Gates of Vienna News Feed 10/31/2014

A man armed with an axe attacked a police car in Washington D.C., embedding his axe in the driver’s side window. The policeman inside was uninjured, and got out to chase and grapple with the assailant, who managed to escape. However, police and residents of the District of Columbia may rest assured that the incident had nothing to do with Islam.

In other news, Canada has joined Australia in refusing to issue visas for travelers from the Ebola-stricken areas of West Africa.

To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.

Thanks to Caroline Glick, DS, Fjordman, Insubria, Jerry Gordon, Papa Whiskey, Vlad Tepes, and all the other tipsters who sent these in.

Notice to tipsters: Please don’t submit extensive excerpts from articles that have been posted behind a subscription firewall, or are otherwise under copyright protection.

Caveat: Articles in the news feed are posted “as is”. Gates of Vienna cannot vouch for the authenticity or accuracy of the contents of any individual item posted here. We check each entry to make sure it is relatively interesting, not patently offensive, and at least superficially plausible. The link to the original is included with each item’s title. Further research and verification are left to the reader.

Financial Crisis
» 4 mn Italians Required Food Aid in 2013, Coldiretti Says
» Central Banks Answer the Markets’ Prayers (For Now)
» Italian Youth Unemployment Stands at 42.9%
» Italy: Treasury Sells 5.25 Bn Euros of 5 and 10-Year Bonds
» Serbia: Cuts in Wages and Pensions From November 1
 
USA
» Ax Attack on D.C. Cop Prompts Warnings, New Protocols for Police
» Drivers Scurry to Grab Cash After Money Falls Out of Armored Car in Frederick Co.
» In About-Face, Judge Rules Against Maine in Quarantine of Nurse
» Judge Enforces Ebola Isolation of Defiant Maine Nurse
» Virgin Galactic’s Spaceshiptwo Spacecraft Crashes During Test Flight
 
Canada
» No Visas for Ebola Countries: Canada
» Police: Military Warned to be Vigilant After Learning of Direct Threat by ISIS
 
Europe and the EU
» Austria: Saudi King’s Religious Tolerance Center Faces Fresh Scrutiny
» Germany: Hooligan Marches ‘Likely to be Banned’
» Germany: ‘IS’ Fighter Testifies in Frankfurt — ‘I Still Want to Die a Martyr’
» Greece: First Public Breast-Feeding Area in Athens
» Hungary Scraps Controversial Web Tax
» Italy: MPS Bank Ex-Leaders Sentenced to 3.5 Years in Prison
» Spain: ISIS Wants to Spread Ebola: Security Chief
» UK: Police ‘Put Cap on Arrests’ In Rochdale Sex Abuse Inquiry: Social Worker Whistleblower Says Dozens of Offenders Are Still on Streets
» UK:80% of London Muslims Support ISIS
 
Mediterranean Union
» EU-Funded Trainings to Teach Advocacy Techniques to Moroccan CSOs
 
North Africa
» ISIS: Libya Baghdadi Proclaimed Chief of Derna Caliphate
 
Israel and the Palestinians
» Caroline Glick: Being Safe While Isolated
» Fatah Calls for ‘Day of Rage’ In Jerusalem
» Rejectionism: The Barrier to Real Peace in the Mideast
 
Middle East
» 1,000 Muslims Streaming Into Syria Every Month to Join the Islamic State
» Foreign Jihadists Flocking to Iraq and Syria on ‘Unprecedented Scale’ — UN
» Foreign Office Issues Worldwide Terrorism Warning for British Tourists
» ISIS: UN 15,000 Foreign Fighters in Syria and Iraq
» ISIS: 1,000 Foreign Fighters Reach Syria Each Month
» Jordan Bans Halloween After Muslim Brotherhood Condemns it as “Homosexual and Satanic”
» The Iraqi WMDs and Other Disgraces
 
Far East
» N. Korea Threatens to Halt Cooperation on Human Rights
 
Sub-Saharan Africa
» At Least 8 Killed in Nigeria Bus Station Blasts
» Burkina Faso President Quits Amid Crisis
» Congo Crowd Kills Man, Eats Him After Militant Massacres: Witnesses
» Sierra Leone Ebola Outbreak ‘Catastrophic’: Aid Group MSF
 
Latin America
» Argentina Lures Oil Investment
 
Immigration
» Hundreds of Migrants Attempt to Enter Spanish Enclave
» Italy: Mare Nostrum Ends as Triton Takes Over, Says Alfano
» Spain: 150 Migrants Stopped From Crossing Melilla Border
 
Culture Wars
» Italy: Marino Defies Prefect Over Gay Marriage
» Sharia Law or Gay Marriage Critics Would be Branded ‘Extremists’ Under Tory Plans, Atheists and Christians Warn
 

4 mn Italians Required Food Aid in 2013, Coldiretti Says

Number up from 2.7 mn in 2010 as recession continues to bite

(ANSA) — Rome, October 30 — Just over four million Italians required food aid in 2013, farmers’ association Coldiretti said on Thursday.

Specifically, 303,485 people ate charity soup kitchen meals and a further 3,764,765 — particularly pensioners, the unemployed and families with small children — received assistance in the form of food parcels, Coldiretti said.

