Biden’s Pier Is a Gift to Hamas Terrorists

Biden’s Pier Is a Gift to Hamas Terrorists

There are mounting concerns that the Biden administration’s pier plan could ultimately boomerang, especially, as Netanyahu himself has warned, if the US aid and the port itself end up in the hands More »

Ubwami bw’Ubupersi na bamedi (Persian’s Kingdom and Med’s Kingdom)

Ubwami bw’Ubupersi na bamedi (Persian’s Kingdom and Med’s Kingdom)

‘Yoseri’ Museveni ari kumwe n’ababyeyi be, Kuki Museveni yanga u Rwanda akomokamo? Umugambi w’Abatutsi bo munzu (y’Abasinga, Abashambo. Abega, Abashingwe) mu karere kibiyaga bigari uhereye mu gihugu cy’Ubuperesi (Uganda) aho bafashe ubutegetsi More »

Hamas’s Industrial Murder: Why Is Senator Chuck Schumer Not Demanding a Change of Leadership in Hamas and Iran?

Hamas’s Industrial Murder: Why Is Senator Chuck Schumer Not Demanding a Change of Leadership in Hamas and Iran?

When the terrorist organization Hamas murders, tortures, rapes and abducts Jews in Israel, do not be surprised that the Jews of today will respond with the righteous might of a nation that More »

Israel’s Strategic Game of Survival

Israel’s Strategic Game of Survival

“They wanted Israel’s counterattack, and then they wanted to hold in the tunnels and use the hostages just to buy time for the international community namely, the United States to stop the More »

“Biden’s actions are a violation of Israel’s sovereignty.”

“Biden’s actions are a violation of Israel’s sovereignty.”

  Israel Betrayed? It seems clear that the Biden administration would like to see the rapid creation of a Palestinian state or at least a “Palestinian unity government” — unfortunately composed of More »

 

UN: No assurance Iran’s nuclear program is peaceful

The watchdog entrusted with assuring the world that Iran’s nuclear program is peaceful, admits it cannot actually make that guarantee.


By: AP and World Israel News Staff

Iran is reducing its nuclear activities under a deal with six world powers, but a senior UN official says he cannot guarantee that everything it is doing is peaceful.

International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) chief Yukiya Amano spoke Thursday to the IAEA’s 35-nation board.

Amano says he is “not in a position to provide credible assurance about the absence of undeclared nuclear material and activities in Iran,” and thus cannot conclude that “all nuclear material in Iran is in peaceful activities.”

Amano has made similar comments in the March.

 His comments reflect IAEA constraints on monitoring Iran. But Amano said Tehran will soon enact an agreement giving his agency greater inspection powers.

Iran says it does not want nuclear arms but has committed to nuclear program cuts under a deal, in return for the removal of crippling economic sanctions.

However, reports have repeatedly resurfaced that Iran is concealing its previous illicit nuclear operations, while working to maintain and even expand its nuclear program.

UN, Obama Further Radicalize Palestinians by Khaled Abu Toameh

  • Last week’s UN Security Council resolution sent the following message to the Palestinians: Forget about negotiating. Just pressure the international community to force Israel to surrender up all that you demand.

  • Abbas and his cronies are more belligerent and defiant than ever. They have chosen the path of confrontation, and not direct negotiations — to force Israel to its knees.
  • One of Abbas’s close associates hinted that the resolution should be regarded as a green light not only to boycott Israel, but also to use violence against it, to “bolster the popular resistance” against Israel — code for throwing stones and firebombs, and carrying out stabbing and car-ramming attacks against Israelis.
  • The resolution has also encouraged the Palestinians to pursue their narrative that Jews have no historical, religious or emotional attachment to Jerusalem or any other part of Israel.
  • The Gaza-based Hamas and Islamic Jihad see the resolution as another step toward their goal of replacing Israel with an Islamic empire. When Hamas talks about “resistance,” it means suicide bombings and rockets against Israel — it does not believe in “light” terrorism such as stones and stabbings.
  • The UN’s highly touted “victory,” is a purely Pyrrhic one, in fact a true defeat to the peace process and to the few Arabs and Muslims who still believe in the possibility of coexistence with Israel.

Buoyed by the latest United Nations Security Council resolution condemning Israeli settlements as illegal, Palestinian leaders are now threatening to step up their diplomatic warfare against Israel — a move that is sure to sabotage any future effort to revive the moribund peace process. Other Palestinians, meanwhile, view the resolution as license to escalate “resistance” attacks on Israel. By “resistance,” of course, they mean terror attacks against Israel.

The UNSC resolution sent the following message to the Palestinians: Forget about negotiating with Israel. Just pressure the international community to force Israel to comply with the resolution and surrender up all that you demand.

