Today, Paris's centuries old cathedral Notre Dame caught on fire and is in the process of being destroyed. The world famous spire and roof of the Gothic cathedral are gone, and the wooden structure that's supporting the roof is being destroyed by the blaze. It is quite likely that if Notre Dame is ever rebuilt, it will both take years, cost a great deal and lack the historic milleau of its predecessor, built in the 12th century and completed a century later. A century to build, a day to destroy...
Officially, the fire is being referred to by the authorities as an 'accident occurring while renovation work was in progress. ' While this might be true, the complete destruction involved is against it. To think of this as an accident is to assume the following:
1.The timing (holy week) and the recent previous vandalizing of Churches throughout France in recent weeks at Saint-Sulpice and Saint Denis (and its priceless pipe organ) are just, you know, coincidences. ( Just in passing, the media isn't reporting much on this)
2. The Muslims in Paris are very peaceful, law abiding and respect other religions.
3 The construction crew doing the repairs would never hire Muslims.
3) No Muslim or Muslims would risk their jobs to take the opportunity to destroy one of Christianity's most famous buildings in Holy Week.
4 The construct crew was so incompetent that they set multiple fires in different parts of the area they were working on...whoopsie.
Let's just say Je suis très sceptique. *
On the other hand, we all know the timing and the previous vandalism of France's churches is suspicious, also that generally, speaking many Muslims in Paris are neither peaceful, law abiding or respectful of other people's religions in the least. And that it Muslim migrants frequently are involved in construction work, and that any construction company entrusted with working on a famous landmark and a major tourist attraction would be chosen by the City of Paris based on their track record of safety and successful completion of jobs like this.
The last I heard, the fire had spread to Ile de la Cité, a pleasant little island in the Seine within the city of Paris. The population of about 1,000 people has been evacuated. The Seine isn't particularly wide there, so there's the unpleasant possibility of spreading further.
Eh Bien, what happens if the authorities find out it was Muslims who burned down Notre Dame?
My guess would be nothing. Much of France's media has already bought into surrender, and President Macron's victory in what was one of France's few crooked elections was definitely helped by a Muslim block vote, especially in Paris and Marseilles. So in my opinion, no matter what this will be kept quiet and marked down as an accident...tres triste, n'est pah?**
Even if it does go public, the media will caution against, you know, hate speech. After all, what's a few centuries of civilization? Even Pope Francis would likely call for calm and tolerance.
What Hitler and the Nazis couldn't do, France's invited 'guests' seem to have begun, and not just in Paris. The match has been lit. We'll see what happens.
Update: Twitter and other social media are filed with French Muslim Arabs cheering the fire at Notre Dame. just mentioning this in passing .
* I'm very skeptical.
**Very sad, isn't it?
Rob Miller writes for Joshuapundit. His articles have appeared in The Jerusalem Post, The Washington Examiner, American Thinker, The Los Angeles Times, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The San Francisco Chronicle, Real Clear Politics, The Times Of Israel, Breitbart.Com, Yediot and other publications.
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While Marine Le Pen is leading in the polls for the first round of France's election, the current Socialist government has apparently found an underhanded way to defeat her...by massively rigging the votes due to a 'computer error.'
Over 500,000 French citizens living outside France received two voting cards and thus have a chance to vote twice in the first round.
As the UK Express reports, France’s Interior Ministry has said it will not be invalidating the election because of the duplicate voting glitch, and French authorities confirmed they would not be investigating the potential electoral fraud until AFTER the election.
Chief beneficiary here is likely to be Emmanuel Macron, who is running as an independent but is a long time prominent member of the Socialist Party. In fact, he was formerly an under-secretary in Socialist François Hollande's first government in 2012 before being appointed Hollande's Minister of Economy, Industry and Digital Affairs in 2014. He and Hollande still have very close personal ties.
Most expatriate citizens of France are not on the Right, and many are pro EU because they feel it benefits their expat status. We are talking about potentially half a million votes here, more than enough to swing a close election.
Voting twice is a crime, but the only way to find out who committed in ifs if the authorities run a thorough check through their computer systems. If the Socialists return to power via Maron, I'd call that a pretty unlikely possibility.
If you read nothing else today, take the time to read this gripping interview on the November 2015 Bataclan jihad attack in Paris with Eagles of Death Metal vocalist Jesse Hughes. The interview was conducted by Gavin McInnes over at Taki's Magazine. Hughes's band was onstage when the jihad killings occurred. This is his eye witness account of what happened. Hughes feels that the media totally misrepresented the story, with details pulled out of context from his previous interviews and manipulated to support editorializing and commentary that was completely opposed to his views.
Hughes tells exactly what happened, how it was handled and the implications for the future in the War on Jihad.
Here's a taste:
McInnes: It’s hard to talk about the attack without sounding like you’re blaming the victims, but it’s impossible to deny fear of Islamophobia and fear of guns led to a lot of deaths that night.
Jesse Hughes:: I saw fear fall like a blanket on the whole crowd and they fell like wheat in the wind—the way you would before a god. I was totally alert from the very beginning. The first thing I needed to do was find my girl. Fear took a backseat and “where’s my girl?” took over. I could smell gunpowder in the backstage area and I knew someone fired a round back there. I saw a guy with an FAL and when he turned to face me his eyes looked like marbles. He was stoned out of his mind, and we now know they were on Xanax and cocaine. I recognized him. I’d seen him earlier in the day and noticed him staring at us.
McInnes: They were in the venue early. That implies some staff were in on it.
Jesse Hughes:I got in a lot of trouble for saying that. I know for sure that they were in there early. I remember them staring at my buddy. I just chalked it up to Arab envy. You know what I mean? When a Muslim sees a cocky American dude with tattoos, he stares at him. I realized later it was Abdeslam and he was staring at my buddy because they thought he was a threat. There’s no denying the terrorists were already inside, and they had to get in somehow. During the shooting I went outside and the backstage door was propped open. How did that happen?
McInnes: Do you think political correctness is killing our natural instincts and making us vulnerable?
Jesse Hughes:Definitely. There were two girls who were involved. They were at the venue and vanished before the shooting, and these women were in traditional Muslim garb. They knew people wouldn’t check them because of the way they were dressed. They got caught a few days later.
McInnes:The fear of offending Muslims is a terrorist’s greatest weapon.
Jesse Hughes:Look at the guys who bombed Brussels. They were wearing black gloves on one hand. Their luggage was too heavy to lift, but they didn’t want anyone helping them with it. Nobody brought any of this up until after the bombs went off.
McInnes:We’d rather die than be called a bigot.
Jesse Hughes: How is a faith being associated with racism? Just take out the word “Islam” and replace it with “communism.” It’s an ideology. The same way the Rosenbergs could sell nuclear secrets from within America is the same way Muslim terrorists can attack us from within. It’s okay to be discerning when it comes to Muslims in this day and age.
McInnes: Where is this push coming from? Is it all our fault?
Jesse Hughes:Of course not. When you’re at a soccer game in Europe and you see the words “United Arab Emirates,” you know there is a lot of Arab money floating around and influencing the dialogue. The conversation is constantly being steered away from scrutiny. They think we’re fools.
Arab money is a pollutant. So many movies are made with Arab money. George Clooney doesn’t kiss the ass of the Arabs for no reason. American movies are the best way to influence the hearts and minds of the world.
Read the whole interview at Taki's Magazine. Highly recommended.
The Louvre in Paris is one of the most famous art museums in the world, the home of priceless works of art and culture. It's an historic landmark as well as a huge sanctuary that dates back to the 12th century for some of the finest creative efforts of mankind.It's impossible to see everything in a single day. Nearly 35,000 exhibits from prehistory to the 21st century are exhibited over nearly two acres. And today the Louvre was targeted by a Muslim terrorist.
Incroyable. This is what it has come to.
29-year-old Abdallah EH (full name not released yet) is an Egyptian, who arrived in France on a flight from Dubai on January 26 and reportedly applied for refugee status. He came to the Louvre with a backpack that contained paint bombs, according to the Paris Chief of Police. When security guards asked him to open his backpack, his pulled out a machete, started yelling the old war cry ' Allahu Akbar!' and attacked one guard who sustained a head wound. He then was shot several times by the other guards, critically wounding him. There's a report that he had an accomplice, who fled and is still being sought by the police.
The terrified museum patrons who had come for a day of enjoying the marvels the Louvre has to offer were put in lock down for several hours and then evacuated.