The association added that the number of people seeking food aid has risen significantly in recent years, from 2.7 million in 2010 to 3.3 million in 2011 and 3.7 million in 2012, as Italy struggles to emerge from its longest and deepest recession since the Second World War. However, the figures — reported on the same day that national statistics agency Istat said 28% of Italians were at risk of poverty or social exclusion in 2013 — represent only the tip of the iceberg, Coldiretti said, adding that 14.2% of families were unable to afford a meal with an adequate protein content at least once every two days.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Central Banks Answer the Markets’ Prayers (For Now)

It’s the party that just keeps going: the first batch of guests leave, the next ones arrive. Just as the U.S. Federal Reserve winds down its asset purchases, the Bank of Japan expands its own program. World stock markets, rejoice!

For a while anyway. So far, quantitative easing, the policy of national bond purchases has arguably succeeded in perking up the economy, almost certainly succeeded in helping along the stock market and (this is key) certainly not led to the out-of-control inflation that critics predicted.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Italian Youth Unemployment Stands at 42.9%

Some 3.2 million Italians jobless, highest since 2004

(ANSAmed) — ROME, OCTOBER 31 — The jobless rate among 15-to-24-year-old Italians who are on the labour market was 42.9% in September, Istat said on Friday in its provisional calculation. The national statistics agency said this was 0.8 of a percentage point down on August, but 1.9 higher than in September 2013. Istat said that there were 698,000 unemployed aged 15-to-24 last month — 11.7% of the total for this age range, when one includes in the calculation young people who are in education, training and others who are not actively looking for work.

Unemployment climbed back up to a record level of 12.6% in September, up 0.1 of a percentage point both on August and on September 2013, Istat said. The unemployment rate had already hit the 12.6% mark several times this year. The national statistics agency said 3.236 million Italians were unemployed in September, the highest level since it started using its current calculation method in 2004. The nominal unemployment figure is 48,000 (1.5%) higher than in August and 58,000 (1.8%) up on the same month in 2013. Istat added that the number of people in work was 22.457 million in September, 82,000 (0.4%) up on August and 130,000 (0.6%) up on the same month in 2013.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Italy: Treasury Sells 5.25 Bn Euros of 5 and 10-Year Bonds

Yield on 5-year bond rises to 1.23% from 1.06% at last sale

(ANSA) — Rome, October 30 — The Italian Treasury sold all 2.5 billion euros of five-year BTP bonds and 2.75 billion euros of 10-year BTP bonds offered at auction Thursday for a total of 5.25 billion euros.

The average interest rate on the five-year bonds rose to 1.23% from 1.06% at the last equivalent sale.

Instead the yield on the ten-year bonds remained substantially stable at 2.44%.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Serbia: Cuts in Wages and Pensions From November 1

Parliament passes budget revision. Vucic calls for austerity

(ANSA) — BELGRADE — The Serbian parliament has passed the 2014 budget revision, which includes the cuts and the austerity measures taken in recent weeks by the government to restore the finances, encourage the private sector and modernize the country, which has started moving along the path of integration in the EU. 188 deputies voted in favour (ouf of the 250 in the unicameral parliament), 10 voted against. From November 1st there will be cuts in public-sector wages and pensions exceeding 25,000 dinars (about 210 euros). The salaries will be cut by about 10%, while there will be no reductions for 61% of retired people, whose pensions amount less than 25,000 dinars. For 1.5 million retirees with benefits below 40,000 dinars ( 336 euros), the cuts will be less than 10%, while the reduction will be greater than 10% for those who have a pension amounting 40,000 dinars.

Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic, speaking in the parliament before the vote, asked citizens “a year and a half of patience and savings”, arguing that in 2016 Serbia will “come out of the tunnel” by recording “the highest growth rate in Europe.” “We decided to make these cuts to reduce the difference between what we have gained and what we have spend to reduce our debt and increase growth. There is no alternative”, Vucic said.

According to PM this year GDP will record a decline between 0.3% and 0.4%, mainly due to catastrophic floods last May. In 2015, he added, Serbia is expected to grow, economically, by about 1%.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Ax Attack on D.C. Cop Prompts Warnings, New Protocols for Police

Washington (CNN) — An officer with Washington’s Metropolitan Police Department came under an unprovoked attack Friday from a man wielding an ax, police said, the second such attack in two weeks that is prompting warnings and new protocols to officers on the job.

The attack, and another last week in which a man attacked four New York City officers with a hatchet in Queens, prompted an immediate increase in security for officers in both D.C. and New York. The New York Police Department said in a memo: “Police Officers on patrol should maintain a heightened level of awareness.”

The attack in Washington occurred around 3 a.m. as the officer was sitting in his marked squad car in Washington’s Brookland neighborhood, near the campus of Catholic University of America, police said.

D.C. cop atacked with ax The officer, who hasn’t been identified, wasn’t injured by the ax, but he chased the suspect and suffered a shoulder injury in a scuffle before the attacker ran away, police said. No motive is known and the suspect remains at large. Police said he was an African-American man about 6 feet tall and of stocky build…

           — Hat tip: Vlad Tepes [Return to headlines]
 

Drivers Scurry to Grab Cash After Money Falls Out of Armored Car in Frederick Co.

