it were, after the fact, a nationality largely based on grievance.

Tuesday 7 December 2010

Jewish community in Belgium was target of major terror attack, according to magazine

Typically, the news do not seem to be of any interest to Belgian journalists !

ANTWERP (EJP)---Terrorist suspects arrested two weeks ago in Belgium and Holland planned to target the Jewish community with a major terror attack, a Jewish magazine said, quoting information obtained by a Dutch newspaper from judicial sources.

According to "Joods Actueel" in Antwerp, Dutch daily newspaper "Het Parool" received the information from a anonymous source "close to the investigation".  Belgian authorities didn't confirm nor deny the news reports.

Quoting a senior European counter-terror expert, CNN already mentioned two weeks ago that members of the terror group arrested in Antwerp and their associates in Germany and the Netherlands had discussed targeting Jews in Belgium as well as NATO headquarters in Brussels.

The suspects were using a jihadist website to plan an attack on an unspecified target, police said at the time.

Antwerp is home of around 18,000 Jews while 15,000 live in Brussels.

To see CNN report (23/11/2010) go HERE

Monday 6 December 2010

Former EU Commissioner: "No future for Orthodox Jews" in Holland

"Bolkestein made similar statements in Het Verval (The Decline), Manfred Garstenfeld's recent book about Judaism in the Netherlands. The book describes how even bar-mitzvah parties now have guards and tells of a young man from Rotterdam who kept a journal of how he was called "cancer-Jew" time and time again."

Sources : Radio Netherlands and Islam in Europe

Prominent VVD politician Frits Bolkestein believes there is no future for 'active' Jews in the Netherlands. The conservative politician made his remarks in an interview with newspaper De Pers.

In the interview, Mr Bolkestein says that when he talks about active Jews he means those who are recognisable as such, for instance Orthodox Jews. The former EU Commissioner says there is no future for this group in the Netherlands because of "the anti-Semitism among Dutchmen of Moroccan descent, whose numbers keep growing''.

He feels that this group of Jews should encourage their children to emigrate to either the United States or Israel, because he has little confidence in the effectiveness of the government's proposals for fighting anti-Semitism.

Bolkestein told De Pers: "I'm pessimistic. Because the Palestinian-Israeli conflict - that's mostly about the West Bank - is still rampant. I don't foresee any speedy solution and then antisemitism continues to exist. Many Moroccan and Turkish youth don't care at all about the rules". Arabic TV broadcasters which are viewed here via satellite, also play a role in that process, he says.

Bolkestein made similar statements in Het Verval (The Decline), Manfred Garstenfeld's recent book about Judaism in the Netherlands. The book describes how even bar-mitzvah parties now have guards and tells of a young man from Rotterdam who kept a journal of how he was called "cancer-Jew" time and time again.

- Netherlands: Use 'decoy-Jews' to fight antisemitism
- Amsterdam: Hitler salutes
- Netherlands: Socially acceptable antisemitism
- NGO Monitor reveals Dutch gov´t funding for Electronic Intifada

Sunday 5 December 2010

IDF officers get photo of dead child from Spain

Source: Ynet (IDF officers get photo of dead child)

'How will you explain this to God?' says letter sent from Spain to homes of officers exposed on 'war criminals' website. 'I've gotten used to curses, but when such a thing arrives at your doorstep, it's very unpleasant,' reserve colonel tells Ynet.

Colonel (res.) Bentzi Gruber, a deputy commander of an Israel Defense Forces division, was at a training base in Tze'elim last week. His wife called to tell him that he had received a letter from Spain, which didn't particularly surprise him. But when she opened the envelope, she was shocked. "Unfortunately, I've gotten used to curses and scathing words against me, but when such a thing arrives at your doorstep, it's very unpleasant," he tells Ynet.
Gruber is just one of the officers who received a threatening poster from Spain, after his name appeared on a website referring to IDF soldiers involved in Operation Cast Lead as "war criminals".

The poster includes a picture of a young child buried in the sand. His head is the only thing sticking out and he appears to be dead. Two hands in the background, apparently belonging to a soldier, are directed at him. The picture's caption reads, "How will you explain this to God?'

