The memo, however, does not specifically say that the renewed US funding would be conditioned on ending the Palestinians' "pay-to-slay" program. Instead, the Biden administration is only seeking a "commitment" from the Palestinian leadership to end the stipends. It is likely that PA President Mahmoud Abbas may make such a "commitment" to the Biden administration. In reality, however, Abbas has announced over the past few years that he would never stop the payments to the imprisoned terrorists and the families of the "martyrs." In the world of Abbas and the Palestinians, any Palestinian who is killed while carrying out a terror attack against Jews is a martyr and hero. "We will not deduct or suspend the allowances. Even if we are left with one penny, we will spend it on the families of the prisoners and martyrs. We consider the martyrs and prisoners as our stars." — Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, Wafa.ps The Palestinian leadership is now hoping that the Biden administration will turn a blind eye to the "pay-for-slay' program and allow them to continue funding terrorists and their families. The Palestinians are letting the world know that the payments to the terrorists will absolutely continue, just not through the banks. The Palestinians are trying to make it look as if this is a problem related only to the method of payment, and not the fact that the money is going to reward terrorists for murdering, or attempting to murder, Jews. It is clear that any Palestinian "commitment" to cease rewarding terrorists will not be worth the paper it is written on. Abbas and his henchmen are telling the Biden administration one thing in English and their people the opposite in Arabic. They have no intention whatsoever of stopping the blood-soaked payments. In order to ensure that they continue, the Palestinian leadership are funneling the terror funds through the Palestinian post offices. If and when the Biden administration resumes financial aid to Abbas, those who will resume collecting US taxpayer dollars are the terrorists.

"I will continue to take a critical stance against those... who use the liberal structure and tolerance of the constitution to impose totalitarian views of the state and who undermine the rules of the rule of law, using anti-Western indoctrination.... I will not adapt my vision of freedom of expression to... 'Everyone has the right to freely express their opinion in a way that is not contrary to Sharia law'". — Ralph Giordano, FAZ.net. Once a dam breaks, there is only a competition to see who gives way faster. The city is also changing the name of its squares.... The new name of a square in Aachen is "Moscheeplatz" ("Mosque Place"), a name desired by the Mayor Marcel Philipp, in agreement with the Turkish [Department of Religious Affairs] ... Then there is the question of demographics: 70% of Raunheim's population are migrants. "Here we have more Muslims than Christians". — Mayor Thomas Jühe, Social Democrats, Die Welt, November 16, 2021. Despite this, they say that the "Great Replacement" and the Islamization of Europe are just conspiracy theories. Have we really understood what the Europe of tomorrow will be like?

He was among the world's most respected figures. His recognizable face—with its ever-present grin—has become a symbol of reconciliation and goodness. But it masks a long history of ugly hatred toward the Jewish people, the Jewish religion and the Jewish state. He not only believed in anti-Semitism, he actively promoted and legitimated Jew-hatred among his many followers and admirers around the world. He has attacked the "Jewish" – not Israeli – "lobby" as too "powerful" and "scary." He has invoked classic anti-Semitic stereotypes and tropes about Jewish "arrogance", "power" and "money." He has characterized Jews a "peculiar people," and has accused "the Jews" of causing many of the world's problems. He once even accused the Jewish state of acting in an "unChristian" manner. Let the record speak for itself, so that history may judge Tutu on the basis of his own words — words that he has often repeated and that others repeat, because Tutu is a role model for so many people around the world. Here are some of Tutu's hateful words, most of them carefully documented in a petition by prominent South Africans to terminate him as a "patron" of the two South African Holocaust Centers, because he used his status with these fine institutions as legitimization for his anti-Jewish rhetoric. He denied that Israel is a "civilized democracy" and singled out Israel—one of the world's most open democracies—as a nation guilty of "censorship of their media." He urged the Cape Town Opera to refuse to perform George Gershwin's Porgy and Bess in Tel Aviv and called for a total cultural boycott of Jewish Israel, while encouraging performers to visit the most repressive regimes in the world. He was far more vocal about Israel's imperfections than about the genocides in Rwanda, Darfur and Cambodia. Even in death, his bigotry against Jews must be recounted and considered in any honest reckoning of his decidedly mixed legacy, and in any decision whether to honor him with statues or other forms of canonization, especially at a time of increasing antisemitism throughout the world.

