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Thursday, December 04, 2014

12/04 Links Pt1: Supermarket owner says he won’t let terror attackers win; Britain's Terror Addiction

From Ian:

UK: Britain's Terror Addiction
In Britain, declarations of disgust for specific acts of terrorism often seem designed merely to shroud tolerance for pro-terror views. The Guardian, for example, condemned the synagogue murders in Israel and described Hamas's celebrations of the attacks as "depressing"; but a mere four days before the terror attack, the newspaper published an opinion piece by Hamas official Ahmed Yousef, which set out to defend the Hamas charter, a document that explicitly calls for the eradication of not only Israelis but Jews.
Meanwhile, Ahmed Brahimi's PPDP has entertained members of the House of Lords; Interpal enjoys the support of parliamentary motions signed by dozens of British MPs and is painted as a victim of Islamophobia by prominent newspaper journalists; and the PFLP, addressing crowds of supporters in London, is considered a heroic bulwark against Western "imperialism."
Debates between politicians and commentators over the causes of radicalization and extremism in Britain invariably focus on how to tackle support for groups such as ISIS and Al Qaeda. But why is it that Hamas and PFLP are deemed moderate, regardless of how many civilians they murder?
One enormous factor in the spread of Islamic extremism surely must be the networks of charities that seem to support Palestinian terrorist organizations – networks that include groups such as Interpal and the PPDP. Will these organizations ever be shut down?
Frenchman sentenced to 5 years for Israeli hit-and-run killing
Zeitouni’s parents flew to France to attend the trial and both burst out crying during the deliberations, Ynet reported. Friends of the young woman and supporters from the local Jewish community also went to the trial but were not let into the courtroom, according to the report.
“We have an opportunity to tell the world that justice can be served, and people cannot run away from it,” said Peled.
The victim’s family would have preferred the trial to have taken place in Israel, their lawyer said.
“But this is better than nothing and they have arrived with confidence,” added the lawyer, Gilles-William Goldnadel.
He described Robic as a “habitual road criminal” who showed “rare cowardice” in deciding to flee the scene.
Enough is enough
People died that day. They were people with families, histories and legacies. Yet for every story about their lives I have seen 20 about what someone else may think about them, about us, or whatever response we choose for the slaughter of our citizens in our streets. That is simply slave mentality.
We house our own killers, provide for our attackers, save the world, protect the weak and invent the uninventable, and we stand there begging for the world to see that hey, it's kind of hard to make peace with someone who insists on chopping us up, running us over, and bombing our citizens into permanent post-traumatic stress disorder.
Well, I'm done. Seriously. I will never again give that shpiel. I will not discuss what may or may not be necessary force or hand out cookies in the hope they may lay off. Nah.
Instead I will learn what I can about Advanced Staff Sgt. Maj. Zidan Saif and Rabbis Kalman Zeev Levine, Moshe Twersky, Aryeh Kupinsky and Avraham Goldberg, may God avenge their blood, and I will know their stories and pay respect to their lives. I will not give a pound of flesh to the wolves at our door and I will not, ever again, be a public relations machine for the deaf.
Enough.
Enough.
Enough.
We have survived too much to recommit to slavery. We have too much to lose to be locked up in this prison of our own making.
Enough.



Supermarket owner says he won’t let terror attackers win
Hours after a Palestinian youth grabbed a knife off a rack and stabbed two customers in one of his stores, supermarket mogul Rami Levy vowed his chain would continue to operate as normal.
“We will not let this affect us, or change our routine,” Levy told reporters at the scene of the attack in Mishor Adumim, east of Jerusalem.
Two people were moderately injured in the Wednesday afternoon attack, which took place just inside one of Levy’s eponymous supermarkets in a West Bank industrial zone.
Levy, whose chain has a major presence in the West Bank and is popular with both Israelis and Palestinians, said the incident wouldn’t keep customers from his stores. He also said he would continue to employ Arab and Jewish workers.
Off-duty guard prevents deaths as terrorist strikes supermarket
A paramedic with Magen David Adom had been shopping at the supermarket during the attack. He managed to get away and immediately called MDA. At the same time, an off-duty guard at the Prime Minister's Office happened also to be on scene, and engaged the attacker. "I heard screaming and someone chasing people, and then I heard two gunshots," one of cashiers said.
The off-duty guard shot the terrorist, a 16-year-old Palestinian from nearby town Eizariya and with help from the store security guard handcuffed him. The two guarded the Palestinian teen until police arrived.