The letter was sent in an envelope from Madrid to the homes of Colonel (res.) Gruber and several other IDF officers, including Central Command Chief Avi Mizrahi and outgoing Military Intelligence Director Amos Yadlin. Some of the posters include a picture of an injured or dead young woman being held by a soldier. The English sentence is similar. The army does not know at this stage the exact number of letters sent to the officers' home. The website included dozens of addresses of IDF officers, most of whom are believed to have received such letters.
Read the whole piece HERE

What do Spaniards thing of Jews:
1) 58.4% of the Spaniards think that the "Jews have much power because they control the economy and the media". Among university students this attitude encompasses the 62.2%, and among people "interested in politics" this attitude encompasses the 70.5%. All of this means that anti-Semitism in Spain is highly worrying and intolerable, due to its level and to the fact that it's higher among educated and informed people.
2) 34.6% of the Spaniards have unfavourable or totally unfavourable opinions about the Jews. This attitude encompasses 34% of the far-rightists (who rate the Jews with 4.9 points in a scale from 1 to 10) and 37.7% of centre-left-wingers (who rate the Jews with 4.6 points in a scale from 1 to 10). This case is unique in Europe because far-rightists show less unpleasantness towards the Jews than centre-left-wingers.

3) Among those who admit to be "unpleasant towards the Jews", 17% of them attribute this attitude to the "Middle East conflict"; 29.6% of them attribute this attitude to "their religion", "their customs", " the way they are", etc.; others among them attribute this attitude to "general unpleasantness", "the power" and "the money"; 17% of them attribute this attitude to reasons they don't know. This means that only a small percentage of the Spaniards show unpleasantness towards the Jews due to "the State of Israel and its policies".

Thursday 2 December 2010

Flemish quiz show: Jews are "most disgusting nation on Earth"

The video can be viewed here (with English sub-titles).  The scariest thing is that all on the show are laughing their heads off.  It seems that Mr Peumans apologised to the Turks, but not to Belgian Jews...  The Turks reacted immediately and nobody is going to say that they are "sensitive".  Sadly, one is still waiting for a reaction from the Belgian Jewish community.

Source: South Capitol Street and Today's Zaman (Leading Flemish lawmaker expresses regret over anti-Turkish remarks)

President of the Flemish parliament in Belgium Jan Peter Peumans has said he did not mean to offend Turks with remarks he made during a live quiz show on a local TV channel, the Turkish Embassy in Brussels said in a statement on Wednesday.
“Peumans said he is sorry because the situation has caused consequences beyond his intention,” read the embassy’s statement.

When asked which nation was the most disgusting on the face of earth in famous French philosopher Voltaire’s opinion during the “De Pappenheimers” quiz show on the VRT channel on Sunday, Peumans — who is also a member of the New Flemish Alliance (N-VA) — said that among the choices presented to him — “Flemish, Jews or Turks” — he knew the answer was Jews, but because he “did not have the courage to say anything against them” he would say Turks instead. “I really knew it [correctly] but I do not have any courage to say something new about Jews. They are very sensitive people. I once said something about their liberalism and it really caused me a lot of trouble,” Peumans had said. Following his words, film director Jan Eelen, another contestant, told Peumans that “it appears saying something against Turks is not a problem, then.”While it is true the the question was quoting the anti-semite Voltaire, not saying that it is a fact that the Jewish people are disgusting, it is still an inflammatory question for a popular broadcast quiz show.

Ireland no longer blocks EU data sharing with Israel

Ireland blocks EU data sharing with Israel (JTA, July 8, 2010)

Ireland blocked a European Union plan to allow sharing of European citizens' personal data with Israel over concerns that Israeli officials could not be trusted with the information.

Irish Justice Minister Dermot Ahern on July 6 formally objected to the EU’s recognition of Israel’s data protection standards, which would have allowed the exchange of personal information, forcing a full debate of the proposal at a committee hearing. A spokesman for Ahern said the Irish government had the “gravest concern” that information supplied to Israel could be used to forge passports for use by intelligence agencies.

Ireland expelled an Israeli diplomat from Dublin last month as punishment for the alleged illegal use of forged Irish passports in the killing of Hamas arms dealer Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in a Dubai hotel in January. [...]"

According to JSS and Bruxelles2 the agreement has been ratified.  Jonathan-Simon Sellem of JSSNews writes (translation) :

"This information sharing agreement is essential for the international fight against terrorism. Indeed, the agreement should enable EU countries to receive information from a centralized source on terrorists monitored by Israel. When they visit Europe (if they do not live there), may therefore be a particular target for observation by the secret services of the country visited.

