Category Archives: Political Correctness

Ezra Levant interviewed on CFRA on the new normal of anti semitism. Audio only

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From Sunday January 19. Ignore the images. I basically just threw a bunch on till the audio ended as I can’t figure out how to get the audio to play without it showing pictures. While 2 of the images are actually from one of the Calgary ‘protests’ and one is Toronto, the rest are England or unrelated and one is just goofy. So you can ignore the images and just listen to the interview with Ezra Levant on Nick Vandergragt’s show CFRA AM Radio 580 Ottawa Canada

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A pat Condell video I would like to dedicate to Geert Wilders

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It’s worth thinking about the nature of the charges against Geert and the meaning of due process in this case. He was charged among other similar things with comparing the Koran with Hitlers Mein Kampf. Imagine if you would that the Dutch court after trying this charge on the basis not of whether or not one may say this thing, but whether or not it is a fair comparison which appears to be the direction of the proceeding. Even if it isn’t it will be percieved to be as such. Imagine if the courts found that it was (as it in fact is) a reasonable comparison to make. The Dutch courts may well see the start of even more profound open hostility to the indigenous Dutch than already exists in Holland. If I can see this the court of appeals can. In essence, this is not a charge against Geert Wilders but a conviction with a slight delay before sentencing.

On a quasi related matter, here is an article about how a British holocaust survivor begged his family to leave the UK for the same reasons his family left Germany right before the war. Just in case we thought England was still a liberal democracy.

Mark Steyn on Geert Wilders and the Dutch courts. As expected, Steyn nails it.

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Each incident that Mr. Steyn mentions in this article has been clearly detailed and documented here on Vlad. You can dig around for the links if you want to verify any of it. Its worth mentioning that as usual, Mark understated his own case. The Dutch policy of ‘non escalation’ was the grounds to prevent Dutch news crews from filming the destruction of the mural mentioned here in this article. But ultimately its to one purpose. To create a false impression of Islamic tolerance of it’s host nation.

From National Review…

Dutch courage [Mark Steyn]

Last year, The New York Times ran a story (front page, above the fold, gosh) on my troubles with the Canadian “thought police”, at the end of which I’m quoted as follows:

“Western governments are becoming increasingly comfortable with the regulation of opinion. The First Amendment really does distinguish the U.S., not just from Canada but from the rest of the Western world.”

The latest jurisdiction to get way too “comfortable with the regulation of opinion” is the Netherlands. As Andrew noted below, the Amsterdam Court of Appeal has ordered prosecutors to put the politician and film-maker Geert Wilders on trial for “making anti-Islamic statements”.

The Dutch, like the Canadians, think they can maintain social peace by shriveling the bounds of public discourse and bringing what little remains under state regulation. But one notices that the coercive urge, which comes so naturally to Euro-progressives, only goes in one direction. The Swedish Chancellor of Justice shuts down the investigation into the Grand Mosque of Stockholm for selling tapes urging believers to kill “the brothers of pigs and apes” (ie, Jews) because that’s simply “the everyday climate in the rhetoric”. The masked men marching through the streets of London with placards threatening to rain down another 9/11 on the infidels are protected by a phalanx of Metropolitan Police officers. The PC nellies of the Canadian “Human Rights” Commission, happy to hound the last neo-Nazi in Saskatchewan posting to the Internet from his mum’s basement, won’t go anywhere near Abou Hammaad Sulaiman Dameus al-Hayitia, the big-time Montreal imam whose book says infidels are “evil people”, Jews “spread corruption and chaos”, and homosexuals should be “exterminated”.

Instead, the state’s response to explicit Islamic intimidation is to punish those foolish enough to point out that intimidation. You don’t have to be as intemperate as Minheer Wilders can sometimes be: In the Netherlands even the most innocuous statement can get you into trouble. To express his disgust at Theo van Gogh’s murder, the artist Chris Ripke put up a mural outside his studio showing an angel and the words “Thou shalt not kill”. But the cops thought this was somehow a dig at the local mosque and so came round, destroyed the mural, arrested the TV news crew filming it, and wiped their tape. The Dutch have determined to commit societal euthanasia, and dislike fellows pointing out it might not be as painless as they’ve assumed.

Dutch courts decide to prosecute Geert Wilders after all.