"We could not believe this would happen here [at Rami Levy]. We have Palestinian employees, even from Eizariya. It is terrifying," one of the supermarket employees said.
News outlets reported the paramedic's phone call, which was recorded. "There is a terrorist attack going on, I am also wounded. Someone attacked me from behind. The man is running around inside a Rami Levy supermarket, I have been taken out. There are gun shots. I am wounded, with a head wound and broken hand," the paramedic said in the recording.
Terror Victim Directed Medics Treating Him after Stabbing Attack
Arutz Sheva has obtained an audio recording of the Magen David Adom (MDA) paramedic who was wounded in Wednesday's stabbing in a Mishor Adumim Rami Levy store calling the MDA number, 101 - Israel's equivalent of 9-1-1.
During the conversation, the paramedic can be heard briefing civilians nearby how to handle the attack.
"Listen: I am injured in a Rami-Levy in Mishor Adumim; I am a medic from Jerusalem," the medic says to the hotline operator. "There was an attempt at a terror attack here - I was also injured - someone stabbed me from behind and on my side, I have a fracture in my hand."
The operator then attempts to speak, but he cuts her off.
"Listen," he continues, "the [attacker] went crazy inside the Rami-Levy supermarket in Mishor Adumim."
What Should We Learn from Rami Levy?
I shop at Rami Levy every week, sometimes on Wednesdays, usually on Thursdays, sometimes on Fridays. I made a decision long ago. I can never afford to give the kind of charity that Rami Levy, whose generosity is legendary and whose prices are aimed at the poor, can afford to give. I can never do the amazing things he has done by having Jews and Arabs work together. So I do what I can - which is shop there and show my support that way.
Most of the bag packers in the Mishor Adumim store are Arabs, and they work beside one who is Jewish and wears a kippah. Most of the stockers are Arab. One of the managers is an Arab and he works beside a Jewish assistant manager.
I know some of the workers by name, others simply by face. One lived in America for a few years and speaks English very well. "Hey there," he says each time he sees me and then asks how I'm doing. I know the guys behind the meat counter, behind the cheese counter, in the vegetable aisles. I know the Arab assistant manager and some of the Arab cashiers.
I think I can tell the difference between those Arabs that tolerate us so that they can have work and those who care about having good lives and being decent. There is one Arab worker there who looks so sad after each attack that I wonder if he too feels angry or just senses the angry vibrations that fill the store in the hours and days that follow terror.
Druze police officer killed in synagogue attack honored
The police officer who was killed in the Har Nof synagogue terror attack, Advanced Staff Sgt. Maj. Zidan Saif, will be posthumously honored with a medal for his service in fighting the terrorists at the scene of the crime, Police Commissioner Yohanan Danino announced Wednesday while paying his condolences to Saif's family in the Druze village Yanuh-Jat.
Danino, Jerusalem District Police Commander Moshe Edri and Northern District Police Commander Zohar Dvir visited Saif's family home along with other senior police officers.
Danino told Saif's family that "Zidan was a police officer who made his commanders proud. The more we learn about the attack, the more we see what a hero he was. He acted courageously and honorably demonstrated the values and goals of the Israel Police in keeping the peace and ensuring security for all of Israel's citizens."
Saif's family thanked the police chief and his father said, "My son was killed while he was defending the homeland. These are the values and the education that he learned at home. The blood pact between the Druze people and the state of Israel is eternal. All that remains is to hope that peace will come and that Zidan will be the last victim."
First Responder on Scene at Jerusalem Synagogue Attack Recounts the Horror
Magen David Adom paramedic Akiva Pollack was the first emergency responder on the scene of the Jerusalem synagogue attack on Nov. 18 that resulted in the murder of five Israelis. On Tuesday night he spoke about rushing to the sanctuary on the day of the attack and being unprepared for what he found.
“I came from my house to this scene. I had no equipment with me. I was with my slippers. That’s how I got to this scene,” Pollack said, speaking at the American Friends of Magen David Adom New York Annual Benefit Dinner at the Lighthouse at Chelsea Piers.
Pollack lives in the neighborhood where the incident happened and said he arrived at Har Nof’s Bnei Torah synagogue about 30 seconds after the terror attack started. The first thing he saw was one of the victims sitting outside in his prayer shawl (talit) and his phylacteries (tefillin) and bleeding very badly. After the wounded man alerted the paramedic that he’d been shot, Pollack called an MDA dispatcher to report the attack and state that he was at the scene.
