Islamistisk terror i Texas och Paris

 

Just nu tycks det pågå terrordåd i Texas och Paris. I båda fallen tycks det handla om dåd kopplade till Al Qaeda.

I Texas har ett antal personer  tagits som gisslan i synagogan Beth Israel i staden Colleyville, nära Fort Worth. Förövaren Muhammad Siddiqui kräver att en annan AQ-terrorist ska släppas från ett 86-årigt fängelsestraff...

I Paris var polis på väg att arrestera en terrorist som bodde på en "flykting"-förläggning under falskt namn då han sköt sig ut därifrån och kapade en bil. Just nu jagas han i centrala Paris.  Minst en person har mördats. Läget i staden är kaotiskt p g a de kraftiga demonstrationerna mot nya Coronarestriktioner...

A hostage situation is underway at a synagogue in the Dallas-Fort Worth area Saturday, several sources told ABC News.

An armed suspect claiming to have bombs in unknown locations took a rabbi and three others hostage at the Congregation Beth Israel, a source familiar with the situation told ABC News. It is unclear to what extent the hostage-taker is armed.

A U.S. official briefed on the matter told ABC News the hostage-taker is claiming to be the brother of convicted terrorist Aafia Siddiqui, but authorities have not yet confirmed his identity. The suspect is demanding to have the sister freed, the official said.

Siddiqui is incarcerated at Carswell Air Force Base near Fort Worth, according to the source. She had alleged ties to al-Qaida and was convicted of assault and attempted murder of a U.S. soldier in 2010 and sentenced to 86 years in prison.

A White House official confirmed to ABC News that the White House is "closely monitoring" the hostage situation. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas has also been briefed on the situation, according to a DHS spokesperson.

UPDATE 1/15/22, 2:20 PM The situation at the 6100 block of Pleasant Run Road posted about earlier remains ongoing. We ask that you continue to avoid the area. We will continue to provide updates via social media.

— Colleyville Police (@ColleyvillePD) January 15, 2022

The Colleyville Police Department's SWAT team responded to the area midday Saturday and evacuated residents in the immediate area.

As of 2:20 p.m. local time, the situation "remains ongoing," the department said on social media. "We ask that you continue to avoid the area."

 Läs mera på Daily Mail

 

 

Ledande kyrkopolitiker förnekar Svenska Kyrkans antisemitism....

Det känns nästan bisarrt när ledande kyrkopolitiker går ut och förnekar den verklighet som "det vanliga kyrkfolket" länge sett och upprörts över: Att organisationen Svenska Kyrkan idag genomsyras av antisemitism och Israelhat bland ledande företrädare och tjänstemän.

Johan Westerholm på Ledarsidorna angriper hårt den "ehrenrettung" för ärkebiskopens grumliga åsikter  som framförallt (s) och (c) bedriver.

Det som fick det hela att explodera var den famösa Malmökonferensen och kyrkoledningens stöd för antisemitiska motioner på Kyrkomötet.

I en replikväxling om antisemitismen inom den Svenska kyrkan blir det kremlologiska perspektivet tydligt. Genom att föra fram Wanja Lundby-Wedin (S) och Daniel Tisell (C) att förneka det faktiska sakläget istället för de som borde svarat på prästen Annika Borgs konstateranden om tillståndet i kyrkan, ärkebiskopen själv eller som allra lägst socialdemokraternas gruppledare Jesper Eneroth så är det uppenbart att Antje Jackeléns eftermäle skall putsas och Eneroth skall skyddas för framtiden.

Wanja Lundby-Wedin (S) och Daniel Tisell, (C), går i en replik till prästen och teologie doktorn Annika Borg om frågan om folkrätten och dess tillämpning gäller i både Israel och Palestina efter att Borg pekat på de tydliga antisemitiska inslagen i Svenska kyrkans ledning och praktik. Lundby-Wedin och Tisell menar att Svenska kyrkan aldrig anklagat staten Israel som apartheidstat.

Borg pekade i sin debattartikel på DN Debatt de faktiska omständigheter som gör att det är svårt att sluta sig till något annat än att Svenska kyrkans ledning genomsyras av en antisemitisk grundsyn i och med sin aktivism riktad mot staten Israel. Droppen som fick bägaren att rinna över kom med den motion, undertecknad av såväl Socialdemokraterna som Centerpartiet med bland annat Anna-Karin Hammar som initiativtagare som ville utreda staten Israel utifrån apartheidperspektivet.

Detta var Ledarsidorna först med att rapportera. En nyhet som sedan fick stor internationell uppmärksamhet av bland annat staten Israel när den senare kom att beredas av Kyrkomötet.

Relaterat: Socialdemokraterna i Svenska kyrkan: Utred Israel för apartheid

Att det är Wanja Lundby-Wedin som går i replik mot Borg är inledningsvis inte ointressant. Genom att föra fram henne skyddas socialdemokraternas framtidsnamn, gruppledaren för socialdemokraterna i Kyrkomötet och i formella termer den högst rankade förtroendevalde Jesper Eneroth från negativ publicitet. Jesper Eneroth är även vice ordförande för Socialdemokrater för Tro och Solidaritet, den del av partiet som historiskt haft de största inslagen av antingen ren antisemitism eller haft en uppenbart apologetisk inställning till den.

Jesper Eneroth är son till infrastrukturminister Tomas Eneroth samt är idag verksam vid Olof Palmes Internationella Center.

Och att repliken är så utformad som den är, där Lundby-Wedin och Tisell bland annat menar att Svenska kyrkan inte är en del av BDS-rörelsen (Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions) är gränsande till faktafel. Inititativtagaren till den aktuella motionen, Anna-Karin Hammar,  är känd för sitt engagemang i denna rörelse likt Gunilla Hallonstens. Hallonsten är sedan 2021 kyrkoherde i Malmö storpastorat men var tidigare Svenska kyrkans utrikeschef.

Men att Svenska kyrkan dras till antisemitiska organisationer är oomtvisteligt. Svenska kyrkan i allmänhet och ärkebiskop Antje Jackelén i synnerhet har en lång historia av samarbete med bland annat Muslimska brödraskapets bägge biståndsorganisationer Islamic Relief och Muslim Aid.

Mer läsning: Svenska kyrkans Malmö-konferens synliggör radikalt religiöst kluster

2020 tvingades hela styrelsen för Islamic Relief Worldwide att avgå efter att brittisk media kunnat avslöja omfattande och strukturellt betonad antisemitism i biståndsorganisationen. Muslim Aid är för närvarande, för andra gången, under utredning för samröre med terroristorganisationer av den brittiska tillsynsorganisationen ”Charity Commission”. Muslim Aid har tidigare fått sina finansiella resurser frysta för sådant samröre. Bägge organisationerna står Hamas nära. Hamas är en av EU, USA och Israel klassificerad terrororganisation och Storbritannien stiftade nyligen en ny lag som gjorde även Hamas politiska gren förbjuden att samverka med.