For the 87-year-old Abbas and his Fatah faction, the victory of the Hamas supporters was not only humiliating, but also a reminder that when it comes to dealing with Israel, many Palestinians prefer terrorism over diplomacy. The Hamas-affiliated students also condemned the Fatah-dominated Palestinian Authority for conducting security coordination with Israeli security forces in the West Bank. Any form of cooperation with Israel, they argued, is tantamount to treason. The underlying message the Hamas-affiliated lists sent to the thousands of students at the two campuses was: Vote for us because we explicitly and unreservedly uphold the armed struggle against Israel and promise to continue the Jihad (holy war) to murder Jews and replace Israel with a genocidal Islamist state, free of non-Muslims. It also would not be a particularly good idea to hold general elections in the West Bank and Gaza Strip at a time when a majority of Palestinians are voicing support for an "armed intifada" (uprising) against Israel. Article 13 of the Hamas covenant urges Muslims to wage Jihad on Israel and reject any peace initiatives: "There is no solution for the Palestinian issue expect through Jihad. Initiatives, proposals and international conferences are all a waste of time and vain endeavors." The victory of the Hamas-affiliated lists at the two Palestinian universities in the West Bank should serve as a warning not only to Mahmoud Abbas, but also to the international community, especially the Biden administration, whose representatives continue to promote the delusional and dangerous idea of a "two-state solution" between the Palestinians and Israel. The university students who voted for Hamas have endorsed Hamas's call for Jihad and terrorism against Israel. They have endorsed Hamas's argument that Israel has no right to exist. They have also endorsed the argument that no Palestinian or Arab leader is entitled to make any concessions to Israel. The officials in the Biden administration, European Union and United Nations who continue to talk about the need for a "two-state solution" are actually advocating the creation of another Hamas-led state, like ISIS, this time in the West Bank and east Jerusalem. A similar state already exists in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip, used a launching pad to fire rockets into Israel. By voting for Hamas once again, Palestinians... are also sending a warning to Abbas and other Palestinian leaders not to make peace with Israel or work with it in any way, or else they will be treated as traitors -- further proof, as if it were needed, that the Palestinians have yet again chosen violence, terrorism and misery rather than a bright, promising future, a better economy, and prosperity for their young.

To answer the question of who is controlling the Biden presidency, we should consider the Biden administration's disastrous policy decisions. "Cui bono?" – Who benefits? Why would Biden abandon Bagram Air Force Base? It is key to all of Southwest Asia – just 400 miles to China and 500 miles to Iran. It is a vitally important geopolitical, military and intelligence platform with consequences and "reach" that involve far more than just Afghan regional matters. Who, specifically, made the recommendation to just walk away from Bagram – and then who gave the order? If we suggest that there is a combination or passing alliance of these various interests and groups, each seeking to advance their own agenda behind the official, hollow, front of "President Joe Biden" – then we run the risk of being branded conspiracy theorists. That is both dishonest and unfortunate, because asking questions of, and seeking accountability from, elected officials is not "crazy." Interest groups do, in fact, lobby presidential advisors, White House staff, and even members of the president's family. We must press on – asking questions, examining records, seeking accountability and documenting facts. The truth will prevail.