When Pollack went up the synagogue steps to see inside the building, he found another man lying on the floor with his talit and tefillin, and a big puddle of blood around him. Pollack dragged the victim closer to check whether he was still alive when he came under a hail of bullets. He managed to seek cover just as policemen arrived and surrounded the entrance to the synagogue.
Glick: Police Need to Take Incitement More Seriously
In an interview on Channel Ten Wednesday, Temple Mount activist Yehuda Glick said that more is needed to be done to combat the incitement by Arabs against Jews who try to pray on the Temple Mount.
"Instead of blaming activists who are acting responsibly for the tension on the Temple Mount, police should take action against those who threaten and harm the public. I truly hope that police will do something about the incitement against me and my colleagues in the same way that it efficiently operates against Jewish incitement against Arabs."
Glick – who founded and heads the LIBA Initiative for Jewish Freedom on the Temple Mount – has been recovering from an assassination attempt on October 29, in which he was shot several times in the chest outside the Begin Heritage Center in Jerusalem.
Taibe man indicted for attempted lynch of Jewish motorist
Less than a month after the attempted lynching of a Jewish motorist in Taibe, the Lod District Court on Thursday indicted a 21-year-old man from the Triangle region city on charges of aggravated assault, vandalism, and mayhem.
The suspect, Muhammed Haj-Yihyeh, is accused of being part of a group of rioters who stopped a Jewish motorist on the night of November 9th as he was driving his car on highway 444 from Kochav Yair northbound. The motorist, who tried to do a U-turn in order to avoid burning tires in the road, was approached by rioters, who addressed him in Arabic, police said. When he could not understand them, the crowd began shouting “Jew! Jew!”, and hurling rocks at him and his vehicle.
Police said that the rocks thrown by the rioters shattered the car’s front and back windshield and that Haj-Yihyeh took a package of fireworks and lit them, before throwing them inside the car while the motorist was still inside the vehicle. The fireworks caused the car to catch fire, and it burned completely.
The motorist was only saved by a local Taibe man who ran to the scene and fought his way through the attackers in order to rescue him. He put the motorist in his vehicle with his children, and drove to a nearby police station, likely saving the man’s life.
Palestinians inciting terror to influence Israeli politics, security official says
Amid the recent political turmoil, security forces are concerned about an upswing in attempts to carry out terrorist attacks in order to influence domestic affairs in Israel.
"The Palestinian leadership is clearly inciting the street who see a connection between the political reality in Israel and the security situation," an Israeli security official told Maariv Hashavua.
"It's obvious that that the wave of terror we have seen can influence the political landscape and turn into a propaganda tool for all parties ahead of the upcoming elections," he said.
Israeli security officials say that over the past day, Palestinian television shows are discussing the political drama in Israel non-stop and are inciting the atmosphere.
Northern residents to dig in search of cross-border tunnels
Israeli residents of a small village on the border with Lebanon plan to begin searching for tunnels they fear are being dug under their homes by Hezbollah fighters, after they say the IDF refused to investigate despite their repeated complaints.
The residents of Zarit said they intend to get ready to dig in areas believed to conceal cross-border tunnels, and will then seek to coordinate with the Israel Defense Forces, the NRG Hebrew website reported.
“In a meeting that we held yesterday, we made the decision to dig ourselves, because the army is not willing to do it,” Yossi Adoni, the head of the moshav’s council, told the news outlet on Wednesday. “We’ve started preparing the logistics, and as soon as we’re ready, we will tell the army when we are doing the excavations, and we’ll do it ourselves.”
Father Nadaf's son joins IDF
Judaan Nadaf, the son of prominent Israeli Greek Orthodox priest Father Gabriel Nadaf, joined the IDF this week.
Father Nadaf has long been an outspoken advocate of national service by Israeli Christians and integration into Israeli society in as many ways as possible. He has often said that Israel is the only country in the Middle East where Christians are free from religious persecution.
Jubran voluntarily joined an elite IDF unit, while accompanied by Father Gabriel Nadaf at the recruitment office in Tiberias. On his Facebook page, Father Nadaf stated that his son joined “out of a sense of mission and belonging and the aspiration to contribute to his country Israel.”
Jubran Nadaf was the target of a violent hate crime in December 2013. Opponents of Father Nadaf targeted the son and beat him in the streets of Nazareth.
