Tuesday, September 24, 2013
Douglas Murray: No, Mr Cameron. The Kenyan massacre is all about Islamism
I can see why politicians like David Cameron want to make sure that nobody blames Muslims as a whole for attacks like this. But telling the lie that such attacks have nothing whatsoever to do with Islam does no good at all. It lets the extremists off the hook and infuriates everybody else who end up wondering why the Prime Minister cannot see what everybody else can see.Melanie Phillips: Mass murder and moral blindness
As I have said often in response to this ‘noble lie’, the only way that Islam is going to get through its current problems is if followers of the religion realise that they have to actively confront the problem. Each provision of an opt-out and excuse delays the day when the religion properly confronts itself and makes the claims of the jihadis a wholly impermissible — instead of plausible and sometimes permissible — response to the religion in whose name they act.
Mr Cameron’s mistake is to articulate the absurd non-sequitur parroted by so many in the British ruling class: that because many Muslims do not endorse Islamic terrorism, ergo such terrorism is not truly perpetrated in the name of Islam. This is as nonsensical as saying that because many Christians were the victims of the Spanish Inquisition, the Spanish Inquisition could not have been truly perpetrated in the name of Christianity; or that because most Jews are not ultra-Orthodox, the ultra-Orthodox are not truly Jews; or even that because most women are not man-hating feminists, man-hating feminists are not really women.Terrorist: Nairobi Mall Targeted Because of 'Jewish Shops'
And this confusion is lethal. Those who cannot even bring themselves to call the force that is attacking them by its proper name will be defeated by that force. The Islamists know that; which is why such a reaction guarantees more such attacks. Moral blindness and mass murder are locked in a fatal embrace like a drowning couple in a whirlpool.
As Kenyan military forces moved to liberate Nairobi's Westgate Mall from the hands of Islamist terrorists, a representative of Al-Shabaab, the Somali terror group behind the attack, told Arab satellite network Al Jazeera that the attack was overdue, and that the mall was chosen for the attack because “it is a place where there are Jewish and American shops.”CIF Watch: Counter-terror idea by Simon Jenkins in response to Nairobi: Stop building malls.
The attack, which began Saturday, was still underway Tuesday, with the terrorists holed up in the building, holding a number of hostages. At least 69 people have been killed so far, as Kenyan soldiers try to remove the Islamists who are occupying the building.
Whilst the passage about the folly of building malls is indeed risible, Jenkins’ surrender manifesto also provides some insight into the Guardian’s failure to empathize with Israel, a state continually targeted by radical Islamists who use terror in an attempt to bring the state to its knees.It’s time to define Islamism as a crime against humanity
Israel’s large measure of success in allowing its citizens to live normal lives, despite the constant threat of rockets, sniper fire and suicide bombs, is a testament to the collective decision to never bow down to terror’s relentless onslaughts – fortitude and courage in a democracy under siege that Simon Jenkins evidently cannot fathom.
The attacks at Nairobi, Kenya’s Westgate shopping mall follow a familiar pattern to other attacks that occurred in the last few days: in Pakistan, where 81 were killed in the bombing of a church, and in Nigeria where 159 people were slaughtered by Islamists near Maiduguri.Hate speech continues on official PA TV
The media and political reactions also follow a neatly crafted script we have all become accustomed to.
First Islamist terrorists attack civilians, attempting to sort out the Muslims from the non-Muslims so as to kill only one group. There are the condemnations of “senseless acts of violence” and appeals for “calm and unity.” Then all is forgotten.
Official Palestinian Authority TV continues its policy of broadcasting and promoting hate speech against Israelis and Jews, as documented by Palestinian Media Watch. Recently a young woman recited a poem including the words: "Our enemy is Satan, Zion with a tail.""Our enemy is Satan, Zion with a tail" - girl on PA TV
The lyrics of the poem, which were written by Egyptian poet Hesham El-Gakh, promote Pan-Arabism and explain that the speaker "has been taught" that "our wars" are religious in nature, being fought "for the Al-Aqsa Mosque" and that the enemy is Jews - "Zion, Satan with a tail."
Palestinian Leaks Show Failure of Talks Is Foreordained
Nor need one look far to understand why the PA would plan for a breakdown a priori: The talks have zero support among ordinary Palestinians. As the Jerusalem Post’s Khaled Abu Toameh reported back in July, not a single Palestinian faction favored resuming the negotiations, and yesterday, several Palestinian groups launched a public campaign to demand an end to the talks while also opposing any Palestinian concessions whatsoever as part of a deal.Antony Loewenstein’s latest dishonest anti-Israel smear at ‘Comment is Free’
So with no support for a deal at home, Abbas has little choice but to plan for how to blame Israel for a breakdown. The only question is whether the U.S. is willing to let him get away with it.
Antony Loewenstein doesn’t believe the Jewish state should exist under any circumstances, and in his latest ‘Comment Free’ commentary he wears this badge proudly by characterizing his identity as a melange of Judaism, atheism, Germanic traditions, Anglo-Saxon-Australian beliefs and anti-Zionism.Apple lists Jerusalem without country
When last we posted about the marginal Aussie commentator, we revealed that he flat-out lied when he recounted a conversation in which he evidently told Tony Abbott (before he became Prime Minister) that there were “Jews only roads” in the West Bank. As CAMERA proved definitively quite a few years ago, such roads do not exist.