The paint bombs pretty much tell us the story. Abdallah and his partner intended to vandalize and slash as many of the priceless and irreplaceable works of art as they could and kill as many infidels as possible in the process. Islam, as some of you may know, forbids any artwork depicting the human form and has a dim view of artwork in general.What better way to tell the kuffars (nonbelievers) that France belongs to Islam now then to attack the Louvre?
US President Donald Trump tweeted following the attack in the French capital: 'A new radical Islamic terrorist has just attacked in Louvre Museum in Paris. Tourists were locked down. France on edge again. GET SMART U.S.'
Indeed.
In a few months the French are going to decide their destiny in elections. They are going to decide whether they want to be a declining part of Dar Islam or the free France their forefathers fought to preserve. I think they are going to choose the latter, but we'll see. In any event, I'm sure Marine Le Pen and the Front National received another boost in the polls today.
Here's a wonderfully fiery speech by French politician Marine Le Pen of the Front National, speaking to a gathering of anti-EU populist parties in Koblenz, Germany a few days ago. And yes, The Donald gets a couple of mentions, as she cites President Trump and the UK's Theresa May as harbingers of a new age in Europe. That's exactly what Marine Le Pen means when she says that "The Anglo-Saxons are Awake! The Continent Is Next!"
Madame Le Pen currently ahead in the polls for the coming French presidential elections, as much of a shock to the EU establishment as Trump's ascendancy shocked the Left in America. This is the brave woman who will save France.
Like her Dutch and German counterparts Geert Wilders and Frauke Petry, Marine Le Pen is a voice for freedom in Europe. If you haven;t heard her speak before, you're in for a treat. Well worth the detour.
Bien dit, Marine! Vers le bas avec l'UE et vive la liberté!
In France, July 14th is Bastille Day, when the French revel on the anniversary of their independence and the beginnings of the establishment of their republic. In some ways it's very much like America's July Fourth. There are parades, topped by a military parade along Paris’ famed Champs-Elysées along with fireworks and gatherings in public places.
This Bastille Day, there were fireworks of a different sort.
Nice is a common seaside spot for French families to take a vacation holiday this time of year, and one of the Bastille Day attractions is a magnificent fireworks show, one of many along France's Cote D'Azur on the Mediterranean. Hundreds of people were enjoying the gorgeous sight of the fireworks reflected on the water.
This was the target of a jihadi who plowed into the crowd at full speed that was leaving the celebration on the Promenade des Anglais. In a large rented white truck,he drove through them for a kilometer of so - over a mile- chasing down more victims and even pursuing them on to the pavement in places. He then stepped out of the vehicle and opened fire indiscriminately on the traumatized milling crowd until he was shot down by police and killed. Here's what it looked like:
The death toll is at 84 so far, not counting the jihadi and rising, with a number of people in critical condition.
A large cache of heavy weapons, grenades and explosives was found in the truck. And while the authorities are still noncommital, a number of eyewitnesses have said there were two jihadis in the truck, one who fired at the crowd while the other was running people down. It would certainly make sense given the large body count. And if that's the case, one of them escaped.
And a note to President Barack Hussein Obama and Mrs. Clinton...France's strict gun laws, a mirror of how these people would love to disarm Americans doesn't stop jihadis from getting whatever weapons they want.
This particular tactic is pretty much standard operating procedure in the Middle East, although usually it takes the form of stationary truck bombs. Recently in Israel, one of the Arabs who call themselves Palestinians was working at a construction site and attempted a similar attack on pedestrians using a bulldozer. Given that it was Israel, his results were nowhere near as successful as the jihad attack in Nice. He was shot down and killed by one of his intended victims in minutes.
In a separate incident, the Eiffel Tower, a symbol of France's glory and achievement is on fire.
The official line is that the fire was caused by a truck carrying fireworks that somehow caught on fire.
Odd though, since while the Eiffel Tower is also a traditional site of Bastille Day fireworks, fireworks explode rather than burn and the fireworks themselves are not set off right by the Tower, where the truck was, but some distance away.
And being iron, the Tower itself doesn't burn, although some of the buildings inside would. In fact, the last fire on the Eiffel Tower was a kitchen fire in a restaurant. But the Tower has never before been on fire like this.
The jihadi who was shot down by police has been identified as a 31-year-old Tunisian Muslim named Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel. What angers me most today is the media's attempt to portray him as a simple criminal. That's pretty much based on an interview with his Muslim cousin, who of course claimed that Bouhlel was 'not a Muslim' because he 'ate pork, drank alcohol and those are forbidden by Islam' according to the Daily Mail's account.
The 9/11 hijackers also ate pork, drank alcohol and frequently visited strip clubs, if you remember. That's allowed if you are on a jihad for Allah and need cover. So is lying to infidels is to advance Islam. To quote Mohammed himself numerous times in the Qu'ran and hadiths, 'War is deception.'
And as we also know, the back of the truck was filled with fully automatic weapons, explosives and hand grenades. Items like that aren't obtainable by a simple, inexperienced loan wolf criminal, especially not in France. Speculation on my part, but I think Bouhlel's mission (and that of his partner if he had one) was a replica of Paris; murder as many people as possible on the Promenade and then proceed to a targeted building like a club or restaurant where other jihadis were waiting, take it over, wire it with explosives to prevent a police or special forces assault and either trade the hostages for imprisoned jihadis or just simply kill off those inside.
If I'm right, than it's likely Bouhlel failed to make it to the rendezvous point because one or more of the police bullets disabled his truck, and he exited to murder a few more infidels before he was gunned down. In any event, there's no way he was some kind of lone wolf ne'er do well who simply snapped. Too much planning and preparation went into this, and too many guns and equipment were on site for one unassisted wack job to obtain on his own without a network of experienced jihadis involved. *
Bouhlel himself was allowed into France courtesy of a resident permit by France's Socialist Hollande government. And even though he committed several felonies and was on the police radar, deportation from France was never even considered. Comment typique!
Speaking of which, France's President François Hollande confirmed this was a terrorist attack in his statement. “We will continue to hit those who threaten us,” Hollande said. The attacker, he said, acted “with the intention to kill, to crush and to massacre.”
“It is clear that we must do everything we can to fight against this scourge of terrorism.”
'Everything we can' apparently consists of extending a state of emergency another three months and -wait for it - and calling up France's 'operational reservists' which includes quite a large number of totally untrained civilians for increased border control. Monsieur Le President apparently would rather not have people think too much about the fact that this jihadi didn't cross the border. He was allowed into France openly and knowingly by Hollande's government, along with a lot of others just like him.
This buffoon still thinks he's 'fighting terrorism.'
The local newspaper, Nice-Matin, is also reporting that reports that the man driving the truck shouted 'Allahu Akbar' — 'Allah is greatest' — before being shot dead by police. The old war cry...you'd think that would give Hollande a clue.
I remember 9/11 quite well, and the aftermath. Do you? After the shock of seeing 3,000 of us murdered on our own soil was absorbed, Americans reacted with visceral patriotism, adrenaline and fighting spirit. The nation was united. Young men and women were enlisting in droves in our volunteer military, people were flying American flags from their cars and the their homes, and the American people were ready to be called upon to make sacrifices for victory over our murderous enemies by our president.
What we got instead was President George W. Bush telling us that Islam was a religion of peace, that we were engaged in a 'great war on terror' with a handful of fanatics, to go shopping at the mall and let the government handle it.
The mood change afterwards was palpable. While no one I remember said so openly, may of us understood afterwards that the fix was in, especially when the Bush Administration went back to business as usual with the Saudis which was the intent all along. And Islam? It was George W. Bush and his administration that put out the welcome mat for the Saudi and Emirates funded Muslim Brotherhood Islamist front groups and jihadi mosques. Barack Hussein Obama just revved up the process on steroids, along with seeing to it that he was able to increase the Muslim population of America as much as possible with unvetted 'refugees.'
Boston, San Bernardino, Orlando, Ft. Hood...those are just the beginning. The French are further along simply because they started earlier, and with more gusto.
We aren't fighting 'terrorism.' We aren't even just fighting ISIS, who are just one sector, just as Japan or Italy were just one part of the Axis powers of WWII.
We're fighting exactly what the subtitle of this site, created over a decade ago says we're fighting - The War on Jihad.