Meanwhile, the Palestinians are not wasting any time by waiting for the international community to act against Israel on their behalf. Rather, they are thinking of ways of taking advantage of the UNSC vote to promote their campaign to isolate and delegitimize Israel, especially in the international arena. One thing is certain: Abbas and his Palestinian Authority cronies are not planning to return to the negotiating table with Israel. In fact, they are more belligerent, confrontational and defiant than ever.

In the days following the UNSC vote, the voices emerging from Ramallah and the Gaza Strip clearly indicate that Palestinians have put themselves on a collision course with Israel. This bodes badly for any peace process.

Earlier this week, Abbas convened the PLO Executive Committee — a decision-making body dominated by his loyalists — to discuss the implications of the new resolution. The declared purpose of the meeting: to discuss the decisions and strategy that the Palestinian leadership needs to take in the aftermath of the resolution.

The decisions announced following the PLO meeting are a clear sign of the new approach that Abbas and the Palestinian leadership have endorsed. The Palestinian leaders have chosen the path of confrontation, and not direct negotiations, with Israel. They see the UNSC resolution, particularly the US abstention, as a charge sheet against Israel that is to be leveraged in their diplomatic effort to force Israel to its knees.

The PLO decisions include, among other things, an appeal to the International Criminal Court (ICC) to launch an “immediate judicial investigation into Israeli colonial settlements on the land of the independent State of Palestine.” Another decision envisages asking Switzerland to convene a meeting to look into ways of forcing Israel to apply the Fourth Geneva Convention to the West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem. The Geneva Convention, adopted in 1949, defines “humanitarian protections for civilians in a war zone.”

The appeal to the ICC and Switzerland is part of Abbas’s strategy to “internationalize” the conflict with Israel, by involving as many parties as possible. In this context, Abbas is hoping that the UNSC resolution will ensure the “success” of the upcoming French-initiated Middle East peace conference, which is slated to convene in Paris next month. For Abbas, the conference is another tool to isolate Israel in the international community, and depict it as a country that rejects peace with its Arab neighbors.

In addition, Abbas and his lieutenants in Ramallah are now seeking to exploit the UNSC resolution to promote boycotts, divestment and sanctions against Israel:

“The PLO Executive Committee renews its call to the world countries for a comprehensive and full boycott of Israeli colonialist settlements in all fields, as well as all companies working in or dealing with these settlements.”

One of Abbas’s close associates, Mohamed Shtayyeh, hinted that the UNSC resolution should be regarded as a green light not only to boycott Israel, but also to use violence against it. He said that this is the time to “bolster the popular resistance” against Israel. “Popular resistance” is code for throwing stones and petrol bombs and carrying out stabbing and car-ramming attacks against Israelis.

The UNSC resolution has also encouraged the Palestinians to pursue their narrative that Jews have no historical, religious or emotional attachment to Jerusalem, or any other part of Israel. Sheikh Ekrimah Sabri, a leading Palestinian Islamic cleric and preacher at the Al-Aqsa Mosque, was quick to declare that the Western Wall, the holiest Jewish site in Jerusalem, belongs only to Muslims. Referring to the wall by its Islamic name, Sheikh Sabri announced: “The Al-Buraq Wall is the western wall of the Al-Aqsa Mosque and Muslims cannot give it up.”

While Abbas and his Palestinian Authority consider the UNSC resolution a license to proceed with their diplomatic warfare to delegitimize and isolate Israel, Hamas and Islamic Jihad, the two groups that seek the elimination of Israel, are also celebrating. The two Gaza-based groups see the resolution as another step toward achieving their goal of replacing Israel with an Islamic empire. Leaders and spokesmen of Hamas and Islamic Jihad were among the first Palestinians to heap praise on the UNSC members who voted in favor of the resolution. They are also openly stating that the resolution authorizes them to step up the “resistance” against Israel in order to “liberate all of Palestine.”

“Resistance is the only means to end the settlements,” said a Hamas spokesman in the Gaza Strip. “We appreciate the position of those countries that voted against settlements.” He also seized the opportunity to renew Hamas’s demand that the Palestinian Authority stop all forms of cooperation with Israel, first and foremost security coordination.

When Hamas talks about “resistance,” it means launching suicide bombings and rockets against Israel. The Islamist movement does not believe in “light” terrorism such as stones and knife stabbings against Jews.

Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal, who is based in Qatar, reacted to the UNSC vote by saying that the world should now support his movement’s terror campaign against Israel:

“We want the world to stand with the Palestinian resistance because it is just… The armed resistance is the path to liberate Palestine and Jerusalem. Hamas is continuing to manufacture and smuggle weapons in preparation for a confrontation with Israel.”