A door lock on an armored vehicle transporting cash malfunctioned while traveling on a highway in Frederick County, sending cash raining out onto the highway Friday morning.

A bag of cash being transported by GardaWorld security company fell out of the truck, which was traveling northbound on Interstate 270 near Route 80 around 8 a.m., sending bills all over the road, state police said. The flurry of cash caused motorist to stop, pull over and try to collect the money.

The motorists who made off with the cash “are welcome to turn in the money at the local barrack,” the agency said in a statement.

Even though the driver of the armored vehicle moved to the shoulder quickly, he told police that numerous vehicles stopped on the road and people were grabbing handfuls of cash.

Police said that when a fire department official stopped and activated the car’s emergency lights, everyone drove off…

[Return to headlines]
 

In About-Face, Judge Rules Against Maine in Quarantine of Nurse

Less than a day after confining a nurse who treated Ebola victims to her house, a judge in Maine has lifted the quarantine, rejecting arguments by the State of Maine that the measure was necessary to protect the public.

Within an hour of the decision, state troopers who had been parked outside the nurse’s house for days had left.

The order, signed on Friday by Judge Charles C. LaVerdiere, the chief judge for the Maine District Courts who serves in Kennebec and Somerset counties, said the nurse, Kaci Hickox, “currently does not show symptoms of Ebola and is therefore not infectious.

[Return to headlines]
 

Judge Enforces Ebola Isolation of Defiant Maine Nurse

(Reuters) — A judge on Friday ordered an American nurse who treated Ebola patients in Sierra Leone for the disease to obey a state-imposed quarantine after she defied Maine officials and went for a bike ride.

The temporary order from Charles LaVerdiere, chief judge of the Maine District Court, turned up the heat in the confrontation over the quarantine between the New England state’s officials and nurse Kaci Hickox.

LaVerdiere instructed Hickox to submit to “direct active monitoring” and “not to be present in public places” like shopping centers, movie theaters or workplaces, except to receive necessary healthcare.

Hickox, 33, has tested negative for Ebola after returning from working for Doctors Without Borders in Sierra Leone, one of the three impoverished West African countries at the heart of the outbreak that has killed about 5,000 people there. Saying she is completely healthy, she has challenged quarantines imposed on her in both New Jersey, where she arrived, and her home state of Maine.

The confrontation between Hickox and Maine has become the focal point of a dispute pitting several U.S. states opting for stringent measures to guard against Ebola against the federal government, which has expressed concern that such measures could discourage potential medical volunteers from fighting the outbreak in West Africa…

[Return to headlines]
 

Virgin Galactic’s Spaceshiptwo Spacecraft Crashes During Test Flight

Virgin Galactic’s suborbital space plane SpaceShipTwo suffered a serious malfunction during a rocket-powered test flight over Mojave, California, today (Oct. 31) resulting in the loss of the spacecraft. One of the two pilots aboard was killed and the other injured, according to media reports.

The SpaceShipTwo passenger spacecraft experienced an unspecified anomaly after igniting its rocket motor shortly after the vehicle separated from its carrier plane WhiteKnightTwo.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

No Visas for Ebola Countries: Canada

TORONTO — Canada is following in Australia’s footsteps and has suspended, effectively immediately, the issuance of visas to residents of the West African countries battling Ebola.

In a move that puts Canada at odds with the World Health Organization, the federal government said Friday it is suspending visa applications for residents and nationals of countries with “widespread and persistent-intense transmission” of Ebola virus disease.

That stress on countries with widespread transmission provides an out for the United States, which currently still has at least one active Ebola case within its borders.

The federal government said it would stop issuing visas in the worker, student or visitor class and won’t issue any pending permanent residency visas for people from those countries either. Any applications already in the system will also not be processed at this time. The change, which goes into effect immediately, was announced Friday in the Canada Gazette.

Kevin Menard, spokesperson for Chris Alexander, minister of citizenship and immigration, said the move is similar to but a bit less restrictive than the one the Australian government announced this week.

           — Hat tip: Vlad Tepes [Return to headlines]
 

Police: Military Warned to be Vigilant After Learning of Direct Threat by ISIS

MONTREAL — The RCMP is warning both police and military to keep an eye out for terrorists following a threat from Islamic State (ISIS), QMI Agency has learned.

The notice went out Monday. Police and military were told to exercise vigilance and caution upon starting their shifts this week.

Several police forces, including those in Montreal and Quebec City, confirmed the RCMP advisory.

Montreal police sources tell QMI that its force held top-level meetings with the RCMP this week.

The RCMP warning is specifically aimed at police on solo patrols, who have been deemed to be at greatest risk.

Quebec’s Public Security minister, Lise Theriault, said the RCMP advisory follows an earlier threat from ISIS…

           — Hat tip: Vlad Tepes [Return to headlines]
 

Austria: Saudi King’s Religious Tolerance Center Faces Fresh Scrutiny

(CNSNews.com) — Two years after a Saudi-funded, U.N.-backed center for interreligious dialogue opened in Vienna, its future in the Austrian capital may be at risk over comments by its deputy head viewed as downplaying concerns about human rights abuses in Saudi Arabia.

