20191210

Leftists exploit anti-Semitism / philo-Islamism to lift Labour (and Democrats) to power

Why British Jews Are Worried by Jeremy Corbyn

Has denying the reality of anti-Semitism become a left-wing loyalty test? By Helen Lewis in The Atlantic December 11, '19

It is an astonishing statistic: Some 87 percent of British Jews believe that Jeremy Corbyn—one of two men who could be prime minister in a few days’ time—is anti-Semitic.

How did we get here? Corbyn’s party, Labour, has strong connections with the Jewish community, dating back to its earliest days. Yet a deep distrust has developed between the two since he became Labour leader in 2015, and the issue has dogged Corbyn throughout this election campaign.
 . . .
At the same time, the other plausible candidate to be the next prime minister—the Conservative leader, Boris Johnson—has faced his own questions over his use of racial epithets and his attitudes toward minorities. Racism directed at faith communities in Britain has therefore become a deeply partisan left/right issue: Any mention of “Labour anti-Semitism” is met with cries of “Tory Islamophobia.”
. . . 
Yet the question of anti-Semitism is also divisive within the left. Jewish voters I spoke with over the past several weeks told me of feeling as though the entire community had been “gaslit”—that the reality of anti-Semitism was being minimized by the party leadership—and that denying this reality had become a way to demonstrate loyalty to Corbyn and his radical anti-austerity agenda. This feeling is aggravated by persistent suggestions from the hard left that anti-Semitism is merely the pretext for a “smear campaign” against Corbyn and the left in general.

Britain’s Jewish community is small, about 284,000 people, or about 0.5 percent of the population, and heavily concentrated in a few areas of North London. That means many incidents that are widely noted by British Jews—such as Corbyn’s over-pronunciation of Jeffrey Epstein’s name as “Ep-schtein” in a televised debate—go unnoticed by the wider population. A Survation poll found that 39 percent of Britons overall believe Corbyn is anti-Semitic. While that is still a remarkably high number, it is far short of the consensus that has formed among Jews. 

The gulf has exacerbated the sense that their concerns are not being treated seriously by the rest of the population. As Britain’s chief rabbi, Ephraim Mirvis, wrote in The Times: “Just a few weeks before we go to the polls, the overwhelming majority of British Jews are gripped by anxiety. The question I am now most frequently asked is: What will become of Jews and Judaism in Britain if the Labour Party forms the next government?”
British orthodox Rabbi Lionel Rosenfeld of The Western/Marble Arch Synagogue, returned for the AIPAC Policy Conference in D.C. this spring with a dire warning to North Americans regarding the Socialist/Islamist influence in the Labour and Democratic Parties in the UK and the US.

 

Question: We have had a year of the Labour Party getting closer to office and - what's the condition of Zionism and Zionists in the political zeitgeist in Britain today, in the UK today?

Answer: Well I don't know if you heard the Labour MP Joan Ryan on Sunday evening Labour Friends of Israel. She's not even Jewish  - she was almost crying because what's happened to the Labour Party is really is what's happened to Zionism in the country. It's just tragic. We're on a downhill slope from last year when I spoke to you. 

We have a Conservative government that is sleepwalking towards Brexit with no real discernible leadership. Everyone agrees on that and we, on the other hand, we have a Labour possible government who haven't really increased in the polls. Normally with them they would be miles ahead - but they're not because of this man, Corbyn. Because of his refusal to eject antisemites from his party, and because of the general fear of so many Jews in Britain that anti--semitism is taking a real hold on what was a great supporter of the State of Israel, the Labour Party. 

Question: Hasn't the Jewish community in the UK traditionally been a liberal-minded politically?

Answer:  Very much so. Very much like the Jews of United States of America, great Democratic supporters - so have - I mean I happen to know that many of great rabbis have been quietly Labour supporters but not anymore. How can they be? Labour does not have any of the values that we espouse.

Question: Particularly with regard to the Middle East and the growth of the spread of anti-semitism in Europe?

Answer: Particularly with that. And also because they condemn the United States and Israel as two colonialist powers and that's how they see the world. It's becoming a left Marxist that no one wants to touch with a bargepole, as you would say. (Watch continuation on video embed).