Relaterat: Svenska kyrkan anmält till Simon Wiesenthalcentret

Wanja Lundby-Wedins och Daniel Tisells replik till Borg är med det faktiska sakläget innehållsmässigt ointressant. Det bör anses vara belagt att Svenska kyrkans ledning idag, inklusive de undertecknande partigrupperna, genomsyras av en i grunden Israel-fientlig kultur som från tid till annan manövrerar in kyrkan i antisemitiska ställningstaganden eller pressar den till samarbeten som de med Islamic Relief och Muslim Aid.

Det som däremot är intressant är det kremlologiska perspektivet som nu blir tydligt. Genom att föra fram Wanja Lundby-Wedin och Daniel Tisell istället för de som borde svarat på Borgs debattinlägg, ärkebiskopen själv eller som allra lägst Jesper Eneroth så är det uppenbart att Jackeléns eftermäle skall putsas och Eneroth skall skyddas för framtiden.

 

Ung afghanska: Att bryta sig loss från burqan

 

A young Afghan woman on breaking free of the burqa

It was dehumanising to grow up in Afghanistan under a veil. I escaped but others are now ensnared, says Sultana

 I HATED WEARING a burqa. It made me itch, it made me sweat. And it made me invisible. Mine was blue with a small lace opening for the eyes, though underneath I wore a short-sleeved dress and tights. Walking in a burqa, I lost my usual confident gait: I hung my head lower, both hands clutching the edge of the fabric so I wouldn’t stumble. The very fact of wearing it made me feel inferior. To leave the house, when I became a teenager about a decade ago, I had to transform myself into a thing.

My way of protesting was to go out as little as possible, which seemed to be the only way I could protect my individuality. At home, I created a world of my own. But the desire to be part of the outside world never left me. I yearned to walk on the street and eat street food, swim in the lakes and know every corner of my town in a southern province of the country—to participate in life directly rather than simply observe it through my veil.

Our front door had a peephole that looked out onto the alley. Through it, I could see men buying snacks, old men sitting and chatting, or boys flying kites, playing cricket and riding bikes. I imagined how it would feel to walk there and interact with the world. Would I remember how to smile at people? Look them in the eye?

My parents, too, wanted me to step into my fullest potential. When other mothers praised their daughters for their cooking and housework, mine would claim that a woman’s real jewel is her education. When other fathers focused on how quickly they could marry their daughters, my father laughed if someone came to our house with a marriage proposal.

On some nights, when the neighbourhood was sleeping and only stray dogs occupied the roads, my father would walk with me outside the house to give me a taste of the world without a burqa. In the shadow of moonlight, we would stroll, hearing the sounds of crickets and dogs rummaging through rubbish. With each step I took, I felt free. Once my father disguised me as a boy to swim in the river that I used to go to when I was a child. At home, my parents allowed me to listen to music as loud as I pleased. In the late afternoon, after arriving home from work, my father and I would dance to melodic Tajik music. He didn’t want me to forget what it felt like to be free.

Sometimes I would get angry and loudly complain that I was forced to cage myself in a burqa. My mother would look at me with a solemn expression, place her hand on my head, and say, “Be someone who can leave this place.” She encouraged me to learn English.

And I did. Armed with an iPad, the internet and a free education website called Khan Academy, I taught myself English. And philosophy. And maths. And science. And history. I wanted to understand the world in every way possible, and my place in it. Solving maths problems gave structure to the uncertain world I was living in, even if just in my head. I felt liberated when I first learned to make a graph of a linear equation. On the page, drawing a two-dimensional co-ordinate plane and graphing an equation, the world was in my control.

Learning through a screen ten years ago was safer than going to school. There were several road-side suicide-bombings, and the building was occasionally used by the Taliban as base for attacks on government buildings. Besides, female students were threatened by the Taliban with having acid poured on them for attending classes.

It was different when my mother was a child in the 1960s. It was an era of hope: schools were opening for girls and wearing a burqa was not mandatory. In the evenings, when the room was dimly lit by the light of the heater, my mother would tell stories of her past, of a normal Afghanistan.

She spoke about the freedom she enjoyed and the choices women had in life, other than getting married. My mother grew up in an Afghanistan that was modernising. Her father wished her to become an educated and free woman. The wish came true. She became a lecturer at Kabul University. Sporting short hair, wearing a long skirt and blouse, she would walk to her classroom, filled with both male and female students. She even received a fellowship to study in Germany, but the civil war started and she wasn’t able to go.

Through these stories, I realised that Afghan women have the capacity to achieve something great in their lives. My mother believed that no matter how difficult the situation, you should always focus on what you can change. “Of course, you can’t change everything, but you can always change something,” she often reminded me when I got frustrated with the challenges that I had to face as a young Afghan woman.

So I studied. While most young women my age were getting married, I was learning how to argue like Socrates or apply mathematics like Newton. With each new thing I learned, I began to feel alive, like a plant that blooms when it gets water after it has been parched and dying. By allowing me the freedom of education, if only behind the four walls of our home, my parents gave me a window onto the world. More than that, they gave me the tools to create my own identity and make myself visible again.

Around five years ago, as the situation in Afghanistan deteriorated, I didn’t want its fate to become my own. I accepted a scholarship to study maths and science in America, leaving my parents in Afghanistan, with their blessing and encouragement. Today I am a university researcher in America and have published in my scientific field.

Now, another nightmarish reality has begun to unfold in Afghanistan, wiping out the progress Afghan women had made for their rights.

“Afghan women are sinking into an abyss,” my mother told me soon after the American troops pulled out last August. It felt as if someone stabbed my heart. My soul ached. “Any sign of women in public is removed. How can we teach young boys to respect women when on the street they see pictures of women torn down and see women beaten? Why does the tragedy of Afghanistan and of Afghan women have no end?” She cried as she spoke.

Since then, darkness has engulfed Afghanistan. My mind never stops thinking of my mother and all the women and girls trapped in the country, once again forced to hide their existence. A new decree has been issued that, unless accompanied by a male relative, women are in effect not permitted to travel by vehicle more than 45 miles (70km) from their homes. Female friends tell me that with no school and no future to look forward to, life has been reduced to waiting for death.