Mashaal did not forget to praise the US Administration’s abstention as a “correction of some American policies.”

Islamic Jihad, for its part, characterized the UNSC resolution as a “victory” for the Palestinians, because it enables them to “isolate and boycott Israel” and file charges against it with international institutions. Daoud Shehab, one of the leaders of Islamic Jihad, added that the resolution means that Arabs should stop any effort to “normalize” relations with Israel or conduct security cooperation with it. The Arabs and Muslims should now work toward confronting and deterring Israel, he said.

Clearly, Hamas and Islamic Jihad see the UNSC resolution as a warning to all Arabs and Muslims against seeking any form of “normalization” with Israel. The two groups are referring to the Palestinian Authority, whose security forces continue to conduct security coordination with Israel in the West Bank, and to those Arab countries that have been rumored to be moving toward some form of rapprochement with Israel. The UN’s highly touted “victory” is a purely Pyrrhic one, in fact a true defeat to the peace process and to the few Arabs and Muslims who still believe in the possibility of coexistence with Israel.

Thus, the UNSC resolution already has had several consequences, none of which will enhance peace between Israelis and Palestinians. Apart from giving a green light to Palestinian groups that wish to destroy Israel, the resolution has prompted Abbas and the Palestinian Authority to toughen their stance, and appear to be more radical than the radicals.

Far from moving the region toward peace, the resolution has encouraged the Palestinians to move forward in two parallel paths — one toward a diplomatic confrontation with Israel in the international arena, and the other in increased terror attacks against its people. The coming weeks and months will witness mounting violence on the part of Palestinians toward Israelis — a harmful legacy of the Obama Administration.

Khaled Abu Toameh, an award-winning journalist, is based in Jerusalem.

UN Security Council Res. 2334: A Victory of Jihadism by Bat Ye’or

  • Led astray from their primary mission, these international organizations have become tools of corruption or terrorism, reinforcing global Islamic power. Those who vote are heads of state, motivated by interests and ideologies that are often criminal, and not all of which represent the opinions of their people whom they tyrannize, including those from European “democracies”.

  • In 1948-49, Egypt seized Gaza, Syria stood their ground on the Golan, and Transjordan colonized Judea, Samaria and the Old City of Jerusalem. Their Jewish inhabitants were killed or driven out by the Arab colonists, who seized their homes and destroyed their synagogues and cemeteries. Fighting ceased on armistice and cease-fire lines, there was no peace and no international borders were recognized.
  • Europe rushed to adopt the French position in 1973 and, along with the OIC, planned political measures designed to destroy the Jewish State by denying its sovereign rights and its cantonment on an indefensible territory. Resolution 2334 is now the icing on the cake of this policy, which forms the basis for a Euro-Islamic policy to merge in all EU political and social sectors, as well as in promoting globalism and the enforcement of the UN’s supranational decision-making powers.
  • In 1967, once again, the combined armies of Egypt, Syria and Jordan invaded Israel to destroy it, but this time Israel took back all the land that had been lost in 1949, that had become Judenrein [free of Jews], Arabized and Islamized. These were areas from which the Palestinian Jews had been driven out, and that Europe referred to as Jewish colonies. They are called Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria.
  • No European nation protested against the Islamic colonization of Jewish-Palestinian areas, the expulsion of their Jewish inhabitants and the seizure of their belongings, or against the persecution of Jews in Arab countries.
  • An artificial Palestinian Arab “people” was created in order to replace the people of Israel. A European army of forger-historians and Arab Christian dhimmis transferred the historic characteristics of the Jews onto them. Names of towns and regions were Islamized: Jerusalem was called Al-Quds and “the West Bank” replaced Judea and Samaria.
  • Israelis, guilty of existing, were expected to apologize for that, humbly to maintain their enemies and suffer their terrorism without protesting or defending themselves. Their crime? They refused to mingle with and disappear into dhimmitude by giving up their rights and their history to the people created by the Euro-Arab alliance to replace them.
  • It is the turn of Europeans to see a replacement population be created in their countries, with all the rights that are being taken away from them. It is their turn to be forced to renounce their national, historic, cultural and religious identity, to apologize and take the blame for existing. It is their turn to be forced to monitor their borders and guard their airports, their schools, their trains, their streets and their cities with soldiers. European governments that contemplated the destruction of Israel worked together with the enemies of Israel to destroy their own people, their sovereignty, their security and their freedoms.
  • The recognition of the legitimacy of Israel’s return to its homeland is the essential condition of Islamic peace with the world, because it will abolish the jihadist ideology.

UN Security Council Resolution 2334, adopted on December 23, 2016, politically reinforces UNESCO’s resolution that erased the history of Israel in its historical homeland in order to replace it with the Koranic version of the Bible.