20191115

UK Col. Richard Kemp addresses potential risks of Mid-East war - which ELNet ameliorates through diplomacy

UK Col. Richard Kemp addressed ELNet audience in L.A.
Former leader of the British forces in Afghanistan, Col. Richard Kemp, addressed a Los Angeles audience in support of Elnet, the European Leadership Network - an AIPAC-type, pro-Israel political action group but based in, and focused on European nations strategic policies towards and relations with Israel.  In this December 2018 speech, Col. Kemp addresses the need for international leaders to thwart Iran's aggression against Israel via Hezbollah in Lebanon. Failing to do so, he explains, may not prevent a bloodbath on both sides of that border - and beyond into Syria and possibly direct war between Israel and Iran - expanding against Russian and Turkish forces.




Col. Richard Kemp shares his views on strategies towards Iran and Turkey's threat to Israel. What should be the US' and UK's role and involvement? What risk would a Jeremy Corbyn-led government pose in compromising Coalition intelligence with Israel's enemies?


How do European leaders benefit from Elnet?


DemoCast: How how necessary is some kind of an explanatory or political lobbying on behalf of Israel in Europe nowadays?

Col. Kemp: "Elnet is very important - it's an extremely important organization in Europe. There is some very very powerful and influential organizations in the United States which do their best to ensure that politicians and the administration and other elements here within the United States act in a way which is in both the United States interests and the interests of Israel, which is right and proper, as Israel and the United States are friends. The same is true or should be true in Europe because we should we have the same values, we have the same civilization, we have the same cultures in Europe and in Israel. And we should align ourselves more closely with Israel. That, unfortunately, there is a much bigger gap in Europe - not so much in Britain but with other
European countries in relation to Israel - and I think Elnet plays an extremely important role in educating and guiding politicians and political leaders as well as other people in Europe on being fair to Israel.

Because there's so many lies told about Israel many of which are absorbed by politicians who really don't know any better - and they benefit from being guided and given the truth by Elnet." Elnet's 2019 Annual US Gala will feature Former Israeli Ambassador to the U.N. Ron Prossor, as well as managers from Europe and Israel. It's scheduled to be held Wednesday 4 December in Beverly Hills. For more information and to register please click here.


20191016

Ex-Muslim whistleblower: 'Interfaith for Palestine' outreach advances Islamic hatred for Jews, Israel

Former-Muslim, Bosch Fawstin published "Peaceful Death Threats"
compiled from hate-mail for his illustrating of Prophet Mohammed
Graphic novelist, Bosch Fawstin, who narrowly escaped a Charlie Hebdo-style assassination attempt in Texas for drawing the prophet Mohammed, cautions Judeo-Christian supporters of interfaith dialogue with Muslims over Middle East strife. 

As a recovering-Muslim, Mr. Fawstin has learned that, like the Christians persecuted under Muslim (e.g. Egyptian, Sudanese, Nigerian) governments, Palestinian nationalism (which is geared to vilify Jews and unite others against them) is detrimental to Jews and Christians' survival all around the world.

Question: What would you say to Jewish people who are embracing going to these interfaith meetings with Muslims on 9/11?

Answer: They're stupid. They're stupid, yes and they're self-destructive. And a part of them knows the truth. A part of them knows they see the world they see quote/unquote Palestine. They see what happens across, they see what's happening in France. They're self-loathing. And they're just too cowardly to find out the truth to be on record. Meaning, they can assume all they want.  They can pretend all they want. "Well, I don't know ... I haven't read ... I haven't got, you know?" They know enough!

Question: Could you give some encouragement to liberal Jews regarding, as a former Muslim yourself, as to how they should approach the issue of interfaith embracing of the Palestinian cause?

Answer: Well, don't embrace the Palestinian cause. That Palestine cause means the end of Israel. It means the end of Jews. The end-game for them is to wipe Jews off the entire area and take over.

Question: And make a caliphate through the Middle East?


Answer:  That's the entire point of it. And the entire Muslim world is behind that. But they keep them (the Palestinians) angry, they keep them starving, they keep them . . . they want to make sure that they're good and angry to keep going - because they could have taken them in. They could have just spread them out across the Middle East. In any hellhole-istan that they wanted to. 

Watch more on exclusive video recorded at the American Freedom Alliance event in October, 2019, Los Angeles:




The Curtis Culwell Center attack was carried out by two men who attacked an officer with gunfire at the entrance to an exhibit featuring cartoon images of Muhammad at the Curtis Culwell Center in Garland, Texas on May 3, 2015.

In May 2015, two men attempted to attack the “Draw Mohammad” exhibition in Garland, Texas. Shortly before the event’s conclusion, they entered the venue with assault rifles, shooting a security officer in the leg before getting killed by return fire.