The Austrian government is now reviewing whether the King Abdullah Bin Abdulaziz International Centre for Interreligious and Intercultural Dialogue (KAICIID), which enjoys tax-exempt status, is actually fostering dialogue between faiths as it claims to do, Austrian Chancellor Werner Faymann said this week.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Germany: Hooligan Marches ‘Likely to be Banned’

The German Police Union (DPolG) said on Wednesday that future anti-Islamic marches by hooligan groups, which are planned for Berlin and Hamburg and caused chaos in Cologne on Sunday, could be banned.

“The chances that a ban on gatherings would be confirmed by the courts have increased dramatically” DPolG president Rainer Wendt told the Passauer Neue Presse.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Germany: ‘IS’ Fighter Testifies in Frankfurt — ‘I Still Want to Die a Martyr’

Kreshnik B. is the first ‘Islamic State’ fighter to stand trial in a German court. He wants to testify and is hoping for a lenient sentence. But in Frankfurt’s Higher Regional Court, he talked his way into trouble.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Greece: First Public Breast-Feeding Area in Athens

(ANSAmed) — ATHENS, OCTOBER 31 — The first public breast-feeding area in Greece is now a reality, as GreekReporter online writes. It is located at the Athens Heart Mall, a shopping mall located in central Athens (Pireos street).

Breast-feeding was a taboo in Greek society until very recently.

A lot of reaction has led to actions making breast-feeding in public areas acceptable by society. An event for breast-feeding in public spaces will take place this coming Sunday, November 2.

Several designated areas in more than 50 different Greek cities will host mothers who wish to join this effort to breast feed their babies publicly. The event is organized to celebrate the World Breast Feeding Week (1-7 November). A day earlier, tomorrow Saturday November 1, a series of informative sessions, organized by the Pan-hellenic Network of Breast Feeding and Motherhood Volunteers, ‘Alkyoni,’ will take place. Doctors and health sector professionals will give practical advice and information to mothers who breast feed their babies.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Hungary Scraps Controversial Web Tax

‘Can’t be introduced in current form’ says Orban

(ANSA) — Rome, October 31 — Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban decided Friday to shelve a proposed tax on Internet data traffic after mass protests against the plan.

“This tax in its current form cannot be introduced,” Orban said.

Large-scale protests began on Sunday, when demonstrators hurled old computer parts at the headquarters of Orban’s ruling Fidesz party.

The draft law — condemned by the EU — would have levied a fee on each gigabyte of internet data transferred. The protesters objected to the financial burden but also feared the move would restrict free expression and access to information.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Italy: MPS Bank Ex-Leaders Sentenced to 3.5 Years in Prison

Mussari, Vigni, Baldassarri convicted in Siena case

(ANSA) — Siena, October 31 — A court in Siena Friday sentenced Giuseppe Mussari, the former chairman of troubled bank Monte dei Paschi di Siena (MPS), to three years and six months in prison for misleading financial system regulators.

The same sentence was passed for MPS former general manager Antonio Vigni, whose lawyer said he will appeal, and former chief of finance Gianluca Baldassarri.

All three were accused of giving false statements to regulators in relation to the purchase of the smaller Antonveneta bank in 2008 and derivatives trades which prosecutors said were made to conceal losses.

Prosecutors said the trio deliberately hindered the work of banking supervisors from the Bank of Italy by hiding a contract signed from July 2009 between MPS and Japan’s Nomura bank involving the restructuring of a complicated financial derivative dubbed Alexandria.

This case has been only one of several challenges facing MPS, which has been at the centre of numerous crises that have shaken the foundations of the world’s oldest operating bank.

Its woes became public in 2013 when it became known that a previously undisclosed series of derivative and structured-finance deals produced losses of around 720 million euros.

MPS was hit by massive losses besides those related to the derivatives deal, as well as political furore when the former Italian government of Mario Monte agreed to a 4.1-billion-euro bailout plan to cover the bank’s capital needs. More recently, MPS was hit hard this week on financial markets after stress tests by the European Central Bank found it had a capital shortfall of 2.1 billion euros.

Troubled MPS raised some five billion euros in new capital in early summer in order to repay a State bailout and avoid nationalization, as well we shoring up reserves ahead of the ECB assessment.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Spain: ISIS Wants to Spread Ebola: Security Chief

The Spanish government is taking seriously discussions in internet chat rooms on how terrorists could use biological weapons including Ebola in its war against the West, a top official said in parliament on Wednesday.

Spain’s state secretary for security, Francisco Martínez, has told Congress that jihadists with connections to the extremist force Isis have discussed on internet forums how they could use Ebola as a weapon against the United States and the West in general.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

UK: Police ‘Put Cap on Arrests’ In Rochdale Sex Abuse Inquiry: Social Worker Whistleblower Says Dozens of Offenders Are Still on Streets

Dozens of child sex offenders are still walking the streets because police refused to arrest them, according to a whistleblower,

Sara Rowbotham has accused police of putting a cap on the number of child sex offenders they arrested for raping and abusing young girls.