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This will be a trial to watch closely. It will have repercussions for freedom of speech all over the world as well as a nations ability to be self determining. Should Wilders be convicted and sentenced in any way for his pro Dutch and western values and his stance against unbridled Islamic immigration and the values Islam carries, it will almost certainly add fuel to any fire against those few in other western nations who would preserve anything traditionally western and by this I mean liberalism. Keep a close eye on this matter.

From NYT Herald Tribune

Dutch court rules that anti-Islamic lawmaker should be prosecuted

A right-wing lawmaker should be prosecuted for inciting racial hatred with anti-Islamic statements that include calling the Quran a “fascist book,” a Dutch court ruled Wednesday.

Freedom Party leader Geert Wilders made headlines around the world in March 2008 with his film “Fitna,” which juxtaposed Quranic verses against a background of violent film clips and images of terrorism by Islamic radicals.

In 2007, Wilders called for a ban on the Quran “the same way we ban ‘Mein Kampf.'” He said both Adolf Hitler’s work and the Muslim holy book contain passages that contradict Western values.

The Amsterdam Appeals Court called Wilders’ statements in his film, newspaper articles and media interviews “one-sided generalizations … which can amount to inciting hatred.”

The court’s ruling reverses a decision last year by the public prosecutor’s office , which said Wilders’ film and interviews were painful for Muslims but not criminal.

Wilders told Dutch media it was a “black day for myself and for freedom of speech.”

The decision set the stage for what will likely be a highly charged trial touching on the declining Dutch tolerance toward a large immigrant population from Muslim countries, mainly Morocco and Turkey. Dutch attitudes shifted markedly after the 2004 murder of filmmaker Theo van Gogh by a radical Dutch Muslim.

Wilders, whose party has nine lawmakers in the 120-seat lower house of Dutch Parliament, has built his popularity largely on tapping into fear and resentment among Dutch voters of Muslim immigrants.

“I’ve had enough of Islam in the Netherlands; let not one more Muslim immigrate,” he wrote once in national newspaper De Volkskrant. “I’ve had enough of the Quran in the Netherlands: Forbid that fascist book.”

The three judges said they had weighed Wilders’ anti-Islamic rhetoric against his right to free speech, and ruled he had even gone beyond the normal leeway given to politicians.

Because Wilders has not yet been charged, it is not clear what maximum penalty he could face if convicted.

While judges in the Netherlands generally are loathe to become involved in public debate, the court said it was making an exception in the case of Wilders’ comments about Islam.

“The court considers this so insulting for Muslims that it is in the public interest to prosecute Wilders,” a summary of the court’s decision said.

Gerard Spong, a prominent lawyer who joined Islamic groups in pushing for Wilders’ prosecution, welcomed the decision.

“This is a happy day for all followers of Islam who do not want to be tossed on the garbage dump of Naziism,” Spong told reporters in Amsterdam.

Canada angers Islamists

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It would appear that Canada has been scratched of the guest list to sit down to dinner with the Islamists. No more invites; we’ve pissed off the Arabs and Muslim world with one fell swoop. How? Canada officially declared her support for Israel in the Gaza conflict and Israel’s right to defend herself against terrorism.

And now the bony finger of extremism and twisted logic wags itself at Canada in…….. anger.

A January 14 editorial in the Arab News condemns Canada’s decision to vote against a motion by the UN human rights council to vilify Israel in the Gaza conflict, the only country out of 47 to do so, and to demand an investigation into Israel’s human right’s violations. Canada did so, realizing the slanted position of the proposal which clearly intended to discredit Israel’s stance while simultaneously rendering Hamas blameless. 

” With a stroke, Canada has lost it’s credibility, honour and friends in the Arab and Muslim world”.   

Funny, I didn’t know we had any ‘friends’ in the Arab and Muslim world. 

Certainly, this ommission to defend Hamas is seen as repugnant only among those who would wish that peace replace violence in Gaza via submission to terrorist ideology. The many well meaning? union organizations whose stance for justice and peace rely on condemning Israel, the anti-semites who protest at weekend rallies shouting Nazi rhetoric and of course, the ‘moderate’ Muslim organizations who belittle Canada and the United States at every turn are seething with rage at both the Conservative’s and Liberal’s official stance; that Canada denounce terrorism. The NDP is too busy handing out spare shoes and hot cocoa at the rallies to comment.  Not surprisingly, I found this article on the nation’s most prominent, Islamic, peace loving site, the CIC.