While individual Muslim may be able to live peacefully in a free society, after 1,500 years it ought to obvious that Islam itself cannot, at least not the major branches. It simply isn't in its nature to play well with others, a conclusion I have to admit I avoided for sometime because of the Muslims I know and like in my own life. But after the orgy of violence in Mumbai, I realized I was fooling myself. The Muslims I know with two major exceptions are fairly secular, and the ones whom aren't have cherry-picked their own version of Islam to the point where they would be labeled heretics by your average Sunni or Shia. There are indeed others like them, but the momentum in Islam, and the part of it paid deference by many of our leaders is with Islamist fascism and jihad. As the Pew Trust polls revealed, the majority of Muslims, especially in the Muslim world understand quite well that Islam is at war with the West. We're the ones that don't.
Terrorism is merely a tactic of that war. And one reason it continues to work is because for the perpetrators and their enablers, there are no real life consequences. We're dealing with a morality alien to ours that we don't understand. Walk with me awhile on this one.
Islam is unique among the major religions because while there are obviously Muslims who live differently, it has nothing akin to the basic religious imperative that we'd call the Golden Rule of do unto others as you'd have them do unto you. Not when it comes to non-Muslims. So there is no ethical payback for raping them ('what thy right hand possesses'), killing them or deceiving them.
For Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel, there were simply no consequences no matter how this turned out. If he escaped, he'd be a hero to those who counted most with him as a victorious jihad warrior. As a dead man, he'd be a heroic martyr savoring the carnal delights of Mohammed's Paradise. If he were taken alive, he'd merely be an inmate in a relatively humane prison environment protected and looked up to by the other Muslim prisoners, and always with the hope that another raid might produce some hostages to be swapped for his freedom.
Nothing and nobody he cared deeply about was at risk. For him, it was a win win. That's why jihadi recruiting is so successful. A key part of stopping these attacks is to provide real world consequences for the Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlels of the world as well as their paymasters,sympathizers and enablers that make the every idea of carrying them out abhorrent, frightening and repulsive. And without going into details for brevity's sake, there are many ways to do exactly that. Call it the modern version of MAD (Mutually Assured Destruction) that worked so well in the Cold War, adapted for Islam's special characteristics.
I have a message for the people of France.
You are our oldest ally, and in our time of need you helped us gain our freedom from the tyrants who sought to oppress us. And we repaid that blood debt with interest in the Argonne, at Belleau Wood,at Saint - Mihilel and again on the beaches of Normandy. The evidence of that repayment is still buried in your soil.
In spite of the differences that have come between us at times, that long standing bond still remains, at least where I am concerned. And it compels me to be honest.
Your republic is in grave danger. Your leadership has betrayed you, and imported massive numbers of enemies to France. Just as with Vichy, they are appeasing the Germans in their attempt to dominate Europe.
You must resist if you are to retain your freedom, your honor and even perhaps your very lives. Charles Martel, your brave ancestor who crushed the Muslim invaders at Poitiers and drove them from France's sacred soil...how would he react to your present situation? What would he say? How would he advise you?
If France is to survive, you must rally around new leadership and take your country back. And you must do it now. Your election takes place in just under a year from now. How many more attacks like Paris and Nice can you absorb before then?
Fortunately, you have at least one leader to rally around, and perhaps others. Marine Le Pen is not perfect, but she is a courageous woman who at least understands the nature of the enemy that is destroying France and other ancient states in Europe.
The time to save France is now. Do it for yourselves, for your children and for your children's children. Do it so you can once again hold your heads up proudly, and so France can remain France.
And in doing so, set a proud example for other nations.
Vive La France!
J'ai un message pour le peuple de France.
Vous êtes notre allié le plus ancien, et dans notre temps de besoin vous avez aidé à nous faire gagner notre liberté des tyrans qui cherchaient à nous opprimer. Et nous avons remboursé la dette de sang avec intérêt dans l'Argonne, à Belleau Wood, à Saint - Mihilel et encore sur les plages de Normandie. La preuve que le remboursement est toujours enterré dans votre sol.
En dépit des différences qui sont venus entre nous à certains moments, ce lien de longue date reste encore, au moins là où je suis concerné. Et il me force à être honnête.
Votre république est en grave danger. Votre leadership vous a trahi, et importé massivement des ennemis à la France. Tout comme avec Vichy, ils sont apaiser les Allemands dans leur tentative de dominer l'Europe.
Vous devez résister si vous êtes de conserver votre liberté, votre honneur et même peut-être vos vies. Charles Martel, votre courageux ancêtre qui a écrasé les envahisseurs musulmans à Poitiers et les chassa de sol sacré de la France ... comment pourrait-il réagir à votre situation actuelle? Que dirait-il? Comment pourrait-il vous conseiller?
Si la France est de survivre, vous devez rallier autour d'un nouveau leadership et prenez votre arrière-pays. Et vous devez le faire maintenant. Votre élection a lieu dans un peu moins d'un an à partir de maintenant. Combien d'attaques comme Paris et Nice pouvez-vous absorber avant?
Heureusement, vous avez au moins un chef de file à se rallier autour, et peut-être d'autres. Marine Le Pen est pas parfaite, mais elle est une femme courageuse qui, au moins comprend la nature de l'ennemi qui est en train de détruire la France et d'autres Etats anciens en Europe.
Le temps pour sauver la France est maintenant. Faites-le pour vous, pour vos enfants et pour les enfants de vos enfants. Faites-le et vous pourrez à nouveau tenir vos têtes fièrement, et ainsi la France peut rester en France.
Et, ce faisant, mettre un fier exemple pour les autres nations.
France's socialist President Hollande's response to the attack on Paris was a desultory quickie airstrike on ISIS's Syrian capitol of Rakkah that amounted to 20 bombs being dropped, none of which did much damage. He badly needs France's Muslim vote and the anti-war left vote to stay in power, so he has no intention pf alienating them.
Marine Le Pen, leader of the rightest Front National and Hollande's likely opponent is rising steadily in the poll and has no use for such constraints. As she shows here, she is literally becoming the spirit of a defiant France in fighting Islamofascism (emphasis mine):
For the sixth time in a year, Islamic terrorism has struck France—and this time more viciously than ever before. Since then, from all corners of the world, there have been countless outpourings of friendship, salutation, and support for the admirable courage with which the French people have faced these trials. Everywhere it is sung, the Marseillaise embodies our universal determination, our unwillingness to yield to the barbarism of Islamic fundamentalism. Charles De Gaulle once said “There exists an immemorial covenant between the grandeur of France and the freedom of the world.” I am convinced the world recognizes this truth.
And yet, if the enemies of liberty have decided to attack France with such barbarity, it's because over decades our country has forgotten that liberty must be organized, that it must be defended, that it is a kind of power which must be nurtured. To forget that truth weakens freedom.
Liberty is exercised in the context of national community. It is armed with the principles of common sense, principles without hate. It is synonymous with a nation defined by strong borders, defined by our values, defined by our way of life, which is appreciated around the world.
Too often, we have confused hospitality with blindness. Not all of those we’ve opened our doors to have come to France with a love of our way of life. Today, under pressure from a European Union that renders us weaker and less free, France faces a cruel reality: It only takes a dozen terrorists—some French in nationality, but not spirit, and others capitalizing on the poorly managed migrant crisis—to take the lives of at 129 of our countrymen. It is up to us to affirm, without hesitation, that France’s freedom was built over centuries intentionally and collectively. That’s what defines a nation.
From here we must take a series of common-sense steps: We must reinvest in our police forces, our border security, our military. We must reverse a decade of disastrous budgetary decisions. We must reclaim our national borders permanently and rescind French citizenship to dual-national jihadists because they do not deserve to be considered French. We must close radical mosques, which are a site of hate. We must stop welcoming thousands of migrants and regain our national sovereignty.
We must also clarify Islam’s role in France. Our Muslim compatriots must no longer be hostage to radical Islamists. French rule of law and a renewed commitment to secularism will liberate them.
There is more: the threat we face calls us to ally with those who fight fundamentalist Islam. For a long time, I have been calling for a revision of French diplomatic policy in Africa and the Middle East. Let’s stop undercutting sovereign states, as Nicolas Sarkozy did disastrously in Libya in 2011. We need to work with Russia, Syria and Iran as well as other foreign powers including the United States which are fighting radical Islam. Let’s bring to a halt the obsolete cold wars and incestuous relationships with untrustworthy countries—I mean specifically Turkey or Qatar.
France has overcome numerous challenges in its long history. Our capacity to rebound has never failed. Many in the world know that a strong France, faithful to itself and master of its own destiny, is indispensable to world peace. Let us stand together. It is the only way to defeat, once and for all, fundamentalism and the enemies of liberty.
