Category Archives: Europe

This Week: Ashoura and Hezbollah Missiles, Trump to Raid the UN, F Troop to Man a Fort Trump in Poland……

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“On Thursday, Nasrallah claimed Israeli strikes in Syria to prevent Hizbollah from acquiring precise missiles were ineffective.”I tell (Israel) no matter what it did to cut the route, it is over. It has already been achieved,” he said, adding that Hizbollah “now possesses precision missiles and non-precision and weapons capabilities.” Nasrallah was speaking during a traditional televised speech at the end of Ashoura, a top religious holy day for Shia Muslims that lasts for 10 days. He told supporters to be confident and Israelis to be concerned of Hizbollah’s capabilities. Nasrallah said the balance of power in the region has changed…..”
Normally Nasrallah, whatever you think of him, is not known as a boaster, not much anyway (unlike you know who). Even the Israelis especially know that and now seem to plan and act/react accordingly.

But I am not sure about his claim that “the balance of power in the region had changed“. I am not completely sold on this one. Although it is probably true that in the war of July 2006 Hezbollah had a few thousand limited-range missiles, and now they are reported to have close to 150,000 longer-range precision missiles. In spite of occasional bombing (and other) attempts to stop the flow. Besides, they are very likely to have developed their own domestic know-how over the years.

Jerusalem Post headlined what it called Breaking News! “Trump to hold meeting with Netanyahu, other leaders at UN General Assembly“…
To which I tweeted: Breaking! Shocker Indeed: Amazing development! Trump and Netanyahu! Trump to meet his chief cheerleader at UN General Assembly!

Poland‘s slick President Duda suggested in Washington a permanent American base in his country be named Fort Trump. To be manned by a force called F Troop. I almost expected him to turn to his host and call him “The Duke”.
I commented that this President Duda sure knows how to kiss it!

Middle East/Arab social media are making fun of the Russian reaction to the Ilyushin shootdown near Latakia, in which Israeli warplanes hid behind the Russian Ilyushin to bomb a Syrian airbase. Many Russian military personnel died. They recall that Arab governments always threatened the same “severe reaction” to Israeli violations, which usually meant: they won’t do nada. Although a few claimed that Netanyahu’s freedom to bomb wherever he wants in Syria in support of the Islamist groups may be nearing an end after this.

Cheers

Mohammed Haider Ghuloum

Politics and Pricey Hook-Ups: from Rome to Exclusive Golf Resorts of America……

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In Italy, they have no dominant political position like a US president. The biggest mouth in town, in Rome, used to be Silvio Berlusconi. He is trying to make a political comeback now through the highly (and perennially) volatile Italian political scene.
Berlusconi is in many ways like other European politicians. He is not a GOP/Tea Party American-style right-winger, nor is he a rabid believer in deregulation and corporatism (no leading European politician is). He sees an opportunity after the election of Donald Trump in 2016. Very likely he hopes to hook up with Trump, exchange notes and memoirs about the techniques of business, governance, and pricey not-so-discreet hook-ups……

That leaves out the Le Pen women in France (both mother and daughter)………

Cheers
M Haider Ghuloum

Iran Nuclear Deal: Is Europe Going Back to its Historic ‘Plan B’ of Appeasing a Bully?……..

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“It looks as though Britain, France, and Germany have decided to appease President Donald Trump to discourage him from withdrawing the United States from the July 2015 nuclear agreement with Iran (the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action or JCPOA). “After meeting with British Prime Minister Theresa May… and Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said they had agreed to set up a working group of experts on fixing flaws in the landmark 2015 agreement that President Trump has warned he will walk away from this spring unless adjustments are made to his liking.” (PBS)….. “France’s foreign minister said on Sunday he would visit Iran on March 5 to discuss its ballistic missile program and the nuclear deal agreed with world powers in 2015.” (Reuters)…. “Germany is lobbying among European allies to agree new sanctions against Iran …………”

So, there are some early signs of fissure. Weak signs so far, but ominous. Are the Europeans, sans Russia, going back on their own commitment to the nuclear deal (JCPOA)? Are they going to unwittingly nickle and dime it to death by chipping away at its credibility? Are they going to yield, gradually, to the new loud-mouth bully in the White House?
Are they falling back on their perennial Plan B  when facing pressure from bullies? Are they going back to their own old pattern of appeasement of bullies who threaten war?