Apple finally introduced its much-anticipated new operating system, iOS 7, last week after months of working out bugs. Is one omission deliberate or inadvertent?Repeat Performance: Jews Banned from the Temple Mount
According to The Blaze, a conservative news site founded by Glenn Beck, the world clock list shows Jerusalem without a country. All other cities in the world, with the exception of Taipei and Vatican City, are listed with their country.
Hundreds of Jewish visitors to the Temple Mount this morning (Tuesday) were turned back upon their arrival, after being informed at the gate that the police had decided to close Judaism's holiest site to Jews.Jews urge Greece to crack down on Golden Dawn
Scores of Jews from across the country - including participants in a pre-organized ascent of hundreds of Jewish schoolchildren - arrived in cars and buses, after undertaking the necessary preparations to ascend the Mount in accordance with many interpretations of Jewish law, including ritual immersion in a mikveh (ritual pool).
Greek Jews implored the government to crack down on the ultranationalist Golden Dawn party in the wake of the murder of the anti-fascist rapper known as Killah P.Israeli-Greek millionaire ‘tarred’ by press gets mea culpa
On Monday, a statement from the Central Board of Jewish Communities in Greece said the Sept. 18 stabbing death of Pavlos Fyssas again showed the need for the government to take tough action against Golden Dawn.
A prominent Greek paper has published a long apology to a Greek-Israeli businessman targeted by neo-Nazis and tarred with claims of financial impropriety, saying it “fell victim to incorrect information.”French Man Jailed for Threatening Toulouse Jewish School
The influential To Vima published a full-page apology Sunday to Sabby Mionis, a Greek Jew who currently resides in Israel.
In the piece, subtitled, “How an honest capital manager with an international reputation became implicated in the Lagarde list,” the paper apologized for falsely reporting that Mionis was on the contentious list, which names people under international suspicion for financial crimes.
A French man was sentenced to a year in prison on Monday for making death threats to a Jewish school in Toulouse by phone, AFP reports.Lithuania Marks 70 Years Since Nazis Wiped Out Vilnius Ghetto
The man is the cousin Mohammed Merah, the terrorist who murdered Rabbi Jonathan Sandler, his sons Aryeh and Gavriel and Miriam Monsonego at the Ohr HaTorah school in 2012.
Lithuania on Monday marked 70 years since Nazi Germany wiped out the Vilnius ghetto, all but obliterating the vibrant Jewish culture of a capital once known as the "Jerusalem of the North".First US anti-Hitler film discovered in Brussels archive
State leaders and Holocaust survivors attended a memorial ceremony honoring the tens of thousands who died, while national flags with black ribbons dotted the Vilnius skyline, known as "Vilna" in Yiddish.
"A grim and terrible reality can never be left in the past - it must forever remain in our memory," Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaite said at the ceremony. She praised those who saved Jews as "icons of humanity to be role models for all of us" and "beacons that we must carry on the path to tomorrow".
The first US film to warn about the dangers of Adolf Hitler's Nazi regime has been found in a Brussels film archive, having lain unnoticed for some 75 years.Evogene reports castor oil biofuel success
"Hitler's Reign of Terror" was produced by Cornelius Vanderbilt, an heir to the wealthy American industrialist family, who visited Germany as Hitler was voted into power in 1933.
The film revolves around footage that Vanderbilt shot and smuggled out, showing Nazi party rallies, book-burnings and the ransacking of Jewish shops.
Evogene Ltd. (TASE:EVGN) subsidiary Evofuel Ltd. has successfully completed three years of field trials in Brazil to develop castor bean as an alternative feedstock for production of biodiesel and other industrial uses. The field trials were jointly conducted with Brazilian agrobusiness SLC Agrícola SA (Bovespa: SLCE3).Lawmakers Tour Judea and Samaria, Express Solidarity
The field trials demonstrated strong yield performance of Evofuel’s proprietary castor seed varieties under rain-fed conditions in northeast Brazil, and supported the use of castor seed as a competitive biodiesel feedstock. The castor seed varieties could potentially be useful for the lubricant, biopolymer and other industries, which use castor oil and have to cope price instability.
25 Members of Parliament and Congress from around the world, who are currently visiting Israel as part of the 2013 Chairman's Conference, toured Judea and Samaria on Monday. They expressed their solidarity with the Jewish settlement enterprise in Judea and Samaria and said that they oppose the European Union’s boycott of Israeli products from these regions.Israel-Chinese Joint Venture Qoros Unveils Car Model Lineup
The lawmakers are the chairmen of Israel Allies Caucuses which represent hundreds of members of Congress and Parliament around the world.
Participants include lawmakers from the U.S., the European Union, Canada, Brazil, the Netherlands, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Macedonia, Poland, South Africa, Guatemala, Argentina, Chile, Bolivia and Uruguay.
Qoros Auto Company Ltd., a joint venture between Israel Corporation (TASE: ILCO) and China’s Chery Automobile Co. Ltd., unveiled its first models at a dealers convention, ahead of its planned commercial launch in the fourth quarter of 2013, Israel’s Globes business daily reported.
At the dealers convention, Qoros unveiled a model line-up planned for the next decade based on four modular car platforms based on the work of Qoros’s chief designer, who also was responsible for designing the modern BMW-owned Mini.
