Israellycool

Archive for the ‘Europe’ Category

Ha’aretz reports:

Italian Foreign Minister Massimo D’Alema termed the assassination of Imad Mughniyah “terror” in an interview to be published Friday in the popular Italian weekly L’espresso. He also said that Israeli assassinations of Hamas officials “serve as an alibi for terror.”

Concerning Mughniyah’s killing, “by my definition, the car bomb in the middle of Damascus was terror,” he said.

A definition that apparently has great nuance.

Following Hamas’ January 2006 victory in the Palestinian elections, d’Alema said that ‘while the organization is in fact extremist, the terror attacks it wages on Israel are part of the Palestinian resistance to the Israeli occupation.’

Meanwhile, if you read the whole Ynet article linked above, you will come across this anecdote that sums up D’Alema’s views:

A woman who accompanied the new Italian foreign minister during his visit to Jerusalem in 1999 said that upon his arrival she greeted him by saying “welcome to Israel,” to which he responded, “welcome to Palestine.”

Welcome to the reality of the new Italy-Israel relations.

Let her try:

Member of the European Parliament for Belgium V√©ronique De Keyser stated in an address that she would like to ‚Äústrangle‚Äù Israel’s ambassador if he discussed Israel‚Äôs security with her.

Addressing an organization called the European Left Group last Wednesday, De Keyser opined that the European Parliament was showing ‚Äúpassivity‚Äù on the issue of “Palestinian prisoners” (a reference to convicted Arab terrorists from Judea, Samaria and Gaza being held in Israeli jails), and complimented the Palestinian Authority Arabs for their ‚Äúmoderation and maturity.”

[sound of me spitting out my coffee all over the monitor]

“I wonder how they are able to limit violence in the territories given the background,” she said. “If the Israeli ambassador comes in the future to speak of Israel’s security, I feel like I want to strangle him.”

Yep. Spoken like a true pacifist.

The event, held at the European Parliament in Strasbourg, was part of a campaign for the release of Marwan Barghouti, a Fatah terror leader serving a life sentence in Israel for his role in several murderous attacks.

French MEP Francis Wurtz, who heads the European United Left, announced that the appeal for the EU to recognize the “Palestinian national unity government” had already been signed by some sixty members of the European parliament.

MEP De Keyser called on the German EU presidency ‚Äúto differentiate between its positions on the Holocaust against the Jews and the current policy of the State of Israel.‚Äù Apparently trying to compare Israel with Nazi Germany while showing her supposed evenhandedness with regard to neck-wringing, she also said “one must wring the neck of the European and German culpability [sic] on the Shoah.”

Sounds like she has a huge preoccupation with necks. I’m guessing that if she focused more on teeth, she probably wouldn’t look like Alfred E. Newman’s long lost sister.

Here is a must-read editorial from the Washington Times, which illustrates how Europe is being taken over by radical Islam, while those who speak out against it are being silenced: The Islamicization of Antwerp.

The decisive battle against Islamic extremists will not be fought in Iraq, but in Europe. It is not in Baghdad but in cities like Antwerp, Belgium, where the future of the West will be decided.

I recently met Marij Uijt den Bogaard, a 49-year-old woman who deserves America’s support at least as much as Iraqi President Jalal Talabani and Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.

Ms. Uijt den Bogaard was an Antwerp civil servant in the 1990s, who spent many years working in the immigrant neighborhoods of Antwerp. There she noticed how radical Islamists began to take over. “They work according to a well-defined plan,” she says.

One of the things Ms. Uijt den Bogaard used to do for the immigrants was to assist them with their administrative paperwork. Quite a few of them came to trust her.

About three years ago, young men dressed in black moved into the neighborhoods. They had been trained in Saudi Arabia and Jordan and adhere to Salafism, a radical version of Islam. They set up youth organizations, which gradually took over the local mosques. “The Salafists know how to debate and they know the Qur’an by heart, while the elderly running the mosques do not,” she said They also have money. “One of them told me that he gets Saudi funds.” Because they are eloquent, the radicals soon became the official spokesmen of the Muslim community, also in dealing with the city authorities. Ms. Uijt den Bogaard witnessed how the latter gave in to Salafist demands, such as the demand for separate swimming hours for Muslim women in the municipal pools.