After the attack, Father Gabriel Nadaf issued a statement proclaiming that “[M]y son very much wants to enlist, in the near future, and serve in a combat unit. He believes in what I do, that we all have a home here, that he also needs to give to the country. The country gives him his rights, and should receive what it is due in return. We all need to live here in peace, and protect the existence of the country that we live in, since our future is here.”
Hamas Shoots Seven Test Rockets in Two Days
In the past month, Hamas, the terror organization that controls the Gaza Strip, has increased its rocket launching from Gaza into the sea, as part of test experiments for its rocket system.
In just the past two days, there have been seven such launches. Two of them occurred Thursday morning, Walla! News reported. The threatening show of force indicates the group's preparations for yet another terror war against Israel.
Late last month Hamas held four rocket tests in two days, with the IDF estimating that the terrorist organization is "experimenting in order to increase rocket launching capabilities."
Likewise the terrorist organization has started rebuilding its terror tunnels to attack Israeli citizens, after roughly 30 of them were destroyed in the last operation.
Hamas, Jordanian Brotherhood Smuggle Weapons Into Palestinian Territories
Recent arrests in Jordan and Israel show that Hamas and the Jordanian Muslim Brotherhood are trying to smuggle weapons into Gaza and the West Bank. After Egypt’s army destroyed tunnels joining Gaza and Sinai, which had been lucrative smuggling paths, Hamas has been cultivating replacements.
The terrorist organization recruited 20 fishermen to smuggle weapons and explosives into Gaza, Jerusalem Online reports.
The Shin Bet (Israel’s domestic security agency) arrested one fisherman, Hussam Bakr, after he visited his child who was being treated for cancer in an Israeli hospital.
Bakr told interrogators that Hamas forced him to become a smuggler after terrorists detained and beat him, accusing him of collaborating with Israel. Hamas also threatened to put Bakr on an “internal security list” to prevent him from entering Israel to visit his child. He gave in.
Jordan jails man who plotted suicide attack in Israel
A Jordanian man was given a six-month prison sentence Wednesday in a Jordanian court for plotting to attack Israel.
The man was caught in the summer as he tried to cross into Israel to carry out a suicide attack, Israel Radio reported.
The sentence came as Arab media reported this week that Jordanian security forces arrested 20 men on suspicion of forming a military wing and planning to smuggle arms into the West Bank to be used in terror attacks against Israelis.
Looming Clash Between Iran and Egypt?
As much of the world media's attention is focused on the conflict in Syria and Iraq or between Israel and the Palestinians, Iran continues to pursue its aggressive strategy of expanding its reach in the region and encircling Israel.
Over the last year, a Yemeni Shi'ite militia, known as the Houthis, have siezed the initiative and taken control of portions of Yemen, including its capital city, Sanaa. The Houthis are widely considered to be an Iranian proxy, reports and photographic images of the militia show them marching with placards suggesting alignment with Iran and Hezbollah. They now are pushing to establish control of the strait of Bab al-Mandeb on the Red Sea. Commanding this strait would give Iran control over the chokepoint between the Suez Canal and the Indian Ocean.
Judge who acquitted Mubarak: Revolution was Zionist-US-Brotherhood conspiracy
The Egyptian judge that acquitted former president Hosni Mubarak last week wrote in his 280-page decision that the revolution that toppled the former leader was a global Zionist-US-Brotherhood conspiracy.
Judge Mahmoud Kamel al-Rashidi began his decision by describing the January 2011 revolution as a Zionist and US conspiracy hatched to divide the country, according to a report on Egypt’s Mada Masr website.
Rashidi backed up this claim by citing testimonies of “the nation’s wise men,” which included former intelligence head Omar Suleiman, former defense chief Hussein Tantawi and former prime minister Ahmed Nazif.
The judge added that the Muslim Brotherhood movement was a key conspirator by aiding Hamas and Hezbollah to infiltrate the country in order to carry out a plan to topple Mubarak’s regime on January 28, 2011, the report said.
ISIS will devour Lebanon
As the whole world watches ISIS in Kobane and Kirkuk, Sunni militant groups are about to make a big play on Lebanon, a far less publicized ISIS front. Extremist detachments scattered over the western border of Syria make near daily attacks on Hezbollah and the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) stationed there. In Syria’s An-Nabek District, Al Nusra Front and ISIS have ostensibly become a joint fighting force. In August, the two groups worked together to conquer the eastern Lebanese border town of Arsal. After several days of fighting they were repelled back to the peaks of Syria’s Qalamoun Mountains. Since then, the Lebanese military has consolidated its forces in the area, squashing any hope among the militants of regaining a footing in the city. As severe winter weather rocks the whole region, the jihadi cells will desperately seek refuge on lower ground. Just last night, Al Nusra front killed six LAF soldiers during an ambush in the Lebanese Christian town of Ras Baalbek. The Syrian town of Zabadani will be the next target of the militant groups and after its capture, ISIS will prey on the divisions within Lebanon to take control of the Bekaa Valley.
