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Palestinians and the "Death Boats" Scandal
by Khaled Abu Toameh
• September 27, 2014 at 5:00 am
As the
past few weeks have, shown, hundreds, if not thousands, of Palestinians would
rather risk their lives at sea than live under Palestinian governments and
leaders whose only goal is to enrich their bank accounts.
Instead
of creating job opportunities for young men and women, Hamas and the
Palestinian Authority have spent the past seven years fighting over money and
power. They are now busy planning how to lay their hands on the millions of
dollars that are supposed to go to the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip. Hamas
wants to use the Palestinian Authority as a tool through which the
international community channels funds to he Gaza Strip — a move that would
ultimately empower Hamas to tighten its grip over the Palestinian
population there.
=
They said
that Hamas officials are providing the emigrants with forged visas and travel
documents to to enable them to enter Europe.
Over the past few weeks, dozens of Palestinian immigrants from the Gaza
Strip have been killed or injured while trying to reach Europe by sea.
At least 500 Palestinians have gone missing after the boats carrying
them sank in the sea. Some reports have suggested that rival gangs
deliberately sunk the boats. The gangs are fighting for the cash the
Palestinians are prepared to pay to leave the Gaza Strip. Palestinians refer
to the situation as their "Death Boats" scandal.
The Palestinian immigrants are said to have paid thousands of dollars to
Hamas officials and Egyptian smugglers to facilitate the exodus from the Gaza
Strip.
Palestinian Authority Foreign Minister Riad al-Malki claimed that each
Palestinian paid $1,000 to Hamas personnel at the Rafah border crossing with
Egypt. Others are believed to have paid $5,000 each to leave the
Gaza Strip.
Holy Land: The Perils Facing Christians
by Pierre Rehov
• September 27, 2014 at 4:00 am
"All
this talk about Israel being behind the pain of Christians in the Palestinian
Territories is nonsense. Muslims intimidate us. They burn our stores, steal
our real estate. They build mosques beside our churches, and make sure that
the calls for prayer disrupt our services. They attack our daughters. There
are many cases of rape that have never been reported. Families hide it out of
shame, they move away. They flee." — Christian official.
Under dhimmi
laws, non-Muslims under Muslim rule may not testify against Muslims, so it is
virtually impossible for Christians whose lands have been stolen, or whose
lives have been threatened, to appeal to the local legal system.
Apparently
the story is only appealing when Israel can be blamed.
If you ask anyone in the Middle East the meaning of the saying, "
First the Saturday people, then the Sunday people," he will answer with
a smile: "First, we will get rid of those who pray on Saturday, and then
we will get rid of those who pray on Sunday."
A recent survey conducted by the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs
shows that the Christian Population of Bethlehem dropped from 90% in the 19th
century down to 60% in the 1990s. Today Christians make up less than 10%.
What happened?
Of course, many Christians fled in the 1940s and 1960s, out of fear of
the war, or as a result of intensive anti-Jewish propaganda. At that time,
Christians already suffered discrimination from Muslims, and many also
opposed the rebirth of the Jewish nation. Their views, apart from their
faith, were more influence by the local, Arab culture, than by the European
Enlightenment.
Stop Denying the Obvious: Islam is a Problem
by Geert Wilders
• September 26, 2014 at 9:45 am
To defeat
IS we should do more than just bomb its strongholds in the Middle East; we
should no longer turn a blind eye to the violent nature of Islam. We should
demand that those who settle in our countries cast aside values incompatible
with ours. There is a huge problem -- also in our countries - cause by the
violent exhortations of Islam. Only when we face this truth will we be able
to win this war we are in.
Although
the majority of Muslims are moderate, thousands of innocent civilians all
over the West have fallen victim to terrorists inspired by Islam. IS has
announced that every citizen of the West is a target.
70% of
Dutch Muslims consider the religious rules of Islam more important than the
secular laws of the country where they are living. Survey, December
2013, by Prof. Ruud Koopmans, Humbolt University, Berlin
A military alliance, led by the United States, is currently bombing the
forces of the Islamic State [IS] in Iraq and Syria. Many European nations,
such as the United Kingdom, France, the Netherlands and others, are
participating in this offensive. IS, however, is not just a threat to the
Middle East, but also to our own countries. The presence in IS's ranks of
hundreds of Muslims born in the West, carrying Western passports, is a huge domestic
security risk. Whether we like it or not, war has also come to our streets.
And whether we like it or not, Islam has everything to do with it.
"No religion condones the killing of innocents," President Obama
recently said. David Cameron added about the IS terrorists: "They claim
to do this in the name of Islam, that is nonsense, Islam is a religion of
peace. They are not Muslims, they are monsters."
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Sunday, September 28, 2014
Palestinians and the "Death Boats" Scandal
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