Federal investigators traced the gunmen back to Abdul Malik Abdul Kareem, 43, of Arizona, who was indicted on conspiracy and weapons charges as well as lying to investigators and supporting the assault on the exhibition. 

On March 17, 2016, Kareem was found guilty of conspiring with terrorists for helping the attack's perpetrators plan to carry it out. He was sentenced to 30 years in prison.

Abdul Kareem is also known as Decarus Thomas, court documents show. The Philadelphia native changed in his name in 2013 after converting to Islam, The Arizona Republic reports.

Investigators said they also found evidence Kareem wanted to attack the Super Bowl and join ISIS, the Associated Press reported.


20190924

Islamic-immigration confounds democracies' standards for human-rights and free-speech

Stoning is an Islamic-sanctioned punishment
for reporting being raped
Egyptian-Muslim raised, Dr. Tawfik Hamid asks posits in his "Newsmax" article: "Can you name a single, leading Islamic institution that stands unambiguously against traditional Shariah teachings of killing apostates and gays, beating women, stoning adulterers, raping female war prisoners, and forcibly converting non-Muslims?

If a group of Muslims claims that freedom of religion permits their killing of gays, their subjugation of women, and their persecution of non-believers — all as Shariah Law dictates — should we allow their behavior, under our Constitution's First Amendment, or should we set limitations for the concept of religious freedom, thereby preventing them from practicing such "religious" principles?"
Acid attacks are a growing example of Islamic-sanctioned
punishments to avenge a female 'dishonoring' the male
relatives in her family. Cases increase with Muslim
immigration to the West. (photo: BareNakedIslam)

Swiss-born educator, Mrs. Elisabeth Sabaditsch-Wolff, lived and worked in Kuwait and Libya. She raised issues about Islam and Sharia law in lectures back in the West. In an article, "Attempting to Appease Islamists by Enforcing Blasphemy Laws Will Only Make Europe More Dangerous" in The Federalist 10/30, Helen Raleigh wrote about the case that Austrian officials brought against her:
... the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) upheld an Austrian woman’s conviction by an Austrian court for defaming Muhammad.

According to the court ruling, the woman in this case, Mrs. S., held several seminars, entitled “Basic Information on Islam” between 2008 to 2009. In these seminars, she made several statements regarding Muhammad’s marriage to Aisha (Islamic traditions hold that Aisha was six at the time of their marriage and nine at its consummation). An undercover journalist reported her comments to Austrian authorities.

Educator, Elisabeth Sabaditsch-Wolff, defends against charges for "denigrating Islam" in an Austrian courtroom
 The Vienna Regional Criminal Court found her “guilty of publicly disparaging an object of veneration of a domestic church or religious society, namely Muhammad, the Prophet of Islam, in a manner capable of arousing justified indignation.” Thus, she was convicted in 2011 of “disparaging religious doctrines pursuant to Article 188 of the Criminal Code concerning three statements.” She was ordered to “pay the costs of the proceedings and a day‑fine of 4 euros (EUR) for a period of 120 days (amounting to EUR 480 in total), which would result in sixty days’ imprisonment in the event of default.

Graeme Wood, a staff writer for The Atlantic wrote: If Europe believes enforcing blasphemy laws in order to suppress offensive speech is necessary for maintaining “religious peace,” it’s dead wrong. Blasphemy laws protect no one and certainly don’t maintain religious peace. They represent a disguised bigotry — the progressives in the EU don’t trust that Muslims are peace-loving and are capable of civil discourse without resorting to violence.”
Will de facto 'blasphemy laws' inhibit contesting Islamic imperialism's cultural hostilities in the West? Might they inhibit enforcing security precautions in public transportation and the workplace?


Elisabeth Sabaditsch-Wolff interviewed at the American Freedom Alliance in Los Angeles this past spring.

Q: What happened to you along your journey?

A:  Well, it's a journey that took ten years that began in in late 2009 it's like I said it's taken me a decade of my life fighting for free speech in Europe. I was convicted of denigration of religious teachings of a legally recognized religion in Austria which is effectively a blasphemy law for for asking a rhetorical question in a seminar that I gave back in 2008 asking what do you call the behavior of Muhammad the Prophet of Islam marrying a six-year-old and consummating the marriage when she was nine? The name girl's name was Aisha. What do you call it if not pedophilia? So it was a rhetorical question.
Elisabeth Sabaditsch-Wolff addressing A.F.A.
conference in Los Angeles, 2016

I was convicted of, like I said, denigration of religious teachings. I appealed and appealed and appealed all the way up to the Austrian Supreme Court. I lost all the way to the Supreme Court and after that I went to a supranational court called the European Court of Human Rights which is a sort of Supreme Court of Europe. And we lost again. I mean I lost again but when I lose everybody loses in Europe.