Hezbollah arrives in Iraq
Iran started a widespread effort to enhance its political and religious influence in Iraq. Iranians were on the ground, there’s no denying, but there was also an Iraqi cleric, Sayed Hashem al-Haidari, who appeared in the political and military arena giving the Iranian path in the neighboring Arab country a strong local legitimacy. Haidari’s videos show him as another copy of Lebanese Hezbollah’s Hassan Nasrallah, with his fiery speeches, his charisma and his strong relations with Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Haidari has been active during Ashoura, the holy Shiite annual season that commemorates the battle of Karbala that saw Imam Hussein, the grandson of the prophet, killed by the Umayyad army.
"It’s very similar to what happened in Bosnia," the official source told Al-Monitor, "Iran supported the Muslims against Yugoslavia’s Slobodan Milosevic, while the United States showed verbal support. It’s the same in Iraq. We are the ones fighting on the ground and that’s why the Iraqi forces, with the help of the volunteers and the peshmerga, were able to recapture several towns, while the airstrikes by the United States and its allies materialized nothing on the ground." According to the official, Iran’s participation in the battle with IS in Iraq is still within the framework of military experts and few hundred well trained officers on the ground, "but Iran is ready to enhance its presence if the Iraqi government requested, if the battle field needs such addition." (h/t MtTB)
Syria chemical weapons bases’ destruction to begin
The destruction of 12 chemical weapons facilities in Syria is expected to start later this month, and the work should be complete by the end of June 2015, UN diplomats said Wednesday.
UN Security Council diplomats who were briefed Wednesday on international efforts to eliminate the chemical weapons program still expressed worries that Syria hasn’t made a full declaration of its chemical weapons capabilities.
“There are still some issues that need to be resolved in that declaration,” British Ambassador Mark Lyall Grant said, without giving details. In October, council diplomats were startled to be told in a briefing that Syria had declared four chemical weapons facilities it hadn’t mentioned before.
Syria’s UN ambassador, Bashar Ja’afari told reporters, “There is no anymore any Syria chemical program.”
The UN’s mandate in a joint mission with the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons has ended, but some diplomats want direct reports to the council to continue.
U.S. Confirms ISIS Has Training Camps in Libya
The head of the U.S. Africa Command said on Wednesday that Washington is “very carefully” watching what he described as “nascent” Islamic State (ISIS) training camps in Libya.
At the same time, Fox News reported, General David Rodriguez downplayed the threat posed by these training camps.
Rodriguez said in a Pentagon press briefing that it is his belief that the camps may be made up of local militias that are trying to get on the map by working “the ISIS label.”
“We don’t have enough information to know how serious they are,” he said.
Medal of Honor Recipient Trolls the Islamic State
Medal of Honor recipient Dakota Meyer has heard the FBI’s warning that the Islamic State may be targeting military members by tracking their social media posts. That does not scare him, though. In fact, he’d love to see Islamic State fighters show up at his door.
“Let me say what a lot of us are thinking… If ISIS is using social media to track me, that’s a dream come true in my book,” Meyer told Scout’s Dan Bova. “These guys are a bunch of bullies that just prey on the weak.”
Meyer was awarded the Medal of Honor for a daring rescue mission he performed under heavy fire in Afghanistan.
“There was U.S. troops getting shot at, and those are your brothers,” he told CBS News about the mission that earned him the medal. “You either get them out alive or you die trying. If you don’t die trying, you didn’t try hard enough.”
“I can’t travel over there anymore now that I’m out of the Marine Corps, so having them come to me would help out a lot,” Meyer told Scout about the current IS threat.
“ISIS targeting the U.S. military is like a sheep targeting a lion,” he said. “Hopefully one of these assholes actually shows up.”
Iranian Minority Group Stepping Up Anti-Government Protests
Iran’s Arab minority has recently begun to intensify its protests against government discrimination, The Tower has learned from Iranian opposition media sites and organizations.