Appeasement eventually leads to what it was hoped to prevent, just as it did in Europe decades ago. The war the Europeans have tried to avoid.

Cheers
Mohammed Haider Ghuloum

Men Playing with Balls in Riyadh and Scandinavia: an Arab Ball? an American Ball? a Nordic Ball……

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During the Saudi-American Summit in Riyadh, President Trump, King Salman, and Generalissimo Sisi had some fun playing with their ball, or rather with one of their balls. Okay, playing with someone’s mysterious ball.

It was an eerie fluorescent white ball, made eerier by the three grown men fondling it for benefit of the cameras. I assume it was a Saudi ball, some Saudi’s ball, since it as hosted in Riyadh. Unless it was Trump’s, that he had donated one of his balls for that occasion of sorcery and witchcraft and magic.

Sorcery, witchcraft, and magic are activities that are punishable with death by beheading in Saudi Arabia. But anyone can play with their own ball as much as they want, apparently they can also play with someone else’s ball, provided it is done with consent.

          

That photo elicited reactions from all over the world. But some European reaction was the most succinct. The leaders of the five Nordic countries, decided to do their own show of sorcery, magic, and witchcraft. The leaders of Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland, and Iceland chose a better and more open setting, near some body of water, rather than in a dark room full of Wahhabi zealots. And they chose a colorful ball. Not sure whose ball it was, but could be any among the five leaders. Any four among the participating leaders.

And the Scandinavians looked more cheerful about it: the ball looks, shall we say, livelier. The Trump-Salman-Sisi ball-fondling looked like a grim affair, as expected. In spite of the dimmed lights.

In case you were interested…..

Cheers
Mohammed Haider Ghuloum

In France the Choice is Clear: a Smug Corrupt Establishment Circles the Wagons Around Macron……

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After the first round of French presidential elections on Sunday the media, especially in the USA, has simplified matters as a race between sanity and madness, moderation and extremism. No, it ain’t that simple.

France‘s famous pop-philosopher BernardHenri Lévy is a good representative of the ruling elites of France. Recently he waxed eloquent about the establishment candidate, Emmanuel Macron. He compared him to John F Kennedy. I don’t know M. Macron, but I know a lot about Jack Kennedy. Macron is no Jack Kennedy. He is more like Bill Clinton, and we know what he did in the 1990s, the deals he cut against trade unions and poor minorities who kept voting for him and his wife because they were terrified of the rapacious Republicans.
Macron represents the usual candidate of a corrupt smug French establishment. He is just younger. If he comes to power his instinct will be to toe the European and Globalist line, strip the middle and lower classes of France of as much of the social safety net as he can get away with. He is closer to the British conservatives than to an American liberal, but just barely (American liberals are also closer to British conservatives than they like to think or admit).

Marine Le Pen appeals to many French and European racists, no doubt. But she is in fact closer to the working classes of France than even the Socialists have been lately. She is no Donald Trump, she is more genuine in her own way. Trump is a billionaire with phony populist claims, he got elected by deceiving many voters with a fake agenda. Trump’s first instinct upon taking power has been to try and strip the health and other benefits middle class and poorer Americans get, in favor of giving the rich more tax cuts.

Trump‘s other instinct has been typical of the American establishment in recent years: if all else fails at home, start or expand (or surge) an existing foreign war. This is typical of both major parties: Republican and Democrat. (Expect an escalation in Yemen, Syria, Libya, possibly in the Persian Gulf if the Arabian king and this princes get their way).


Le Pen might, or might not, pull France out of the European Union. She might scale back cooperation. That is what scares the establishment the most: they have so many vested interests, so much invested in the European plan.