The Gatestone Institute reports Sunday on the striking rate of closures of churches in the United Kingdom's capital city, a trend mirrored elsewhere in | London / Europe

Gatestone Institute wholeheartedly supports U.S. President Donald J. Trump's efforts to ban Hezbollah in Europe. The Bundestag resolution, however, calls for an incomplete ban, which appears aimed at providing the German government with political cover that would allow Berlin to claim that it has banned the group even if it has not. It is utterly implausible that Germany, one of the wealthiest and most technologically advanced countries in Europe, is unable to ascertain the organizational structure of Hezbollah within its own borders. "Six months ago, the AfD presented a resolution in the Bundestag to ban Hezbollah, a resolution which you vehemently rejected and which since then you have blocked in caucus.... What is needed is the complete ban of Hezbollah. Hezbollah's propaganda and terror financing in Germany must be stopped... This, by the way, is also demanded by the Bundestag's Anti-Semitism Resolution, which expressly calls for the deportation of supporters of anti-Semitism. If this does not apply to supporters of Hezbollah, which wants to send Jews to the gas chambers, and wants to destroy Israel, then to whom could this apply?" — Beatrix von Storch MP, Alternative für Deutschland [AfD] party, to the Bundestag, December 19, 2019. Von Storch noted that the Bundestag's resolution, if implemented by the German government, would allow Hezbollah's 30-plus German-based mosques and cultural centers — where the group raises funds and spreads anti-Israel propaganda — to continue to operate. Moreover, not one of the 1,050 known Hezbollah operatives now in Germany would be deported.

La Comisión Europea, el brazo administrativo de gran alcance de la Unión Europea, ha presentado un polémico plan que obligaría a los países miembros de la UE a aceptar 160.000 inmigrantes y refugiados procedentes de Oriente Medio y el Norte de África. La jugada de los burócratas no electos en Bruselas para obligar a los […]

The Russians are coming. Again. In a dramatic reminder that the Russians are seeking to intimidate the White House and launch a second chapter of the Cold War, a Russian nuclear-powered submarine, along with an accompanying flotilla of warships,

"The connection between the BRI and the strategic partnerships it creates in the region... allows it to gradually take over the region without creating tensions with the U.S. or the West. In other words, the BRI is a sophisticated Chinese plan to transfer hegemony from the West and the U.S. to China without war or conflict". — Dr. Mordechai Chaziz, author of the book China's Middle East Diplomacy: The Belt and Road Strategic Partnership. "China has signed documents on Belt and Road cooperation with 19 Middle East countries," Wang told Al Arabiya during his visit to Saudi Arabia, one of the six countries he visited on his tour, "and carried out distinctive collaboration with each of them.... China is ready to .... expand new areas of growth such as high and new technologies." The other countries Wang visited were Turkey, Iran, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Oman and Bahrain. "In the last five years, as China has grown increasingly concerned with transit through the Suez Canal, China has invested billions of dollars in Egypt.... President Sisi has made at least six trips to Beijing since taking office in 2014, compared to just two trips to Washington". — Jon B. Alterman, Center for Strategic and International Studies, May 23, 2021. China has made "comprehensive strategic partnerships" with both Saudi Arabia and UAE, as well as now Iran, through signing a 25-year comprehensive strategic agreement on economic and security cooperation with Tehran. The agreement also reportedly includes an expansion of military assistance, training and intelligence-sharing. "China and the countries agreed that the sovereign independence and national dignity of all countries should be respected..." Foreign Minister Wang Yi said in summing up his trip. Meanwhile Wang overlooked the fact that China had originally offered the world similar assurances in 1984 regarding the retention of Hong Kong's political and economic system for 50 years after the 1997 return of the territory to Mainland China's sovereignty, only to renege on this commitment 27 years ahead of the scheduled end of the "one country, two systems" arrangement in 2047. Wang also managed to overlook that China broke its 2015 commitment not to "militarize" artificial islands that Beijing had been building in the Spratly Islands chain in the South China Sea and which it is now surrounding with "fishing boats", threatening the nearby Philippines. The foreign minister also apparently forgot that China has never honored at least nine of the commitments it made when it joined the World Trade Organization, its nuclear testing commitments and its commitment to the Vatican in appointing bishops. "China's communist leaders have repeatedly promised major reforms or policy shifts to gain entrance into international agreements only to roll back those reforms as soon as they get what they want." — Chris Tomlinson, business columnist, Houston Chronicle, 2016.