The veteran social worker, who was responsible for gathering the main evidence in the 2012 Rochdale child sex abuse case, said that as a result dozens of sex offenders were still walking the streets preying on children.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

UK:80% of London Muslims Support ISIS

by Daniel Greenfield

There are about 1 million Muslim settlers in London where they make up 12 percent of the population. These figures suggest that the vast majority of them, perhaps as high as 80 percent , support ISIS.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

EU-Funded Trainings to Teach Advocacy Techniques to Moroccan CSOs

Fifteen civil society organisations (CSO) that benefit from EU grants have taken part in a second training session on the techniques of advocacy, mobilization and building alliances organized by the EU-funded Civil Society Facility in Rabat, Morocco.

The aim of the training was to contribute to enhancing the knowledge and capacities of the CSOs and beneficiaries of this programme in terms of methods, tools, advocacy strategies and building alliances.

This training was organised for CSOs receiving EU grants, especially those that include an “advocacy” component in their projects. A first training session on this issue took place in April 2014 and a third one will be held in early 2015.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

ISIS: Libya Baghdadi Proclaimed Chief of Derna Caliphate

(ANSAmed) — CAIRO, OCTOBER 31 — Islamic State leader, Abu Bakr al Baghdadi was nominated chief of the Derna Caliphate, a town in the east of Libya which had already fallen under jihadi rule, local media reported Friday. A handmade bomb was detonated in a square hosting celebrations for al Baghdadi’s nomination. The bomb exploded on a stand occupied by the Isis-affiliated Council of islamic youth.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Caroline Glick: Being Safe While Isolated

Yehudah Glick has spent the better part of the last 20 years championing the right of Jews to pray on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem — Judaism’s holiest site. On Wednesday night, the Palestinians sent a hit man to Jerusalem to kill him.

And today Glick lays in a coma at Shaare Zedek Medical Center.

Two people bear direct responsibility for this terrorist attack: the gunman, and Palestinian Authority President and PLO chief Mahmoud Abbas. The gunman shot Glick, and Abbas told him to shoot Glick.

Abbas routinely glorifies terrorist murder of Jews, and funds terrorism with the PA’s US- and European-funded budget.

But it isn’t often that he directly incites the murder of Jews.

Two weeks ago, Abbas did just that. Speaking to Fatah members, he referred to Jews who wish to pray at Judaism’s holiest site as “settlers.” He then told his audience that they must remain on the Temple Mount at all times to block Jews from entering..

“We must prevent them from entering [the Temple Mount] in any way…. They have no right to enter and desecrate [it]. We must confront them and defend our holy sites,” he said.

As Palestinian Media Watch reported Thursday, in the three days leading up to the assassination attempt on Glick, the PA’s television station broadcast Abbas’s call for attacks on Jews who seek to enter the Temple Mount 19 times.

While Abbas himself is responsible for the hit on Glick, he has had one major enabler — the Obama administration. Since Abbas first issued the order for Palestinians to attack Jews, there have been two terrorist attacks in Jerusalem. Both have claimed American citizens among their victims. Yet the Obama administration has refused to condemn Abbas’s call to murder Jews either before it led to the first terrorist attack or since Glick was shot Wednesday night…

           — Hat tip: Caroline Glick [Return to headlines]
 

Fatah Calls for ‘Day of Rage’ In Jerusalem

Media report tensions in West Bank. Temple Mount reopened

(ANSAmed) — TEL AVIV — Fatah, the organisation led by Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas called for a “day of rage” in Jerusalem and the West Bank after the killing of Muataz Hijazi, a suspect in the shooting against hardline rabbi Yehuda Glick, Palestinian media reported Friday.

Fatah sources quoted by Haaretz, announced that protest marches would take place in the West Bank after Friday prayer and stressed that tensions were mounting. Friday morning Israeli police reopened Temple Mount to worshippers, closed off Thursday after Glick was ambushed. Israeli police completed its security checks but allowed entry to the holy site only to men above 50 years and women of all ages.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Rejectionism: The Barrier to Real Peace in the Mideast

by Matthew M. Hausman

The following is the text of remarks delivered at a program in Fairfield, Connecticut on September 22, 2014. The program focused on the doctrinal, cultural and historical bases for anti-Israel rejectionism and the resulting impediment to lasting peace.

Let’s start off with two questions to establish some context.

How many Zionists does it take to screw in a light bulb? The answer is three: the first one to raise the funds and buy the bulb; the second to screw it in; and the third to proclaim that the entire Jewish People stands behind the actions of the first two.

Now, how many Jewish radicals does it take to screw in a light bulb? The answer is only two: one to screw it in and the other to denounce the burning out of the first bulb as a Zionist plot.

Tongue and cheek aside, self-rejection has been a persistent phenomenon throughout Jewish history, often manifesting as the repudiation of tradition, observance, Jewish national character and, perhaps most critically in our generation, the State of Israel.

There were Hellenizers during the Greek period, apostates who assisted the Dominicans in persecuting fellow Jews during the Middle Ages, Soviet collaborators who criminalized the practice of Judaism in the former Soviet Union, and kapos during the Second World War.

Today there are some, particularly on the political left, who express their hatred for Israel by advocating Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (“BDS”) activities, participating in Israel Apartheid Week, and supporting the anti-Israel lawfare movement. This phenomenon must be acknowledged preliminarily to show that rejectionist thinking exists within the wider Jewish community, where it is often tolerated by progressive establishment leaders as an alternative, yet authentic, point of view. This is nonsense, however; and rejectionism should be exposed for the self-loathing that it is.