“Canada’s famed evenhandedness seems to have vanished. It has been replaced by blindness and hardheartedness. It is truly shocking”.

It IS a truly shocking and welcome turn, especially to Canadians who had all but given up on the government’s willingness to re-adjust it’s balls in the trousers of the nation and deligitimize terror states and their supporters through abject rejection. As for heardheartedness? The Arab and Muslim world have the monopoly on hardheartedness and heartlessness: just ask the innocent Palestinian people, the victims of Hamas and the countless other innocents around the world who have perished in the name of Islamic ‘peace and justice’.

There is a concerted push by Islamists to see Canada evolve into a safe haven for the imported hatred of Jews and sharia law that ensure intolerance, bigotry and misogyny. All one has to do is attend a pro-Hamas rally on any given weekend to witness the desire. The anger amongst them at Canada’s recent offical denunciation of Hamas combined with the ongoing willingness of Islamist sites and Muslim community newspapers to re-publish the sentiment should come as little surprise to anyone who understands the mandate. If we have indeed ‘thrown fairness to the wind’ as they claim, it is because our definition of fairness is a radically different one, as are the definitions of peace and social justice.

“Canada has, in the past rarely done anything to anger anyone”, states the Arab media editorial. 

So be it.  Time to eat at home with a big ham and swiss on rye and a cold beer.

Grace

UNRWA now 99% terror free!

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U.N. Agency That Runs School Hit in Gaza Employed Hamas and Islamic Jihad Members

99From Fox News by way of Sheikyermami.com

Wednesday, January 14, 2009

By Joel Mowbray

Reuters

The United Nations agency that administers a school in Gaza where dozens of civilians were killed by Israeli mortar fire last week has admitted to employing terrorists to work at its Palestinian schools in the past, has no system in place to keep members of Hamas or Islamic Jihad off its payroll, and provides textbooks to children that contain hate speech and other incendiary information.

A growing chorus of critics has taken aim at the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) in recent years, although momentum on Capitol Hill has been slow. But last week’s incident, which Israel maintains was prompted by Hamas operatives firing mortars at Israelis from a location near the school, has prompted some lawmakers to scrutinize the U.N. agency.

Rep. Steve Rothman, D-N.J., introduced a resolution in the fall calling for greater transparency and accountability at UNRWA. The bill called on the agency to make its textbooks available on the Internet for public inspection and to implement “terrorist name recognition software and other screening procedures that would help to ensure that UNRWA staff, volunteers, and beneficiaries are neither terrorists themselves, nor affiliated with known terrorist organizations.”

Rothman said he plans to re-introduce his UNRWA resolution in the coming weeks because, “as timely as this bill was before, it is even more timely now. It is urgent that Congress can be assured that U.S. taxpayer money is not being spent to support Hamas and its murderous activities.”

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A View from the Target Zone. Letter from an Israeli physicist on living in the target zone

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Haim Harari is a world-renowned Israeli physicist, a fifth-generation Israeli, whose great-great-grandmother was already born in Jerusalem. His family thus has lived continuously in Jerusalem for over one hundred fifty years. He wrote the best book on terrorism I ever read, entitled

View from the Eye of the Storm: Terror And Reason in the Middle East

This book has become a kind of a best-seller, and the paperback edition is about to be released at the end of January. After reading his book I wrote to Haim Harari and since then we have become e-mail friends, and have been keeping in touch. He sent me and other friends the following report on 8 January.

A View from the Target Zone

Haim Harari

January 2009

These words are written a short distance away from the most northern hit, so far, of the Hamas missiles, which are methodically aimed only at the civilian population in Israel. You may refer to this message as “A View from the Target Zone.”

For eight years, approximately 5000 rockets have been sent deliberately into Israeli population centers, by the Hamas terrorists. The rockets are extremely inaccurate. The good news is that they often hit an empty field. The bad news is that, when they do hit buildings and people, they kill, maim and destroy. It is a very ugly game of Iranian Roulette.

But the most significant fact is that the undisputed purpose of the rockets is to kill civilians in a random manner. Since they miss entire towns, they could not possibly be aimed at military or strategic targets. No claim is made by Hamas of anything other than a deliberate attempt to kill civilians within Israel. The world knows about the rockets but rarely mentions that they are aimed only at the civilian population and at nothing else.