As a new veil descends over Afghan women’s rights, and women in all parts of the country are forced to stay behind closed doors, I feel the same suffocation I did as a teenager beneath the thick, scratchy fabric of the dark burqa. It feels as if the whole of Afghanistan wears that heavy burqa which I hated so much, and that, underneath it, all Afghan women are choking.
_______________

Sultana is a university researcher in the sciences in America. Her surname is not disclosed for her family’s safety.

(The Economist Dec 29th 2021)

 

Grattis Sverige inför 2022....

 

Innan året är slut beräknas Sverige ha delat ut omkring 85 000 nya medborgarskap och ”de nya svenskarna” kommer i huvudsak från arabvärlden, Somalia, Afghanistan och Eritrea.

Migrationsverkets statistik visar att de svenska medborgarskap som delats ut under året nästan uteslutande gått till invandrare från tredje världen och att människor från nordiska grannländer i stort tycks vara ointresserade av att bli medborgare i Sverige.

Cirka 40 000 av medborgarskapen har under året gått till människor från arabvärlden varav 27 340 till migranter från Syrien. Vidare har 4 305 somalier, 4 067 afghaner och 3 471 eritreaner blivit svenska medborgare under året som gått. För norrmän, danskar och finländare är samma siffra 163 respektive 198 och 204.

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Det framgår också att nästan 50 000 personer med svenskt medborgarskap utvandrat under 2021 – men det är oklart hur många av dessa som är invandrare från tredje världen. Noteras kan också att 2 594 av de som fått svenskt medborgarskap under året varit statslösa och att 2 049 kommit från Polen. I 1 530 fall listas hemlandet som ”okänt”.

Man kan även se att Sverige är populärt framför allt hos de invandrargrupper som redan har ett stort antal landsmän här – exempelvis Somalia eller Syrien. För personer från afrikanska länder som Tchad, Malawi, Madagaskar och Ekvatorialguinea beviljades däremot bara fyra medborgarskap totalt.

 (Nya Dagbladet 31 december 2021)

Och Gott Nytt År !

 

Josefs grav återigen vandaliserad

 

Patriarken Josefs grav i Shechem (arabiska Nablus) har återigen utsatts för vandalisering av araber. Såhär på rak arm minns jag i varje fall tidigare angrepp 2000, 2003, 2011 och 2015, men det har säkert inträffat fler gånger...

Vid några tillfällen har medierna hävdat att graven helt förstörts.

Flera gånger har judar som försökt försvara graven mördats där. Sex IDF-soldater mördades där 1996.           År 2000 även en gränspolis på vakt. Graven ligger tyvärr på al Fatah-ockuperat område där den arabiska s k polisen ska upprätthålla ordningen.

De senaste 20 åren har judar bara kunnat besöka graven med militär eskort. Men i år tycks israeliska påtryckningar ha lyckats. Den arabiska polisen har satt ut ständig bevakning och har i varje fall vid två tillfällen kört bort huliganer på väg att bränna graven... 

 

 

Amerikanska judar: Biden vrider klockan tillbaka

 

By Dmitriy Shapiro, JNS.org

Leaders of the Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) warned supporters to be vigilant against what they believe to be increasing anti-Israel positions from leaders, and the trend of encroaching tolerance for anti-Semitic rhetoric masked as anti-Zionism, during the organization’s annual gala on Sunday.

Due to the coronavirus pandemic, the gala was held as a webcast, highlighted by video addresses from leaders and activists in the ZOA, as well as politicians such as former U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett.

The event was hosted by Jewish Iranian-American journalist Lisa Daftari, who personally praised the ZOA for its work in teaching about the dangers of a nuclear Iran, a cause she is intimately involved in.

Mort Klein, president of ZOA for the past 28 years, told viewers that advances which the ZOA supports often get reversed by various governments — dating back to the time Great Britain restricted immigration at the outset of World War II despite international treaties giving Jews the right to immigrate to Mandatory Palestine in 1920.

“Britain turned around and slammed shut the doors to Israel, just at the moment when millions of Jews faced annihilation in Europe,” Klein said.

Today too, according to Klein, the ZOA needs to remain vigilant against what he said was the Biden administration backtracking advances made during the Trump administration.

Klein listed the Trump administration’s pro-Israel accomplishments that the ZOA had long backed, including the recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s undivided capital, moving the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem, recognizing Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights, recognizing the legality of settlements in Judea and Samaria, pulling out of the Iran nuclear deal, adding sanctions against Iran, defunding the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), supporting Israel in the United Nations, opposing the International Criminal Court’s investigations into Israel’s alleged war crimes and cutting off funding of the Palestinian Authority over payments to the families of terrorists.

Almost all these policies have been reversed by the Biden administration, Klein noted.

“We are now facing an administration that is moving to backtrack on some of these very important advances. We’re at a critical moment when Israel and her leaders and all of us who love Israel must stand strong against what this administration is trying to do,” Klein said.

Klein read the words of then-U.S. Sen. Joe Biden from 1995 in support of the 1995 Jerusalem Embassy Act, which enshrined in American law that Jerusalem is the undivided capital of Israel and that the U.S. embassy should be moved there. At the time, Biden emphasized how despite efforts by various empires and regimes tried to sever Jewish ties to Jerusalem, “the Jewish people returned to claim what many rulers have tried to deny them for centuries, the right to peaceful existence, their own country, in their own capital.”  

Yet today, the Biden administration is working to open a Palestinian consulate in western Jerusalem.

“Such a consulate would undermine Israel’s sovereignty over Jerusalem, it violates the Jerusalem Embassy Act, will likely result in violating the Oslo Accords which prohibit the Palestinian Authority from engaging in foreign relations,” Klein said. “The consulate is a diplomatic insult and danger to Israel and the Jewish people.”

Klein said that opening the consulate would be a reward to the “fascist, terrorist dictatorship” of Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas, who he said will continue to encourage Arabs to kill Jews.

The ZOA has placed giant banners on major buildings in Jerusalem, urging Israeli leaders and citizens to say “no” to the consulate. The organization has also urged other Jewish groups to join this effort.

“But no Jewish group has — I’m sorry to say, it pains me to say — not AIPAC, [American Jewish] Committee, not the ADL, not the Conference of Presidents and not any of the other major groups have done so,” Klein said. “We must urge them to do so to support the Israeli government.”

Klein said that the Biden administration is also undermining Israel’s right to build settlements in Judea and Samaria, which was recognized as legal by the Trump administration. Meanwhile, there are no restrictions on Palestinians building in the same areas. Klein called these actions from the Biden administration blatantly anti-Semitic.

