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Monday, April 30, 2018

Netanyahu to the world: Iran lied – here is the proof! QED!


Apparently, Mossad managed to get hold of most of the Iranian nuclear archives. This is a scoop on the level of Mossad obtaining the copy of Khrushchev’s “Secret Speech” at the 20th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in 1956 or arranging the defection to Israel of the Iraqi pilot with a MIG-21 in 1966.    

Friday, April 27, 2018

If a manifesto falls in a forest



Last Sunday 300 French public figures signed a manifesto in Le Parisien (translation here)

How did the West react to the manifesto "Against the new anti-Semitism"? 

I googled and found that The Daily Mail , Le Figaro and New York Post (see above ) referred to this part  

En conséquence, nous demandons que les versets du Coran appelant au meurtre et au châtiment des juifs, des chrétiens et des incroyants soient frappés d’obsolescence par les autorités théologiques, comme le furent les incohérences de la Bible et l’antisémite catholique aboli par Vatican II, afin qu’aucun croyant ne puisse s’appuyer sur un texte sacré pour commettre un crime.

Therefore, we ask that the verses of the Qur'an calling for the murder and punishment of Jews, Christians and unbelievers be declared obsolete by theological authorities, just as were the incoherencies of the Bible and as Catholic anti-Semitism was abolished by Vatican II, so that no believer can rely on a sacred text to commit a crime.

The rest chose to ignore it  VOA , The Times of Israel , France 24JTA,  Arutz 7 , AFP, RFI, The Telegraph ,The New York Times  and  The Independent



Monday, April 23, 2018

Manifesto "Against the new anti-Semitism"


[An approximate translation from the French until the official one is released, see original below]

In a book to be published Wednesday at Albin Michel, fifteen intellectuals decided to denounce in writing the poison of anti-Semitism. The work, prefaced by the philosopher Elisabeth de Fontenay, is written with the energy of anger. This anger today takes the form of a manifesto that " Aujourd’hui en France Dimanche  " has decided to publish. The anger has grown since the death of Sarah Halimi, a 65-year-old Parisian who was thrown out of the window after being beaten on April 4 2017. It took more than 10 months to recognize the aggravating circumstance of anti-Semitism. On March 23, less than a year later, in the same district, in the heart of the capital, the murder of Mireille Knoll, 85 years old, revived the emotion and outrage born of the Halimi affair. The investigation is in progress.


More than 250 signatories responded to a call written by the group, including Philippe Val, the former director of "Charlie Hebdo". Among them, the former President of the Republic Nicolas Sarkozy, three former prime ministers, the former mayor of Paris Bertrand Delanoe, elected officials from all sides, representatives of different religions, intellectuals, artists.



This terror is spreading

Anti-Semitism is not the business of the Jews, it's everyone's business. The French, whose democratic maturity has been measured after each Islamist attack, are living a tragic paradox. Their country has become the theater of deadly anti-Semitism. This terror spreads, provoking both popular condemnation and a media silence that the recent white march has helped break.

When a Prime Minister at the National Assembly platform declares, to the applause of the whole country, that France without the Jews, it is no longer France, it is not a beautiful consoling phrase but a solemn warning: our European history, and particularly French, for geographical, religious, philosophical, legal reasons, is deeply linked to various cultures among which Jewish thought is decisive. In our recent history, eleven Jews have been murdered - and some tortured - because they were Jews, by radical Islamists.

Low-level ethnic cleansing

Yet the denunciation of Islamophobia - which is not anti-Arab racism to fight - conceals the figures of the Ministry of the Interior: the French Jews are 25 times more likely to be attacked than their fellow Muslims. Ten percent of the Jewish citizens of Ile-de-France - that is to say about 50,000 people - were recently forced to move because they were no longer safe in some cities and because their children could no longer attend public school. 

This is low-noise ethnic cleansing in the country of Emile Zola and Clemenceau.

Why this silence? Because Islamist radicalization - and the anti-Semitism it conveys - is considered exclusively by some of the French elites as the expression of a social revolt, whereas the same phenomenon is observed in societies as different as Denmark. , Afghanistan, Mali or Germany ...   Because the old anti-Semitism of the far right, adds to the anti-Semitism of a part of the radical left that found in anti-Zionism the alibi to transform the executioners of the Jews as victims of society. Because crude electoral calculation determines that the Muslim vote is ten times more important than the Jewish vote.


We expect the Islam of France to open the way

But in the white march for Mireille Knoll, there were imams aware that Muslim anti-Semitism is the greatest threat to Islam in the 21st century and the world of peace and freedom in which they chose to live. . They are, for the most part, under police protection, which says a lot about the terror that Islamists reign over Muslims in France.


Therefore, we ask that the verses of the Qur'an calling for the murder and punishment of Jews, Christians and unbelievers be declared obsolete by theological authorities, just as were the incoherencies of the Bible and as Catholic anti-Semitism was abolished  by Vatican II, so that no believer can rely on a sacred text to commit a crime.