Since the Biden administration evidently is insisting on negotiating with a predatory regime such as Iran, at least it should not enter the negotiations from a position of weakness. The Biden administration needs to understand that the Iranian regime is desperate for the revival of the nuclear deal due to the significant financial and sanctions relief that the JCPOA offers the ruling clerics. Iran's state-controlled Arman-e-Meli newspaper surprisingly acknowledged on November 20, 2021: "No country, neither China nor Russia, will be able to save our economy. We must try to lift the sanctions. The way out of the internal pressures and the heavy (bad) economic situation is to get rid of the issue of sanctions and it will be solved with the JCPOA." Iran's mullahs particularly love the nuclear deal because of its fundamental flaws, especially the sunset clauses that remove restrictions on Iran's nuclear program after the deal soon expires. The nuclear deal, rather than preventing Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons, as it was falsely touted to do, in fact paves the way for Tehran to become a legitimized nuclear state.

Fewer babies will be born in all of Europe than in Nigeria alone. More than half the increase of the global population projected by 2050 will be concentrated in just eight countries, mostly in Africa, according to The Economist: Congo, Egypt, Ethiopia, India, Nigeria, Pakistan, Philippines and Tanzania. Nigeria will have more inhabitants than Europe and the United States. This crisis is not a projection, it is happening right now. By 2050, 60% of Italians will have no brothers, sisters, cousins, uncles or aunts. The Italian family, with the father who pours the wine and the mother who serves the pasta to a table of grandparents, grandchildren and great-grandchildren, will be gone, as extinct as dinosaurs. Yemen, on the other hand, a failed country in the middle of a terrible civil war, will show a population increase that is double Italy's. "In 1887 there was only one Muslim registered in Melilla, he was originally from Casablanca and worked as a servant; today Muslims exceed 40 percent of the population and are approaching the majority", reported the newspaper El Pais.... Ceuta and Melilla are what most of Europe's cities will look like in 20-30 years. Melilla is now the first Spanish city that has surpassed a 50% Muslim population due to immigration, family reunification and a high birth rate. The Western world has provided more wealth and convenience to more citizens than any other civilization in history. We are practically inundated with resources, but we are running out of people, the only truly indispensable resource. "Islam to become Russia's predominant religion by 2050?" — Pravda, July 21, 2008. In addition, Islam will have overtaken Christianity as the largest religion in the world. The Islamic population of the European Union, depending on the migratory flows, could reach 75 million within a generation -- like an entire Muslim Germany or, if one prefers, like Denmark, Austria, Hungary, Greece, Belgium, Holland, Portugal and Sweden combined. Does that sound better? "They have not managed to change us. It is we who will change them. Look at the development of the population in Europe, where the number of Muslims increases like mosquitoes. Each Western woman in the E.U. produces, on average, 1.4 children. Each Muslim woman in these same countries produces 3.5 children. By 2050, 30% of the European population will be Muslim... Our way of thinking in Islam stands in opposition to the Western way of thinking. Today it is our way of thinking that comes in and shows itself stronger than theirs...." — "Mullah Krekar", Norwegian imam, Dagbladet, March 13, 2006. The population of Birmingham will soon be half Muslim.... [The Birmingham Mail reveals that] the number of Muslim children in the city has surpassed the number of Christian children. "In addition to Birmingham, Islam is now the dominant religion among children in Leicester, Bradford, Luton, Slough and the London boroughs of Newham, Redbridge and Tower Hamlets." — Quote from business-live.co.uk, September 21, 2014. Do we fantasize that immigration at this rate will be able to integrate happily into host societies and that the migrants will become like us? Do we hope that before long, Europeans will return to having more children? What if we are wrong and these projections become reality? Are we resigned to the disappearance of our civilization? "Great demographics, great power", Nicholas Eberstadt, the American political economist summed up in Foreign Affairs. Crumbling demographics, crumbling powers ...