He also pointed to Biden’s warning against the scourge of anti-Semitism during a commemoration of the Tree of Life Synagogue massacre in Pittsburgh, but then asked why Biden and Democratic leaders do not condemn by name the anti-Semitic comments by progressive members of Congress.

“While Israel was being bombarded with over 4,400 Hamas rockets, President Biden shockingly, strongly praised the Jew-hater Rep. Rashida Tlaib, who opposes Israel’s very existence,” Klein said. “Shortly after Tlaib again promoted boycotting Israel and called Israel an apartheid state, Biden disgracefully said to Rashida Tlaib … ‘I admire your intellect. I admire your passion. I admire your concern for so many other people. You’re a fighter, Rashida Tlaib, and God thank you for being a fighter.’ What a disgraceful episode in Biden’s administration.”

He also raised alarm about numerous Biden administration appointees who, according to Klein, had a record of anti-Semitic and anti-Israel statements. This was so alarming, he said, that ZOA established a webpage to list and document the statements of 20 appointees.

‘Fighting for Truth’

“The fact that thousands of us are gathered here at this virtual gala shows that so many of us, such huge number of us, do care,” Klein concluded. “We will continue to be strong and with the help of Almighty God and with the help of the Jewish Zionists and evangelical Christians Zionists and remarkable Israeli people, we will overcome all of these serious but temporary obstacles and will ultimately re-strengthen U.S.-Israel relations and promote the truth of the Arab Islamist war against Israel and the West, and will finally implement the moral, principled, wise policies that will strengthen and benefit both Israel and America.”

The event also featured a brief address by the ZOA’s newly elected board chairman, attorney David Schoen, who served on Trump’s legal team during his Congressional impeachment hearings.

“Tonight, we celebrate an organization that is dedicated to fighting for truth, an organization that is brave and bold, and an organization that is determined to share and promote facts,” Schoen said. “As we look around the world at the end of 2021, we see increasing anti-Semitism both in the United States and abroad, including violent attacks on college campuses and synagogues across the country, and a harsh anti-Israel climate on Capitol Hill. Israel bashing has become the norm as few are willing to stand against the current in order to shut down the lies.”

ZOA presented the Mortimer Zuckerman Award for Outstanding Jewish Philanthropy to Gloria Kaylie and her late husband Harvey, as well as the Justice Louis D. Brandeis Award to activist Rubin Margules.

“Like Mort, I was born in a [displaced persons] camp in Germany — in Bamberg, Germany. My father and mother were liberated from concentration camps in which nearly all their former families were murdered. So too my wife’s family,” Margules said. “My father was consumed with pride by the emergence of the State of Israel, a haven then and now for the Jewish people and a source of pride to all of us. He taught me love of Israel and even more importantly, that we must do what it takes to ensure that never again means never again!”

 

Dan Korn om julen i gamla Sverige

Folklivsforskaren Dan Korn skriver i Nyheter Idag om jultraditionerna i det gamla Sverige.

  

Hur uppstod egentligen julen, och hur brukade svenskarna fira den i gamla tider? Nyheter Idag snackar jul med Dan Korn, tidigare folklivsforskare och numera opinionschef på Bulletin.
– Det finns någon sorts allmänmänsklig vilja att lysa upp i mörkret, säger han.

Här uppe i Norden firade vi jul när vi fortfarande var hedningar. Då skedde det i form av midvinterblotet. När nordborna sedan kristnades blev julen i stället ett firande av Jesu födelse, berättar Dan Korn.

– Det här var någonting som man gjorde över hela Europa, att man hade någon form utav firande just när det var som mörkast på året. Då ville man liksom besvärja att det skulle bli ljusare igen. Man har haft blot eller tänt en eld – man har markerat det på olika sätt i olika traditioner på olika ställen, säger han.

– När kristendomen växte fram under de första århundradena var det i en mycket öppen och tolerant form i stora delar av Europa, där man medvetet lät folk bli kristna men också behålla sina gamla traditioner. Så vitt jag vet står det ingenstans i Nya testamentet att händelserna där ägde rum just den 24 december.

Nyår har däremot en mer tydlig koppling till kristna traditioner, enligt Dan Korn.

– I gamla tider framgick det tydligt att nyårsfirandet är att fira Jesus omskärelse på den åttonde dagen. Så egentligen är det en judisk tradition som ligger i botten.

Lät de döda sova i sängarna

– Man ska komma ihåg att den jul som de flesta svenskar firar i dag är väldigt olik den jul som firades i Sverige för bara hundra år sedan, säger Dan Korn.

Som exempel tar han något som han skrev om i Nyheter Idag i fjol: att folk strödde halm på golvet i sina stugor.

– Det var en sak som försvann redan i slutet på 1800-talet, och jag har träffat människor som kom ihåg det från 20-, 30-talet någon gång. Då var det de allra sista som höll på med det.

– Jag vet att man brukade ligga och sova på julnatten i halmen, och det berodde på att man hade en föreställning om att de döda återvände till sin gård på julafton eller julnatten, och då skulle man upplåta sina sängar till dem i stället. Man hade också uppfattningen att man inte fick lov att komma för tidigt till julottan. Om man kom för tidigt kunde man hamna i de dödas mässa, för innan julottan började samlades de döda i kyrkan och firade sin mässa, trodde man. Det finns många berättelser om folk som har tagit fel på tiden och hamnat i mycket fel sällskap.

Dan Korn säger att samma tro fanns om midsommar – att det var en natt där de döda kom hem till gården. En annan koppling mellan jul och midsommar är julgranen och majstången som fruktbarhetssymboler.

I andra länder har man tänt bål i samband med midsommar, och elden har också haft en roll att spela på julen. Dan Korn berättar att det förr var viktigt att julbrasan bestod av fint huggen ved, och i dag har vi adventsstakar och levande ljus. Jul och midsommar är alltså högtider som på flera sätt speglar varandra.

Frosseri på julen gav tur i livet

Förr i tiden, liksom i dag, kännetecknades julen av att mängder av mat, dryck och godis skulle förtäras.

– Att man åt väldigt god mat på julen var inte bara något man gjorde för att man ville ha det mysigt och trevligt – det var också en form av blodigt allvar i botten med det där. Man trodde att om man frossade och åt och hade det riktigt bra på jul, så påverkade det det kommande året så att man fick det gott materiellt ställt och skulle tjäna mycket pengar, ha en god skörd eller kor som fick många kalvar, eller vad man nu höll på med. Man trodde att man kunde påverka det genom att äta och dricka gott på julen. Så många människor svalt sig medvetet i ett halvår för att kunna släppa lös riktigt på julafton.