We expect the Islam of France to open the way. We demand that the fight against the democratic bankruptcy of anti-Semitism become a national cause before it is too late. Before France is no longer France

The list of signatories 
Charles Aznavour ; Françoise Hardy ; Pierre Arditi ; Elisabeth Badinter ; Michel Drucker ; Sibyle Veil ; François Pinault ; Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt ; Marceline Loridan-Ivens ; Radu Mihaileanu ; Elisabeth de Fontenay ; Nicolas Sarkozy ; Pascal Bruckner ; Laure Adler ; Bertrand Delanoë ; Manuel Valls ; Michel Jonasz ; Xavier Niel ; Jean-Pierre Raffarin ; Gérard Depardieu ; Renaud ; Pierre Lescure ; Francis Esménard ; Mgr Joseph Doré ; Grand Rabbin Haïm Korsia ; Imam Hassen Chalghoumi ; Carla Bruni ; Boualem Sansal ; Imam Aliou Gassama ; Annette Wieviorka ; Gérard Darmon ; Antoine Compagnon ; Mofti Mohamed ali Kacim ; Bernard Cazeneuve ; Bernard-Henri Lévy ; Philippe Val ; Zabou Breitman ; Waleed al-Husseini ; Yann Moix ; Xavier De Gaulle ; Joann Sfar ; Julia Kristeva ; François Berléand ; Olivier Guez ; Jeannette Bougrab ; Marc-Olivier Fogiel ; Luc Ferry ; Laurent Wauquiez ; Dominique Schnapper ; Daniel Mesguich ; Jack Lang ; Enrico Macias ; Philippe Labro ; Francis Szpiner ; Raphaël Enthoven ; Brune Poirson ; Florence Berthoud ; Stéphane Beaudet ; Marine Gozlan ; Joseph Laroche ; Richard Abitbol ; Laurent Bouvet ; Pierre-André Taguieff ; Jacques Vendroux ; Georges Bensoussan ; Christian Estrosi ; Brice Couturier ; Imam Bouna Diakhaby ; Eric Ciotti ; Jean Glavany ; Maurice Lévy ; Jean-Claude Casanova ; Jean-Robert Pitte ; Jean-Luc Hees ; Alain Finkielkraut ; Père Patrick Desbois ; Aurore Bergé ; François Heilbronn ; Eliette Abécassis ; Bernard de la Villardière ; Richard Ducousset ; Juliette Méadel ; Daniel Leconte ; Jean Birenbaum ; Richard Malka ; Aldo Naouri ; Guillaume Dervieux ; Maurice Bartelemy ; Ilana Cicurel ; Yoann Lemaire ; Michel Gad Wolkowicz ; Olivier Rolin ; Dominique Perben ; Christine Jordis ; David Khayat ; Alexandre Devecchio ; Gilles Clavreul ; Jean-Paul Scarpitta ; Monette Vacquin ; Christine Orban ; Habib Meyer ; Chantal Delsol ; Vadim Sher ; Françoise Bernard ; Frédéric Encel ; Christiane Rancé ; Noémie Halioua ; Jean-Pierre Winter ; Jean-Paul Brighelli ; Marc-Alain Ouaknin ; Stephane Barsacq ; Pascal Fioretto ; Olivier Orban ; Stéphane Simon ; Laurent Munnich ; Ivan Rioufol ; Fabrice d’Almeida ; Dany Jucaud ; Olivia Grégoire ; Elise Fagjeles ; Brigitte-Fanny Cohen ; Yaël Mellul ; Lise Bouvet ; Frédéric Dumoulin ; Muriel Beyer ; André Bercoff ; Aliza Jabes ; Jean-Claude Zylberstein ; Natacha Vitrat ; Paul Aidana ; Imam Karim ; Alexandra Laignel-Lavastine ; Lydia Guirous ; Rivon Krygier ; Muriel Attal ; Serge Hefez ; Céline Pina ; Alain Kleinmann ; Marie Ibn Arabi-Blondel ; Michael Prazan ; Jean-François Rabain ; Ruth Aboulkheir ; Daniel Brun ; Paul Aidane ; Marielle David ; Catherine Kintzler ; Michèle Anahory ; Lionel Naccache ; François Ardeven ; Thibault Moreau ; Marianne Rabain-Lebovici ; Nadège Puljak ; Régine Waintrater ; Michèle Anahory ; Aude Weill-Raynal ; André Aboulkheir ; Elsa Chaudun ; Patrick Bantman ; Ruben Rabinovicth ; Claire Brière-Blanchet ; Ghislaine Guerry ; Jean-Jacques Moscovitz ; André Zagury ; François Ardeven ; Estelle Kulich ; Annette Becker ; Lilianne Lamantowicz ; Ruth Aboulkheir ; Christine Loterman ; Adrien Barrot ; Talila Guteville ; Florence Ben Sadoun ; Michèle Anahory ; Paul Zawadzki ; Serge Perrot ; Patrick Guyomard ; Marc Nacht ; André Aboulkheir ; Laurence Bantman ; Josiane Sberro ; Anne-Sophie Nogaret ; Lucile Gellman ; Alain Bentolila ; Janine Atlounian ; Claude Birman ; Danielle Cohen-Levinas ; Laurence Picard ; Sabrina Volcot-Freeman ; Gérard Bensussan ; Françoise-Anne Menager ; Yann Padova ; Evelyne Chauvet ; Yves Mamou ; Naem Bestandji ; Marc Knobel ; Nidra Poller ; Brigitte-Fanny Cohen ; Joelle Blumberg ; Catherine Rozenberg ; André Aboulkheir ; Caroline Bray-Goyon ; Michel Tauber ; André Zagury ; Laura Bruhl ; Eliane Dagane ; Paul Zawadzki ; Michel Bouleau ; Marc Zerbib ; Catherine Chalier ; Jasmine Getz ; Marie-Laure Dimon ; Marion Blumen ; Simone Wiener ; François Cahen ; Richard Metz ; Daniel Draï ; Jacqueline Costa-Lascoux ; Stéphane Lévy ; Arthur Joffe ; Antoine Molleron ; Liliane Kandel ; Stéphane Dugowson ; David Duquesne ; Marc Cohen ; Michèle Lévy-Soussan ; Frédéric Haziza ; Martine Dugowson ; Jonathan Cohen ; Damien Le Guay ; Patrick Loterman ; Mohamed Guerroumi ; Wladi Mamane ; William de Carvalho ; Brigitte Paszt ; Séverine Camus ; Solange Repleski ; André Perrin ; Sylvie Mehaudel ; Jean-Pierre Obin ; Yael Mellul ; Sophie Nizard ; Richard Prasquier ; Patricia Sitruk ; Renée Fregosi ; Jean-Jacques Rassial ; Karina Obadia ; Jean-Louis Repelski ; Edith Ochs ; Jacob Rogozinski ; Roger Fajnzylberg ; Marie-Helène Routisseau ; Philippe Ruszniewski ; André Senik ; Jean-François Solal ; Paule Steiner ; Jean-Benjamin Stora ; Anne Szulmajster ; Maud Tabachnik ; Daniel Tchenio ; Julien Trokiner ; Fatiha Boyer ; Cosimo Trono ; Henri Vacquin ; Caroline Valentin ; Alain Zaksas ; Slim Moussa ; Jacques Wrobel ; Roland Gori ; Nader Alami ; Céline Zins ; Richard Dell’Agnola ; Patrick Beaudouin ; Barbara Lefebvre ; Jacques Tarnéro ; Georges-Elia Sarfat ; Lise Boëll ; Jacques Wrobel ; Bernard Golse ; Céline Boulay-Esperonnier ; Anne Brandy ; Imam Karim ; Sammy Ghozlan.
My comment:

There has been almost no reaction in Israel or the world on this.
Bizarre! Is everyone asleep? Of course, the chances that Muslims will actually
do this are almost nil, but the fact that the French are so publicly asking
this is a watershed event. France has woken up. Political correctness is
dead.  In addition, Douglas Murray’s book The Strange Death of Europe is
being published in France tomorrow.









Ce manifeste, rédigé par Philippe Val et que publie « Le Parisien-Aujourd’hui en France Dimanche », réunit plus de 250 signataires. Parmi eux, un ancien président de la République, trois anciens Premiers ministres, des élus, des intellectuels, des artistes…


Dans un livre à paraître mercredi chez Albin Michel*, quinze intellectuels prennent la plume pour dénoncer le poison de l’antisémitisme. L’ouvrage, préfacé par la philosophe Elisabeth de Fontenay, est écrit avec l’énergie de la colère. Une colère qui prend aujourd’hui la forme d’un manifeste qu’« Aujourd’hui en France Dimanche » a décidé de publier. Elle grandit depuis la mort de Sarah Halimi, Parisienne de 65 ans défenestrée après avoir été rouée de coups le 4 avril 2017. La justice a mis plus de dix mois à reconnaître la circonstance aggravante de l’antisémitisme. Le 23 mars, moins d’un an plus tard, dans le même arrondissement, au cœur de la capitale, l’assassinat de Mireille Knoll, 85 ans, ravivait l’émotion et l’indignation nées de l’affaire Halimi. L’enquête est en cours.

Plus de 250 signataires ont répondu à l’appel rédigé par un collectif, dont Philippe Val, l’ancien directeur de « Charlie Hebdo ». Parmi eux, l’ancien président de la République Nicolas Sarkozy, trois anciens Premiers ministres, l’ex-maire de Paris Bertrand Delanoë, des élus de tous bords, des représentants des différentes religions, des intellectuels, des artistes…


« Cette terreur se répand »

« L’antisémitisme n’est pas l’affaire des Juifs, c’est l’affaire de tous. Les Français, dont on a mesuré la maturité démocratique après chaque attentat islamiste, vivent un paradoxe tragique. Leur pays est devenu le théâtre d’un antisémitisme meurtrier. Cette terreur se répand, provoquant à la fois la condamnation populaire et un silence médiatique que la récente marche blanche a contribué à rompre.