Well said, Madame Le Pen...toujours l'adace, à la victoire! Récupérer l'esprit de Poitiers!
At least 60 people have been killed and another hundred are being held hostage after multiple attacks by Muslims in central Paris today.
The attacks began near the Stade de France,where France was hosting the German soccer team. French President Francois Hollande was reportedly watching the match at the time, and was evacuated as explosions were heard outside the stadium. Later it was discovered that a bar filled with customers had been bombed.
Much of what's going on is in the area of the 11th Arrondissement near the Place de la Bastille and the 10th Arrondissement, an area around the Rue du Faubourg Saint-Denis and the Canal Saint Martin, a popular area for picnics, walking, or patronizing the stylish boutiques, trendy bars and cafés.
People were literally gunned down in the streets or while simply walking or enjoying a meal or a drink. One Muslim gunman armed with an fully automatic AK47 targeted the popular Cambodge restaurant in the 11th Arrondissement and shot it up completely.
As far as I know,most of the hostages are being held at the Bataclan Nightclub. There's an ongoing situation there as I write this, and there are said to be 8 hostage takers.
Le Carillon café, directly across the street was another one of the popular places hit. It being Friday night in Paris, the nightspots and restaurants were packed.
UPDATE: There are reports that in the Bataclan itself, many were killed who were in the audience to attend a show by the band Eagles of Death Metal during the initial attack.
Julien Pierce, a journalist from Europe1 radio was inside the theater says that the shooting lasted for 12-15 minutes straight, and that the killers had time to reload.
Benjamin Cazenove, who is injured and trapped in the theater, says gunmen are killing people “one by one,” France 24 reports, citing a Facebook post. Another hostage who escaped the Bataclan theater confirmed this, telling CNN that the terrorists are “calmly” executing hostages.
UPDATE: The French police are apparently attempting to storm the Bataclan as of 1:45 Paris time. This would apparently jibe with reports that the hostages are being murdered one by one.
UPDATE:As of 2 AM Paris Time, the police have succeeded in storming the Bataclan, but there's no word on how many of the hostages survived. Early reports are that the Muslims tossed hand grenades at the hostages, and that there were over a hundred bodies found by police. The Bataclan holds 1,500 people, and there's also no telling how many were unable to escape before the massacre started.
This was a very well planned terrorist attack, carried out by dedicated fighters on the Muslim holy day as they shouted 'Allahu Akbar'...just like Mumbai,Boston, Bali, Beslan, London, The Twin Towers on 9/11 or a thousand other atrocities.
Rest assured that the usual suspects will be quick to tell us that these are just a few fanatics and that what happened today was nothing to do with Islam. Nothing to see here, folks.
We have normalized these kind of attacks so thoroughly that they are seen in the same light as a train wreck, a thunderstorm or a power outage. Just bad luck, a part of day to day living in the modern world.
Except it isn't, and it never should have been. Yes, there's a problem overseas, but there's a far bigger one inside the gates, and not just in Europe.
While there are definitely decent, peaceful Muslims, the Islam adhered to by a significant number of Muslims is not a religion of peace. And it was never intended to be. We allow our leaders and elites to keep us blind to this at the cost of our freedom and perhaps our lives.
And instead of accepting it, lapping it up, it's high time that state of affairs was ended. Rest assured that unless we do, we can look forward to what happened in Paris today taking place in New York, Chicago or Los Angeles.
Troix Cow-boys américains rescousse de nouveau le jour!
At least that's what the French are saying about two Americans on a French train who took out an armed jihadi who was in the process of shooting it up:
A gunman opened fire aboard a high-speed train from Amsterdam to Paris on Friday, wounding at least three people before two American passengers subdued him, French officials said.
The Americans were not immediately identified, but France’s interior minister, Bernard Cazeneuve, said they “were particularly courageous and showed great bravery in very difficult circumstances.’’
Capt. Jeff Davis, a Defense Department spokesman in Washington, said that an American military member was on the train and had been wounded in the episode. He said Pentagon officials had not yet confirmed the name or rank or service, or whether the second American also was a service member.
The jihadi, whom the New York times referred to below the fold as "described by French officials as a 26-year-old of Moroccan origin armed with an automatic weapon and a knife" began shooting up the the Amsterdam to Paris express in the northern French city of Arras, which may ring some bells for veterans of two World Wars. Their blood is part of that soil.
The two Americans didn't hesitate for a second. They jumped the armed jihadi with their bare hands, subdued him and held him until the French authorities arrived to collect him. If not for them, the casualty list would have been far higher.
It is a mark of our times that this story of American heroism is relegated to the back pages of Pravda-on-the-Hudson rather than meriting a front page spot. Frankly, I'm surprised they published it at all.
In France, it's headlines.
UPDATE: According to CNN and the Daily Mail, the two Americans were members of the U.S. Marines. They rushed the jihadi when they recognized the sound of him loading his Kalashnikov rifle. One of them was wounded subduing the gunman.
French authorities found 9 magazines of ammo on the train,holding almost 300 rounds. The jihadi also had a knife and a handgun. The train had 550 passengers on board, and there's no doubt that if it were not for these two Marines, a massacre would have occurred.
Correction and UPDATE: CNN had it wrong as usual. The LA Times and the UK Independent are reporting that the Americans were U.S. military on leave, Spencer Stone,an Air Force paramedic, and Alek Skarlatos, a U.S. soldier fresh from a tour of AfPak and a friend of theirs from Sacramento California where all three grew up, Anthony Sadler.
Not only did they subdue the would-be killer, but Stone saved one man's life in spite of being badly injured himself by stopping the bleeding from the man's throat which had been slit.
The jihadi, now identified as Ayoub el Khazani was actually on a terrorist watch list with French security.
Orange Telecom is a huge French company involved in the global telecom market. Among its global partners is an Israeli company called Partner Communications, which provides Orange with a piece of the lucrative Israeli cellphone market in exchange for being allowed to use Orange's name.
A couple of days ago, the company's CEO, Stephane Richard, speaking at a news conference in Egypt made it very clear that he wanted to sever ties with Israel to join the BDS movement, saying he would "sever ties tomorrow" except for the danger of getting sued for violation of contract.
“Believe me I would cancel the contract tomorrow if I could,” Richard said. His comments were reported by the Daily News Egypt. The reasons he gave for doing business in Israel were that Orange could not cancel without being sued by Partner Communications.
"I know that it is a sensitive issue here in Egypt, but not only in Egypt... We want to be one of the trustful partners of all Arab countries."
In answers to questions about Orange's profit from the Israeli market being a factor, he claimed that that "the interest for us is certainly not a financial interest."
"If you take those amounts on one side and on the other side the time that we spend to explain this, to try to find a solution and the consequences that we have to manage here but also in France, believe me it's a very bad deal."
Mais oui...the consequences of explaining to possible customers in the Arab world and in France that they do business with the Jews! Pauvre Monsieur Richard...
Needless to say, the Israelis did not exactly appreciate his remarks, and asked for clarifications.
And they got them, with suspicious speed. Today, Orange unilaterally cancelled its contract with Partner, essentially telling the Israeli company 'sue me.'
Did I mention that the French government has a 25% stake in Orange Telecom? That, of course, is the heart of the matter. A big factor in the Socialist Hollande government winning the last French presidential election was their carrying the Muslim vote almost in a solid bloc. Without that support and the support of the anti-Israel Left, there's no way Hollande and the Socialists win.
Underlining this, French Ambassador to the U.S. Gerard Araud suddenly went public and defended Orange Telecom's illegal actions 'because of the settlements and the occupation.'
Of course, Ambassador Araud didn't mention what sovereign country Judea and Samaria belonged to when Israel 'occupied' their territory, but such matters apparently escape sophisticated Europeans like him. What matters is that diplomats don't make public statements like this unless their government okays it. And companies don't make illegal moves like this exposing them to litigation unless a 25% stakeholder goes along with it.
This is a reflection of the current state of affairs in France. In spite of all the platitudes denouncing anti-semitism, Jews continue to be assaulted in France with distressing regularity even in neighborhoods formerly considered safe and property is routinely vandalized, while the French government has responded by actually reducing security for the country's Jewish communities and institutions.
The only major French politician who seems to be serious about protecting France's Jews is Marine Le Pen of the National Front. The current government is not.
