Palestinians' Latest "Apartheid Fatwa"

by Bassam Tawil • July 17, 2018 at 5:00 am

The mufti's position parallels that of a US Supreme Court judge. If the mufti issues a legal opinion or religious decree, his people and leaders are expected to abide by it.
With the new fatwa, Abbas can go to President Trump and other world leaders and tell them, "I would truly like to make peace with the Jews; however, I am prevented from doing so by this fatwa, which bans Muslims from doing real estate transactions with Jews. Sorry!"
One can only imagine the response of the international community had the Chief Rabbi of Israel issued a decree banning Jews from doing business with Muslims. But in the instance of the Palestinian mufti and his superiors in Ramallah, everything seems to be fine -- once again, the international community turns a blind eye to the Palestinian leaders' apartheid and their terrorizing of their own people.

Pictured: Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas (right) meets with the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Sheikh Mohammed Hussein, in Ramallah on April 5, 2010. (Photo by Omar Rashidi/PPO via Getty Images)

If anyone wanted further proof that no Palestinian leader would ever be able to recognize Israel's right to exist, it was provided recently in the form of yet another religious decree, or fatwa, issued by the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Sheikh Mohammed Hussein. It is a fatwa that basically tells Muslims: "We will kill you, punish you in many ways, if we catch you selling land or homes to Jews."

The fatwa makes it clear that no Muslim is entitled to sell his or her land -- or transfer ownership over it -- to "enemies," a reference to Jews. The implications are extremely serious. Anyone who violates this religious opinion or decree will face various forms of punishment, ranging from being boycotted to the death sentence.

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Is Russia "Buying" the West?

by Peter Huessy • July 17, 2018 at 4:30 am

It is wrong to view Russia's political warfare as merely a kind of "competition" that lacks the seriousness of an actual military confrontation. As the Center for Strategic and Budget Assessments (CSBA) report -- detailing Russia's political warfare -- indicates, politics is war by other means.
Since then, however, the Czech Republic seems to be moving in the opposite direction, with an openly pro-Russian leader, President Milos Zeman. As one colleague of mine put it: "Could the land of the Velvet Revolution be slowly falling under the spell of Putin's propaganda?"
Jakub Janda, director of the European Values Think-Tank in Prague, worries that one measure of the success of Russian propaganda is that four out of ten Czechs blame the U.S. for the Ukrainian crisis, although there are Russian troops occupying part of the territory of Ukraine. And only 20% of Czechs believe that Russian-organized troops are not operating in Ukraine, a view held by President Zeman.
That countries with such promise as the Czech Republic are possibly sacrificing all that they gained after the end of the Cold War for the Russian government is a sad commentary on the condition of European societies. The good news is that there are brave elements within these societies who seek to push back and reclaim their freedom and sovereignty. Their efforts deserve not only our praise, but our full support.

Russian President Vladimir Putin (right) meets with Czech Republic President Milos Zeman in Sochi, Russia, on November 21, 2017. (Image source: kremlin.ru)

With the collapse of the Warsaw Pact and the official dissolution of the Soviet Union in December 1991, NATO assumed that the newly freed countries of Eastern and Central Europe (commonly referred to as the ECE) would join with Western Europe and become both free and prosperous. It was not an entirely reasonable assumption, however: the Russians did not want to accept the end of the Soviet empire; nor were they ready to jettison decades of deep suspicion about the aims of the West, particularly the United States and NATO.

Although the Russians sought economic influence throughout Eastern Europe after the end of the Cold War, they were nevertheless supportive of Russian President Mikhail Gorbachev's full acceptance of the reunification of Germany and independence for the former members of the Soviet bloc.

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