Hamas consistently refers to Israel itself as “the occupied territory.” It refers to any town in Israel as an “illegal settlement.” Its declared aim is to destroy Israel. It has proudly endorsed, initiated and sent numerous suicide murderers into Israeli buses, supermarkets, shopping malls, weddings and other crowded places. It explicitly states that it will continue to do so. Since Israel succeeded in preventing the suicide murders by a combination of the protective wall, other defensive measures and good intelligence penetration, the missiles became the preferred way of killing Israeli civilians.

Hamas is declared to be a terrorist organization, not only by Israel, not only by the US, but also by the European Union, who is not suspected of being pro-Israeli. This is the same European Union that refuses to label Hizbullah as a terror organization, but repeatedly and officially declares Hamas as such. Hamas is fully funded and largely controlled by Iran, a country openly and totally committed to the destruction of Israel, while continuing to enjoy trade with much of the western world.

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The Muslim failure that is Palestine

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Today’s National Post has published an article by veteran columnist George Jonas on the Gaza/Israel conflict. As usual, Mr. Jonas is succinct in his assertion that Gaza is a failed entity cradled in the hands of extremist ideology. I agree and further claim Gaza is yet another Muslim failure the rest of the world has to endure.

Judea Pearl, father of murdered son Daniel Pearl, speaks at a UN briefing for NGO’s: ” It may come as a surprise to some of you, but after a century of bloodshed, many negotiations, inter-faith dialogues, and countless UN-funded cultural programs, the majority of Muslims today still reject the idea that Jews deserve a state in some part of Palestine. Instead, Muslims perceive Israel to be a temporary outpost of western colonialism, hastily created out of guilt or greed”.

Mr. Jonas contends; ” If the Arab/Muslim world had a fraction of the interest in creating a Palestinian state as it has in destroying a Jewish one, the Palestinians would have had their country long ago”. Simply put, if the Arab/Muslim world were to relinquish their longs standing hatred of Jews, the Palestinian people would live in prosperity and peace.

“Hamas’s strongest supporters may be in the West, among left-wing activists and media types who have been wrong about everything in world affairs. I suppose it makes sense for terrorists to be sheltered mainly by errorists in the end”.

Hamas’s strongest supporters are indeed in the West, making a mockery out of peace and justice.  To gain a glimpse of gross err, Islamist extremism and all those aboard the ‘peace’ train, attend an anti-Israeli protest in Canada, or France, or Belgium, or the United States, or Denmark, England, or…….   

Grace

National Post. Who is winning in Gaza. George Jonas.

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href=”http://www.nationalpost.com/opinion/story.html?id=4f995b6f-2153-455a-b633-a6ffbd75e8af&p=1″ target=”_blank”>What must change

George Jonas, National Post Published: Wednesday, January 14, 2009

Saif Dahlah, AFP, Getty Images

Who is winning in Gaza? Considering that every Hamas rocket fired at Israel does more damage to the interests of Palestinians than to the interests of Israelis, it’s tempting to say that Israel should encourage rather than hinder the terrorists. But saying so would be cheap sophistry. In the end, the interests of Palestinians and Israelis overlap.

The two people share the same small corner of the Earth. What harms one has to harm the other. Since they have to live together, unless they find a way to live together in peace, they’ll have to live in a state of perpetual war.

Three years ago, when Hamas achieved what some media reports described as a “stunning” electoral victory, the American scholar Judea Pearl — father of Daniel Pearl, the Wall Street Journal correspondent abducted and murdered by terrorists in Pakistan — delivered a speech at a United Nations briefing for nongovernmental organizations.

Few would blame Professor Pearl if he were intransigent, but he isn’t. He is, in fact, a particularly eloquent proponent of dialogue.

“It might come as a surprise to some of you,” he told the briefing session, “but after a century of bloodshed, several peace agreements, many negotiations and interfaith dialogues and countless UN-funded cultural programs, the majority of Muslims today still reject the idea that Jews deserve a state in some part of Palestine. Instead, Muslims perceive Israel to be a temporary outpost of Western colonialism, hastily created out of guilt or greed.”

This, I’ve long believed, is the crux of the matter. Until this changes, nothing can change. And unless this changes, nothing will.

When Hamas achieved control of Gaza, it had an opportunity to do something for its people. Many liberal commentators expected that it would, not only in the West but even in Israel. After all, some pundits wrote, Hamas won the election because it was less corrupt than Fatah. It was also better organized. Obdurate rhetoric aside, it would be mellowed by responsibility and power. Now that it had a mandate, Hamas would turn to building infrastructure and improving life in the region vacated by the Jewish occupier.