France is also rumored to be working closely with Hamas and the Palestinian Authority to draft a UN resolution recognizing a Palestinian State on the pre 1967 lines that includes dividing Jerusalem and creating half a million Jewish refugees.
The French government has simply chosen sides in this war.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said, in a statement, "I call on the French government to publicly denounce the despicable statement and miserable actions of a company that is under partial French government ownership.”
Israeli-American media mogul Haim Saban, who holds a controlling share of Partner Communications, accused Orange Telecom of reacting to pressure from anti-Semitic groups.
“Partner is an Israeli firm in every sense. We signed a contract with them and we are considering our steps in the wake of their statement,” Saban told Ynet.
Orange “conceded to pressures from all sorts of anti-Semitic bodies,” he was quoted as saying on Channel 2. “In each generation they rise up to destroy us — we are strong and we will be united and fight them.”
The interesting part of that remark is that Saban is en route to Las Vegas, Nevada to meet with others who have to muscle to do just that.
A group of Jewish billionaires like Saban and Sheldon Adelson are meeting to create a strategy on combating Israel boycott efforts.
Adelson himself had some pithy things to say about the matter. The French government “de facto owns Orange,” he said. “The French government should speak out and dissociate itself from the head of Orange in France.”
Adelson also criticized the Israeli government -and rightfully so, in my opinion - for not setting up and funding an organization to fight anti-Israel boycotts and attempts to delegitimize Israel.
The way forward is pretty easy to define.
Right now, less than 2 percent of the agricultural and industrial products Israel exports to the EU originate in Judea and Samaria, while Israel as a whole imports far more from the EU than the EU buys from Israel (about $26.7 vs. $18.3 billion). Moreover, most of what Israel imports from the EU could easily be replaced by new imports from Asia, Australia and the United States.
So Europe stands to lose a lot more than Israel from ridiculous boycotts, and most of the EU knows it. What's really needed is a good object example to drive the lesson home.
Saban, Adelson and their group could start by advertising online and in major media advising Israel's friends, Jewish and non-Jewish, to boycott everything French..its wines, brandies and liqueurs, its cheeses, its perfumes, its electronics, fashions, everything. They could publish a 'do not patronize' list of French products, and encourage Israel's supporters not to visit France and spend money there. This would be devastatingly effective in America.
Israelis could be assisted in participating by the government of Israel insisting that all French goods imported to Israel, even goods partially manufactured in France or with French components be clearly and prominently labeled as such.
At the same time, Orange Telecom should be aggressively pursued in court for breach of contract and for damages to Partner Communication. I'm certain Haim Saban is already laying the groundwork for that.
That's the best way to destroy the BDS movement and governments leaning towards institutionalizing it. Make France the example of the high price that entails, not just with Israel but with its friends around the world.
Marine Le Pen and her National Front party are surging, and have become the biggest party in France. The latest polling data puts the National Front on 29 per cent and rising, well ahead of the centrist UMP at 25% and far ahead of the Socialists with 21 per cent in the upcoming county elections this month.
In the last presidential election Le Pen got 18 percent of the vote, the party got 25 percent in the Euro elections and now are expected get as much as between 30 and 33 percent of the vote in the départemental (state or provincial) elections.
The rise of Marine Le Pen and the National Front (FN) is due to a number of factors; the utter economic failure of the Socialists, growing disgust with the EU and the euro, and the growing violence and discord associated with the unlimited Muslim and African migration in France.
Unemployment in France is over 10%, and the punitive taxation and regulations pushed through by the Socialists has strangled economic growth and forced many entrepreneurs and skilled professionals abroad. The French increasingly see the EU as generating higher taxes and interfering with French sovereignty, and the euro as hurting France's exports by keeping prices high. And the backlash against crime and violence in 'la zones' the no go areas in France as well as the high social welfare costs involved is increasing.
Marine Le Pen represents an increasing French population that feels like aliens in their own country. And her cleanup of the old antisemitic tinge to the FN since taking it over from her father, Jean-Marie Le Pen can be seen in the increasing support the FN is getting from French Jews...for obvious reasons.
The 46-year-old Le Pen is seen as a reformer and as outside the political establishment. And like UKip in Britain, The FN is seen as a populist conservative party, a replacement for the establishment UMP just as UKip is seen as a replacement for David Cameron's sadly misnamed Conservatives.
What do Le Pen and the FN stand for? An exit from the EU and then euro, lower taxes and smaller government. She wants a zero-tolerance policy towards attacks on French secularism, enforcement of French-speaking preachers in mosques and stripping dual-nationality jihadis who fight abroad of their French citizenship.
"Anarchic mass immigration over the past 25 years has created places where the [French] Republic has retrenched at the benefit of religious laws imposed by a few . . . There’s a link between immigration and radicalization,” she says.
In fact, the FN is strongly anti-jihadi, and Le Pen wants a review of French policy when it comes to Qatar and Turkey, whom she sees as supporting Islamist terrorism. For that mater, she also sees American policy towards jihadism under Obama as being totally counterproductive, saying that, the US is “the most discredited power in the [Middle East] region” and says it cannot be seen as a partner in the global struggle against jihadis.
She and the FN are staunchly anti-globalism, which has made her popular among France's farmers and agricultural sector as well as its manufacturers.
In short, she sees a vision of a more nationalist and independent France, one where the economy is unshackled and what she sees as the secular values and freedoms of the French Republic are reaffirmed.
The next presidential election is in 2017. The rise of Le Pen and the FN may be the beginning of France's renewal.
By now the world knows about the latest atrocity carried out in Paris by jihad terrorists. The wholesale murder of the staff of satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo including its editor 'Charb,' Stephane Charbonnier. The murders at the magazine, the shooting of a female police officer, a car bomb exploding at a local synagogue, a gunman invading a kosher supermarket filled with women and children and killing four shoppers and wounding a number of others..these have all been covered by the media and digested by the world at large.
For a couple of days, this made headlines, but by now the world has processed it. And it is last week's news,because to really focus on it would mean we'd have to actually do something about it.
Beslan, 9/11, Boston, Bali, Mumbai, London, Itamar, Jerusalem, Nairobi, Fort Hood, Sydney, a never ending list..and those are just the ones we notice,because they're either in the West, or involve the murder of Westerners. The ones that don't barely rate a mention. In Nigeria last week for instance, Boko Haram, who have already pledged their support and allegiance to Islamic State attacked the city of Baga, near Lake Chad. The known death toll from that one attack alone is over 2,000. And it may go higher, once the final figures come in.
Chant with me, why don't you..'black lives matter!' Except when they're murdered by Muslim terrorists.
I wonder if it has occurred to many of us how much our society has normalized terrorism committed by Islamist fascists? The limitations to our freedoms we've already accepted without complaint? The millions in additional tax dollars we're forced to spend? The handcuffs we've put on ourselves and the forces we enlist to protect us because we're unwilling to be honest?
We have become acclimated to accepting Islamist terrorism as the norm, as business as usual. We've been doing it for so long it barely moves us, let alone raises the revulsion and the resolve to stop it, the normal reaction. Instead, we hide behind inane rhetoric, insipid and cowardly rationalizations and yes, hash tags.
If we were really all Charlie Hebdo, or Theo Van Gogh, or Ayaan Hirsi Ali, or Molly Norris, or Kurt Westergaard, or Drummer Lee Rigby, or Daniel Pearl or the Fogel Family, this would have ended long ago, because we would have risen up en masse to demand that the political class do something to stop this once and for all.
We haven't. We simply ingest the latest atrocity and continue to sleepwalk. After a few words from our sponsor, of course. And the usual 'Muslims fear backlash' stories, although somehow that backlash never seems to occur.
A case in point is the recent 'Unity rally' in Paris. No one, of course, would dare call it a rally against Islamist fascism, a rally against 'radical Islam' or even a rally against terrorism. No, it was all about unity, with signs saying 'Je suis Charlie' and flags and forty world leaders marching together in the streets of Paris. Nice, until you look behind the facade.
Among the participants was the Emir of Qatar which openly funds terrorism. Also at the rally was Turkish PM Ahmet Davutoglu, who country has more journalists in jail than any other NATO member for what's labeled as 'un-Turkish sentiments', whose Islamist government is a haven for Hamas. It is also the country where at least one of the killers, Hayat Boumeddiene was allowed to enter France freely via a ticket from Istanbul to Spain and the country from which she was allowed to escape back to Syria.
