Western Taxpayers Funding Abuse of Palestinians

In this mailing: - Bassam Tawil: Western Taxpayers Funding Abuse of Palestinians - Richard Kemp: Smoke & Mirrors: Six Weeks of Violence on the Gaza Border - Burak Bekdil: Turkey: Erdogan's Islamist "Family Engineering" [] [Western Taxpayers Funding Abuse of Palestinians]( by Bassam Tawil • May 14, 2018 at 5:00 am [Facebook]( [Twitter]( [Addthis]( [Send]( [Print]( - The new law, known as the Palestinian Cyber Crime Law, comes in the wake of the PA and its supporters continuing falsely to accuse Israel of targeting Palestinian journalists. The PA leadership's goal is to ensure that leaders are immune from journalistic critique. - Now journalists and Palestinian human rights organizations will not be able to say that the crackdown on public freedoms and freedom of the media is illegal. - The silence of the international community and human rights groups allows Mahmoud Abbas and his allies to get away with assaults on public freedoms and move forward towards creating a dictatorial regime for the Palestinians -- one funded with American and European taxpayers' money. - The last thing the Middle East needs is another repressive Arab regime. It is also the last thing the Palestinians want. Palestinian journalists protest in Nablus to demand that the Palestinian Authority release their colleague, Tareq Abu Zeid, after an earlier arrest. (Image source: Al Resalah) In a move that has angered Palestinian human rights organizations and journalists, the Palestinian Authority (PA) on April 17 approved a new law that restricts freedom of expression and the media. The move is seen by Palestinians in the context of the PA's effort to silence its critics and suppress public freedoms. Palestinian journalists call it a declaration of war on the media. Ironically, the approval of the new law, known as the Palestinian Cyber Crime Law, comes in the wake of the PA and its supporters continuing falsely to accuse Israel of targeting Palestinian journalists. The accusations refer to the death of two journalists in the Gaza Strip who were shot in recent weeks by Israeli soldiers during violent clashes between Palestinian protesters and the Israel Defense Forces. [Continue Reading Article]( [] [Smoke & Mirrors: Six Weeks of Violence on the Gaza Border]( by Richard Kemp • May 14, 2018 at 4:30 am [Facebook]( [Twitter]( [Addthis]( [Send]( [Print]( - Hamas's use of actual smoke and mirrors to conceal its aggressive manoeuvring on the Gaza border is the perfect metaphor for a strategy that has no viable military purpose but seeks to deceive the international community into criminalising a democratic state defending its citizens. - The UN and EU, NGOs, government officials and media — primary targets for Hamas — have been willingly taken in. For example a Guardian headline, 'The use of lethal force to cow nonviolent demonstrations by Palestinians', blatantly misrepresents the violent reality that has been plain for all to see. Likewise the NGO Human Rights Watch claims that we are seeing a movement to 'affirm Palestinians' internationally-recognised right of return'. - In reality these demonstrations are far from peaceful and do not pursue any so-called 'right of return'. Rather they are carefully planned and orchestrated military operations intended to break through the border of a sovereign state and commit mass murder in the communities beyond, using their own civilians as cover. The purpose: to criminalise and isolate the State of Israel. - Hamas are planning to achieve maximum violence at the Gaza border on either the 14th or 15th May, coinciding with the 70th anniversary of the declaration of the State of Israel, the opening of the US embassy in Jerusalem and the start of Ramadan — a perfect storm. Hamas operatives set fire to thousands of tires, creating smoke screens to obfuscate their movements towards the Israel border fence. The operatives hide among the civilian crowd with weapons, seeking an opportunity to breach the fence and enter Israel. (Image source: HLMG/IDF) Since 30th March Hamas has been orchestrating large-scale violence on the border between Gaza and Israel. The major flare-ups have generally occurred on Fridays, following mosque prayers, when we have repeatedly seen concerted action involving crowds of up to 40,000 people in five separate areas along the border. Violence and aggressive actions, including specific acts of terrorism involving explosives and firearms, have also occurred at other times during this period. [Continue Reading Article]( [] [Turkey: Erdogan's Islamist "Family Engineering"]( by Burak Bekdil • May 14, 2018 at 4:00 am [Facebook]( [Twitter]( [Addthis]( [Send]( [Print]( - Since Turkey's Recep Tayyip Erdoğan came to power, he has often described his mission as "raising devout [Muslim] generations." - In a speech in 2017, Erdoğan -- reflecting his Islamist worldview which often comes with a seeming desire to Islamize Christian Europe -- called on Turkish families living in Europe to have five children. - To the Turkish regime, as long as children have a religious education, and can cite Arabic prayers that they do not understand, everything is fine. If education standards fall constantly, and children to go factories to work instead of schools, or are married off by their parents and drop out of school, and even if there is escalating child abuse, all is well... Pictured: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan visits an Imam Hatip high school, on April 2, 2018. (Image source: aHBR video screenshot) There is an annual Kodak-moment in Turkey's festivities every National Sovereignty and Children's Day, April 23, in which Turkish leaders pick out smart schoolchildren, bring them to the president's and prime minister's offices, invite them to sit in their seats with the president and prime minister there -- and hope the children to make a few witty remarks in front of the cameras. The statesmen then give the children affectionate pats on the shoulder and smile at the cameras. This year, Fatih Mintaş, a sixth-grade student, took President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's seat and had a chat with him. The president first reminded Fatih that he should be proud of his name (Fatih in Turkish means "conqueror"). Erdoğan then reminded Fatih that he, the president, has six grandchildren and wished that Fatih, too, would have plenty of grandchildren when he grows up. 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