So now we have a ruling from the European Court of Human Rights which in effect says that the Muslims right not to be offended is greater than my right to free speech.

Q:  But what was it that was that you said wasn't false?

A:  Well, it wasn't wasn't slander well according to Islamic law it was slander of course so it was - it's a strange situation because the Austrian legal system sort of became the arbiter for Islamic law it was a Sharia ruling in effect because you have you had the entire Islamic world rejoicing after the verdict was passed down so that's that's actually proof that it's it's Sharia law and that Sharia slander laws were upheld by the European Court and it, you know, the irony is you didn't even need any Muslim complaint about what I'd said back in 2008 and 9, but rather you had a secular government take over and do the job and they did it very well.

Q:  What does that signal to free people, free societies around the world?

A:  Do you remember what Mohammed Atta's said when he hijacked the plane that went into the World Trade Center? One of the planes he said "if you remain quiet everything will be okay?" That's exactly what it is my court case signals to non-Muslims. You need to remain quiet and not talk about
Islam in any slanderous way and then everything will be all right. So this is a terrible terrible sign and there are so many people already silenced because of that.

Q:  But you made a religious criticism what about criticisms of Islamism and and the actions that either Muslims or the politicians who facilitate Islamism in those kind of criticisms are those also now taboo?


A: Well, you know, I don't subscribe to the distinction between Islam and Islamism. I don't belong to this group that distinguishes it. Any criticism is taboo whether it's Islam or Islamism, you must not criticize the religion of Islam or anything associated with it. And that's the problem. If you can't you can't name the enemy and obviously the Red-Green Axis that we just heard about for most of the day,  the Red-Green axis between the Socialists and the- I would call it Muslims - I would say Quran-abiding Muslims - okay, that's a distinction I would make.

Q:  Who are trying to spread Islam as a political force?


A:  Well, I mean there's no difference in Islam between religion and politics. It's all the same. It's a distinction that we as non-Muslims make. But they have won. And that's that's a tragedy. They won that case. We lost we lost massively.  The first thing I said after I heard the verdict - I apologized to my daughter because I want her to grow up as a free person and she no longer is a free person. And the second thing, you know, I will no longer speak publicly in Europe - in all of Europe - in the jurisdiction of the European Court of Human Rights. So I am now moving, I'm shifting my focus to the United States -  to help Americans realize that your protection is the First Amendment. You need to protect your Constitution and your First Amendment.  It's the bullwark of free speech. We (Europeans) don't have anything like that. There's nothing like it in the entire planet.

(Source: The Federalist Papers )

Lawyer, Judith Bergman, wrote in "Denmark: How to Deal with Integration" in Gatestone Institute, August 20, 2019
The Integration Barometer -- which measures the degree of assimilation in the municipality among young people with a non-Western background -- showed that almost one third of 18-29 year-olds (31%) believe that "religious and cultural laws must be adhered to, even though they may be contrary to [Danish] law."  The issue, then, is whether these young people believe that Islamic sharia law should take precedence over Danish law.... In addition, the number of youths who view democracy in a positive light has fallen from 86% in 2016 to 79% in 2018.
. . .
Recently, the Imam Ali Mosque refused to distance itself from an Iranian imam, Mansour Leghaei, who for years was associated with it, and preached there, but in 2018, was prohibited entry into Denmark for two years: he had written on a Shia Muslim website that men beating their wives and children could be justified and that marital rape does not constitute rape.
. . .
The Imam Ali Mosque's refusal to distance itself from the problematic imam, exemplifies the difficulties with which Western societies are struggling: How does a society deal with religious institutions that profess values, which are the very opposite of the value system of the Western society in which they live? How does one deal with the influence that they wield on the people who follow their recommendations? And how, in turn, does one deal with this influence on the West?

20190719

How the Left evolves Marxism through cultural institutions - at A.F.A.'s "The long-march through the institutions" conference

Jon Stewart's "The Daily Show" set the tone for partisan news towards imposing liberal cultural hegemony. Others included Saturday Night Live, HBO's Real-Time with Bill Maher, and ABC's The View. Ultimately, all 3 US TV network nightly talk shows followed suit - bashing Pres.Trump and denigrating supporters of him, while advocating for far-left politicians.