Worried immigrants told Ms. Uijt den Bogaard what was happening. On the basis of their accounts and her own experiences she wrote (confidential) reports for the city authorities about the growing radicalization. This brought her into conflict, both with the Islamists and her bosses in the city.

The city warned her that her reports were unacceptable, that they read like “Vlaams Belang tracts” (the Vlaams Belang is Antwerp’s anti-immigrant party) and that she had to “change her attitude.” The Islamists sensed that she disapproved of them. They might also have been informed, because there are Muslims working in the city administration. One day, when she was accompanied by her superior, she was attacked by a Muslim youth. Her superior refused to interfere. When she questioned him afterward he said that all the animosity toward her was her own fault.

In the end she was fired. She is unemployed at the moment and gets turned away whenever she applies for another job as a civil servant. Last week, she learned that city authorities have given the job of integration officer, whose task it is to supervise 25 Antwerp mosques, to one of the radical Salafists. Meanwhile, the latter have threatened her with reprisals if she continues to speak out.

After her dismissal Ms. Uijt den Bogaard went to see Monica Deconinck, a Socialist politician who is the head of the Antwerp social department, to tell her about the plight of the Muslim women. Ms. Deconinck said, “You have taken your job too seriously and tried to do it too well,” adding that she cannot help, although she sympathizes. Ms. Uijt den Bogaard also went to see Christian Democrat and Liberal politicians. They also refused to help her because they are governing the city in a coalition with the Socialists. The only opposition party in town is the Vlaams Belang.

According to Ms. Uijt den Bogaard, the reason why the Socialists, who run the city, allow the Islamists to do as they please is because they want to get the Muslim vote, which is controlled increasingly by the Salafists who are in the process of taking over the mosques.

In a letter to city authorities she wrote: “You employ workers to improve social cohesion in the city’s neighborhoods. But if you do not want to know what is damaging social cohesion, then you need not bother sending those workers!… Employees who are confronted with this problem [of Muslim radicalization] and investigate are silently removed, losing their income and their reputation. That is censorship in the fashion of political dictatorships. As a former member of your services I am shocked to find myself in this position and to discover after years of service that you have no policy whatever, either political or with regard to your personnel.”

Sadly, what is happening in Antwerp is not unique. The Salafists employ the same strategy in other European cities. They boasted to Ms. Uijt den Bogaard about their international network and their successes in neighboring countries. While the Americans fight to secure Iraq, Western Europe is becoming a hotbed of Salafism.

Of course, the cause of this is the twerpicization of Islam.

A town in Belgium has banned an artwork of Saddam Hussein for fear that it will put off tourists and offend Muslims.
The piece, called Saddam Hussein Shark, shows the handcuffed ex-Iraqi ruler suspended in liquid and wearing nothing more than underpants.

The mayor of Middlekerke, Michel Landuyt, said the work could “shock people”, including Muslims.

 

He said he decided to ban Czech artist David Cerny’s sculpture before the row over cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad.

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But Mr Landuyt felt its exhibition would be too much for the small Belgian seaside town. “In my view, it was too shocking,” he said.

 

“They wanted to put this piece in a location where many children come, so that couldn’t be allowed,” he told the BBC.

He added that the ‘Saddam Shark’ is now going to be displayed in a museum in the Belgian city of Ostend.

A commercial with a blatant anti-Semitic motif that is being broadcast on Czech public television has come under fire from Israelis and Jews in the republic. Following protests, the advertisers announced they would stop broadcasting the ad as of tomorrow. The ad was produced by Mountfield, a company marketing home and garden products. Broadcast on both Czech public TV channels, the ad shows a customer wishing to buy a saw for less than its listed price. When the vendor refuses, the customer dresses up as an ultra-Orthodox Jew and manages to bargain with the vendor until he gives him an 80 percent discount. At the end of the scene, the “ultra-Orthodox” customer leaves mumbling to himself “80 percent off … that’s not such a big deal.”

 

The Israeli ambassador in the Czech Republic, Arthur Avnon, and the curator of the Jewish Museum in Prague, Leo Pavlat, demanded that Mountfield pull the ad. A company spokesman said over the weekend “at the request of Israel’s ambassador, the ad will not be broadcast as of Monday this week.”

 

The spokesman refused to apologize, saying the ad was intended to describe the “positive aspects” of a skillful Jewish merchant - a figure frequently described in literature, the company said - “to show customers how to best take advantage of company reductions.”