In this coming election the left and the right-center are the terrified establishment, and the Front National represents the insurgency. Possibly a genuine insurgency, not a fake reality-TV insurgency that brought Trump into the White House.

Cheers

Mohammed Haider Ghuloum

Sheikh of Azhar After Brexit: All Europe Will Go To Heaven…….

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Remember that old film “All Dogs Go to Heaven“?

It seems now that all Europeans also go to heaven, or they will soon. Even those who may not want to.

Thus a new fatwa by the Sheikh Ahmed Al Tayeb , chief of the once-revered-but-no-more Al Azhar in Cairo.

Fresh from a visit to Rome, the former Mubarak crony fatwad that Europeans are not Muslims only because they have not been exposed to the true Islam. Ergo: it is not their fault that they are not Muslims and don’t believe in the ‘message’.  Heathens by default. Which is not a bad argument, although quite self-serving. As well as a back-handed compliment to Europeans, possibly a clever one but most likely accidental and narrow-minded.

The sheikh apparently does not understand that not all Europeans are good Christians or even bad Christians (in fact hardly any are in an American sense) or good Jews. He apparently thinks they are all good Christians (or Jews), just as all Muslims are very good pious Muslims indeed. Which means the majority of Europeans who are either agnostic or atheist are in trouble, screwed, (or maybe not, depending on what they think of this sheikh’s heavenly connections).

I have one problem with this Azhar sheikh issuing such broad  “certificates of Indulgence“, broader than were issued by the Catholic Church in Europe centuries ago. Who the hell authorized him to issue these mass Indulgences? I need to see a copy of this Godly Power of Attorney, notarized and witnessed.

(And what about South Americans and East Asians and Africans?)
Cheers

Mohammed Haider Ghuloum

Wahhabi Terrorism in Paris: Bush-ification of Francois Hollande?……..

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Francois Hollande: We will fight, and it will be ruthless…………..

It is natural that France feels besieged. They have had at least two major Wahhabi terrorist attacks in the incomparably beautiful city of Paris this year. Real terrorist attacks, unlike those informant-provoked entrapment “plots” of some addled schmuck at a mosque as has happened in New York and a few other states.

M. Hollande has now asked for a three-month State of Emergency, which is sort of like “closing the barn after the horse, or is it the ass, has escaped”. Hopefully the French State of Emergency does not become permanent, Arab-style. M. Hollande has gone beyond anything an American leader would go to. He has requested a law that any French citizen involved in terrorism be deprived of his/her citizenship, even if born in France. Provided he/she has another citizenship: meaning that “true” French, those who are not of Arab or African origin, are not covered by the new law.

In that, M. Hollande the Socialist has gone well beyond, say, George W Bush. He has out-Bushed Bush. It is an emotional move, and almost certainly a political move for the next French elections. It is unlikely to have any impact on national security or on the fate of the cutthroats of the Caliphate of ISIS.
Cheers
Mohammed Haider Ghuloum

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Greek Drama: Beware Europeans Bearing Poisonous Gifts……..

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Several years of disastrous economic policies imposed by the IMF and the European Union and its bureaucrats have brought Greece to its knees.
Now that Greece is in a deep recession, with low income and terrible high unemployment, the same European bureaucrats are set to impose deeper tightening economic policies on Greece. What can result from deeper tightening in an economy that is in deep recession with little to export? Why, the next step is logically a depression.
What seems to matter most to European bureaucrats is that European governments and banks do not reduce Greek debt. Unlike decades ago in the 1950s when the United States and others canceled about 50% for German foreign debt and extended reduced payments over several decades. But that was when the West was facing the Soviet challenge and needed to showcase the Western part of Germany. There is no Communist challenge, so the West can afford to tighten the screws on Greece, so the Greek people will suffer for many decades, years after they leave Europe. Unless the Europeans come to their senses.
Cheers
Mohammed Haider Ghuloum                          Follow ArabiaDeserta on Twitter
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Marine Le Pen Meets Egyptian Islamic Hypocrisy at Al Azhar: J’Accuse au Caire……..