We all know of Karl Marx's cry "Workers of the World, Unite! You have nothing to lose but your chains!" But the fact is, his exhortation was essentially ignored by those workers who were, frankly, pretty okay with the unprecedented prosperity and opportunity that came with free market capitalism.

So Marxists turned to something new to bring about the revolution they so desperately wanted.

Thus came about "The Long March Through the Institutions," an expression coined by Rudi Dutschke to encapsulate the strategy described by Antonio Gramsci: take over every one of our government and civic institutions, and wreck it from within.  Dutschke built on Gramsci's writings by proposing a long march through the cultural institutions of society - the church, entertainment, civil service, educational faculties, family institutions and marriage - to replace the dominant culture and replace it with revolutionary, cultural Marxism. (Source: Unconstrained Analytics 6/5/19)


Father James Thornton wrote: "Gramsci's Grand Plan," in the New American, July 1999:
Gramsci theorized that if Communism achieved "mastery of human consciousness," then concentration camps and mass murder would be unnecessary. Mastery over the consciousness of the great mass of people could be attained if Communists or their sympathizers gained control of the organs of culture — churches, education, newspapers, magazines, the electronic media, literature, music, the visual arts, and so on. By winning "cultural hegemony," Communism would control the deepest wellsprings of human thought and imagination. One need not control all information itself if one can gain control over the minds that assimilate that information. Under such conditions, opposition would disappear since men are no longer capable of grasping the arguments of Marxism's opponents. 
And that's exactly what's happened. Those institutions and pillars of Western Civilization that contribute to its unprecedented successes have been and continue to be under attack.

Karen Siegemund, American Freedom Alliance's
Executive Director at the Conference
At American Freedom Alliance's conference in Los Angeles in May entitled "The Long March Through the Institutions: The Left's Revolution by Other Means," Unconstrained Analytics' Richard Higgins and Stephen Coughlin explained the Democrats' implementation of this.

Political scientist, Stephen Coughlin, exposes how the Left establishes political correct narratives to impose cultural Marxism over the West in his talk 'The Left's political warfare for the culture'




Stephen Coughlin and Richard Higgins: Trapped in the Scheme of Fires in the Long March

Richard Higgins, Senior Fellow at Unconstrained Analytics, is an expert on the nexus between theological doctrines and information age unconventional warfare and has spent 20 years combating terrorism. Higgins joined Mr. Coughlin to  explain how political warfare is about growing the counter-state through competitive synthesis.



20190708

'Mosque-shooter's manifesto reveals Left-Wing extremism'- Trevor Loudon at A.F.A. conference


Brendan Tarrant advocated socialism, not capitalism
Since Brendan Tarrant massacred 49 Muslims at a Christchurch, New Zealand mosque in March, mainstream media outlets reflexively portrayed his ideology as a right-wing conservative. But Trevor Loudon, a Christchurch-raised investigative writer explains here, that according to the manifesto Tarrant wrote prior to launching his attack, his motivations are actually Left-wing Bolshevism and national socialist.



Recorded at the American Freedom Alliance's forum, "The Long March Through the Institutions. The Left's Revolution By Other Means" May 5, 2019 in Los Angeles.

Author Jim Simpson: Hillary vs Trump on Muslim visas, immigration- at American Freedom Alliance



At a 2-years prior American Freedom Alliance event, conservative author, Jim Simpson (author of "The Patriot's Handbook: A guide to restoring liberty," and "The Red-Green Axis: Refugees, Immigration and the Agenda to Erase America" ) comments on the Muslim immigration policies of the US' Democratic Party - under Barack Obama (and announced by presidential candidate Hillary Clinton). 

In the manifesto Brendan Tarrant posted, a number of references to Norwegian nationalist massacrist, Anders Behring Breivik, were included. The Norwegian mass murderer's name was included in a list of "partisans/freedom fighters/ethno soldiers" who Tarrant said took a stand against "ethnic and cultural genocide." (source: Sydney Morning Herald, March 16, 2019).

20190621

Daniel Greenfield: The War on You - How the Left and Silicon Valley are Destroying Freedom

How do you know what you believe to be true is accurate? The liberal bias that big-tech companies like Google do to bias the disseminating of non-liberal information on its platform has been confirmed by whistleblowers and undercover video on Project Veritas. 


Liberals working at "open platforms" like Google, Bing, YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter (with management complicity) discriminate against conservatives' views have operated without fear of government intervention under the Obama era. How, under the Trump administration, do non-liberal opinion-holders expressing views privately, online, or among co-workers and friends become affected? 