Biden is following in Obama's ill-fated footsteps. In fact, Biden's foreign policy is so unoriginal that you could almost describe the "Biden Doctrine" -- as more and more left-wing pundits are calling it -- as "Obama on steroids." The Biden administration must... Refuse with absolute consistency to work with radical Islamist groups. Exceptions to this rule must be limited to cases of absolute and immediate necessity. Never trust and always verify, verify, and verify. Send powerful messages of support to Taiwan, Ukraine, Israel and our allies in Asia such as Japan and Australia especially. These are the partners most at risk because of Biden's failure in Afghanistan, and his inadequate responses to China and Russia, our other greatest adversaries. Make it clear, now that the U.S. is at a much greater risk than just a few weeks ago, that any attack against the U.S. will be met with the harshest response.

The prospect of Jews praying inside a synagogue in an Arab country seems to worry Palestinian Muslim figures more than the killing and wounding of thousands of Muslims and Christians in last week's huge explosion at the port of the Lebanese capital of Beirut. Against this Palestinian hostility toward Jews, Christians, and peace with Israel, it is important that a new group called The Arab Council for Regional Integration, launched in London last year, is seeking to build a spirit of partnership that knows no borders between Jews and Arabs. Such groups offer hope to those seeking peace and coexistence between Jews, Christians, and Arabs, and represent a counterforce to Muslim extremists who have nothing to offer their people but misery and bloodshed. By rejecting the medical aid from the UAE -- aimed at helping to prevent the spread of the coronavirus pandemic -- the Palestinians have scored another own-goal in demonstrating the depth of their ingratitude toward those who wish to assist their people. By coming out against interfaith tolerance and the building of a synagogue in an Arab country, the Palestinians are again proving that the conflict with Israel is not about borders or checkpoints, but about the very right of Jews, Christians or Israel to exist.

After a mosque leaders' wife embraced Christianity, and as a form of "retribution," the imam ordered the rape of three Christian girls related to a local pastor.... — Morning Star News, March 11, 2021, Uganda. "Intercourse with a girl below the age of 16 is statutory rape in Pakistan, but in most cases a falsified conversion certificate and Islamic marriage certificate influence police to pardon kidnappers." — Morning Star News, March 12, 2012, Pakistan. On March 20, a court "changed a sentence of life imprisonment to the death penalty for a Christian convicted of sending a blasphemous text message in 2011".... Such petitions are "seen often as a service to Islam and as jihad or holy war against blasphemers." according to the report. — Union of Catholic Asian News, March 29, 2021, Pakistan. "[O]rthodox Muslims demand to make capital punishment the only penalty for blasphemy".... The courts increasingly seem to be complying. — Union of Catholic Asian News, March 29, 2021, Pakistan. "That night, our village was attacked.... I was at home with my four children. We tried to escape to the woods, but they took my eldest son and beheaded him. We couldn't do anything because we would be killed too." — Save the Children, March 16, 2021, Mozambique. "In one of the worst attacks last year, the jihadists turned a village football pitch into an execution ground where they beheaded more than 50 people in three days of savage violence." — Barnabas Fund, March 30, 2021, Mozambique. Algeria is becoming less tolerant of religious minorities.