Lorsqu’un Premier ministre à la tribune de l’Assemblée nationale déclare, sous les applaudissements de tout le pays, que la France sans les Juifs, ce n’est plus la France, il ne s’agit pas d’une belle phrase consolatrice mais d’un avertissement solennel : notre histoire européenne, et singulièrement française, pour des raisons géographiques, religieuses, philosophiques, juridiques, est profondément liée à des cultures diverses parmi lesquelles la pensée juive est déterminante. Dans notre histoire récente, onze Juifs viennent d’être assassinés - et certains torturés - parce que Juifs, par des islamistes radicaux.

« Une épuration ethnique à bas bruit »

Pourtant, la dénonciation de l’islamophobie - qui n’est pas le racisme anti-Arabe à combattre - dissimule les chiffres du ministère de l’Intérieur : les Français juifs ont 25 fois plus de risques d’être agressés que leurs concitoyens musulmans. 10 % des citoyens juifs d’Ile-de-France - c’est-à-dire environ 50 000 personnes - ont récemment été contraints de déménager parce qu’ils n’étaient plus en sécurité dans certaines cités et parce que leurs enfants ne pouvaient plus fréquenter l’école de la République. Il s’agit d’une épuration ethnique à bas bruit au pays d’Émile Zola et de Clemenceau.

Pourquoi ce silence ? Parce que la radicalisation islamiste - et l’antisémitisme qu’il véhicule - est considérée exclusivement par une partie des élites françaises comme l’expression d’une révolte sociale, alors que le même phénomène s’observe dans des sociétés aussi différentes que le Danemark, l’Afghanistan, le Mali ou l’Allemagne… Parce qu’au vieil antisémitisme de l’extrême droite, s’ajoute l’antisémitisme d’une partie de la gauche radicale qui a trouvé dans l’antisionisme l’alibi pour transformer les bourreaux des Juifs en victimes de la société. Parce que la bassesse électorale calcule que le vote musulman est dix fois supérieur au vote juif.

« Nous attendons de l’islam de France qu’il ouvre la voie »

Or à la marche blanche pour Mireille Knoll, il y avait des imams conscients que l’antisémitisme musulman est la plus grande menace qui pèse sur l’islam du XXIème siècle et sur le monde de paix et de liberté dans lequel ils ont choisi de vivre. Ils sont, pour la plupart, sous protection policière, ce qui en dit long sur la terreur que font régner les islamistes sur les musulmans de France.

En conséquence, nous demandons que les versets du Coran appelant au meurtre et au châtiment des juifs, des chrétiens et des incroyants soient frappés d’obsolescence par les autorités théologiques, comme le furent les incohérences de la Bible et l’antisémite catholique aboli par Vatican II, afin qu’aucun croyant ne puisse s’appuyer sur un texte sacré pour commettre un crime.

Nous attendons de l’islam de France qu’il ouvre la voie. Nous demandons que la lutte contre cette faillite démocratique qu’est l’antisémitisme devienne cause nationale avant qu’il ne soit trop tard. Avant que la France ne soit plus la France. »