Dan Korn läser ur en gammal bok av folkminnesforskaren Hilding Celander där en norsk torpare citeras: ”Jag strävar hela året efter att leva gott om julen.”

– Det var liksom det livet gick ut på – att ha en bra jul. Då fick man ett bra liv, säger Dan Korn.

I dag har nog de flesta ett annat förhållande till julen än den gamle torparen. En del traditioner har gått förlorade med tiden och andra har kommit till. Ett typiskt inslag i det moderna svenska julfirandet är Kalle Anka.

– Det är ju ett amerikanskt tv-program från slutet på 50-talet, men det är bara i Sverige som folk i allmänhet vet vad klockan tre på julafton innebär. Det spelar ingen roll om du ser på Kalle Anka eller inte – att du vet om att Kalle Anka går klockan tre på julafton är en referenspunkt. Det skapar en form utav gemenskap mellan oss svenskar. De som klagar på att det inte är en gammal tradition missar hur viktiga sådana här referenspunkter är. Vi lever ju i en tid där tv:n har blivit vår nya lägereld, och där spelar sådana här saker en oerhört stor roll. Det spelar liksom ingen roll att det är Disney och en importvara, därför att vi har gjort något som är väldigt typiskt svenskt av det.

– Det var någon som sade för några år sedan att man blir svensk om man åker tunnelbana i Stockholm, vilket ju är rena nonsens. Men kanske blir man i varje fall mer svensk om man förstår referenser till Kalle Anka på julafton.

 Läs hela artikeln

 

Libyen: Bortglömt val i kollapsad stat (m uppdatering)

Senaste nytt: Valet uppskjutet enligt fransk TV. Sannolikt nytt datum 24 januari...

 

På Julafton går Libyens folk till val. Många menar säkert att det är absurt att genomföra val i en stat som sedan tio år befinner sig i totalt kaos. Två s k "regeringar", den ena GNC kontrollerad av Muslimska Brödraskapet och Turkiet (och stödd av EU...), den andra LNA kontrollerad av den lite märkliga kombinationen  CIA,  Egypten och Ryssland, slåss om makten.

Men de verkliga makthavarna i landet är de kriminella privatarméer som tjänar miljarder på att skeppa narkotika, vapen och lycksökare från Asien och Afrika över Medelhavet.

En joker har dykt upp inför valet: Överste Khaddaffis överlevande son.

Norska Document.no ger en dagsrapport från röran:

 Etter 40 år med Gaddafi-diktatur og nye ti med krig, er det et vaklevorent demokrati som planlegger et nasjonalt valg i Libya i julaften. Usikkerheten er stor.

Det første direkte presidentvalget etter regimeskiftet skulle være avslutningen på en FN-ledet prosess med mål om å stoppe den ødeleggende volden som har ridd Libya. Volden som ga liv til opprøret som endte med at diktatoren Muammar Gaddafi ble drept i 2011.

Drapet på diktatoren førte verken til fred eller demokrati. I stedet opplevde libyerne intern krig, rivalisering om makt og territorium. stormaktsinnblanding og bombing. De kraftige oppløsningstendensene har ikke blitt bedre av at landet også har blitt et springbrett for horder av desperate asylsøkere og migranter som vil prøve lykken over Middelhavet med båt.

Rivalisering og kamp

Årene etter at Gaddafi-regimet falt var preget av rivalisering mellom et overhus og et underhus der antiislamister utgjorde flertallet i det nederste kammeret. Parlamentet måtte etter hvert forlate Tripoli og tok tilflukt i Tobruk øst i Libya.

I november i fjor ble de rivaliserende administrasjonene enige om å holde både et presidentvalg og et nytt valg til parlamentet i desember 2021. Libyske delegater i FN sa seg enig i at settestatsminister Abdulhamid Dbeibah og hans regjering skal ta ansvar for og administrere valget.

Brøt løfte og stiller til valg

Før han ble utnevnt til statsminister, måtte Dbeibah love at han ikke skulle være kandidat i valget. Dette løftet brøt han glatt og er en av de tre kamphanene som kjemper om presidentembetet i det utslitte landet.

Ifølge nyhetsbyrået AFP er det langt fra sikkert at valget på julaften vil bli gjennomført. Hvis valget gjennomføres, er det langt fra sikkert at de tre kandidatene vil godta utfallet.

Krigsforbrytersiktet

Diktatorsønnen Seif al-Islam Gaddafi ble godkjent som presidentkandidat først etter at væpnede styrker hadde beleiret rettslokalene der Gaddafis kandidatur ble vurdert rettslig. Seif al-Islam Gaddafi er ettersøkt av Den internasjonale krigsforbryterdomstolen, mistenkt for forbrytelser mot menneskeheten. Flere libyske domstoler hadde nektet å godkjenne Gaddafi som kandidat, før det endelig lyktes med soldater til hjelp.

Parlamentet som har flyktet til Øst-Libya, gikk enstemmig inn for å la parlamentspresidentens allierte, opprørsgeneralen Khalifa Haftar, stille som president.

Haftar er forhatt i Vest-Libya etter en tre år lang krig for å sikre seg mer territorium. I det vestlige Libya er det få som vil akseptere en seier i presidentvalget for Khalifa Haftar, skriver AFP.

Haftars styrker kontrollerer store deler av det østlige og sørlige Libya. Han får støtte av Russland, Egypt og De arabiske emirater.

Kan ikke garantere sikkerhet

Sikkerhetssituasjonen i Libya er langt fra god. Ifølge AFP advarer valganalytikere mot at forholdene ikke ligger til rette for frie valg i dagens Libya. Innenriksminister Khaled Mazen sier at regjeringen ikke er i stand til å garantere for sikkerheten ved valglokalene.

– Det minimum av utstyr, infrastruktur og sikkerhet som kreves for et fritt valg, er ikke til stede, sier Amanda Kadlec til AFP. Hun er tidligere medlem av FNs ekspertpanel om Libya.

På sosiale mediene tyter det fram påstander om juks allerede før valget. Flere forteller at de skulle hente valgkort, men kom tomhendt hjem fordi valgkortet allerede var «hentet av noen andre».

Det er også langt fra sikkert at de rivaliserende partene vil godkjenne valgresultatet. I valgkampen har de tre rivalene kommet med harde beskyldninger mot hverandre. Alle de tre kandidatene har væpnede styrker som står klare til å kjempe for seg.

*****

Läs mera om alla grupper som slåss om makten över Libyens olja

 

 

Biden återupplivar Obamas anti-israelpolitik

President Obama har gått till historien för sin totalt misslyckade Mellanösternpolitik, som byggde på en allians med Muslimska Brödraskapet. En av grundstenarna i den var att på alla sätt motarbeta Israel.