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Gaza’s True ‘Disproportion’

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From the Washington Post by way of gates of Vienna

Gaza’s True ‘Disproportion’

The Current Discussion: What’s the most likely outcome of Israel’s invasion of Gaza? A wider war? A Hamas defeat? Just more of the same?

Israelis are being accused of suffering too few casualties in their confrontation with the Hamas terrorists. Those who reason thus usually speak the words “disproportion” or “asymmetry” in an indignant tone. While at this writing close to a thousand Arab Palestinians have died or been wounded as a result of the bombings, the Israeli losses amount to just over a dozen.

Tel Aviv’s critics — from whom an anti-Semitic stench often rises — do not say whether Israel should increase its quota of cadavers or if it must reduce the Arabs’ quota to achieve the reasonable proportion of blood that will soothe the peculiar itch for parity that afflicts them. Nor do they specify the morally permissible number of casualties to end the rain of rockets that for years has been constantly falling on the heads of Israeli civilians.

This demand for “proportionality” can only be called surprising. Until this conflict began, history books everywhere always expressed great satisfaction and a certain chauvinistic pride when a nation’s army inflicted on the enemy a large number of casualties, vis-à-vis a trifling price paid by “our boys.” Israel is the only country expected to behave differently and, in fact, it does; I know of no other nation that announces where and when it will drop its bombs, thus enabling civilians to evacuate the territory. Of course, in this it behaves asymmetrically, because the Hamas terrorists, forever eager to cause the greatest damage possible, never announce when or where they will launch their rockets against Israel’s civilian population.

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Canada’s clear non relativist support of Israel in this conflict

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Last night (Jan 8th 2009) I attended an information night in Ottawa Canada where two members of the Canadian government of Stephen Harper’s conservative party spoke as well as the ambassador from Israel. One of the members was John Baird, minister ot transport and Pierre Polivere MP.

Both spoke well but Baird was impressive. I did not bring my recorder last night but John was clear not only in his support of Israel but what I feel is more important, his condemnation of relativism. To paraphrase him, ‘while all killing of children is a crime, we view the murder of children in Gaza as the fault of Hamas’ referring to the tactics of human shields by the Palestinians.

In fact this recognition of the tactics of terrorism and using the baited death of children as a propaganda tactic for war is ultimately a very good thing for the world as a whole. Perhaps if other nations stop buying into relativism and recognize publicly this tactic for what it is, the tactic will lose its usefulness and children will stop being killed. I view Baird’s statement as humanitarian. France and other nations too afraid of their own Muslim immigrants to make a clear statement of principle, (and you can be certain they are in possession of the facts) are merely encouraging Hamas fighters and other terrorists to seek the deaths of their own women children and non combatants as a propaganda tool against those who they would destroy.

Perhaps the Canadian government is beginning to lead the way out of the western worlds lazy slide into post modern relativism. What a fantastic thing that would be.

The Globe and Mail newspaper also demonstrates Canada’s position on the use of children as shields or to put it as one Israeli did last night “The Israeli’s build bomb shelters for their children. The Palestinians use their children as shields”

Ottawa blames Hamas for civilian deaths at school

Harper government’s staunch support for Israel stands in sharp contrast with international reaction to incident

CAMPBELL CLARK

January 7, 2009

OTTAWA — Canada’s Conservative government says Hamas is responsible for civilian deaths at a UN school where Israeli mortar fire killed at least 40 yesterday, arguing they have used civilians to shield fighters.

The Harper government says a ceasefire can work only if Hamas not only stops rocket attacks but permanently disarms, maintaining a staunchly pro-Israel position as many other Western nations pressed for an immediate ceasefire.

The Israeli military operation in Gaza has now killed more than 660, including an Israeli mortar blast yesterday at a United-Nations-operated school in Jabalya, northeast of Gaza City, where at least 40 were killed. Six Israeli soldiers and four civilians have been killed.

Canada’s junior foreign minister, Peter Kent, said that despite sketchy details on the school strike, it is clear that Hamas “bears the full responsibility for the deepening humanitarian tragedy.

For the rest of this article please visit the Globe and Mail.

Former police superintendant in Belgium: Attacks on jews arson and protests.