And of course, Palestine's unelected Dictator Mahmoud Abbas was there too. Yes, Abbas, the Holocaust denier with his history of terrorism as Arafat's second in command, Abbas who is allied with the genocidal Hamas in a unity government. Interesting how that came about.
Israeli PM Benyamin Netanyahu had wanted to show up in Paris to take part as one of the world leaders involved. You would think he'd be a natural participant, given Israel's history of combating Islamist terrorism, and especially since about a third of the victims of the attacks were Jews.
But the Israeli PM was told outright by the French government that he was persona non grata and unwelcome, since his presence was deemed 'divisive' and would 'make having the rally difficult.'
After mulling it over for a day, Netanyahu simply told the French he was coming anyway. My sources differ on whether Abbas had already been expressly invited (the Palestinian Authority insists he was, and a private meeting between Abbas and Holland scheduled the next day seems to bear this out) or whether he was invited simply out of spite towards Netanyahu,but the fact remains that the leader of a democracy with a free press and an admirable record fighting exactly the forces responsible for last weeks' carnage was insulted and initially shunned while nations that finance and support terrorism and rigidly repress any criticism were courted and invited.
I doubt having Abbas there went a long way towards reassuring French Jews.
President Obama, for once, made the right choice in avoiding this farce although for all the wrong reasons. Because nothing is going to change, at least in the near term.
French Prime Minister Manuel Valls made a brave speech about France waging “a war against terrorism, against jihadism, against radical Islam, against everything that is aimed at breaking fraternity, freedom, solidarity.”
But Socialist François Hollande is France's president and the one with power, and he most definitely did not echo Valls' sentiments. Neither did President Obama or Attorney General Eric Holder, whom was present in Paris but pointedly did not attend the rally.
France's Socialist government and President Hollande in particular are hugely unpopular in France, although he got a slight boost in popularity from last weeks' events that will soon fade as things return to normal.The Socialist's election victory, in part, occurred because they carried the Muslim vote almost in a bloc.At this point, they need all the political support they can muster, so rest assured that Prime Minister Valls likely received a quiet spanking at the Élysée Palace and no 'war' is going to be declared just now.
To win a war, you first have to be willing to name your enemy and be honest about his motivations. In spite of the perpetrators murdering people while yelling 'Allahu akbar!' and 'the Prophet has been avenged', most of Europe as well as the Obama Administration were quick to say this had nothing to do with Islam. Even PM Valls referred to 'radical Islam,' and other apologists on the Left like our president referred to the perpetrators as 'radicals' who are 'distorting a peaceful religion. Others referred to them as fanatics, or as simply insane.
They aren't any of those things. They're Islamists engaged in jihad, with their actions justified by a fairly mainstream reading of the Qu'ran, even if many Muslims don't act on it - yet.
But that reading, the 'radicalization' the political class mentions every once and a while has gained precedence in the west and is directly attributable to the policies they and their willing tools have promulgated in Europe and America.
They have appeased Islamism and empowered it at every turn. They have imported huge numbers of Muslim immigrants,many of whom come with a culture that despises western freedom into our countries without bothering to ask the citizens they ostensibly represent and have increasingly not insisted on these new migrants to assimilate or respect the western culture of the host country. Instead, they have pushed 'multiculturalism' to force western culture to twist like a pretzel to appease and accommodate something that is essentially incompatible.
They've allowed and continued to allow the cancer of Islamism to grow. turning a blind eye to Islamist mosques being constructed with foreign money, to radical imams imported to promulgate jihad and in America, subversive groups like CAIR, MPAC, The Islamic Trust of North America(ITNA) the MSA and similar Muslim Brotherhood front groups to be funded and nurtured. They've been doing it for years.
The Obama Administration has even protected such groups when they were clearly involved in money laundering and material aid to officially designated terrorist entities.
Contrary to being 'crazy' or fanatic, in action these warriors of jihad are calm, deliberate and well trained as you can see from the video below. And savage, executing a badly wounded policeman whom was no threat to them as he begged for his life.
And even that shows deliberation, The policeman in question happened to be Muslim and undoubtedly mentioned it in an attempt to survive. He was shot dead in this video, reproduced worldwide, to send a message to other Muslims. Terrorism is a tactic, not a madness and this killing along with all of the others last week was tactical, not mindless butchery.
Yes, it is about Islam, although not about all Muslims. Does any rational person still doubt it? Ahmad Harqan is an Egyptian civil rights activist raised this question on a popular TV show..'What is ISIS doing now that the Prophet Mohammed and his followers didn't do?'
For his outspokenness, Hargan narrowly escaped being assassinated and was later jailed briefly for blasphemy under article 98 in the Egyptian penal code,but his point is a valid one. All one needs to do is consult the Qu'ran and read what it says and the Hadiths, the recording of Mohamed's life, times and sayings by his followers.
To themselves and to a significant number of Muslims, Islamic State is merely following in Mohammed's footsteps. Until we understand that and obtain new political leadership that understands that and is willing to act on it seriously, we will continue to wallow in this sordid, self-defeating funk as the attacks continue to grow and get more serious.
The French Central Directorate of Homeland Intelligence (DCRI) has announced that two Muslim girls, aged 15 and 17, were arrested in the Tarbes and Venissieux neighborhoods a week ago after authorities uncovered a plot to carry out a suicide bombing inside the Great Synagogue of Lyon during the Jewish New Year's celebration, when the Synagogue would have been packed with worshipers. They were indicted on August 22nd for conspiracy to commit terrorism.
According to JSS News and Europe 1, a source from the DCRI revealed that the girls communicated via social media. “These girls were part of a network of young Islamists who were being monitored by security services.”
In a way, that's even scarier since it reveals that what France is dealing with are dedicated amateurs.
The Great Synagogue of Lyons is one of the landmarks of the largest Jewish community in Europe.It was built between 1863 and 1864, and was designated as a monument historique in 1984. The building was renovated just this year, and the planned attack on it would not only have resulted in a horrible loss of life but a major blow to the morale of France's Jewish community at a time when they already feel besieged by the much larger and increasingly violent Muslim community, mostly from North African that the French imported.French jihadists are even using FaceBook to hunt Jews down and target them for attack.
Both the Council of French Jewish Institutions (CRIF), France's main Jewish organization and the National Bureau of Vigilance Against Antisemitism (BNVCA), one of France’s leading anti-semitism watchdogs called for the French Interior Minister to upgrade security measures to foil further attacks, particularly during the upcoming High Holidays of Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur and Sukkot, which occur in September and October during the Hebrew month of Elul.
There have already been a number of attacks on Jewish synagogues, institutions, businesses and school of late, to the point that they're becoming 'mini-fortresses.'
I can't escape the conclusion that a great many Europeans will end up being just fine with this new version of the Final Solution..no death camps to try to stay downwind of this time, no `ingathering' or messy arrests to ignore...just a line of people requesting visas because they are unable to stay and live in peace anymore.
Muslims in France now have a new tactic. They're using Facebook to publish the names, photos identities and location of French Jews to target them for assault.
The caption above translates as "Smile, you're caught! JRF watches!" in this FaceBook page that targets 32 Jews for attack.
The Jeunes Révolutionnaires Français, JRF, or ‘Young French Revolutionaries' posted the names and photos of the Jews above on its Facebook page, and one of those listed has already been attacked on Thursday night in Bobigny, Seine-Saint-Denis, a Paris suburb by a gang of 15 Muslims, some armed with iron bars.
According to a France’s Le Monde Juif, three men initially approached the victim, asked his name and then were joined by the rest of the gang in attacking him.When another resident in the building appeared, the men left.
The title page of the group’s Facebook presence features a large Palestinian flag and calls for members to attend a rally on Saturday in connection with the international Al Quds Day protests around the world which the government has already banned.
The Union of Jewish Students of France, the UEJF has filed a legal complaint against the administrators of the Facebook page for incitement to racial hatred and incitement to violence,both crimes under French Law.
I'm certain Mark Zuckerberg is, you know,concerned.
In a statement, the UEJF said: “For several days, many Facebook pages have been created to encourage physical violence against young Jews. Photos were published, with the identities, phone numbers, and contact information. This young man was directly affected by such a Facebook page. It is unacceptable that the Jews are the target of Facebook calls to murder.”
Unacceptable, mais oui, but this appears to be le monde neauveau in France. I honestly don't think the French government understands what's going on or knows how to handle this
France's Muslims are going to do everything possible to drive Jews out of France, even the very left of center Jews in the UEJF. And after that, unless there is severe push back,they will start on the Christians.