Daniel Greenfield, a Shillman Fellow who addresses the issue of liberal / government over-reach in his The Point blog on FrontPage Magazine, addressed 
a David Horowitz Freedom Center audience on 19 June '19. The talk (videoed here) is entitled  "The War on You - How the Left and Silicon Valley are Destroying Freedom."
Mr. Greenfield begins: "I hope your cell phones are turned off. I’m not saying this because I’m worried about interruptions. If you have a really creative ringtone and it goes off during the talk, I might try humming a few bars.
But Alexa, Siri, and the rest of the smart assistants never stop spying… am I allowed to say spying, or is James Comey going to pop up and object… and I’m going to say some very not nice things about Silicon Valley and you can never tell when those girls are listening.
If I come back home and there’s an Amazon Prime package with a horse’s head in it, I’ll know why.
...
The internet used to be about empowering individuals. Then the big dot coms like Google came along and made it a gated community. If you wanted to exist on the internet, you had to play by their rules.
Then social media came along and made the individual the center of the internet again.
You saw what Aunt Sally wanted you to see, instead of what Google wanted you to see.
After Trump won, the wheel began turning again. Social media is being censored, fact checked and transformed into another Google where somebody in San Francisco decides what you should see. And what you shouldn’t see.
Take YouTube, its whole pitch is that it’s about You. These days it’s censoring a whole bunch of you's, PragerU, Steven Crowder, James O’Keefe, because there’s no room for You on YouTube. ... "



(Mr. Greenfield's speech transcript continues below-the- fold).

Freedom Center editor and writer, Mark Tapson, discusses the normalizing of liberal fascism in the mainstream - and discrimination against libertarians and Republicans.



How discrimination by political affiliation has enabled Big-Tech to enforce a legal form of segregation. Follow Mr. Greenfield's curated "The Point" on FrontPage Magazine


See transcript below:

20190613

LGBT, Log Cabin Republicans are proud to differ from "straight-ness" and "wokeness" at L.A. Pride Festival

Beginning with the Dyke Rally and March, the L.A. Pride Festival 2019 bore the marks of leftist-political collectivism among the West Hollywood politicians and Christopher Street West organizers. Josh Herr, President of Log Cabin (LGBT) Republicans of Los Angeles described the group and their experience at the L.A. Gay Pride Fest, June 10, '18.



Visiting from Phoenix, AZ, Gay-American, Ed O'Reilly shares his perspectives, at Log Cabin Republicans booth at L.A. Pride Parade and Festival.


"Face It, Gays: Trump Is Our Friend" by David Benkoff in The Daily Caller May 5, 2018

"...Despite serious pressure from the president’s Evangelical allies, his long-anticipated executive order on religious liberty contained no license to discriminate against gays. As it had in January, the administration considered, then rejected, provisions to allow individuals and organizations to treat gays shabbily as long as they had a religious excuse.

But President Trump rejected the anti-gay language, throwing Evangelicals but a few crumbs facilitating church endorsements of candidates (which few of them want to do) and letting religious organizations decline to cover contraceptives (which gays do not use).

But LGBT Americans have now twice escaped such draconian measures, almost certainly because Trump and several members of his inner circle are sympathetic to gay concerns. More comfortable with a presidential bogeyman, the gay community and its allies actually spread rumors an anti-gay order was imminent, but it never came.

… Not so gay organizations. They ignored the breathtaking news of a disaster averted, and lambasted the president without identifying a single specific harm. Some of their pretzel-y twists aimed at fearmongering were amusing. Here’s the LGBT Equality caucus: “We cannot trust that this order will be narrowly utilized to not directly harm our community.”

Of course, Big Gay is never going to honor Trump’s heroic defense of LGBT Americans.

With yesterday’s news, Trump continues to fulfill his campaign promise to be a real friend to LGBT people. As president, Trump has kept Obama’s rules barring companies doing federal work from discriminating against LGBT people. He retained Randy Berry, a diplomat whose mission is to protect gay people from persecution abroad. His work is particularly urgent in light of the lethal assault on the gay community of Chechnya –which Trump’s UN Ambassador Nikki Haley has vocally condemned.

Other examples of Trump’s friendly stance: HIV/AIDS programs have been spared the large cuts to the health budget; and Trump’s controversial executive order on refugees specifically stated that the United States should not admit those who would oppress Americans “of any sexual orientation.”