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Why is this not on TV and large newspapers? Why not the NYT?

From The Gates of Vienna:

Wednesday, January 07, 2009
A report from Bart Debie: Gaza in Belgium

by Baron Bodissey

The report below was just sent to us by Bart Debie, a member of Vlaams Belang. In it he summarizes the recent demonstrations and violent attacks against Jews in Belgium.

Gaza in Belgium

The conflict in Gaza — where Israelis are defending themselves against the non-stop missile attacks of Hamas terrorists — has been brought into and fought over in a lot of European cities. In Belgium violent incidents have been reported these last two weeks, and Jewish citizens became the victims of violence, threats, arson and even an attempt at murder,

On December 31st, 2008, the organization AEL — translated as Arabic-European League (of course, followers of Hamas and Hezbollah) — and known extremists organized a protest march in Antwerp. This city has the biggest Jewish population of Europe. During the demonstration a few hundred masked Muslims gathered in the district of Borgerhout which is located next to the district that houses most of the Jewish community. The protesters were chanting slogans — or rather battle cries — such as “Jews out”, “Hamas”, “Hezbollah”…

Prior to this demonstration, leaflets were handed out in the densely populated Islamic parts of Antwerp, blaming the Jews for the conflict in Gaza. During the march, the protesting Muslims destroyed many shops and cars and two police officers were severely wounded. The protesters wanted to head towards the Jewish diamond shops in the city center, but this was just barely prevented by the police.
– – – – – – – – –
On Saturday, January 3rd, about a hundred Muslims gathered in the historical city center of Antwerp to pledge their allegiance and formulate their sympathy and support for Palestine and the Palestinian cause. The police arrested 95 protesters. Several of them were in the possession of Molotov-cocktails, firearms, and pepper-spray, and they were clearly out to get Jews and attack Jewish targets.

That same night the home of a Jewish family, where 12 children were asleep was set on fire. Fortunately the house was only damaged and nobody was wounded. Arson at night on an inhabited house is a direct attempt at murder for which, according to Belgian law, one can be sentenced to a prison term of 20 years.

In Brussels, the capital of Belgium, the Synagogue Beth Hillel was set on fire. In the Brussels city center a protest march turned into riots between Muslims and the police. Shop windows were destroyed and cars were wrecked. As this happened in the early afternoon, lots of people were out shopping as this was the first day of winter sales, and storekeepers had to lock their doors, keeping the shoppers inside just to protect them.

The McDonald’s restaurant was completely turned into ruins.

Not only the AEL, Arabic-European League, is responsible for this trail of destruction and violence against Jewish citizens and Jewish targets in Belgium. Several — at this time unknown — extremist Islamic organizations are mobilizing Muslims via text message (sms) to attack Jewish targets, to protest in the streets, to cause riots and abolish anything that could be linked to the Jewish community.

Even the known organization “Composantes de la Communauté Arabe de Belgique” (CoCABe) assembled 3,000 Muslims in Brussels to express their support to Palestine and to chant anti-Jewish slogans.

Meanwhile several death threats were made against Jewish schools, synagogues, and the editors of Jewish magazines. The Ministry of Internal Affairs in Belgium and the police have raised their vigilance as it is certain that these next days and weeks the anti-Jewish violence in this country will only increase.

Bart Debie
Former police superintendent

Hamas’s ‘CNN strategy

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Thank you Grace for your tireless efforts combing the Canadian media for good material.

From Canada’s National Post:

“On the first day of Israel’s ground attack, approximately 30 Palestinians, almost all Hamas combatants, were killed. On the same day an Islamic suicide bomber blew herself up in a mosque in Iraq, killing 40 innocent Muslims. No protests. Little media coverage.”

As Israel persists in its military efforts — by ground, air and sea — to protect its citizens from deadly Hamas rockets, and as protests against Israel increase around the world, the success of the abominable Hamas double war crime strategy becomes evident. The strategy is as simple as it is cynical: Provoke Israel by playing Russian roulette with its children, firing rockets at kindergartens, playgrounds and hospitals; hide behind its own civilians when firing at Israeli civilians; refuse to build bunkers for its own civilians; have TV cameras ready to transmit every image of dead Palestinians, especially children; exaggerate the number of civilians killed by including as “children” Hamas fighters who are 16 or 17 years old and as “women,” female terrorists.