The French government prohibited 'pro-Palestine' demonstrations after two synagogues were attacked, along with other violent incidents. But that didn't stop French Muslims, who raged through the predominantly Jewish Paris suburb of Sarcelles in what one police official called the “Paris Intifada.”
Sarcelles has been nicknamed little Jerusalem because of its large community of Sephardic Jews.Like most predominantly Jewish neighborhoods, it's a fairly quiet place, with the usual quota of Kosher markets, synagogues and small shops. What happened this weekend was anything but quiet.
On Saturday, 3000 people gathered near the Gare Du Nord, the main Paris metro train station and began marching up Barbes Boulevard, burning, looting and assaulting people who 'looked Jewish' as they went. 14 policemen were injured and 38 arrests were made. On Sunday hundreds of mostly Arab and North African youths marched through the streets of Sarcelles, wielding bars and clubs while shouting, “Death to Israel” and "death to the Jews."
The neighborhood’s largest kosher grocery Naouri was burned to a shell and so were a number of other stores including a local Jewish owned pharmacy and a funeral home. The nearby synagogue in Garges was firebombed, but fortunately not much damage was done. Windows were smashed, shops were looted and several passers by were assaulted.
Le Figaro reported that riot police attempted to disperse protesters and block access to another synagogue in Sarcelles, lobbing tear gas and rubber bullets at the crowd. A number of police were reported injured and some journalists were assaulted as well.
“I live in Garges, near the synagogue, but I’m afraid to go home,” a young woman told the newspaper.
“We are seeing real scenes of urban guerrilla warfare,” Thierry Maze, a local law enforcement officer, told Le Figaro.
Many Jews reported being afraid to leave their homes.
Here's what Sarcelles looked like afterwards:
This pogrom - and it really can't be called anything else- has become a major concern to French Jewish leaders.From the Algemeiner:
In a Facebook post on Monday, France’s former chief rabbi Gilles Berheim called on the French government “not to tolerate this kind of behavior.”
“I watched from Israel with great concern and fear the violence that took place in Paris, in Barbes on Saturday and on Sunday in Sarcelles,” he wrote. “While the pretext for these demonstrations was support of Gaza, they are actually anti-Israeli and anti-Semitic demonstrations. This is unspeakable
Rabbi Levy Djian, a French Jewish activist living in New York told The Algemeiner that the series of riots show “we are entering a new era of real fear for the Jewish community of France.”
“Last week, in Paris, synagogues were attacked in broad daylight,” Djian said. “In Nice demonstrators screamed: ‘We are all Mohamed Merah’s!’ Then there were the riots in Barbes (Paris’s 18th district) yesterday, and there were the violent demonstrations in Sarcelles on Sunday.”
(note: Mohamed Merah was the jihadi who murdered a rabbi and three children at a Jewish school in Toulon back in 2012. Some hero..)
“The fact that the Muslims feel free to act against the police and the government is very alarming because who knows what will happen tomorrow? Many are talking about going to Israel but this can not be the solution to this problem. There are still many Jewish communities in France and it is imperative that they should be safe and feel totally secure.”
Rabbi Djian has it correct that France's restive Muslims no longer fear the police. Why would they? Certain arrondissements in Paris and elsewhere are known to les flics as La Zone, no-go areas where they only go in heavily armed bands when absolutely necessary. And for all the condemnations of the violence President Hollande and the Socialists owe their election to an almost bloc Muslim vote. They aren't going to bear down too hard.
France's Jews, no matter what, aren't going to feel 'safe and totally secure' in France and they are going to continue to be targeted. It is French Jews that are being attacked, not Israelis or Israeli institutions.It is French Jews, it has been happening for a long time now, and it is not going to change unless something unforeseen happens.
Despite Rabbi Djian's thought on the matter, going to Israel is indeed a solution that is appealing more and more to many French Jews.
As Roger Cukierman, President of Conseil Représentatif des Institutions juives de France (CRIF), France's major Jewish organization said in Le Monde Juif,the anti-semitic violence could very well drive France's Jews out of the country.
As the French will no doubt find if that happens, après le Juifs, le déluge, to change slightly an an old and famous quotation.
France has the largest Jewish community in Europe, but that may not be true for much longer as record numbers of French Jews emigrate to Israel.
A group of 400 French Jews are arriving in Israel this morning on two special El Al flights organized by The Jewish Agency for Israel and the Ministry of Aliyah and Immigrant Absorption. Even better, the group is largely composed of families with young children, including 195 minors and 18 babies according to the Jewish Agency.
Most of them are from the Paris area, which isn't surprising considering the assaults on Jews there. I imagine they would much rather face rockets in Israel with the IDF to defend them than mobs of Arabs attacking them on the streets of Paris with a government that apparently isn't overly efficient in protecting its Jewish citizens:
While aliyah from France has been steadily rising for several years due to economic stagnation and rising anti-Semitism, 2014 has seen a particularly dramatic rise. Ministry of Aliyah and Immigrant Absorption and The Jewish Agency expect more than 5,000 French Jews to immigrate to Israel by the end of the year - compared to 3,289 in 2013. Those figures are made all the more remarkable by the fact that 2013's figures themselves represented a full 60% increase in aliyah from France to 2012, when 1,917 French Jews moved to Israel.
That trend is continuing in 2014, with approximately 2,600 French Jews arriving in Israel during the first six months of the year alone, compared to 812 during the equivalent period in 2013.
Chairman of the Executive of The Jewish Agency for Israel Natan Sharansky had a few remarks to make on the matter:
"Despite the rocket onslaught against the people of Israel, not one immigrant from France has canceled his or her arrival."
"More and more people are asking whether Jews have a future in France, but no one doubts that French Jews have a future in Israel," he added, and noted the significance of the fact that if aliyah predictions for 2014 are met 1% of French Jews will have moved to Israel this year.
"Within a single year, and for the first time in history, a Jewish community in the West is sending a full percent of its Jews to build their lives in the State of Israel. We await you in Israel with open arms."
Many of France's Jews have probably not felt welcome in their home country with those open arms for quite some time.
This time, the Jews have a haven, and they are coming home.... Even if you are scattered to the farthest corners of the earth, the Lord your G-d will gather you in and from there he will take you. Your G-d will bring you back into the land your ancestors possessed, and you will possess it; And He will make you more prosperous and numerous than your fathers. -Deuteronomy 30:5 - 30:6
In Paris, violent rioters predominantly from the city's restive Arab population attacked Jews on the streets and attempted to storm two synagogues over the weekend while worshippers were inside.
The worst incident took place at the Synagogue de la Roquette in Paris. Jews were besieged inside when a mob of Arab protesters pushed the five French police who were assigned to guard the synagogue and attempted to break into the building itself to get at the Jews inside.
French Jewish journalist Alain Azria, who was on the scene told the AFP that close to 200 congregants were insideas the protesters chanted anti-Semitic slogans and hurled objects at the synagogue.
“They were determined to enter and the police did not have enough forces,” he said.
According to Azria, what saved the Jews inside from serious injury and even death was men from the SPCJ Jewish security unit, the Jewish Defense League and Beitar, who engaged the attackers to defend the Jews. Six of the predominantly Arab protesters were arrested.
“Thank God they were there because the protesters had murder on their minds and it took a while before police reinforcements arrived,” Azria added. Three Jews were hospitalized, but a far worse carnage was avoided.
In Bellville, an eastern suburb of Paris, a pro-Hamas demonstration Saturday featured chants of “Itbah Al-Yahud” (“slaughter the Jews”).
On a Paris street near the main Gare du Nord train station, a Jewish 17-year-old girl was assaulted in broad daylight by a man described as being Arab in appearance when he sprayed pepper-spray in her her face. The girl, identified by her initials, J.L., wrote in her complaint to police that the man, who was in his 20s, shouted: “Dirty Jewess, inshallah you will die.”
There have been a number of reports of assaults against Jews throughout France.
In a separate incident occurred this Friday night, when the synagogue of Aulnay-sous-Bois, a northeastern suburb of the French capital, was packed with worshipers at the weekly Sabbath services. A firebomb went off at the entrance, and although no one was injured, the resulting fire damaged the synagogue.
Prime Minister Manuel Valls condemned the attempted synagogue attacks "in the strongest possible terms".
"Such acts targeting places of worship are unacceptable," he said in a statement.