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“French far-right leader Marine Le Pen held talks in Egypt with Al-Azhar that broached the top Sunni Muslim body’s “serious concerns” over her party’s stance on Islam, it said. National Front president Le Pen met late Thursday with Ahmed al-Tayeb, grand imam of Al-Azhar, at its Cairo headquarters during which he questioned her organisation’s “hostile opinions towards Islam and Muslims”, an Al-Azhar statement said. Tayeb added that the National Front’s “opinions must be reviewed and corrected”. The National Front, which had a strong showing in local elections in March, has campaigned on politically explosive issues of immigration and the integration of Islam into French society after the Paris Islamist attacks……………..”

“For decades, Egyptian regimes have robbed the Shiite Muslim minority of their right to practice their religion freely and publicly. Egyptian Shiites have been subject to persecution, detention and imprisonment. On May 18, the prosecution accused Shiite leader Al-Taher al-Hashimy of attempting to spread Shiism, disturbing social peace and conducting covert activities………..  On May 12, a physician was sentenced to six months in prison for practicing Shiism, according to a statement released by the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR). He was found guilty of blasphemy, attempting to cause sectarian strife, as well as threatening national security by attempting to spread Shiite ideology…………..”

J’accuse au Caire……….

Interesting to see the self righteous shaikh (now Imam) of Al-Azhar exuding hypocritic piety. From the picture of the meeting (above) it is easy to spot the more honest and more intelligent person at that meeting: she is wearing high-heels, not a turban.

So who do you think has more freedom, Muslims of France or Muslims of Egypt (especially Shi’a Muslims)? And where do Muslims have more freedom of religion especially: in France or in Egypt?
No, let me rephrase this: who has no freedom to worship at all, Muslims of France or Shi’a Muslims of Egypt?
Let me rephrase it again: who is more hypocritical and repressive, the government and religious establishment in Egypt or the French far right like Front National?
Let me phrase it differently: which country is more repressive of other sects and religions, including other Muslims: Egypt or Israel?

In which city is a taxi driver very likely to tell you to get out of his car if you tell him you’re a Shi’a: in Cairo or in Tel Aviv?

This is not to deny the existence of Islamophobia and bigotry in Europe. But why ignore and deny the worse cases of inter-Islamic bigotry and repression of religious freedom at home?
Now try to be honest about your answers, if you can………….

Cheers
Mohammed Haider Ghuloum                          Follow ArabiaDeserta on Twitter
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Fascist Hootenanny in Denmark? Geert Wilders, New Dawn, Fellow Travelers may Dominate Bornholm Event……..

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“As many as 100,000 participants are expected to attend the Baltic sea island Bornholm event but this year’s first-ever attendence by far-right politicians will prove a challenge to Denmark’s tradition of openness and freedom of speech. The presence of Wilders – who has received scores of death threats over the years for his anti-Islamic views – will also mean a large security upgrade at the popular festival. The press freedom organisation, Trykkefrihedsselskabet, invited Wilders to speak. Georgios Epitideios, a former general and Golden Dawn member of the European Parliament, has also confirmed his participation. Golden Dawn, from Greece, is considered to be a neo-Nazi party. Epitideios was invited by ’The Danes’ party’, a small ultra-right party, which has no elected representatives at the national or local level. “We have chosen to debate, among other things, what we want in Europe. And it is natural to invite a party that is really big,” head of the party, Daniel Carlsen, told Berlingske Tidende. The news has already caused several politicians to cancel their participation…………………”

It looks like the crazies, the Euro-nuts, may take over that particular asylum at Bornholm, Denmark. Especially now that the most prominent speaker may be Geert Wilders, the Dutch anti-Islamic fellow traveler, fresh from the Texas conference that was closed by an act of Jihadi terrorism. His presence will certainly put Islam and Islamophobia front and center of the event. It should be one hell of a hootenanny in Denmark.  

Cheers
Mohammed Haider Ghuloum                          Follow ArabiaDeserta on Twitter
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