A vote at the UN Security Council (illustrative). [Image source: U.S. State Department]

This UN resolution once again proves that there is Islamic control over the politics and culture of international institutions. Led astray from their primary mission, these international organizations have become tools of corruption or terrorism, reinforcing global Islamic power. But let us not forget that those who vote are Heads of State, fully conscious and responsible individuals, motivated by interests and ideologies that are often criminal, and not all of which represent the opinions of their people whom they tyrannize, including those from European “democracies”. Their latest resolutions not only confirm the victory of jihadism and illiteracy: they also express the success of the years of effort made by this post-war Europe that continues to destroy, defame and delegitimize the Hebrew State in the name of Islamic justice. The beginning of this long journey dates back to 1967, in France.

So what are these Israeli “settlements” that obsess nations so much? Are they vast territories thousands of kilometers from Israel, across seas and oceans? How did this so few people “conquer” them? Let us remind ourselves of the facts: in 1948, the Arab League declared jihad to destroy the Jewish State. The armies of five Arab States crossed the borders of Palestine, where the San Remo Resolution (1920) had recognized the legitimacy of a Jewish National Home. Egypt seized Gaza, Syria stood their ground on the Golan, and Transjordan colonized the Judea and Samaria Area and the old city of Jerusalem. Their Jewish inhabitants were killed or driven out by the Arab colonists, who seized their belongings and homes and destroyed their synagogues and cemeteries. Fighting ceased on armistice and cease-fire lines (1949), there was no peace and no international borders were recognized. But, to the great disappointment of millions of Nazi Europeans and their collaborators, Israel was not wiped out. It also welcomed most of the million Jews who had been robbed and driven out of Arab countries. No European nation protested against the Islamic colonization of Jewish-Palestinian areas, the expulsion of their Jewish inhabitants and the seizure of their belongings, or against the persecution of Jews in Arab countries. Between 1949 and 1967, the Israelis who had been brought together in a confined area without any international borders endured endless jihadist attacks from their neighbors.

In 1967, once again, the combined armies of Egypt, Syria and Transjordan invaded Israel to destroy it, but this time Israel took back all the land that had been seized in 1949, and that had become cleansed of Jews [Judenrein], Arabized and Islamized. These were areas from which the Palestinian Jews had been driven out, and to which Europe referred as Jewish “settlements” when in reality they became Arab colonies. They are called Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria.

The 1967 war ended with an Arab defeat. Once again, the Arab camp refused peace, and armistice lines separated the fighters. UN Security Council Resolution 242 (November 22, 1967) recommended the solution of two waves of refugees – both Arab and Jewish – and the conditions of a peace, to be negotiated between Israel and the Arab States that had occupied and colonized Palestinian territories, expelling or killing all its Palestinian Jewish inhabitants in 1949. It did not mention the Palestinians Arabs as a distinct people: they did not exist at that time. The Arabs, determined to destroy Israel, rejected this resolution.

Israel’s lightning victory in 1967 humiliated France, which, after its deadly decolonization wars and the loss of countless Muslim colonies, was keen to move closer to the Arabs by playing the anti-Semitic card. Resolution 242 had been written in English, and France translated it into French, falsifying it in the process, by inserting the word “the” before “territories”, a word that had been bitterly fought against during the negotiations to make explicit that not all of the disputed land was to be included. It is this French mistranslation that has now been imposed.

France had close links with the Palestinian leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, Amin al-Husseini, Grand Mufti of Jerusalem and an ally of Hitler and the Vichy government. This alliance created the “Palestinian people”, invented by Palestinian Chairman Yasser Arafat, the nephew of the Mufti and the representative of the PLO. France, which had saved the Mufti from the Nuremberg trials by hiding him, was the first to recognize Arafat in 1969 and impose him on the still-reticent European Community. To secure recognition on an international stage, the “Palestinian people” used terror – by innovating airplane hijacking, by taking civilians hostage and by terrorist attacks in Europe.

In October 1973, Egypt and Syria attacked Israel once again and sustained another defeat. But this time the OIC declared an oil boycott on all countries that did not recognize Arafat and the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO), and that would not support Arab causes (Declaration of the Arab Summit Conference at Algiers November 28,1973). Europe rushed to adopt the French position in December 1973 and, along with the OIC, planned an agenda of political measures designed to destroy the Jewish State by denying its sovereign rights and its cantonment on an indefensible territory. Resolution 2334 is now the icing on the cake of this policy, which has developed in several stages and forms the basis for a Euro-Islamic policy to merge in all European Union political and social sectors, as well as in promoting globalism and the enforcement of the UN’s supranational decision-making powers.