Needless to say, French President Hollande is pushing for an immediate cease fire. He and the Socialists carried almost the entire Muslim vote in the elections, so he likewise could care less about Israel's security or Hamas shooting missiles at them beyond a perfunctory condemnation here and there. He's mainly interested in quiet and being able to financially support the new Hamas-Fatah reichlet.
And the protesters? Here's a typical statement from one, whom identified himself as Amid Hamadouch to the AFP.
"I came to say no to this massacre."
"They are bombing innocent people. There are missiles being launched by Hamas, but the Israeli response is disproportionate. They are attacking the civilian population and not Hamas officials."
What Amid had to say should be quite reveling to all of us, and especially to Jews. Amid and his friends , of course, were not out on the streets protesting or attacking Palestinian institutions when Hamas was launching missiles and mortar shells at Israel. He was fine with it.Nor does he care that those brave Hamas fighters he admires so much are using women and children as human shields, or that the IDF is doing everything it can to minimize civilian casualties.
Even more to the point, he and his compatriots aren't attacking Israelis, twisted in morality as that would be. They're attacking Jews. Because to them, they're one and the same. And if there was no Israel, Jews would still be targeted anyway. That's something a number of Jews who pat themselves on the back as 'anti-Zionists' or whom pride themselves on being critical of Israel ought to ponder.
The same message is being sent across Europe. It's time the Jewish communities in the Diaspora started paying attention.
An Israeli couple, a French woman and a young Belgian man were murdered in a shooting attack on the Jewish Museum in Brussels, Belgium on Saturday by an unidentified gunman who burst into the building with an automatic or semi-automatic rifle.
As you can see in the video, released by the Belgian authorities, the killer carried out his attack in a deliberate and seemingly well-planned manner.
Belgium has a Jewish community of about 40,000, half of whom live in Brussels. Like Paris and other European cities, Brussels has a large and restive Muslim population of about 300,000, over 25% of the city's population and just under half of Belgium's estimated 650,000 Muslim population. The districts of Brussels that have large Muslim populations have essentially become no-go areas like many banlieus in France with a considerable increase in crime, including an average of around 250 gang rapes a year since 2007. As the Muslim population has grown, there's been a large increase in the number of mosques and minarets, veiled women in public, and more Islamist organizations. Two seats on the Brussels City Council in two heavily Muslim neighborhoods of Brussels, Molenbeek-Saint-Jean and Anderlechtare, are held by Lhoucine Aït Jeddig and Redouane Ahrouch, both from the fledgling Islam Party, which seeks to impose sharia law on Belgium. In Antwerp, there is already a sharia court founded by the Islamist group Sharia4Belgium. Which is legally allowed to supersede secular Belgian law, on marriage, divorce, and child support issues.
The Belgian government issued the usual condemnations and has increased security for Jewish institutions in the country. This is not the first anti-semitic incident in Belgium, and given the current increase in the Muslim population, it will undoubtedly not be the last.
Just a few hours after the attack in Brussels, two Jewish men, brothers in their 20's were brutally beaten outside Chaare Tsion Synagogue in suburban Paris on Saturday night, probably after attending the Mincha prayer service. They were followed from the synagogue and beaten with metal pipes by a gang which then fled on bicycles and on foot. This sort of thing is becoming increasingly common in France, and is the reason behind a spike in the immigration of French Jews to Israel.
France is still reeling from the final results of their municipal elections, which saw the ruling Socialist party take historic losses to former president Nicholas Sarkozy's UMP and Marine Le Pen's National Front.
This is being portrayed in some circles as the electorate simply being in an anti-incumbent mood, but only three municipalities moved from having a rightist (UMP) mayor to having a Socialist mayor, while at least 155 moved the other way, with some parts of the French press calling this a droitisation (rightward movement). This is the first time since the Socialists won power in 2012 that the people of France have had the chance to weigh in on the Socialist's policies.
The big surprise, of course, was the showing of the National Front, labeled a 'far right' party that has taken a firm stand against unlimited Muslim immigration. They won something like 15 mayoral elections with respectable majorities, and as Marine Le Pen said on election night, they have now come of age as France's third party. In the next national election in 2017,the FN could well end up being the kingmakers in France's coalition government. The test now will be to see whether the new FN mayors govern effectively and whether the party can build on this showing in the Senatorial elections scheduled for this September.
France's Socialist President François Hollande has already forced Socialist Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault to 'resign', one of many ministers in Hollande's cabinet who look to be getting the axe. Significantly, Ayrault's replacement is none other than former Interior Minister Manuel Valls, who is considered to be on the right wing of the Socialist Party and is personally popular with the electorate in general. Among other things, Valls, Spanish-born but a naturalized French citizen has come in favir of curbing immigration and repealing France's 35 hour work week, a Socialist policy.
Hollande, in a pre-recorded televised speech also said it was time for a "new phase". He made reference to unspecified tax cuts and an equally unspecified cut of 50-billion euros in government spending. These measures are not going to resonate well with Hollande's Socialist base.
Government spokespeople announced that other changes in ministers won't be announced until tomorrow at the earlist and that Hollande and Valls will collaborate on the new appointments.
Here's a uniquely French touch. One name being considered or a major ministry is none other than Segolene Royal, the former French Socialist presidential candidate. She is also Hollande's former 'partner' (they never married) whom Hollande first began living with in 1978 and had 4 children with before he dumped her in 2007 after she lost the presidential race to begin living with his next 'partner', French journalist Valérie Trierweiler -= whom he dumped this year in favor of an actress 20 years his junior, Julie Gayet!
If Royal gets into the government, il y aura une réunion d'intéressant,n'est pa?
France's municipal election returns are in, and the results may show a coming trend not just in France, but in Europe as a whole.
Less than two years after Socialist François Hollande decisive victory, the French Left has suffered major defeats in France's municipal elections that look to be a trend for the national elections in 2017.
Hollande's socialist policies of sky high tax rates on businesses and 'the rich' and his failure to produce economic growth as a result have resulted in a huge surge in unemployment and economic stagnation in France as well as an exodus of talented professionals and entrepreneurs.
And his support for social policies like homosexual marriage(still anathema in predominantly Catholic France)and the growing unpopularity of the EU and the problems inherent with Muslim immigration and high crime rates in the cities as well as Hollande's personal involvement in a front page scandal involving his partner French journalist Valérie Trierweiler and Hollande's new love interest, an actress named Julie Gayet 20 years his junior have all combined to make him extremely unpopular with all but the Socialist's hard core base.
Disaffection has definitely set in with the French and the record low voter turnout of around 60 per cent(extremely low for France) mirrors America's own low turnout in 2012.
Marine Le Pen's National Front, which took a populist stance on low taxes,immigration and crime garnered some of the best results in their history.
The FN won an outright majority in the northern town of Henin-Beaumont and was first-placed in the eastern town of Forbach and the southern towns of Avignon, Perpignan and Béziers. Nationwide, the FN scored seven percent of the vote, according to pollster BVA – a high national tally, given that it only fielded candidates in some 600 of France's total 36,000 municipalities. The FN could be in position to win 10-15 mayoral contests in the second round of voting ( France's election laws mandate a runoff between the two top vote getters if no candidate has above 50% of the vote for a majority).
Mdm. Le Pen said that it had an been “exceptional” election for the party.
“The National Front has arrived as a major independent force – a political force both at the national and local level," she said. Indeed it has.The FN appears more and more to the French as an alternative, capable of
taking responsibility and governing. The FN is expected to do quite well in the May runoffs, and will certainly move parties like the UMP further Right.
Nicholas Sarkozy's center right UMP also did fairly well, as parties on the Right overall including the UMP party but not the FN, secured 48 percent. This could put Le Pen's National Front in a 'kingmaker' position in the national elections if these trends hold.
Left wing parties including Hollande's Socialists garnered 43% of the vote but their support was concentrated in certain areas, taking away from their overall strength. One surprise in the election was was the Socialists’ terrible showing in the southern port city of Marseille, where veteran UMP mayor Jean-Claude Gaudin is likely to win a fourth term. The Socialists had expected to do well in Marseilles because of its Muslim population and unionized workers, but Socialist Patrick Menucci was only able to place a distant third behind Gaudin and the FN candidate.
Paris is going to have it's first female mayor, as the runoof will be between
Socialist Anne Hidalgo and the UMP's Nathalie Kosciusko Morizet. Hildalgo is favored because the Greens are expected to vote for her,but Morizet might get enough FN and other Right-leaning voters to offset that. Cherchez le femme!