Det är därför tragiskt att den förvirrade president Biden vill driva samma politik. Många fruktar nu att ett amerikanskt erkännande av låtsasstaten "Palestina" är nära. Ett nytt steg i den riktningen torde vara att det amerikanska konsulatet i Jerusalem åter öppnats, nu för att vårda förbindelserna med Al Fatahs terrorenklav.

Bidenadministrationens utnämningar visar också att Muslimska Brödraskapets inflytande i USA:s  poitik ständigt växer...

Läs Gatestones analys: 

• "The US does not want to open a consulate merely to have a place for diplomatic connections with the PA [Palestinian Authority]. If that is all they wanted, they could easily do this by opening a mission in Abu Dis or Ramallah -- where most other countries conduct their relations with the PA... the purpose of opening the consulate is to recognize Palestinian claims to Jerusalem." — Eugene Kontorovitch, professor, George Mason University, Antonin Scalia School of Law, Israel Hayom, December 5, 2021.

• The 1963 Vienna Convention on Consular Relations states that "a consular post may be established in the territory of the receiving State only with that State's consent". In other words, reopening the consulate may be done only with the consent of the Israeli government.

• All this cannot be dissociated from the general hostile attitude of the Biden administration towards Israel from the moment it came to power.

• Earlier in March, an internal memo from the US State Department was leaked to The National, a daily newspaper in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. The National reported that "The Biden administration memo recommends voicing US principles on achieving Israeli-Palestinian peace under a two-state solution framework 'based on the 1967 lines'".

• The author of the memo is Hady Amr, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Israeli-Palestinian Affairs and Press and Public Diplomacy in the Biden administration, and also in charge of US negotiations with Israel and Palestinian organizations. It is hard to imagine that Amr was chosen as an "honest broker". Amr has a long history of anti-Israeli activities.

• Amr also is the lead author of a report published by the Brookings Institution in December 2018 in which some proposals are made that could be regarded as disturbing. The report says that the United States must "reconnect" with Hamas, a fundamentalist terrorist group; seek "to create a Palestinian unity government integrating Hamas", and "compel Israel to make major concessions", even if it may "endanger Israel". The report never defines Hamas as a terrorist group, and never says that Hamas's goal is to destroy Israel. The report adds, "should Israel prove uncooperative with American efforts, the United States could signal it will move ahead anyway."

• The behavior of the Biden administration towards Israel is all the more worrying in that at the same time, it places itself in a weak position regarding negotiations with Iran and seems ready to make a deal with the mullahs' regime at any price, in a resolution that has already been called "less for less", or, worse, "less for more".

• An Israeli diplomatic service briefing recently announced the Biden administration is ready to accept a deal with Iran that includes only two elements: the removal of all international sanctions still imposed on Iran, and Iran's pledge to stop enriching uranium, which would mean that Iran's nuclear program would remain intact and that Iran's regional destabilization actions, including its threats against Israel, could continue.

• Two days before the current negotiations began, chief Iranian Army spokesman Brigadier General Abolfazl Shekarchi said to the Iran Students News Agency (ISNA) that Israel's annihilation is his country's "greatest ideal before us and the greatest goal we pursue."

• Iran claims, truthfully or not, that it already has enough enriched uranium to produce a nuclear warhead on short notice. On November 8, Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh, announced that Iran will only agree to sign a deal with the US if all sanctions are unconditionally lifted. "Either we agree on everything, or we agree on nothing," he said.

• The US Biden Administration seems.... at a time finally of peace, deliberately acting to destabilize not only Israel's new coalition government but, more importantly, the entire region. The United States seems once again to be igniting, on the heels of its failure in Afghanistan, yet a second, unnecessary disruption, with all the carnage, global damage and pandemonium that will result. Those two historic upheavals will be the legacies of the Biden Administration. If Biden is looking for yet another disaster to notch on his belt, this is it.

"The US does not want to open a consulate merely to have a place for diplomatic connections with the PA [Palestinian Authority]... the purpose of opening the consulate is to recognize Palestinian claims to Jerusalem." — Professor Eugene Kontorovitch, Antonin Scalia School of Law, George Mason University. According to Dore Gold, formerly both Israel's Ambassador to the UN and Foreign Ministry Director-General, "The opening of the consulate on Agron Road in the west of the city will not only undermine Israeli sovereignty in the capital, it will also result in a serious withdrawal from the status Israel achieved in West Jerusalem prior to 1967." Pictured: The former US Consulate on Agron Road in Jerusalem, Israel, photographed in 2009. (Image source: Magister/Wikimedia Commons)

On May 2018, when the United States Embassy in Jerusalem was inaugurated on the 70th anniversary of the State of Israel's founding, the US consulate in Jerusalem became useless and quickly shut its gates. Now, in 2021, the current US Biden administration wants to reopen the consulate, "for the Palestinians", Arabs ruled by the Palestinian Authority.

Seeing this proposal as a threat to Israel's sovereignty over Jerusalem, Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett declined the request.

"A U.S. consulate in Jerusalem to a foreign body", wrote the noted attorney and former US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman, and "clearly runs afoul of American law" because of the Jerusalem Embassy Act of 1995, passed overwhelmingly by both the U.S. House and Senate.

"With the opening of the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem in 2018, there was no basis for a consulate to exist. The Jerusalem embassy provides consular services on a non-discriminatory basis to all Israelis and Palestinians — equal treatment for Jews, Christians and Muslims. The consulate thus became obsolete and a waste of taxpayer dollars. I know of no other country where the United States maintains an embassy and a consulate in the same city."

"The US Embassy in Jerusalem," asserts Eugene Kontorovitch, a professor at George Mason University's Antonin Scalia School of Law, "already provides consular services to the Palestinians."

"It is unheard of to have an independent consulate in the same city where a country has an embassy. The point of creating a separate consulate is to undermine former US President Donald Trump's recognition of Jerusalem... The US does not want to open a consulate merely to have a place for diplomatic connections with the PA [Palestinian Authority]. If that is all they wanted, they could easily do this by opening a mission in Abu Dis or Ramallah -- where most other countries conduct their relations with the PA... the purpose of opening the consulate is to recognize Palestinian claims to Jerusalem."

The consulate is not in the eastern part of the city, emphasized Dore Gold, formerly both Israel's Ambassador to the UN and Foreign Ministry Director-General. Reopening it would not only be signal "the desire to divide Jerusalem", he said, but constitute "an attempt to call into question Israel's sovereignty over the entire city".