To begin with, an artificial Palestinian Arab “people” was created in order to replace the people of Israel. A European army of forger historians and Arab Christian dhimmis [non-Muslims who have surrendered to living under Islam] transferred the historic characteristics of the Jews onto them. Made the symbol of salvation from the purported Occupation and the Colonization symbolized by Israel, the Palestinians were compared to Jesus, crucified on the cross of a supposedly “Zionist Nazism.” The French Islamophiles and anti-Zionists, Louis Massignon and Jacques Berque, were the promoters of this role-reversal between the Jewish victims of Nazism and the Nazi persecutors, assisted by their Muslim allies on the battlefields and in the extermination camps, under the guidance of the Mufti.

Names of towns and regions were Islamized: Jerusalem was called Al-Quds and the West Bank replaced Judea and Samaria. Jihad and dhimmitude became taboo words. The OIC and its satellites, including Europe, had ordered the planned elimination of Israel. No argument could hinder its condemnation and the hateful campaign, by subverting words and language, that justified it. There was no point in pleading. Neither truth nor morality would change this verdict: Israel was the cause of the war, the terrorist attacks, injustice, all the evils suffered by the Islamic world and Europe, victims of jihadist terrorism – which it attributed to the existence of Israel. The fight to eliminate Israel was referred to as a just cause, a fight for peace.

The Euro-Arab alliance did its best to criminalize the Israelis for having restored their State to their historic homeland. The Israelis’ national sovereignty, their cultural and historic roots, their survival, their successes and spectacular military victories earned them reproaches and denigration. Reinvigorated by Palestinian hatred, the post–war Nazi-Islamic alliance did its best to neutralize the success of the Jewish State on a political level, to make sure it remained unstable and insecure. Endlessly harassed by European governments and their armies of dhimmis, the Israelis, guilty of existing, were shamed for it, forced to apologize for it, and expected humbly to maintain their enemies and suffer their terrorism without protesting or defending themselves. Their crime? They refused to mingle with and disappear into dhimmitude by giving up their rights and their history to the people created by the Euro-Arab alliance (Eurabia) to replace them.

The PLO was the jihadist arm of the Ummah [the Islamic community], the embodiment of its theological ideology which justified Islamic expansion and its appropriation of all spaces, while wiping out the previous cultures and people, imposing its law, its customs and its beliefs everywhere.

Heads of state, European ministers, the clergy, dhimmi Christians who had become its courtiers, offered it their help, more than happy to collect its gold, while sweeping away the debris of people and history before its feet, obstacles to its progress as they finally managed to rid it of Israel. And – so they believed – they would rid them of nothing but Israel, and thereby achieve a Holocaust that began in Europe so that at last a world, a humanity, would emerge, without Israel. The dream of Hitler and the Mufti would be realized.

The European governments, allies of the Palestinian anti-Israeli terrorists, whom they called a “just cause” – thus feeding them spiritually and funding them – believed that they were safe. But guess what? This Ummah policy against Israel, actively supported by its European and dhimmi courtiers, was unleashed against the people of Europe. Did terrorists attack Israelis during their festivities? Now it is the Europeans who have to celebrate their festivities protected by an army of soldiers. It is the Europeans’ turn to see a replacement population being created in their own countries, with all the rights that are now being taken away from them. It is the Europeans’ turn to be forced to renounce their national, historic, cultural and religious identity, to apologize and take the blame for existing as they are. It is the Europeans’ turn to be forced to monitor their borders and guard their airports, their schools, their trains, their streets and their cities with soldiers. Ironically, the European governments that contemplated the destruction of Israel worked together with the enemies of Israel to destroy their own people, their own sovereignty, their own security and their own freedoms. The OIC pandered to their unconfessed hatred of Israel, blinding them with its gold and unwaveringly led the cowards and the fainthearted, under the whip of terrorism, towards dishonor and oblivion.

Resolution 2334 is the culmination of this policy, but it is not the last chapter of the story. Syria, Lebanon, Iraq and Libya no longer exist, Egypt is scarcely hanging on. In its cauldron, jihad is burning Muslims who once dreamed of carrying it out against Jews and Christians. Arab dhimmi clergy and intellectuals, who inspired the Euro-Arab alliance against Israel and the Palestinian falsification, are seeing their communities decimated by their own lies. In a ruined Europe, butchered by hostile “sectarians,” the people are rising up to send the zealous servants of the OIC to the scrap heap of history. Worried about popular anger, ministers no longer dare to lie and are forced to recognize jihadism and blame the terrorism on it instead of on Israel.