When asked to detail their objections to Trump, liberal gay activists have got nothing but mischaracterizations:

Trump’s rule on transgender bathrooms mandated nothing, but rather gave schools the flexibility to handle locally a complicated issue balancing privacy and dignity. If Trump’s stance on this is transphobic, then Obama was transphobic for the first 7.5 years of his presidency, when he had the precise policy Trump now has.

No, Vice President Mike Pence is not a raging homophobe. If anything, Trump has influenced Pence on gay issues rather than the other way around.

It’s true Trump has not backed gay marriage, but that issue is defunct. Questioning him on marriage is like asking Democrats about racial quotas for government jobs. The Supreme Court has ruled definitively on both, so “gotcha” queries only drive a wedge between the politician’s most fervent supporters and more broadly popular positions.

Given the political calculus, Trump’s friendship to the gay community is stunning and unprecedented. Imagine if Barack Obama rejected a labor movement priority because it lacked fairness and compassion. Well, Trump won 80 percent of the white Evangelical vote but only 14 percent of the LGBT vote – yet time after time he has bucked his supporters and abetted his detractors.

Auspiciously, Trump’s popularity among Evangelicals has actually narrowed their political agenda to our benefit. For years, conservative Christians focused on abortion but pursued a social agenda that included opposition to gay rights. But by remaining steadfastly pro-life while refusing to budge on basic inclusion of gay Americans, Trump has forced conservative Christians to mute their antagonism toward homosexuality. That, perhaps, is the greatest kindness Trump has done for the gay community, and it is perplexing that Big Gay continues to fight him.

20190612

The gentiles who hid Anne Frank - remembered on the 90th anniversary of her birthday and diary publishing

Anne Frank with her father Otto Frank in movie poster
Of all the personalities associated with Anne Frank, the most important figure, without whom Anne Frank would never have been able to write her diary, is perhaps the least known.

He is Victor Kugler, the Mr. Kraler of her diary. As the principal business partner of Otto Frank, Victor Kugler assumed managerial control of the Franks’ Amsterdam spice-importing business when Nazi persecution forced the Frank family into hiding. It was Victor Kugler who kept the business going and obtained food rations under what was the harshest German wartime occupation in all of Western Europe. Without Victor Kugler, Anne Frank and her family would have starved to death a month after going into hiding.



Victor Kugler visits Anne Frank statue in
Utrecht, Netherlands, 1975
 Fair useLink
For this heroism, Victor Kugler himself was arrested and sent to a series of German labor camps in Holland where he survived by his wits and finally escaped a few weeks before the end of the war. 

Several years after the end of the war, when the Dutch spice business collapsed following the Indonesian revolution that nationalized Dutch holdings, Victor Kugler emigrated to Toronto, Canada. There, he led a quiet life where nobody knew who he was and what he had done during the war. Only twenty years later he began to reveal his story. 


The modern-day saga of this Righteous Gentile, who was honored as such at Israel’s Yad Vashem Holocaust Martyrs’ and Heroes’ Remembrance Authority, is told here in semi-documentary style, largely in his own words as told to Torontonian, Eda Shapiro, herself of Eastern European Jewish background; and by many others who knew him, as compiled by well-known Toronto writer-journalist Rick Kardonne.

Interview (video) with Rick Kardonne, November 2014 at L.A. Museum of Tolerance: 

Q: Why is Victor Kugler the missing link in the Anne Frank saga? 


Rick Kardonne, writer, "The Man Who Hid Anne Frank"
A: Because, as the business manager for Otto Frank when he and his family and two other Jewish associates had to go into hiding (under what was the harshest Nazi German rule in Western Europe) he did the business management, he got the food, and he provided and with all kinds of entertainment magazines. 

Without Victor Kugler, the Franks and everyone else would have starved for a month. 

Q:  After a month?

A:  After a month - for lack of food and lack of business.
Grandchild blesses grandparents names inscribed as "Righteous
Among the Nations" at Yad vaShem Museum in Israel

Q:  How long was he able to sustain them?

A:  From June 1942 to August '44.

Q:  How did you come across this story?

A:  I wrote for the Canadian and Jewish publications for over 15 or 20 years. And one of those who read me who who led the Likud organization in Toronto, met Irving Naftolin, who was a World War Two vet.  Irving Naftolin was married to the late Edith Shapiro (not my Edith) but late Edith Shapiro - who was a teacher and journalist. She had all of the memoirs of Victor Kugler - who had lived in Toronto since 1955. Edith Shapiro took them in and after she died he brought them to me because of my journalistic activities for the Jewish press in Toronto. 