"The opening of the consulate on Agron Road in the west of the city will not only undermine Israeli sovereignty in the capital, it will also result in a serious withdrawal from the status Israel achieved in West Jerusalem prior to 1967."

The 1963 Vienna Convention on Consular Relations states that "a consular post may be established in the territory of the receiving State only with that State's consent". In other words, reopening the consulate may be done only with the consent of the Israeli government.

Nevertheless, it seems that the Biden administration is considering taking lawless unilateral action once again, this time by placing a new sign on the consulate, and getting ready to trigger a diplomatic crisis between Israel and the United States. Aware that such a diktat could lead to a fall of the coalition government currently in power in Israel, the Biden administration is now trying to seduce the Israeli government by making offers to it.

To suggest in exchange the creation of economic ties between Saudi Arabia and Israel, however, is ridiculous: economic ties already exist between Israel and Saudi Arabia. Talking about the introduction of limited visa exemptions to Israeli tourists is no better: to imagine that an Israeli government could consider calling into question of the sovereignty of Israel over its own capital in exchange for visa exemptions is, in fact, an insult.

It appears, however, that the Biden administration, whatever the consequences, does not intend to give up on its destabilizing project.

All this cannot be dissociated from the general hostile attitude of the Biden administration towards Israel from the moment it came to power.

As early as January 26, less than a week after Joe Biden was sworn in, acting U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Richard Mills announced that the Biden administration supported "the Palestinian people's legitimate aspirations for a state of their own and to live with dignity and security".

On April 7, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken published a statement declaring that the United States will "restart U.S. economic, development, and humanitarian assistance for the Palestinian people". He added:

"This includes $75 million in economic and development assistance in the West Bank and Gaza, $10 million for peacebuilding programs through the US Agency for International Development (USAID), and $150 million in humanitarian assistance for the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA)".

The problem is that this US assistance will not go to the "Palestinian people", but to the Palestinian Authority -- which will doubtless use a significant portion of it to finance more terrorism. The PA still continues to finance terrorism, through a program often nicknamed "pay for slay". On May 10, the Jewish Institute for National Security of America published a text explaining that "By Renewing Palestinian Aid, America Is Funding Terrorism".

Part of the US aid money will go to Gaza, hence to Hamas, still officially designated as a terrorist organization by the State Department. Blinken, bizarrely, seems to see no contradiction between helping an entity governed by a terrorist organization and contributing to its purported "peacebuilding programs". UNWRA, despite effectively being an employment agency for Hamas terrorists, will thereby again receive US assistance. Many of its premises serve as arms depots for Hamas, but apparently that inconvenient fact has been set aside.

When, in May, the leaders of Hamas, apparently certain that there would be no American reaction, raised tensions in Jerusalem, incited riots on the Temple Mount, and launched a massive missile attack on Israel, the Biden administration for two days did not say a word. On May 13, answering a journalist, Biden simply said, "Israel has a right to defend itself". The next day, he added, "Palestinians -- including in Gaza -- and Israelis equally deserve to live in dignity, safety and security". He did not condemn Hamas, which, by firing on densely populated civilian areas, was committing a war crime; instead, he disingenuously put Hamas and Israel on an equal footing, with no distinction between the aggressor and the victim of that aggression.

On May 17, Biden asked Israel's Prime Minister not to "destabilize the region", as if it were Israel that had been guilty of initiating the violence and had no right to defend itself. Hamas and Biden both asked for a cease-fire; however, on May 20, as soon as one was in place, Biden, while quickly reaffirming that Israel did have a right to defend itself, immediately promised to "provide rapid humanitarian assistance and to marshal international support for the people of Gaza and the Gaza reconstruction efforts" -- without ever mentioning the damage suffered by Israel.

Since then, the guideline followed by the Biden administration towards Israel appears not to have changed.

On October 22, when the Israeli government accurately designated six Palestinian NGOs affiliated with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) as "accessories to a terrorist organization", US State Department Spokesman Ned Price immediately charged that the State Department had not been informed:

"We are currently engaging our Israeli partners for more information regarding the basis for these designations. It is, to the best of our knowledge, accurate that we did not receive a specific heads-up about any forthcoming designations".

The State Department, it turns out, had been informed. Not only had it received the necessary information, but the Israeli government had expressed its readiness to provide any missing information.

The State Department appeared to be trying to ignore that the six NGOs designated by the Israeli government as affiliated with the terrorist group, PFLP -- Addameer, Al Haq, Bisan Center, the Samidoun Palestine Prisoner Solidarity Network, Defense for Children International Palestine, and the Union of Agricultural Work Committees -- had been engaging in suspicious activities, described in detail by NGO Monitor. Addameer, for instance, has been supporting Palestinians imprisoned in Israel for terrorism. Al Haq is defined by NGO monitor "a leader in anti-Israel lawfare" and "BDS campaigns". The Bisan Center aims to "enhance Palestinian's resilience" -- a word used by Palestinian organizations as a synonym for "resistance", a euphemism for killing Israelis -- for the Samidoun Palestine Prisoner Solidarity Network, which works to free Palestinian prisoners from Israeli prisons. Defense for Children International Palestine and the Union of Agricultural Work Committees raise funds internationally and use them to finance PFLP activities. If information was missing, the State Department could easily have requested it; instead, it chose to create a public incident.

On October 27, Israel approved the construction of 1,300 new housing units in settlements in Judea and Samaria, also known as the West Bank (of the Jordan River). Price delivered an extremely harsh condemnation of Israel:

"We strongly oppose the expansion of settlements, which is completely inconsistent with efforts to lower tensions and to ensure calm, and it damages the prospects for a two-state solution".

The proposed housing units, however, are to be built inside of settlements that already exist.

What does seem "completely inconsistent with efforts to lower tensions and to ensure calm" are the negative comments against Israel made by the Biden administration. Indeed, they have been leading to increasingly more violent remarks from the Palestinian leadership, who doubtless see themselves as newly empowered by the US.

Prospects for a two-state solution always have been -- and still are -- totally absent from the speeches of Palestinian leaders. Israel has offered the Palestinians many chances for two-state solutions and for peace; they have always been always rebuffed outright, without even a counter-offer. Now, prospects for a two-state solution are also totally absent from Israel's new leaders.

On September 24, in his prerecorded address to the UN General Assembly, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, now in the 16^th year of his four-year term, falsely accused Israel of "apartheid" and "ethnic cleansing". He added:

"Circumstances on the ground will inevitably impose equal and full political rights for all on the land of historical Palestine, within one state".

