Hisham Barakat, Egypt’s top prosecutor, assassinated in a car bomb attack

(Cairo) Egypt’s top prosecutor Hisham Barakat who led the wide scale prosecution against figures from the Brotherhood and other Islamists, including former President Mohammed Morsi, was murdered today when a car bomb was detonated as his convoy went past.

The attack took place around 10:00 a.m. when a car laden with large amount of explosives was detonated by a remote control as Barakat’s car and his entourage passed through the eastern Cairo district of Heliopolis. 65-year-old Barakat received multiple shrapnel wounds to the shoulder, chest and liver, according to a medical official at the nearby Nozha hospital. His two guards and five other people were also wounded by the explosion, officials said.

Hours after the attack, he was announced dead after undergoing a critical surgery.

The first assassination of a top official in the country in a quarter century, marking an apparent escalation by Islamic militants in their campaign of revenge attacks for a 2-year-old crackdown on the Muslim Brotherhood.

And to think that the liberals have all been telling me that the Muslim Brotherhood are a peaceful bunch of thugs...

Ramadan death toll is now at 2,450.

Ramadan Death Count Round Up (June 29, 2015)

(Iraq) Across the country, 51 ISIS thugs were killed Sunday. 25 alone where killed when the local ISIS management in Anbar province held a meeting, problem for them was the Iraqi airforce, decided to hit it from the air.

(Pakistan) A suicide bomber in Lahore had a case of premature ejaculation when he was forced to utter'Allah ackba' before he was meant to, this was due to a police operation which exposed him for what he was. As he went to pieces he took 3 other terrorist thugs with him.

(Syria) A mortar attack in Damascus Sunday killed 3 people. The round exploded in a market in the Saroujah district just northeast of the city centre.

(Algeria) Two terrorists were killed Saturday in Ain Defla by the Army who recovered weapons and a quantity of ammunition, the Ministry of National Defence reported Sunday.

(Afghanistan) The Taliban in western Afghanistan ambushed a convoy of soldiers Sunday in the Karukh district of Herat. A spokesman for the 207 Zafar military corps, Najibullah Najibi, said the fighting lasted five hours, with 11 soldiers and six Taliban killed.

Three Islamic followers of peace, found themselves in pieces when the IED they were planted at the side of the road went 'Bang!' The incident took place in Sozyano area of Shah Wali Kot District around 20:30 pm last night.

(Iraq) It has been reported that since the start of Ramadan began, 71 civilians have been killed and 90 wounded due to indiscriminate shelling. Whilst I have reported of deaths from the town, I have only reported military and terrorist deaths, (I've also checked to be sure)

Attacks in and around Baghdad Monday have claimed the lives of 13 people. Drive-by shooters killed a pro-government Sunni tribal sheikh along with his three guards in the town of Tarmiyah, 50 kilometers (30 miles) north of Baghdad. Three civilians were killed and nine wounded in a bomb explosion at an outdoor marker in Baghdad's western Ghazaliyah neighborhood.

Authorities also found the bodies for four men and two women dumped in different areas in and around Baghdad, all shot in the chest and head with their hands and legs tied. None had identification cards.

Well, it appears that despite so many media outlets bigging up ISIS. The pressure from getting a good kick from the air, from the Kurds, from the Iraqis and from the Iranians is starting to grind on Allahs finest as it has been reported that ISIS executed 30 of its own yesterday because of suspicion of information leaks to Iraqi intelligence.

The Kurds have continued their sweep against ISIS, by killing 13 of the bastards near Mosul city.

Further setbacks for ISIS continues as the Iraq military capitalised on the US led air campaign which has vastly degraded the teeth arm units of the so called Islamic State. Iraqi army forces used artillery to kill 26 IS militants near the city of Haditha, while security forces defending positions near the IS-held city of Hit killed 15 attacking IS militants and destroyed eight of their vehicles. Iraqi airstrikes on IS-controlled Fallujah reportedly killed 10 people and wounded 19. Shia militias known as Popular Mobilization Forces killed nine IS fighters and destroyed two of their vehicles in an attack on IS positions near the city of Samarra

(Yemen) Saudi air strikes killed 15 people today in the Sarwah district of Yemen’s central province of Ma'rib.