The future may well include the reconciliation of populations based on the recognition of the legitimacy of Israel’s return to its homeland. Because this recognition will bring with it the quashing of the jihad against Christians and all non-Muslims. The recognition of the legitimacy of Israel’s return to its homeland is the essential condition of Islamic peace with the world because it will abolish the jihadist ideology. Peace with Israel guarantees Islam’s peace with the world’s diversity. Maybe this is the mission of Israel’s return to its birthplace as it battles alone at the bloody crossroads of nations.

Bat Ye’or, author of Eurabia: The Euro-Arab Axis, and of Europe, Globalization and the Coming Universal Caliphate (winner of a price in London, 2012) received a prize in Israel (1986) for her study on Oriental Jewry, and a price for the Courage of Free Speech in Paris (2015) and in Bologna (2015) for her book Comprendere Eurabia (2015). Her forthcoming book, Understanding Eurabia, will be published by Gatestone Institute and RVP Publishers in 2017.

UN Plan to Turn the World into an Islamic Colony? by Maria Polizoidou

  • The UN is the mothership of injustice and radical global Islamization.As the UN does not recognize the historical presence and continuity of the Jewish people in their land, the next people on the menu in UNESCO’s food chain are most likely the Greeks and then the Italians. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan already said as much last week.

  • No one would be surprised if UNESCO, to institutionalize the Islamic presence in the international community, claims that Greeks have nothing to do with the Acropolis and the Parthenon, and that Italy has no historical ties to the Colosseum in Rome.
  • With the rate of admission of Muslims into Greece, by 2050 the Greeks will be a minority in their own country.
  • The Greek media chose not to inform the Greek people on the attitude of their politicians towards the Jewish nation because it would expose their preference for Islam over Israel, and the Greek people might not see this choice in a positive light.
  • How can Greece credibly ask for help from the global community on the issue of Hagia Sophia in Istanbul, when the politicians themselves maintain a neutral attitude on the virtually identical issue of the Jerusalem’s Temple Mount?

When the news arrived that UNESCO does not recognize the connection of the Jewish people to Jerusalem’s Temple Mount, it brought to mind that the UN is the mothership of injustice and radical global Islamization. Its members, which include the large bloc of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) — 56 Islamic nations plus “Palestine” — evidently believe that if they want to transform the Western world into an Islamic colony, first they must bring down the State of Israel. This resembles the suggestion in ancient Greece of the exiled Greek general, Demaratos, to the king of Persia, Xerxes: If you want Greece to fall, first you have to destroy the Spartans.

If Jerusalem falls into the hands of Islam, the rest of the world will presumably fall. UNESCO’s decision is not only nonsensical from a historical perspective (Islam did not even exist at the time of ancient Jerusalem), basically it is also a strategic move against the cultural foundations of the West.

As the UN does not recognize the historical presence and continuity of the Jewish people in their land, the next people on the menu in UNESCO’s food chain are most likely the Greeks and then the Italians. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan already said as much last week.

Greece hosts two million illegal immigrants from Muslim-majority countries. Research in Greece shows that with the aging of the native population and emigration of young people, due of Greece’s economic crisis, by 2050 native Greeks will number only 8.3 million, which is 2.5 million fewer than today. With the rate of admission of Muslims into Greece, by 2050 the Greeks will be a minority in their own country.

No one would be surprised if, a few years from now, UNESCO, to institutionalize the Islamic presence in the international community, claims that Greeks have nothing to do with the Acropolis and the Parthenon, and that Italy has no historical ties to the Colosseum in Rome.

The recent UNESCO resolution on Jerusalem should particularly worry the political establishment not only in Greece but throughout Europe: such flamboyant injustice from the UN against the history of an ancient nation, such as the Jews’, shows a blind partiality toward Islam, and could be committed against any of us.

Turkey’s President already wants to turn the iconic Hagia Sophia Cathedral in Istanbul into a mosque, and has appointed a full-time imam who says daily Islamic prayers in this most sacred space of the Greek Orthodox. Hagia Sophia Cathedral in Istanbul is for Orthodox Christians what Mecca is for Muslims and the Western Wall is for Jews. It has been declared as a UNESCO world heritage monument, but the Turkish President nevertheless wants to turn it into a mosque.

Despite these threats to the entire Greek heritage, however, virtually all members of the Greek establishment submissively closed their eyes to the UN’s rapacious injustice against the Jewish people, because this time it was not against them: they chose to abstain during the UNESCO vote. The Greek government, Alexis Tsipras and Panos Kammenos with the cooperation of the opposition of Kyriakos Mitsotakis, chose not to honor the strategic relationship that they otherwise claim our country has developed with the State of Israel. They insulted not only the Jewish people and the friendly feelings Greeks have for our neighbors in the Mediterranean, but the entire heritage of the West, which is seriously threatened.