And I got the memoirs in a brown paper bag. My job was to take all of these notes out of the brown paper bag and organize them into a book and this is the result.

Q:  Is the lesson of Anne Frank and the righteous Gentiles who stood up for their Jewish neighbors- getting lost, do you feel, in this generation?

A:  In some quarters, yes, but in others, no.  We have an excellent publication in Toronto called the National Post that constantly brings up the righteous Gentiles. So among some media outlets yes, but not all of them.





Q:  Looking back at at the Holocaust and and it's lesson for today - if - and and we see this in France - we see the the society turning against their Jewish community their Jewish citizens  and it's spreading throughout Europe . . .

A: Yes?

Q:  Are there Gentiles who will stand up again to protect the Jews, and in fact, even those who express support for Israel which is ...

A:  I think there are good people, righteous Gentiles in every country. I think so.  


Q:  What were the risks that Victor undertook?

A:  Being caught by the Gestapo.  Which he was eventually and he was sent to a slave labor camp because he wasn't Jewish.  But the Franks and the Van Pels's were Jewish so they were sent to Auschwitz. Only the Red Army liberated them - they were sent to Bergen-Belsen where they died of disease. 

That was  three weeks before the British invaded and liberated them.

Q: What was special about Victor?

A:  He was a religious Lutheran - and he had friends - and he said "I had to do this for my friends."  He had grown up you know in unfavorable social circumstances - nothing to be about being Jewish because he wasn't Jewish.  But this left an imprint on him which he did for the rest of his life.

Q:  Was he typical of the Dutch public's attitude towards their Jewish neighbors?

A:  First of all he was born in Austria.  So he could have been but the Dutch were not a hundred percent sympathetic to the Jews like the Danes were. 

Q: So the Austrians weren't, the Dutch weren't, and yet because of his friendship ...

A: Yeah, with Otto Frank.  And the Swedes did receive all of the Danish Jewish refugees and  they were in Sweden for the rest of the war.

Q:  Is protecting Jews now a matter of history or would you consider it a potential for the future?

A: Both, both.

Q: Do you see anti-semitism as a potential resurgence?

A:  I do but I think that a lot of these so-called liberal media types are more responsible.  Actually in Canada, the very conservatives, if anything, are friendlier to Jews now

Q: But the CBC - would you consider them liberal press?


A: Liberal press -  and not very . . . occasionally they run a good piece but . . . not reliable.


Rabbis Hier and Cooper: Anne Frank at 90 – Six points she might have added to her diary today: 
Rabbis Abe Cooper and Marvin Hier of Simon Wiesenthal
Center in L.A. and Jerusalem (photo:Phil McCarten /Reuters)

Wednesday, June 12 would have been Anne Frank’s 90th birthday. Through her iconic diary, she has become the global symbol of 1.5 million other virtually forgotten innocent Jewish children murdered by Nazi Germany and its willing European collaborators during the Holocaust.

So how would she have updated her diary today? Here are six possibilities, according to Rabbis Marvin Hier and Abraham Cooper of the Simon Wiesenthal Center: 

  1. Joy at the miraculous rebirth and flourishing of her shattered people in a Jewish democratic state of Israel.
  2. Anger that the hatred of Jews is surging in her native Europe and beyond and is being deployed by leading left-wing politicians in England and right-wing politicians in Poland.
  3. Shock that Synagogues and Jewish schools must be protected by armed guards throughout the world. Despair that decades after she and her family were forced into hiding, so many Jews in the 21st Century have to hide their identities in public; not just anywhere but in the streets of European capitals including, Berlin, Paris, and yes, her hometown of Amsterdam. Can history be repeating itself?
  4. Solidarity with Malala Yousafzai, the youngest Nobel Prize winner ever, who risked her life to give hope to young girls everywhere to have the right to an education and a future. Sadness that Malala has to live today in England because her life would be in danger again the moment she stepped on the soil of her native Pakistan.
  5. Disgust that the world, led by the United Nations does so little to protect children from being brainwashed to hate and become martyrs for religious fanatics, from becoming tools for tyrants and human shields for terrorists.
  6. Cautious optimism and lurking pessimism about the power of the written and spoken word to bring about change through the amazing tool of social media. Anne wrote her original diary in the Secret Annex, having no idea if anyone else would ever read of her innermost thoughts, fears and hopes. Today, social media virally transmits all the good, bad, and ugly, that the human imagination can produce.
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