With the U.S. suffering significant inflation, and with supply chain disruptions identified as one of the causes, expect little pressure on China to address intellectual property theft, currency manipulation, unfair Chinese government support in distorting markets, or disruptive Chinese trade barriers. The bias will be to put a happy face on this relationship. We certainly can hope for Biden to put up a strong position on the COVID-19 pandemic. More than 750,000 Americans are dead.... America, and the world need answers. China needs to be held accountable. One can only fear where this goes if the U.S. does not confront China. It is unlikely we will see any leadership from Europe on this issue; European leaders seemed determined to forge closer economic ties with China, which will doubtless use these revenues for bulking up its military to "take over the world." It is either Biden or nobody, and nobody seems to have the upper hand. An even worse potential outcome on the COVID-19 pandemic issue may be a gauzy statement along the lines that ... the U.S. and China will closely cooperate on addressing the current situation.... Even worse, we will form the core of a new global organization to prepare for, confront, and combat any potential future pandemics. Heaven help us if this is the outcome.

The feeling remains that these child-rape crimes are still passed over or covered up. An independent official inquiry found failures at every level of the institutions of state. Crimes of this nature are still being kicked under the carpet -- for reasons of "political correctness" -- with no concern for harm done to the children. The issue is a true tinderbox. Last week, the local council in Rotherham moved to ban anti-child grooming marches. But by even thinking of banning these marches, the members of the Rotherham council are making ones of the greatest mistakes imaginable. People will assume there is something even worse going on. A town whose authorities allowed child-rape to go on for a decade, but which now bans marches objecting to child-rape, is setting up a whole new narrative of victimhood from which no good can possibly come. Howls of rage -- especially such howls -- must be protected speech, especially when they have a basis in fact.

The renewed talk about a "two-state solution" comes amid a significant increase in the popularity of Hamas, the Palestinian terrorist group whose charter openly calls for replacing Israel with an Islamic state. It also comes at a time when Abbas's popularity is at its lowest ebb. The Palestinians are telling Blinken that he is wasting his time if he thinks that they would accept "so-called peaceful solutions" or "renounce any part of Palestine." They are also sending a warning to Abbas that recognition of Israel's right to exist and acceptance of the "two-state solution" is tantamount to treason, a crime punishable by death. Abbas is afraid that Hamas will try to stage a coup against the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank.... Abbas, however, does not feel comfortable talking about the Palestinians' two rival entities, Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and prefers to continue pretending that the establishment of a Palestinian state alongside Israel is still a realistic option. As long as Israel maintains overall security control over the West Bank, Abbas can feel safe sitting in his office or at home in Ramallah. It is only Israel's presence in the West Bank that is keeping him in power and preventing Hamas from extending its control beyond the Gaza Strip. A recent public opinion poll showed that 57% of the Palestinians are opposed to the two-state solution. Another 57% said they support the "armed struggle" and "popular resistance" against Israel. According to the poll, 68% of the Palestinians want Abbas to resign. Blinken needs to go out and talk to ordinary Palestinians. There, he will get a good grasp of the Palestinians' profound anti-Israel sentiments and their deep support for Iran's proxies and others who wish to wipe Israel off the map.

To execute political prisoners, Iran's judiciary accuses defendants of vaguely defined charges labeled as "national security crimes." These "crimes" include moharebeh ("enmity against God"), ifsad fil arz ("sowing corruption on Earth"), and baghi ("armed rebellion"). It is not only the number of executions that is appalling, but also the nature of some of them. Executions have involved minor children, women and individuals from ethnic and religious minority groups. Although Iran has ratified the International Convention on the Rights of the Child, the government has made no effort to alter the country's Islamic Penal Code, which allows girls as young as nine to be executed. In addition, children, women and men are routinely tortured during interrogations and behind bars. They are forced to confess. They are denied access to lawyers and due process. They are denied family visits and medical care. The ruling mullahs of Iran refuse to halt their executions and human rights violations, or to reform their repressive system, because they feel no pressure from the usually moralizing European Union. So they act with full impunity. The informed silence of the EU therefore makes it a willing accessory to their crimes. It is beyond repulsive that the EU -- the same EU that incessantly lectures the world about human rights -- not only ignores the Iranian regime's unspeakable human violations, but that it also happily continues to do "business as usual" with the leaders of Iran's cruel and inhuman regime.