In this mailing:
- Bassam Tawil: Hamas, Islamic Jihad War Crimes Against Children and Women
- Uzay Bulut: Turkey: Imprisoned Former Opposition Lawmaker Symbol of Unjust Justice System
by Bassam Tawil • February 12, 2019 at 5:00 am
It is worth noting that the Hamas and Islamic Jihad members who were killed while participating in the violence near the Gaza-Israel border did not come there dressed in military uniforms or carrying their weapons. Instead, the Hamas and Islamic Jihad men participated in the weekly protests dressed in civilian clothes. They pretended they were ordinary and innocent civilians protesting against the economic crisis in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip.
While they are in Cairo, the Hamas and Islamic Jihad leaders continue to send thousands of women and children to engage in violent attacks on Israeli soldiers. These leaders do not care about the safety or welfare of their women and children. On the contrary; the more dead women and children, the better. That way, they can blame Israel for killing innocent civilians and incite more Palestinians to join the jihad against Jews.
Those who are encouraging women and children to take part in a violent confrontation with the Israeli army should be held accountable for war crimes. It is time for the international community to call on Hamas and Islamic Jihad and the other terrorist groups in the Gaza Strip to stop hiding behind women and children and to stop using them as human shields in their jihad to eliminate Israel.
Pictured: A group of Palestinians during a riot at the border fence with Israel on May 14, 2018. Two of the young men are preparing to attack Israeli soldiers with slingshots. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
When Hamas launched its weekly demonstrations along the border between the Gaza Strip and Israel 10 months ago, it first sent its men and their family members to participate in the protests. A few weeks later, however, Hamas instructed its men to stay away from the border after many were detected and killed by the Israeli army. Most of the Hamas men who were killed during the violence belonged to the group's military wing, Izaddin al-Qassam. Others belonged to the military wing of another terrorist group, Islamic Jihad.
It is worth noting that the Hamas and Islamic Jihad members who were killed while participating in the violence near the Gaza-Israel border did not come there dressed in military uniforms or carrying their weapons. Instead, the Hamas and Islamic Jihad men participated in the weekly protests dressed in civilian clothes. They pretended they were ordinary and innocent civilians protesting against the economic crisis in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip.
by Uzay Bulut • February 12, 2019 at 4:00 am
During his tenure as an Turkish member of parliament, Eren Erdem exposed ISIS and al-Qaeda activities across Turkey and often called on the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) government to stop those activities and bring the militants to account. For that, he has been subject to pressure, investigations and trials.
In 2015, Turkey's president Erdogan condemned Erdem and called him a "traitor". An investigation into treason was launched against Erdem, who also received death threats over social media, with his home address posted by pro-government Twitter users, presumably to enable an attack on his house.
"On January 7, the court decided to release me by unanimous vote, as there is not a single piece of evidence against me...." – Eren Erdem, letter written from prison around January 28.
Eren Erdem at a June 2016 press conference. (Image source: Eren Erdem video screenshot)
A former deputy of Turkey's main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP), Eren Erdem, who has been under arrest for seven months on terrorism charges, remains incarcerated -- even though a court ruled on January 7 that he would be released pending trial.
Just before he was to be let out of prison, Istanbul's chief public prosecutor's office objected to his release. A higher court accepted the objection and once again issued a detention warrant against him.
In reaction to Erdem's re-arrest despite the court ruling, his father, Hasan Erdem, said: "I'm talking to the person who is giving the instructions for this. You should know that my son and I are not afraid of you. You will not be able to bring us to our knees."
After these statements, Hasan Erdem, 70, was fired from his job.
by Douglas Murray • February 11, 2019 at 5:00 am
The mosque that agreed to hold the secret event was in Ilford; the chairman of the Muslim Community Centre at the mosque, Bashir Chaudhry, said the exhibition was an "eye-opener" and added that he would encourage other people to see it.
A story such as this should provide the strongest possible alarm bells to government and civil society. If, in 2019, any Muslim organization wants to commemorate the bravery of some Muslims in the Holocaust, this has to be staged secretly, covertly, and in fear of some violent or non-violent backlash?
In Britain, in 2019, government and non-government figures still feel they must flit around, letting no one know of their movements to commemorate an aspect of the Holocaust. They manage to have a commemoration of the Holocaust in secret. And they think this is a victory.
Bashir Chaudhry, chairman of the Muslim Community Centre in Ilford, England, recently hosted an exhibition on Muslims who helped to save Jews from the Nazis in Albania during WWII. Pictured: High Road in Ilford. (Image source: Sunil060902/Wikimedia Commons)
Remember the Holocaust exhibition in London that couldn't be staged last month -- the exhibition at Golders Green about Muslims who helped to save Jews from the Nazis in Albania during the Second World War? The small exhibition appeared clearly intended for two reasons. First to try to build trust between a new local mosque and the large Jewish community in Golders Green, and second, to remind Muslims in Britain that hostility towards Jews is an ancient and modern evil. The intentions behind the exhibition seemed good.
by Peter Huessy • February 11, 2019 at 4:00 am
In spite of the fact that Reagan ultimately won the Cold War -- and the Soviet Union subsequently fell -- his policies and extraordinary global achievements were partially discarded by the failures and laziness of the U.S. intelligence community. Starting in 1993, the US cut back excessively its military defenses. And the US allowed China both militarily and non-militarily to run rampant.
Almost worse, the intelligence community failed to recognize the rise of Islamic terrorism in Iran and elsewhere, which would culminate in the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.
What is clear, is that the U.S. intelligence community often has a terrible track record where threat assessments are concerned. Alarmingly, it would not be surprising they were wrong again today.
Pictured: U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un shake hands at their first summit in Singapore, on June 12, 2018. (Image source: White House/Wikimedia Commons)
United States intelligence chiefs told Congress on January 29 that Pyongyang is unlikely to give up its nuclear weapons in any deal with Washington. This assessment was made a month ahead of U.S. President Donald Trump's February 27-28 second summit -- to be held in Vietnam -- with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, the purpose of which is to make strides in achieving the very denuclearization that FBI Director Christopher Wray, CIA Director Gina Haspel and Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats consider improbable.
One would have thought that if these intelligence chiefs disagreed with Trump's efforts to reach a deal with North Korea, they would have presented an alternative. They might have explained what a deal with Pyongyang is liable to do to America's relations with Japan and South Korea. They might have provided a future scenario for the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), which North Korea signed in 1968, then violated and withdrew from in 2003.
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