La liste des signataires
Charles Aznavour ; Françoise Hardy ; Pierre Arditi ; Elisabeth Badinter ; Michel Drucker ; Sibyle Veil ; François Pinault ; Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt ; Marceline Loridan-Ivens ; Radu Mihaileanu ; Elisabeth de Fontenay ; Nicolas Sarkozy ; Pascal Bruckner ; Laure Adler ; Bertrand Delanoë ; Manuel Valls ; Michel Jonasz ; Xavier Niel ; Jean-Pierre Raffarin ; Gérard Depardieu ; Renaud ; Pierre Lescure ; Francis Esménard ; Mgr Joseph Doré ; Grand Rabbin Haïm Korsia ; Imam Hassen Chalghoumi ; Carla Bruni ; Boualem Sansal ; Imam Aliou Gassama ; Annette Wieviorka ; Gérard Darmon ; Antoine Compagnon ; Mofti Mohamed ali Kacim ; Bernard Cazeneuve ; Bernard-Henri Lévy ; Philippe Val ; Zabou Breitman ; Waleed al-Husseini ; Yann Moix ; Xavier De Gaulle ; Joann Sfar ; Julia Kristeva ; François Berléand ; Olivier Guez ; Jeannette Bougrab ; Marc-Olivier Fogiel ; Luc Ferry ; Laurent Wauquiez ; Dominique Schnapper ; Daniel Mesguich ; Jack Lang ; Enrico Macias ; Philippe Labro ; Francis Szpiner ; Raphaël Enthoven ; Brune Poirson ; Florence Berthoud ; Stéphane Beaudet ; Marine Gozlan ; Joseph Laroche ; Richard Abitbol ; Laurent Bouvet ; Pierre-André Taguieff ; Jacques Vendroux ; Georges Bensoussan ; Christian Estrosi ; Brice Couturier ; Imam Bouna Diakhaby ; Eric Ciotti ; Jean Glavany ; Maurice Lévy ; Jean-Claude Casanova ; Jean-Robert Pitte ; Jean-Luc Hees ; Alain Finkielkraut ; Père Patrick Desbois ; Aurore Bergé ; François Heilbronn ; Eliette Abécassis ; Bernard de la Villardière ; Richard Ducousset ; Juliette Méadel ; Daniel Leconte ; Jean Birenbaum ; Richard Malka ; Aldo Naouri ; Guillaume Dervieux ; Maurice Bartelemy ; Ilana Cicurel ; Yoann Lemaire ; Michel Gad Wolkowicz ; Olivier Rolin ; Dominique Perben ; Christine Jordis ; David Khayat ; Alexandre Devecchio ; Gilles Clavreul ; Jean-Paul Scarpitta ; Monette Vacquin ; Christine Orban ; Habib Meyer ; Chantal Delsol ; Vadim Sher ; Françoise Bernard ; Frédéric Encel ; Christiane Rancé ; Noémie Halioua ; Jean-Pierre Winter ; Jean-Paul Brighelli ; Marc-Alain Ouaknin ; Stephane Barsacq ; Pascal Fioretto ; Olivier Orban ; Stéphane Simon ; Laurent Munnich ; Ivan Rioufol ; Fabrice d’Almeida ; Dany Jucaud ; Olivia Grégoire ; Elise Fagjeles ; Brigitte-Fanny Cohen ; Yaël Mellul ; Lise Bouvet ; Frédéric Dumoulin ; Muriel Beyer ; André Bercoff ; Aliza Jabes ; Jean-Claude Zylberstein ; Natacha Vitrat ; Paul Aidana ; Imam Karim ; Alexandra Laignel-Lavastine ; Lydia Guirous ; Rivon Krygier ; Muriel Attal ; Serge Hefez ; Céline Pina ; Alain Kleinmann ; Marie Ibn Arabi-Blondel ; Michael Prazan ; Jean-François Rabain ; Ruth Aboulkheir ; Daniel Brun ; Paul Aidane ; Marielle David ; Catherine Kintzler ; Michèle Anahory ; Lionel Naccache ; François Ardeven ; Thibault Moreau ; Marianne Rabain-Lebovici ; Nadège Puljak ; Régine Waintrater ; Michèle Anahory ; Aude Weill-Raynal ; André Aboulkheir ; Elsa Chaudun ; Patrick Bantman ; Ruben Rabinovicth ; Claire Brière-Blanchet ; Ghislaine Guerry ; Jean-Jacques Moscovitz ; André Zagury ; François Ardeven ; Estelle Kulich ; Annette Becker ; Lilianne Lamantowicz ; Ruth Aboulkheir ; Christine Loterman ; Adrien Barrot ; Talila Guteville ; Florence Ben Sadoun ; Michèle Anahory ; Paul Zawadzki ; Serge Perrot ; Patrick Guyomard ; Marc Nacht ; André Aboulkheir ; Laurence Bantman ; Josiane Sberro ; Anne-Sophie Nogaret ; Lucile Gellman ; Alain Bentolila ; Janine Atlounian ; Claude Birman ; Danielle Cohen-Levinas ; Laurence Picard ; Sabrina Volcot-Freeman ; Gérard Bensussan ; Françoise-Anne Menager ; Yann Padova ; Evelyne Chauvet ; Yves Mamou ; Naem Bestandji ; Marc Knobel ; Nidra Poller ; Brigitte-Fanny Cohen ; Joelle Blumberg ; Catherine Rozenberg ; André Aboulkheir ; Caroline Bray-Goyon ; Michel Tauber ; André Zagury ; Laura Bruhl ; Eliane Dagane ; Paul Zawadzki ; Michel Bouleau ; Marc Zerbib ; Catherine Chalier ; Jasmine Getz ; Marie-Laure Dimon ; Marion Blumen ; Simone Wiener ; François Cahen ; Richard Metz ; Daniel Draï ; Jacqueline Costa-Lascoux ; Stéphane Lévy ; Arthur Joffe ; Antoine Molleron ; Liliane Kandel ; Stéphane Dugowson ; David Duquesne ; Marc Cohen ; Michèle Lévy-Soussan ; Frédéric Haziza ; Martine Dugowson ; Jonathan Cohen ; Damien Le Guay ; Patrick Loterman ; Mohamed Guerroumi ; Wladi Mamane ; William de Carvalho ; Brigitte Paszt ; Séverine Camus ; Solange Repleski ; André Perrin ; Sylvie Mehaudel ; Jean-Pierre Obin ; Yael Mellul ; Sophie Nizard ; Richard Prasquier ; Patricia Sitruk ; Renée Fregosi ; Jean-Jacques Rassial ; Karina Obadia ; Jean-Louis Repelski ; Edith Ochs ; Jacob Rogozinski ; Roger Fajnzylberg ; Marie-Helène Routisseau ; Philippe Ruszniewski ; André Senik ; Jean-François Solal ; Paule Steiner ; Jean-Benjamin Stora ; Anne Szulmajster ; Maud Tabachnik ; Daniel Tchenio ; Julien Trokiner ; Fatiha Boyer ; Cosimo Trono ; Henri Vacquin ; Caroline Valentin ; Alain Zaksas ; Slim Moussa ; Jacques Wrobel ; Roland Gori ; Nader Alami ; Céline Zins ; Richard Dell’Agnola ; Patrick Beaudouin ; Barbara Lefebvre ; Jacques Tarnéro ; Georges-Elia Sarfat ; Lise Boëll ; Jacques Wrobel ; Bernard Golse ; Céline Boulay-Esperonnier ; Anne Brandy ; Imam Karim ; Sammy Ghozlan.