The Greek media and 99% of news websites chose not to inform the Greek people about the attitude of their politicians towards the Jewish nation because it would expose their preference for Islam over Israel, and the Greek people might not see this choice in a positive light.

This dishonest attitude from the Greek political system against a friend and ally undermines Greece on the international stage, as it reveals Greece as an unreliable interlocutor. The Greek government jeopardizes Greece’s security: no country will trust Greek politicians again. Our politicians are apparently preparing our country to be the next “snack” at the UN’s and Turkey’s breakfast, and they know it.

How can Greece credibly ask for help from the global community on the issue of Hagia Sophia in Istanbul, when the politicians themselves maintain a neutral attitude on the virtually identical issue of the Jerusalem’s Temple Mount?

How can Greece credibly ask for help from the global community on the issue of Hagia Sophia in Istanbul (right), when its politicians maintain a neutral attitude on the virtually identical issue of the Jerusalem’s Temple Mount (left)?

The Greek political system in its entirety does not honor the Greek nation’s history, its values and its constancy toward its friends and allies. It is a system which has no political mandate from the Greek people. The political system’s domestic and foreign actions do not have the approval of the Greeks.

In the polls that are not rigged, the entire establishment enjoys the approval of less than 50% of the electorate. Greeks have to choose between a government coalition that refers ideologically and politically the repressive wing of the U.S. Democratic Party, and the opposition, which refers ideologically and politically to German Chancellor Merkel and her party, the Christian Democrats Union (CDU).

Sadly, there are no alternative choices for the Greek electorate. It is a rigged system with corrupt politicians, a dishonest media and a manipulated judiciary.

The Greek political system is killing its own citizens. Greek politicians, by submitting to EU’s economic “rescue” programs, have brought incredible poverty to the people; meanwhile, the country is being colonized and Islamized by illegal Muslim immigrants.

The “Persians” are here in the form of the OIC, the UN and a political system that seems weighted toward the politicians keeping their jobs instead of to the needs of their citizens. The Greek people and other Europeans people are looking for the political means to fight them back at the Thermopylae of the 21st century.

Maria Polizoidou, a reporter, broadcast journalist, and consultant on international and foreign affairs, is based in Greece.

UN Gives Palestinians Flags, But No Democracy by Khaled Abu Toameh

  • The vote in favor of hoisting the flag is not going to bring democracy, freedom of expression and transparency to the Palestinians.


  • The vote at the UN concerning the Palestinian flag came amid increased human rights violations by both the Palestinian Authority (PA) and Hamas. But since when does the UN care about human rights violations committed by the PA and Hamas against their own people?

  • Who cares if Hamas arrests Fatah voters and candidates as long as a Palestinian flag is raised in front of the UN? The UN considers raising a Palestinian flag more important than demanding an end to human rights violations by the PA and Hamas. No UN member states bothered to denounce the Hamas crackdown and the obstruction of the Fatah election.

  • The countries that voted in favor of the motion do not really care about the needs and interests of the Palestinians. The vote was mainly directed against Israel — to taunt Israel rather than help the Palestinians move closer towards building an independent state.

  • A Palestinian living in the West Bank or Gaza Strip does not really care if his flag is flown in front of a UN building. For Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, there are more urgent matters such as the harsh economic conditions and the repressive measures of the Hamas regime.

  • Hamas wants the world to continue believing that the Palestinians are still unable to rebuild their homes because of Israeli “restrictions” and lack of international funds. That is why the journalists who tried to cover the removal of the debris were physically assaulted and detained for interrogation.

  • The situation under the PA in the West Bank is not any better with regards to human rights violations. Almost every day, PA security forces arrest several Palestinians and hold them without trial.

Last week, the United Nations General Assembly voted in favor of a motion allowing the Palestinian flag to be flown in front of the UN buildings.

The Palestinian Authority (PA) leadership and various “pro-Palestinian” groups have hailed the vote as a “symbolic victory” for the Palestinians. The Palestinian representative to the UN, Riyad Mansour, said that the vote regarding the flag would be “another step” towards solidifying Palestinian statehood.

The 119 UN member states that voted in favor of the motion are apparently convinced that this is a “big victory” for the Palestinians and their political aspirations. But what these countries do not know is that flying a Palestinian flag outside UN buildings is probably the last thing Palestinians need at this stage.

The vote in favor of hoisting the flag is not going to bring democracy, freedom of expression and transparency to Palestinians. The Palestinians do not need “symbolic victories” such as the one concerning the Palestinian flag.

A Palestinian living in the West Bank or Gaza Strip does not really care if his flag is flown in front of a UN building. For Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, there are more urgent matters that need to be dealt with immediately, such as the harsh economic conditions and the repressive measures of the Hamas regime. For those living in the West Bank, economic development, employment and democracy are more important than any flag raised in front of the UN headquarters.