Why is this important? Because if we don’t recognize the self-contempt of some elements within our own community, we won’t be able to deal effectively with the doctrinal, cultural, and political rejectionism that comes from the outside and stands in the way of real peace and acceptance of Israel.

           — Hat tip: Jerry Gordon [Return to headlines]
 

1,000 Muslims Streaming Into Syria Every Month to Join the Islamic State

More than 1,000 foreign fighters are streaming into Syria each month, a rate that has so far been unchanged by airstrikes against the Islamic State and efforts by other countries to stem the flow of departures, according to U.S. intelligence and counterterrorism officials.

The magnitude of the ongoing migration suggests that the U.S.-led air campaign has neither deterred significant numbers of militants from traveling to the region nor triggered such outrage that even more are flocking to the fight because of American intervention.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Foreign Jihadists Flocking to Iraq and Syria on ‘Unprecedented Scale’ — UN

UN report suggests decline of al-Qaida has yielded an explosion of jihadist enthusiasm for its even mightier successor organisations, chiefly Isis

The United Nations has warned that foreign jihadists are swarming into the twin conflicts in Iraq and Syria on “an unprecedented scale” and from countries that had not previously contributed combatants to global terrorism.

They come from more than 80 countries, the report states, “including a tail of countries that have not previously faced challenges relating to al-Qaida”.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Foreign Office Issues Worldwide Terrorism Warning for British Tourists

British holidaymakers travelling anywhere in the world have been told to be vigilant as they are at risk of being attacked by Islamist terrorists.

The Foreign Office on Friday night issued a worldwide travel warning, saying tourists were at a risk of attack as a result of Britain’s intervention in Iraq and Syria.

The warning applies to every country in the world, and the FCO updated travel guidance on its website. It reflects a “generalised threat” to Britons, rather than intelligence of a specific and credible attack.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

ISIS: UN 15,000 Foreign Fighters in Syria and Iraq

“Unprecedented” growing numbers

(ANSAmed) — ROME, OCT 31 — An “unprecedented” number of foreign fighters coming from countries that had never offered “manpower” to islamic terrorism before, have joined the ranks of jihadi militants, The Guardian reported Friday, publishing excerpts from a new United Nations report . “Fifteen-thousand” foreign fighters joined Isis and other extremist groups in Syria and Iraq . They belong to 80 different countries. The UN does not provide a detailed list but mentions just a few countries — the Maldives, Cile and Norway — that were never before thought of as jihadi birthplaces.

“More foreign fighters have been reported since 2010 than during the 1990-2010, twenty-year span”. And the numbers “keep growing” states the report.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

ISIS: 1,000 Foreign Fighters Reach Syria Each Month

In spite of air raids by U.S. and allies

(ANSAmed) — NEW YORK, OCTOBER 31 — About 1,000 foreign fighters each month are believed to reach Syria to join fundamentalist Islamist groups, a flow not stemmed by the start of air raids carried out by the United States and allies against ISIS, according to US intelligence.

“The flow of fighters making their way to Syria remains constant, so the overall number continues to rise”, a US intelligence official, whose name was withheld, told the Washington Post.

With US intelligence estimating that such a flow of foreign fighters has continued over the past year, the Post estimated their numbers now exceed 16,000 — similar to the figure cited by a UN report, which put their number at around 15,000.

According to the latest estimates, air raids carried out by allied forces have killed in Syria some 460 militants from ISIS and about 60 from the al Nusra Front.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Jordan Bans Halloween After Muslim Brotherhood Condemns it as “Homosexual and Satanic”

Jordan has banned Halloween fearing of a backlash from Muslim fundamentalists who condemn the festival as ‘homosexual and Satanic.’

Ministry of Interior spokesperson Ziad Al Zoubi confirmed the decision to Al Ghad daily. He said all sorts of activities surrounding Halloween had been banned to prevent a repeat of the previous two years’ riots in the capital Amman.

The ministry was forced to make the ban public after several groups asked the department permission to hold celebrations.

In 2012, the Muslim Brotherhood attacked Halloween celebrations and set fire to a cafe where a party was being held.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

The Iraqi WMDs and Other Disgraces

by Michael Ledeen

We are beginning to learn that the Bush administration declined to talk about the discovery of thousands of WMDs in Iraq. But that’s only the beginning of the story, since that policy was just one part of a concerted and largely successful effort to quash unwanted news from the battlefield. That effort predated the invasion of Iraq by two years, and its consequences — a systematic distortion of recent history that shapes our national security policies — are still very much with us.

Of the Bush administration’s many failures, its inability to craft and pursue a serious Iran policy was one of the worst. I don’t know all their reasons, but I do know that they didn’t want to know about Iranian killers of Americans on the ground in both Iraq and Afghanistan. My information is first hand, it doesn’t hinge on leaks from “sources.”

Afghanistan came first, as we invaded shortly after 9/11/2001…

           — Hat tip: DS [Return to headlines]
 

N. Korea Threatens to Halt Cooperation on Human Rights

North Korea warned Thursday it would stop engaging with the international community on human rights issues if a resolution is presented to the United Nations requesting Pyongyang be referred to the International Criminal Court for possible prosecution.