Hamas itself has a name for this. They call it “the CNN strategy” (this is not to criticize CNN or any other objective news source for doing its job; it is to criticize Hamas for exploiting the freedom of press which it forbids in Gaza). The CNN strategy is working because decent people all over the world are naturally sickened by images of dead and injured children. When they see such images repeatedly flashed across TV screens, they tend to react emotionally. Rather than asking why these children are dying and who is to blame for putting them in harm’s way, average viewers, regardless of their political or ideological perspective, want to see the killing stopped. They blame those whose weapons directly caused the deaths, rather than those who provoked the violence by deliberately targeting civilians.

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Article from Globe and Mail Canada. Superb opinion by Canadian General

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What is the UN waiting for? Deploy a strong force to Gaza

LEWIS MACKENZIE

From Tuesday’s Globe and Mail

January 6, 2009 at 12:00 AM EST

I first served in the Gaza Strip in 1963, seven years after Lester Pearson’s diplomatic stick-handling led to the creation of the United Nations Emergency Force, the UN’s first peacekeeping force. I served there for two years, living with more than 1,000 other Canadian soldiers in Camp Rafah, just inside Gaza. I returned to the region eight years later, this time to Cairo and Ismailia as part of Canadian support for UN ceasefire protocols after the 1973 Yom Kippur War. I have returned to the region many times during the past decade.

In my opinion, the Israeli-Hamas conflict is the only one in the world where there is no hope whatsoever of the participants resolving the key issues on their own, by any means. Hamas makes no secret that, aided and abetted by Iran, it is dedicated to the destruction of Israel. Any idea of a ceasefire in the current fighting leading to a change in Hamas’s dedication to Israel’s elimination is naive to the extreme. Any cessation of hostilities, no matter how temporary, will be used by Hamas to enhance its weapons arsenal in preparation for the next round of terrorist attacks against its neighbour.

On their own, Israel and Hamas are doomed to a perpetual state of war no matter how much international diplomatic horsepower is applied to resolving the conflict. But there is a solution that the world has been adroitly avoiding for 40 years.

Israel deserves security. Its population is prepared to live in peace with its neighbours providing they aren’t dedicated to its extermination. If Israel deals with the threat from Hamas on its own, the situation will not improve over the long term – Hamas will simply resuscitate itself and carry on with its terrorist actions against Israel. The Security Council needs to show some rare backbone and authorize a strong UN force under the UN Charter’s Chapter 7, which authorizes the use of deadly force as necessary, and deploy it within the Gaza Strip, taking on the responsibility to provide the security to which Israel is entitled.

The force would need to be strong enough to interdict weapons smuggling by sea, land (including by tunnel) and air from outside sources, to eliminate rocket attacks on Israel, to stop suicide bombers through use of border controls and, most important, to be strong enough militarily to take on Hamas if need be. The oft-expressed idea of putting international monitors into the Gaza Strip to control smuggling and the firing of rockets is ludicrous: Hamas would run rings around any unarmed outsiders whose only mandate was to “observe and report.” Such monitors wouldn’t even qualify as yet another Band-Aid solution.

Israel would not like this solution. It is extremely suspicious of the UN, which has all too often demonstrated anti-Semitic policies and statements thanks to the fact that most member states sympathize with such attitudes. Israel did not recognize the UNEF from 1956 to its withdrawal in 1967. In fact, when we had to drive through Israel to get some of our supplies in Lebanon, we were not allowed to get out of our vehicles while inside Israel.

The UN Relief and Works Agency, which provides aid to Palestinian refugees in the Gaza Strip, has been accused by Israel – with some justification – of anti-Israel bias. Nevertheless, with a UN force deployed across the border from Israel and capable of providing the security desired by its citizens, the Israelis would soon see the benefits.

The UN has maintained a peacekeeping force in Cyprus since 1964. There has been no fighting between the Greek and Turk Cypriots for the past 34 years. The peacekeepers are now popular tourist attractions. When you arrive on the south coast of Cyprus, you can sign up for a bus tour of Nicosia, where you can observe the peacekeepers executing their boring duty in sentry boxes first manned by Canadian soldiers some 38 years ago. If you are polite, they will let you have your picture taken with them.

The UN Security Council and member states should be ashamed. While UN resources are providing peacekeepers in a country safer than most of our major cities, just across the Mediterranean, scores of innocent Palestinians are being killed because a terrorist organization with the stated aim of ridding the world of Jews is permitted to sacrifice its own people without protest or intervention by the international community.