Friday, April 13, 2018

Nikki Haley to Russian ambassador: I’m in awe, Vassily, of how you say what you say with a straight face







Ambassador Nikki Haley
U.S. Permanent Representative to the United Nations
U.S. Mission to the United Nations
New York City
April 13, 2018











Thank you, Mr. President. Thank you, Mr. Secretary-General. I started to listen to my Russian friend and respond, but instead I’m in awe, Vassily, of how you say what you say with a straight face – I really, really am. Today’s session of the Security Council has been called under truly strange circumstances.
The Russian Federation has asked us to discuss what it calls “unilateral threats” related to Syria. What is strange is that Russia is ignoring the real threat to international peace and security that has brought us all here. And it is ignoring its own unilateral responsibility for all of it.
What we should discuss today is the use of deadly chemical weapons to murder innocent Syrian civilians. That is one of the most blatant and grotesque violations of international law in the world today. It is a violation of all standards of morality. It violates the longstanding international consensus that chemical weapons represent a unique evil.
Chlorine, mustard gas, and other chemical weapons killed 90,000 people and injured over a million in World War I.
In the book “Canada in the Great World War,” the Canadian soldier A.T. Hunter, described it like this: “The gas cloud gathered itself like a wave and ponderously lapped over into the trenches. Then passive curiosity turned to active torment – a burning sensation in the head, red-hot needles in the lungs, the throat seized by a strangler.”
“Many fell and died on the spot. The others, gasping, stumbling, with faces contorted, hands wildly gesticulating, and uttering hoarse cries of pain, fled madly though the villages and farms and through [the city] itself, carrying panic to the remnants of the civilian population and filling the roads with fugitives of both sexes and all ages.”
Chemical weapons didn’t produce the most casualties in World War I, but they were the most feared.
In World War II, chemical weapons were employed on an industrial scale against civilians, resulting in the worst genocide in human history, which we recalled just yesterday on Holocaust Remembrance Day.
That is what brings us here today. That is what chemical weapons are all about. That is why we must not stay silent in the face of horrible chemical weapons use in our own time.
The first response to all this death and injury was the 1925 Geneva Protocol which banned the use of chemical weapons in war.
Later, in 1993, the Chemical Weapons Convention was signed. That Convention obligates all of its parties to quote, “never, under any circumstances” develop, produce, stockpile, transfer, or use chemical weapons. It also prohibits all parties from assisting anyone to engage in these activities.
The United States is a party to this convention. Russia is a party to this convention. Every country that is a member of the United Nations Security Council is a party to this convention. Even the Assad regime has pledged to abide by the convention.
So, in theory, all of us agree on the core principle at stake today: no country can be allowed to use chemical weapons with impunity.
Now that we have established what we all agree on, let’s ask ourselves what should we be condemning today?
We should be discussing the actions that really brought us to this moment in time.
We should not be condemning the country or group of countries that might actually have the courage to stand up in defense of our common principle. The principle against the use of chemical weapons.
Instead, we should be condemning the country that unilaterally has stopped the Security Council from upholding this principle.
Who is it on the Council that most exhibits unilateralism when it comes to chemical weapons?
It is Russia alone that has stopped at nothing to defend the Syrian regime’s multiple uses of chemical weapons.
It is Russia alone that killed the Joint Investigative Mechanism which allowed the world to ensure accountability for chemical weapons use in Syria.
It is Russia alone that used its veto six times to prevent the condemnation of Assad’s use of chemical weapons.
It is Russia alone that used its veto 12 times to protect the Assad regime.
And to make matters worse, it is Russia alone that had agreed to be the guarantor of the removal of all chemical weapons in Syria.
If Russia had lived up to its commitment, there would be no chemical weapons in Syria, and we would not be here today.
That is the Russian record of unilateralism. It is a record that has led to the trashing of all international standards against the use of chemical weapons.
This meeting should not be about the so called “unilateral threats,” it should be about the multiple actions Russia has taken to bring us to this point.
Our President has not yet made a decision about possible actions in Syria. But should the United States and our allies decide to act in Syria, it will be in defense of a principle on which we all agree. It will be in defense of a bedrock international norm that benefits all nations.
Let’s be clear: Assad’s most recent use of poison gas against the people of Douma was not his first, second, third, or even 49th use of chemical weapons.
The United States estimates that Assad has used chemical weapons in the Syrian war at least 50 times. Public estimates are as high as 200.
In the weeks after Assad’s sarin gas attack last April that killed nearly 100 people, including many children, the regime used chlorine gas at least once and possibly as many as three times in the same area.
Last November, just as the Joint Investigative Mechanism mandate expired, the regime attacked its people with sarin again in the Damascus suburbs.
In January, Assad used at least four chlorine-filled rockets in Douma. And then he struck again last weekend. And thanks to Russia, there was no UN body to determine blame.
But we know who did this. Our allies know who did this. Russia can complain all it wants about fake news, but no one is buying its lies and its cover ups.
Russia was supposed to guarantee that Assad wouldn’t use chemical weapons, and Russia did the opposite.
The world must not passively accept the use of chemical weapons after almost a century of their prohibition. Everything the United Nations stands for is being blatantly defied in Syria, with the help of a permanent member of this Council.
All nations and all people will be harmed if we allow Assad to normalize the use of chemical weapons. It is those who act to violate the prohibition on chemical weapons who deserve our condemnation. Those who act to defend it deserve our support.
The United States and our allies will continue to stand up for truth, accountability, justice, and an end to the use of chemical weapons.
Thank you.
###