A draft resolution is to be presented by the EU and Japan to the UN General Assembly later this week that is expected to harshly condemn rights abuses in North Korea, based on the findings of a recent UN report.

In the past, the totalitarian regime had refused to discuss rights issue, but in recent weeks has held rare UN briefings, ostensibly in a bid to growing global criticism.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

At Least 8 Killed in Nigeria Bus Station Blasts

3 explosions in rush hour in Gombe

(ANSA) — Rome, October 31 — At least eight people died Friday in three explosions at a bus station in north-eastern Nigeria.

Many people were injured in the rush-hour blast in Gombe city. Witnesses spoke of three bags of explosives going off.

Gombe shares a border with three states placed under emergency rule to fight the Boko Haram Islamist insurgency.

The group has taken full control of Mubi, a commercial centre in Adamawa.

It is the largest town Boko Haram has taken since it stepped up its insurgency when the state of emergency was declared in May 2013 in Adamawa, Borno and Yobe.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Burkina Faso President Quits Amid Crisis

After torching of parliament, 30 dead

(ANSA) — Rome, October 31 — Burkina Faso President Blaise Compaore stood down Friday as hundreds of protesters gathered in the capital Ouagadougou following Thursday’s torching of parliament and riots in which 30 people were killed.

Compaore voiced the hope there would be a peaceful transfer of power after elections within 90 days.

Earlier Friday opposition leader Zephirin Diabre urged protesters to occupy public spaces.

Demonstrators were angry Compaore had been seeking to amend the Constitution to stay in power beyond next year.

The creation of a transitional government to serve until 2015 elections was announced by army chief Gen Honore Traore, who said it would “be put in place in consultation with all parties”. He also declared the dissolution of parliament.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Congo Crowd Kills Man, Eats Him After Militant Massacres: Witnesses

BENI Democratic Republic of Congo (Reuters) — A crowd stoned to death a young man in northeast Congo on Friday before burning and eating his corpse, witnesses said, in apparent revenge for a series of attacks by Ugandan rebels.

The incident in the town of Beni followed a number of overnight raids in the area blamed on the Islamist group ADF-NAUL, who are thought to have massacred more than 100 people this month, using hatchets and machetes to kill their victims.

Witnesses said the man, who has not been identified, aroused suspicion on a bus when passengers discovered he could not speak the local Swahili language and that he was carrying a machete.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Sierra Leone Ebola Outbreak ‘Catastrophic’: Aid Group MSF

(AFP) — Ebola has wiped out whole villages in Sierra Leone and may have caused many more deaths than the nearly 5,000 official global toll, a senior coordinator of the medical aid group MSF said Friday.

Rony Zachariah of Doctors Without Borders, known by its French initials MSF, said after visiting Sierra Leone that the Ebola figures were “under-reported”, in an interview with AFP on the sidelines of a medical conference in Barcelona.

“The situation is catastrophic. There are several villages and communities that have been basically wiped out. In one of the villages I went to, there were 40 inhabitants and 39 died,” he said.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Argentina Lures Oil Investment

Lawmakers in Argentina have passed a bill to attract more foreign investment, offering longer concessions to oil companies. The country is trying to boost domestic oil production and reduce reliance on costly imports. The Vaca Muerta shale formation is one promising source.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Hundreds of Migrants Attempt to Enter Spanish Enclave

Some 350 migrants on Wednesday attempted to scale the seven-metre border fences separating the Spanish enclave of Melilla with Morocco, reports AFP. None managed to get across but the event adds to the more than 60 such attempts by 14,000 migrants so far this year.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Italy: Mare Nostrum Ends as Triton Takes Over, Says Alfano

EU Frontex op to start patrolling the Med on Saturday

(ANSA) — Rome, October 31 — Interior Minister Angelino Alfano confirmed Friday that Italy’s Mare Nostrum migrant search and rescue operation ends Friday with the European Union’s maritime patrol operation, Triton, taking over Saturday.

Triton comes after strenuous pressure from Italy for the EU to take over its Mare Nostrum mission, which was set up in October 2013 after almost 400 people perished off the coast of Sicily in two migrant boat disasters.

Italy has saved some 150,000 lives in the 12 months since Mare Nostrum began.

“Mare Nostrum was conceived as a limited, emergency operation after the Lampedusa tragedy, and it went on longer than expected,” Alfano said. “Today we can say Italy did its duty”.

Operated by EU border agency Frontex, Triton will employ six ships, two airplanes and a helicopter, and will have bases on the island of Lampedusa — Italy’s southernmost point, where most vessels sailing from North Africa first make landfall — and Porto Empedocle on the coast of Sicily.

But with only one-third of the budget of Mare Nostrum, officials have said Triton will emphasize border control over rescue.

Alfano stressed the monetary advantages to Italy of no longer having to save refugee lives on its own. Triton will have a budget of three million euros a month, while Italy spent 9.5 million euros a month on Mare Nostrum, he said.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Spain: 150 Migrants Stopped From Crossing Melilla Border

(ANSAmed) — MADRID, OCTOBER 29 — A reported 150 sub-Saharan migrants were stopped on Wednesday morning as they were trying to cross the border into Melilla, a Spanish enclave in Morocco.