Retired major-general Lewis MacKenzie was the first commander of UN peacekeeping forces in Sarajevo.

Klaus exposes EU hypocrisy. Data point for Eurabia? I hope you are watching Ireland.

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Once again Vaclav Klaus has exposed more of the hypocrisy and hidden agenda of the EU. It is the Czech Republic’s turn as head of the European Union yet French President Nicolas Sarkozy makes the trip to Gaza. Why might this be? Isn’t this a little like Jimmy Carter negotiating a mid east peace decades after he no longer holds any official office? Well yes actually but worse.

Sarkozy is still president of France. But his rotation at the EUSSR is over. He no longer has the right to act for the EU. However Klaus’s well known scorn for the EU which now attempts to become a superstate with political dominance over various European nations despite numerous referenda to the contrary (France Holland Ireland and soon Ireland twice) voted against a European constitution. Klaus is also very anti EU as a political force. But perhaps more to the point Vaclav is a well known supporter of Israel. For those of you who have not yet read Fjordman’s ‘Defeating Eurabia’ and for those of you who have and are seeking contemporary evidence for his assertions today saw a rather stunning data point for it.

From a Stratfor report Jan 5 2008…

The two parallel missions may seem like an exercise in redundancy or at the very least an embarrassing scheduling conflict. Czech Republic, which holds the rotating EU presidency for the first six months of 2009, is expected to take a lead on EU foreign policy engagements and overall policy agenda-setting. Sarkozy’s trip, therefore, flies in the face of EU protocol and is a very visible vote of non-confidence for Prague’s ability to command respect globally as the EU president.

As EU president, Czech Republic faces a number of challenges, from a resurgent Russia to a global economic crisis. Many within the EU doubt that Prague will able to handle these challenges on its own, with Sarkozy having all but directly suggested that the French term — which ended with the start of the Czech EU presidency — should be extended. Confidence in Prague’s foreign policy acumen was further dented when Schwarzenberg’s spokesman issued a statement seemingly supporting Israel’s incursion in Gaza on Jan. 2, only for the foreign ministry to withdraw it two days later as protest mounted among those EU member states that oppose Israel’s actions. Sarkozy’s trip is another blow to Prague’s confidence and could be interpreted as a direct slap in the face of the Czech EU presidency.

But lets dig a little deeper. Vaclav was already chastized by the EU for refusing to take down a Czech flag from anancient landmark in Prague and replace it with a European flag. More to the point, he removed the Euro flag and put up a Czech one.

(From the Telegraph UK)

The French president sided with federalist Euro-MPs who are engaged in a bitter feud with Vaclav Klaus, the Czech president and a Eurosceptic.

Senior MEPs, including the president of the European Parliament, Hans Gert Poettering, caused a diplomatic incident ten days ago after demanding that Mr Klaus hoist the European flag over his residence during bad tempered talks in Prague.

“It was a wound, it was an outrage to see that flags had been taken down from public buildings,” said President Sarkozy, the current holder of the EU’s six-month rotating presidency which he hands over to the Czech Republic in January.

“Mr Poettering can count on the full support of the French president.”

Karel Schwarzenberg, the Czech foreign minister, hit back as the diplomatic war of words between Paris and Prague threatened to overshadow the smooth transfer of the EU presidency.

“There is no law binding the Czech Republic to hang the EU flag over Prague Castle. Prague Castle is a symbol of the Czech state and not the EU,” he said.

“It is not up to the head of another state to criticise the Czech president over flags.”

A statement from the office of Mr Klaus said: “The Castle is a symbol of Czech statehood. There is no reason to change this historic tradition.”

So we see, Klaus has the temerity to not be fully on side and sacrifice his own ideals history and knowledge of right and wrong in favor of a greater Europe. A greater Europe represented by an agency which clearly has an agenda Vaclav is not comfortable with. One which sides with Islamic states even when the entirety of western history and our collective sense of law right and wrong and even military conventions are four square on side with the Israeli position with respect to the expeditions in Gaza. The EU seeks to embarrass its own president when his attitudes run against what looks more and more like a Eurabian agenda. I hope Ireland is watching as they are being asked to vote again on the EU constitution. They should know that a yes vote will mean that even when it’s Irelands turn to lead the EU should they act in Irish interests however they may see them, they will be disenfranchised.