She was responding to these comments by the Russian ambassador Vassily Nebenzia:

There is no full transcript of the English translation, but there is one in Russian . Here is the key sentence:

 У нас есть веские основания полагать, более того, есть даже информация, что имела место провокация с участием спецслужб некоторых стран. Мы об этом давно предупреждали. Это повторение сценария Хан-Шейхуна в апреле прошлого года.


We have weighty justification to believe and we have even information to believe that what took place is a provocation with the participation of certain countries’ intelligence services. We warned about this long ago. This is a repetition of the Khan Shaykhun scenario that took place last April






French declassified intelligence report on Syria gas attacks

My comment:

The confrontation between the Russian ambassador and Nikki Haley is a grim reminder how little has changed in the way Russia thinks compared to how the Soviet Union did. When I checked for the origin of the term “Molotov cocktail”, which Hamas uses to attack the Israeli border, I found this:

The name "Molotov cocktail" was coined by the Finns during the Winter War,[1] called in Finnish: polttopullo or Molotovin koktaili. The name was an insulting reference to Soviet foreign minister Vyacheslav Molotov, who was one of the architects of the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact signed in late August 1939. The pact with Nazi Germany was widely mocked by the Finns, as was much of the propaganda Molotov produced to accompany the pact, including his declaration on Soviet state radio that bombing missions over Finland were actually airborne humanitarian food deliveries for their starving neighbours. The Finns sarcastically dubbed the Soviet cluster bombs "Molotov bread baskets" in reference to Molotov's propaganda broadcasts.[2] When the hand-held bottle firebomb was developed to attack Soviet tanks, the Finns called it the "Molotov cocktail", as "a drink to go with the food".[3]

Here, I think, lies the crux of the issue. The Soviet Union then and Russia today can lie because the aparatchiks who lie were never held accountable for those lies. The end justifies the means. There are no Congressional hearings, no free press to challenge and ridicule them at home, and therefore they do not even understand how ridiculous they look and that not many in the West actually  believe them apart from a few liberals who never understood the true nature of totalitarian and authoritarian regimes.
 

***

And echoes of the  debate in the UNSC in 1962 .    USSR 1962 - Russia 2018: Soviet ambassador Zorin was lying then, Russia's ambassador Nebenzya is lying now.




Friday, April 6, 2018

The world media reporting on the Gaza protests is a disgrace














The assault on Israel’s borders by Hamas has now been going on for the second week and what it shows is that the world is a strange and weird place. I have not seen in any news article, in any mainstream paper that I have read, be it the WSJ, The Washington Post, The Economist, The New York Times, The New Yorker, The Telegraph, The Jerusalem Post or Le Figaro, a single quote from the Hamas Charter which would indicate what Hamas and the Palestinians stand for. How about this elephant in the middle of the room?  Article 13 of the Hamas Charter reads: “There is no solution for the Palestinian question except through Jihad.”




And what will the media say to this photo with the swastika between Palestinian flags?  Europe still reacts to the Nazi threat although out of PC it tries to ignore the jihadi one. They  will probably ignore it as well.




Quote Hamas’s charter!

The assault on Israel’s borders by Hamas has gone into its second week. What this shows is that the world is a strange and weird place.

I have not seen in any news article in any mainstream paper that I have read, be it the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, The Economist, The New York Times, The New Yorker, the Telegraph, Le Figaro or even The Jerusalem Post, a single quote from the Hamas charter that would indicate what Hamas and the Palestinians stand for.