At least three were able to cross into Spanish territory and reached the migrant holding center (Ceti) of the Spanish autonomous city, police sources said.

Police forces deployed in large numbers both on the Spanish and Moroccan sides of the border rejected the assault, which occurred at 7.30 am in the border area of Mariguari, close to the river of Gold.

Over 3,500 migrants were able to cross the border from January 1 until July 15 this year, up 230% from the same period in 2013 and more than all of last year, when 2,638 migrants crossed the border illegally.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Italy: Marino Defies Prefect Over Gay Marriage

New York City mayor tells Marino to ‘keep up the good fight’

(ANSA) — Rome, October 31 — Rome Mayor Ignazio Marino said Friday he would not obey the city prefect’s order to scrub the recent transcription of foreign gay marriages. “We do not accept the prefect’s order to cancel the transcriptions that have already been logged,” he said of his purely symbolic move. Marino in his defiance of the interior minister joins a number of mayors across Italy, including those of Milan, Bologna, Udine and Grosseto.

He walked into contested, administrative no-man’s land earlier this month when he transcribed 16 same-sex marriages legally performed abroad at the Rome prefecture.

In Italy, civil unions between same-sex partners are not yet nationally recognized, much less marriage, which is defined as a union between a man and a woman. However the recognition of same-sex marriages performed abroad, especially in countries with which Italy is bound by treaties, the question is subject to debate.

Marino has received support from gay activists and lawyers of couples whose marriages were transcribed, but the Catholic political movement Italia Cristiana has registered a formal complaint against Marino for contravening State law. The movement also called for the centre-left politician to be removed from his post.

On Friday, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio called Marino and reportedly praised his “strong and courageous stance”, telling him to “keep going my friend, keep fighting the good fight”.

De Blasio, a liberal Democrat, met with Marino, who is from the ruling Democratic Party (PD), during a visit to Rome in July, when he was on his way to visit his family’s ancestral home on the island of Capri.

“I feel at home,” De Blasio enthused at the time. “I feel close to my family. Mayor Marino and I hit it off right away”.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Sharia Law or Gay Marriage Critics Would be Branded ‘Extremists’ Under Tory Plans, Atheists and Christians Warn

Anyone who criticises Sharia law or gay marriage could be branded an “extremist” under sweeping new powers planned by the Conservatives to combat terrorism, an alliance of leading atheists and Christians fear.

Theresa May, the Home Secretary, unveiled plans last month for so-called Extremism Disruption Orders, which would allow judges to ban people deemed extremists from broadcasting, protesting in certain places or even posting messages on Facebook or Twitter without permission.

Mrs May outlined the proposal in a speech at the Tory party conference in which she spoke about the threat from the so-called Islamic State — also known as Isis and Isil — and the Nigerian Islamist movement Boko Haram.

But George Osborne, the Chancellor, has made clear in a letter to constituents that the aim of the orders would be to “eliminate extremism in all its forms” and that they would be used to curtail the activities of those who “spread hate but do not break laws”.

[George Orwell knew his countrymen all too well, it seems. — PW]

           — Hat tip: Papa Whiskey [Return to headlines]
 

3 thoughts on “Gates of Vienna News Feed 10/31/2014

  1. And you can guess who they will be used against cant you? Comrade Ed is also talking about criminalising speech that defames a religion, race etc. Christ knows we have had 4000 pieces of similar “legislation”, including the horrid Section 5, which our sharia enforcers in the Police “Service” just love to use at every opportunity. A football fan in Liverpool was given a caution for “hate-speech” when another blubbed to the Police that he had criticised his team as “Rubbish”.

    Politicians like May and Cameron are not “Tories” by any stretch of the imagination. From what I can observe they are pure unadulterated Gramscian Social Democrats-Commies- yet fools keep voting for them. I have just been “excommunicated” from my own Church by a couple of fellow Bishops, who love to dialogue with Islam. They don’t like my stance on the matter.

    I will say yet again, there can be no “dialogue” with a cult that even had to invent the existence of its “Prophet” Mohammed as an inferior kind of Arab Christ, that even its own scholars argue as to the correct spelling and grammar. Mohammed is a gerund-
    an adverbial clause turned into a name.

    The source of the Persian/Syriac acronym MHMD is in fact a reference to Christ as the “Praiser of God” similar to the Greek or Latin LFDD- ‘laus Deo’ and other versions found across the Inner Sea. And if May and Cameron think they are going to force myself and others to support a lie and absolute fake “religion” and all its nonsense, then HM Government are going to have one hell of a problem with not only me but millions of others.

    In polite language “Intercourse off!”

  2. One of the concepts behind open borders and mass imagination is to radicalize the incomers with civiluzation. This latest bunch are real losers who have no concept of God. The All for these creatures apparently is purely degenerate usts and stuff. There is still time before the cowardly “come home” to top up so to speak.

  3. Maybe the EU is bringing about an ‘esperit de corps’ that will in a short while become unstoppable. Much to their surprise and the utterly devasting chagrin of their muslim fifth column fellow travellers?

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