But the countries that voted in favor of the motion do not really care about the needs and interests of the Palestinians. They do not care if the Palestinian Authority and Hamas in the West Bank and Gaza Strip respectively are functioning as repressive and corrupt regimes that have no respect for human rights or public freedoms.

The vote was mainly directed against Israel. Its main goal was to taunt Israel rather than help the Palestinians move closer towards building an independent state.

The vote at the UN concerning the Palestinian flag came amid increased human rights violations by both the PA and Hamas. But since when does the UN care about human rights violations committed by the PA and Hamas against their own people?

The UN state members that voted in favor of raising the flag pay attention to human rights violations in the West Bank and Gaza Strip only when there is a way to lay the blame on Israel.

In recent weeks, Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip have reported a number of incidents that demonstrate how the Palestinian Authority and Hamas continue to show complete disregard for due process, human rights and freedom of expression. These incidents continued even as the 119 UN members raised their hands in favor of the hoisting of the Palestinian flag.

In the Gaza Strip, for example, Hamas security officers beat and detained a number of local journalists who tried to cover the removal of debris from homes that were destroyed during last year’s military confrontation between Hamas and Israel.

One of the journalists, Fadel al-Hamami, was hit in the face with the butt of a rifle and had to rush to a hospital for treatment.

Hamas does not want journalists to cover any reconstruction work in the Gaza Strip. It wants the world to continue believing that the Palestinians are still unable to rebuild their houses because of Israeli “restrictions” and lack of international funds.

That is why the journalists who tried to cover the removal of the debris were physically assaulted and detained for interrogation.

The UN General Assembly, of course, did not hear about this incident when its members voted in favor of raising the Palestinian flag outside its buildings. Even if the UN does hear about it, it is unlikely that the General Assembly or the Security Council would ever issue a statement condemning the assault on representatives of the media.

Nor is the UN going to condemn Hamas’s use of force to disperse Palestinians protesting against power cuts in the southern Gaza Strip. The lack of electricity has triggered widespread protests throughout the Gaza Strip, where many Palestinians hold the Hamas government fully responsible. Eyewitnesses said Hamas policemen used live ammunition and clubs to disperse the protesters.

Last week, Hamas arrested 30 Fatah activists in the Gaza Strip as part of its crackdown of supporters of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas. The arrests came as Fatah was holding internal elections for its leaders in the southern Gaza Strip. The detainees later went on a hunger strike in the Hamas prison. This incident also coincided with the UN vote concerning the flag. However, none of the UN state members bothered to denounce the Hamas crackdown and obstruction of the Fatah election. Who cares if Hamas arrests Fatah voters and candidates as long as a Palestinian flag is raised in front of UN buildings?

In the past two weeks, Hamas security officers in the Gaza Strip arrested a journalist and political activist whose only crime was that they dared to criticize Hamas. The journalist, Shadi Shaheen, works for an Arabic Gulf newspaper. Hamas confiscated his computer and camera.

The political activist, Mohamed Abu Mahadi, is known for his outspoken criticism of both Hamas and the Palestinian Authority. He was detained by Hamas policemen as he was visiting his brother in Shifa Hospital in Gaza City. Abu Mahadi was released after interrogation.

The situation under the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank is not any better with regards to human rights violations. Almost every day, PA security forces arrest several Palestinians and hold them without trial.

Last week, the PA issued a directive banning its security personnel from criticizing the Palestinian leadership on social media.

The ban came as PA security officers detained a Palestinian from the West Bank city of Tulkarem who criticized PA Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah on Facebook. The man was identified as Abdullah Nash’at Sayed.

Journalist Shadi Shaheen (left) was recently arrested in Gaza, because he criticized Hamas. Abdullah Nash’at Sayed (right) was detained by Palestinian Authority security officers, because he criticized PA Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah on Facebook.

Sayed is not the first Palestinian to land in prison for posting critical remarks on Facebook against Palestinian leaders. More than 14 Palestinians have been arrested or summoned for interrogation in the West Bank over the past three years for their activities on social media.

Still, the UN and other international organizations are not interested in holding a debate about these assaults on human rights and freedom of expression.

These organizations are more interested in provoking and condemning Israel than helping the Palestinians build democracy and proper transparent institutions. That is why the UN considers raising a Palestinian flag more important than demanding an end to human rights violations by the Palestinian Authority and Hamas. With such an attitude at the UN, the Palestinians will eventually get their own flag flown outside those buildings. But they will also end up with a state that has no respect for human rights — all thanks to the indifference and corruption of the UN and other international bodies.

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