As for the opposition to the agreement by the Irish, many Israelis have questioned whether, in the end, Ireland was not somewhat afraid that a connection between Palestian Islamists and IRA terrorists would come to light.  Eventually, after a big circus to position itself at the forefront of the European anti-Israel pack, Ireland has decided to keep quiet and let the agreement go ahead. It was an astute media stunt as Ireland is now perceived as one of the best European friends in the Arab world. But let's face it, the reason why Ireland is so highly regarded in the Islamic world is to be found in its direct support  for Hamas and its government-funded flotillas which aim at financially support Mahmoud A-Zahar ..."

Wednesday 1 December 2010

Prof. Christian Tomuschat, German Israel-basher heads GOLDSTONE II

"Tomuschat associated the military practices of the Jewish state with the “barbarism which was the particular hallmark of World War II.” Israel, wrote Tomuschat, “overruns a country like a steamroller,” and “butchers everything in its way.” Accusing Israel of classifying civilian targets as military, Tomuschat said its actions could be regarded “as a relapse to the Inferno of World War II.”"

Take Action : Urge UN to Remove Biased “Goldstone II” Official

Source: UN Watch - Report: German Professor Heading U.N.’s ‘Goldstone II’ Committee

Accused Israel of World War II 'Barbarism', Removal Urged

Prior to Chairing U.N. probe, Christian Tomuschat said Israel was "State Terrorist" uwilling to inestigate

GENEVA, Oct. 21 - The German law professor heading the U.N. committee to enforce the Goldstone Report has a history of comparing Israeli actions with the "barbarism" and "inferno" of World War II, and should be removed for lack of impartiality by the U.N. Secretary-General and the High Commissioner for Human Rights, said a report submitted by UN Watch today to the world body's Geneva office. Click here for summary and full report.

In his September 27 report to the U.N. Human Rights Council, Christian Tomuschat, a professor emeritus at Humoldt University, faulted Israel for failing to investigate allegations of war crimes by the country’s senior leadership, specifically naming Israeli opposition leader Tzipi Livni, who was foreign minister during the 2009 war with Hamas. The Tomuschat Committee will report to the council again in March 2011.
However, according to “Goldstone II,” the 29-page report by UN Watch, a Geneva-based monitor of the world body, Tomuschat’s credibility is severely impaired by his prior legal work for PLO leader Yasser Arafat, which Tomuschat said he “could not recall,” and by a series of public statements and writings that show his lack of impartiality on the Arab-Israel conflict.

Based on newly-translated materials, the report reveals that in German academic essays published in 2006 and 2007 on the Lebanon war, Tomuschat associated the military practices of the Jewish state with the “barbarism which was the particular hallmark of World War II.” Israel, wrote Tomuschat, “overruns a country like a steamroller,” and “butchers everything in its way.” Accusing Israel of classifying civilian targets as military, Tomuschat said its actions could be regarded “as a relapse to the Inferno of World War II.”

Tomuschat also said that “the observer gets the impression that the Israeli armed forces inconsiderately geared itself toward the overall concept of the Totalen Krieges.” This concept is most famously associated with Goebbels' 1943 "Total War" speech delivered under a giant banner.

Other key findings from the report:
• In a 2002 essay, Tomuschat singled out Israel as a prime example of “state terrorism,” a charge he repeated in a 2007 interview, in which he added that killing terrorist mastermind Osama Bin Laden would be “absolutely illegal under international law.”
• Prior to heading the U.N. inquiry to assess Israel's system of investigations, Tomsuchat had already made up his mind, saying in 2002 that Israel ordered the “systematic commission of war crimes,” and that “in such instances, there is little hope that the judicial system will conduct effective investigations and punish the responsible agents.”
• When a German academic journal featured a debate on the 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah, Tomuschat was the one chosen to present the side opposed to Israel."

Other examples of Tomuschat’s statements on Israel include:
• Israel is bombing “entire families”;
• Arab nations rightly feel that Israel receives “far better treatment”;
• Israel targets U.N. peacekeepers;
•Israel seeks “to reduce humanitarian law to irrelevance”;
• Israel’s policy is to “bomb a country out into a lunar landscape”;
• Israel’s peace concessions are a cynical plan for “dominance.”