The Ahwazi Arab minority living in Iran’s oil-rich southwest region is protesting pervasive unemployment, lack of basic urban services, severe shortage of appropriate infrastructure- including basic teaching equipment in schools- and mismanagement of local governing bodies.
On Monday, December 1, hundreds of Ahwazi residents of Kut Abdullah gathered in front of local government offices to protest the systematic discrimination practiced against them by Iranian officials,
Khamenei: America's Problems Caused by Israel's 'Domination'
Iran’s Supreme Leader has found the reason for socio-economic problems in the United States.
In a series of tweets on Wednesday, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei claimed that the Americans’ problems are due to Israel’s “domination” of the United States’ government.
“Brutal treatment of black ppl isn’t indeed the only anti-human rights act by US govt; look at US’s green light to #Israel’s crimes.#Ferguson,” read one tweet.
“The day when American nation realize their socioeconomic problems stem from domination of #Israel over their govt, what’ll happen? #Ferguson,” Khamenei wrote in another one.
“The US govt has subjugated a great nation w massive resources to a criminal regime like #Israel,” a third tweet read.
Why is Saudi Arabia using oil as a weapon?
Although Riyadh has tried to stamp its authority on the region, which will undoubtedly cause headaches in Tehran and Moscow, the oil weapon cannot reverse some of the more critical issues facing the region.
IS runs an entity roughly the size of Britain across Iraq and Syria, its hostility to the "Al Salool" (a derogatory term for the Al Saud family) recently made clear in a 17 minute speech by its Caliph AAbu Bakr al-Baghdadi.
Cheap oil from IS territory will continue to flow, earning the organisation millions a day in revenue, and although the Saudis have had notable success in striking IS targets, it is not enough to ensure their defeat unless the US and Iran openly cooperate to solve the issue, which may result in grudging acquiescence from the Riyadh.
Likewise, the Saudis will have to grudgingly accept that some form of deal between Iran and the P5+1 (US, Russia, China, UK, France and Germany) will have to be struck, if regional war is to be avoided.
It is the best of a bad series of options, and recent attempts by the Saudis to diplomatically engage their Iranian counterparts, particularly on regional security issues like Islamic State appear positive.
But the mistrust is still deep, and the threat of IS appears not to have stopped the Kingdom in its drive to blunt Iran.
The new Ottoman emperor
Turkey should have been part of the solution. Instead it has become part of the problem. The problem, of course, is the spread of jihadism throughout the Middle East, North Africa and beyond.
Turkish policies have been aiding and abetting the Nusra Front, an al-Qaida affiliate; the Islamic State group, which has turned large swaths of Syria and Iraq into killing fields; the Islamic Republic of Iran, still ranked by the U.S. government as the world's leading sponsor of terrorism and well on its way to becoming nuclear-armed; and the Muslim Brotherhood, including Hamas, the group's Palestinian branch.
Troubling, too, is the rhetoric we've been hearing from Turkish leaders. Turkish Science, Industry and Technology Minister Fikri Isık claimed last week that it was Muslim scientists who first discovered that the earth is round. Two weeks earlier, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan insisted that Muslim sailors reached the Americas 300 years before Columbus -- only to find that well-established Muslims in Cuba had built a beautiful mosque.
Such myth-making might be dismissed as nothing more than attempts to play to Islamic pride. Less easy to excuse is Erdogan's increasing xenophobia. "Foreigners," he recently observed, "love oil, gold, diamonds, and the cheap labor force of the Islamic world. They like the conflicts, fights and quarrels of the Middle East." He added that Westerners "look like friends, but they want us dead, they like seeing our children die. How long will we stand that fact?"
Nobel Prize not awarded objectively, Erdoğan says
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has continued his criticism of various international institutions, claiming that “even the Nobel Prize is not awarded objectively.”
"Do not hope for objective points of view in a world where international institutions decide according to their own ideologies, politics and beliefs. Is the Nobel awarded objectively? No. Does the UN Security Council make objective decisions? No, never," said Erdoğan, speaking at the Presidential Awards Ceremony on Dec. 3.
With his latest criticism, the president has slammed the Nobel Committee for the second time. He also blasted the committee in August 2013, for awarding the 2005 Nobel Peace Prize to Egyptian politician Mohammad ElBaradei, who he said had “sided with the makers of the military coup” in Egypt.
“We cannot abandon our cinema, literature and art. Turkey cannot silently watch while hegemons write the history of arts and science,” Erdoğan said on Dec. 3.