The Biden administration keeps repeating that it wants a "two-state solution", but there are signs that it may want more.

On November 9, the Biden administration did not reject a UN resolution called "Assistance to Palestine Refugees". Instead, it voted to abstain. The text, among other things, says that "Palestine refugees are entitled to their property and income derived from it." Almost all of the people designated by the UN as "Palestine refugees" have never owned property in Israel and are not real refugees: they were born outside Israel and have never set foot in Israel. On January 14, former US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo wrote a tweet saying: "it's estimated <200,000 Arabs displaced in 1948 are still alive and most others are not refugees by any rational criteria".

The Biden administration, by abstaining, is therefore confirming a lie. "The resolution comes up every three years," wrote the journalist Yaakov Lappin. "The U.S. abstaining was a marked departure in policy -- all previous American administrations except the Obama administration have voted against this resolution."

Earlier in March, an internal memo from the US State Department was leaked to The National, a daily newspaper in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.

"The Biden administration memo recommends voicing US principles on achieving Israeli-Palestinian peace under a two-state solution framework 'based on the 1967 lines with mutually agreed land swaps and agreements on security and refugees'".

The author of the memo is Hady Amr, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Israeli-Palestinian Affairs and Press and Public Diplomacy in the Biden administration, and also in charge of US negotiations with Israel and Palestinian organizations. It is hard to imagine that Amr was chosen as an "honest broker".

Amr has a long history of anti-Israeli activities. On January 31, 2002, he published in Lebanon's Daily Star newspaper an article in which he said that he was "inspired by the intifada." Four months later, on May 8, 2002, he published in the same newspaper an article describing Israel as "occupied Palestine", accusing the Israeli government of "ethnic cleansing" and defining Israel's supporters in the US of being "pro-ethnic-cleansing activists".

Amr also is the lead author of a report published by the Brookings Institution in December 2018 in which some proposals are made that could be regarded as disturbing. The report says that the United States must "reconnect" with Hamas, a fundamentalist terrorist group; seek "to create a Palestinian unity government integrating Hamas", and "compel Israel to make major concessions", even if it may "endanger Israel". The report never defines Hamas as a terrorist group, and never says that Hamas's goal is to destroy Israel. The report adds "should Israel prove uncooperative with American efforts, the United States could signal it will move ahead anyway." The report proposes allowing the Palestinians to develop a "greater portion of West Bank Area C under full Israeli control" -- meaning a decrease in the territories of Judea and Samaria under Israeli control without the agreed-upon negotiations to determine any outcome. The report also supports the idea that a territorial decrease and a net weakening of Israel are necessary to achieve peace.

Everything the Biden administration does in Israel today seems to be drawn from that report, including the idea of reopening the U.S Consulate in Jerusalem "for the Palestinians".

The behavior of the Biden administration towards Israel is all the more worrying in that it places itself in a weak position with Iran regarding negotiations and seems ready to make a deal with the mullahs' regime at any price in a resolution that has already been called "less for less", or, worse, "less for more".

The Biden administration, by backing two openly genocidal enemies of Israel, Hamas and Iran, appears committed to destroying the only reliable democracy in the Middle East.

On February 19, State Department Spokesperson Ned Price announced that the United States was ready to "discuss a diplomatic way forward on Iran's nuclear program". He did not mention the multiple violations by Iran's mullahs of the 2015 nuclear deal. Not one member of the Biden administration criticized Iran's support for Hamas when Hamas attacked Israel in May.

In June, Iran, well before resuming negotiations on November 29, chose to replace President Hassan Rouhani with Ebrahim Raisi, "the butcher of Tehran", reportedly a criminal and fanatic. Iranian diplomats are not meeting directly with American negotiators, and only want to speak to European diplomats who act as intermediaries. The Biden administration agreed to that humiliating position.

Iran's then Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif posted a tweet on April 2, 2021, stating the goal of the mullah's regime: "removal of all sanctions". "No Iran-US meeting. Unnecessary", he added dryly: the Biden administration's team are not even in the room.

Two days before the current negotiations began, chief Iranian Army spokesman Brigadier General Abolfazl Shekarchi said to the Iran Students News Agency (ISNA) that Israel's annihilation is his country's "greatest ideal before us and the greatest goal we pursue."

An Israeli diplomatic service briefing recently announced that the Biden administration is ready to accept a deal with Iran that includes only two elements: the removal of all international sanctions still imposed on Iran, and Iran's pledge to stop enriching uranium, which would mean that Iran's nuclear program would remain intact and that Iran's regional destabilization actions, including its threats against Israel, could continue.

Iran claims, truthfully or not, that it already has enough enriched uranium to produce a nuclear warhead on short notice. On November 8, Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh declared that Iran will only agree to sign a deal with the US if all sanctions are unconditionally lifted. "We either agree with everything or disagree with nothing," he said.

On September 27, 2021, Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett warned that "Israel is ready to act alone if necessary". The Biden Administration seems, therefore, at a time finally of peace, deliberately acting to destabilize not only Israel's new coalition government but, more importantly, the entire region. The U.S. seems once again to be igniting, on the heels of its failure in Afghanistan, a second, unnecessary disruption, with all the carnage, global damage and pandemonium that will result. Sadly, it looks as if the legacy of the Biden Administration will be those two historic upheavals. If Biden is looking for yet another disaster to notch on his belt, this is it.

"Is the Biden administration at war with Israel?" asks Martin Sherman, founder and CEO of the Israel Institute for Strategic Studies.

"Undermining the stability and safety of the only reliable democracy in the Middle East," wrote a physician, Dr. Shmuel Katz, "will... empower the enemies of good".

Israel, according to the journalist Caroline Glick, is strong enough to defeat its enemies. But, she warns, "Israel's security establishment needs to wake up from its American delusion. America does not have Israel's back. Only Israel has Israel's back".

On September 30, Hamas, assuming that it now has the full support of the United States, organized a conference in Gaza City to "prepare the future administration of a Palestinian state", scheduled to take power after the destruction of Israel. The conference defined what would be the fate of the Jews who would survive the war . The Jewish soldiers still alive, those at the conference decided, would all be killed. Non-combatant Jews would be allowed to leave "Palestine", but educated and economically useful Jews would have to remain, enslaved, and become third-class "tolerated" residents, knows as dhimmis, so that their skills could be used for building the new Palestinian state. Hamas's leader in Gaza, Yahya Sinwar, repeated that "the full liberation of Palestine from the sea to the river" is "at the heart of Hamas's strategic vision."

Did the Biden Administration even notice?

Dr. Guy Millière, a professor at the University of Paris, is the author of 27 books on France and Europe.