How about this elephant in the room? Article 13 of the Hamas charter says: “There is no solution for the Palestinian question except through jihad.”

So why this silence? If the late Shimon Peres could quote from the Hamas charter at the world economic summit in Davos in 2009, after which Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan stormed out, why doesn’t Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu do so now?

MLADEN ANDRIJASEVIC
Beersheba

Retired British Colonel Richard Kemp offers insights on Gaza developments


Monday, April 2, 2018

If Peres quoted the Hamas Charter, why doesn’t Netanyahu?
















With Hamas organizing this assault on Israel’s border, the least what Israel’s PR could do is quote from the Hamas Charter so that people in the world would see what they stand for.  But nobody in the government has done so. Why not? If Peres could quote the Hamas Charter at Davos in 2009 why doesn’t Netanyahu do that now?

Sunday, April 1, 2018

The May 12 deadline to fix the Iran nuclear deal




The Trump administration has given European powers a May 12 deadline to engage in a conversation over “fixing” the nuclear accord






LOS ANGELES – A monumental shift regarding the Iranian nuclear deal, may be fast approaching and could change the “rules of the game” in the Middle East, warned Ambassador to the UN Danny Danon.

Speaking to the United Nations Security Council on Wednesday, Danon predicted that the executive body will soon have to make a monumental decision: either work with America to halt Iranian aggression in the Middle East or enable the Islamic Republic to continue wreaking havoc in the region.

“We are now at a critical juncture. It is the last chance to correct the mistakes of the past and recognize that we all must set off on a new path aimed at reining in Iran’s reckless behavior,” Danon said during his address.

“To the permanent members of this council, I have a simple message: Do not miss this opportunity. In 45 days, the clock will run out and the rules of the game will change,” he said.

 “You now have a choice to make,” said Danon. “Either choose to work with the Americans and support their genuine efforts to make the Middle East a safer place or choose Iran and enable a dangerous regime. I urge you to make the right choice.”


Earlier this year, the Trump administration entered talks with Britain, France and Germany on ways to address their joint concerns with an international nuclear deal brokered with Iran in July 2015. China and Russia are also signatories to the accords and are also involved in separate discussions with world powers.

European governments that were a part of negotiations with Iran over its nuclear program hope to preserve the accord largely in its current form. But President Donald Trump wants amendments to the deal, or a supplemental US-EU deal tacked onto it that will effectively impose new terms on Iran over its long-term nuclear work.

The Trump administration has given European powers a May 12 deadline to engage in a conversation over “fixing” the nuclear accord. Trump threatens to withdraw from the deal “immediately” if they do not comply, Vice President Mike Pence told the Knesset in January.

Trump specifically wants other world powers to recognize the link between Iran’s nuclear weapons program and its work on ballistic missiles designed to carry nuclear warheads. He also wants them to clarify whether international inspectors have snap access to Iranian military sites that may host nuclear weapons experimentation, as they have in the past, and to address expiration dates built into the nuclear deal to prevent Tehran from ultimately growing its nuclear infrastructure to industrial scale.

Earlier this week, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told senior aides that the White House is leaning toward a full withdrawal from the nuclear deal if “significant changes” aren’t made to the agreement, according to online news publication Axios.

Channel 10 later reported that Netanyahu told the foreign ministers of France and Germany, who traveled to Israel for a state visit on Monday, that the US would likely walk out of the agreement.

The report said that when Foreign Minister Heiko Maas replied that Germany thinks having a deal is better than the alternative, Netanyahu replied: “The Munich agreement from 1938 was also a deal.”

During his address to the Security Council, Danon also reserved time to condemn the Palestinian Authority after it recently announced that it will continue to pay the salaries of convicted terrorists and their families.

“[PA President] Mahmoud Abbas has once again revealed his true intentions as he directly funds hundreds of millions of dollars to terrorists with blood on their hands,” Danon fumed.

The Israeli envoy added: “Once again, the Palestinians have responded to American initiatives aimed at reconciliation with support for terror and violence. We call on the international community, and the United Nations, to join the US in their pledge to put an end to the funding of Palestinian terror.”

The rebuke came after Riyad Mansour, the representative of the PLO at the UN, slammed the US after Congress passed the Taylor Force Act on Friday. The legislation aims to cut American funds to the PA unless it takes steps to stop making what lawmakers described as payments that reward violent crime.

“We look at that act as being a hostile act to withdraw the economic assistance to the Palestinian people,” Mansour told the UN.

“Not allowing a responsible government such as the Palestine government in dealing with their political prisoners and their families and those who lose their lives in the struggle for the independence of our state – all these methods are arm-twisting, blackmailing, and will not break the will of the Palestinian people,” he said.

The measure was named after 29-year-old American military veteran Taylor Force, who was fatally stabbed by a Palestinian while visiting Israel in 2016.

Michael Wilner in Washington contributed to this report.

Dry Bones: Gaza Command