(Somalia) As the noose tightens around the Islamic terrorist group Al Shabab, so does their room for maneuver. Which means that instead of being able to melt away, they are now having to fight. This happened today near the southern port of Kismayo, where a couple of clashes saw 15 people killed. This apparently also included another attack by Al Shabab on a military base, this time the troops were waiting.

(Chad) A police raid on suspected members of Boko Haram in N’Djamena saw one of the idiots blow himself up, killing six suspects and five police officers.

(Libya) Clashes between the Libyan army and terrorists associated with the Mujahideen Shura Council in the eastern city of Darnah, saw 14 soldiers killed. No figures have been released on the number of terrorists who were killed.

(Egypt) A roadside bomb hit a bus travelling in the restive North of the Sinai today, killing 3 people and injuring 14 others.

Ramadan death toll is now at 2,449.

Kuwait identifies mosque suicide bomber as Saudi

Fahd Suliman Abdul-Muhsen al-Qabaa

KUWAIT (Reuters) - Kuwait identified the suicide bomber behind its worst militant attack as a young Saudi Arabian man and said on Sunday it had detained the driver of the vehicle that took him to a Shi'ite Muslim mosque where he killed 27 people.

The disclosure of the bomber's nationality is likely to focus the attention of authorities probing Friday's suicide attack on ties between Islamists in Kuwait and those in Saudi Arabia, a center of ultra-conservative Islamic thought.

Kuwait's interior ministry named the bomber as Fahd Suliman Abdul-Muhsen al-Qabaa and said he flew into Kuwait's airport at dawn on Friday, only hours before he detonated an explosives-laden vest at Kuwait City's Imam al-Sadeq mosque.

More...

Israeli naval commandos board Gaza-bound pro-jihad flotilla ship, no injuries reported

IDF forces visited & searched vessel attempting to breach maritime blockade of Gaza in int’l waters https://t.co/2YMB3lhadC

— IDF (@IDFSpokesperson) June 29, 2015

IDF naval fighters board the Swedish Marianne vessel that was attempting to break the blockade on Gaza. No injuries reported.

(INN) IDF naval fighters early on Monday morning boarded the Swedish ship Marianne that was taking part in the latest flotilla trying to violate Israel’s naval blockade of Gaza.

The troops took control of the ship and will take it to the Ashdod Port where its contents will be inspected. The IDF Spokesperson’s Unit said the takeover process was short and there were no injuries on either side.

“According to the decision of the political echelon, and after exhausting all diplomatic channels to prevent the Marianne vessel from reaching the coast of the Gaza Strip and violating the naval blockade, navy fighters took over the vessel a short time ago before its arrival in Gaza,” the statement said.

“The action was taken after a large number of requests to the passengers on the vessel. Once the passengers clarified that they would not cooperate and proceed to the Ashdod Port, it was decided to take over the vessel and sail it to the Ashdod port.”

The so-called “Freedom Flotilla 3”, which set sail from Crete on Friday, has been backed by the European Campaign to Break the Siege on Gaza. Members of the European Parliament, journalists, athletes, artists, as well as radical leftist Israelis will be on board.

Arutz Sheva has exclusively revealed that the flotilla is indirectly funded by the French government via a pro-Palestinian NGO.

The flotilla was the latest in a series of attempts by activists to break the naval blockade on Gaza, imposed by Israel after Hamas violently took control of Gaza from rival Fatah in 2006.

The most famous of the flotillas was the 2010 one involving the Turkish Mavi Marmara, which claimed to be providing "humanitarian aid for the people of Gaza."

The ship repeatedly defied orders to turn around and dock at the Ashdod port and ignored repeated warnings to change course, forcing IDF troops to board the vessel - only to be attacked by Islamist extremists on board wielding knives and metal bars. The wounded soldiers had no choice but to open fire, resulting in the deaths of ten of Islamists on board.

After an investigation, Israeli authorities discovered the vessel to be carrying no humanitarian aid - in fact, no aid supplies at all - indicating how the true goal of the provocative move was to open Gaza to free naval access, which it has consistently used to smuggle in weapons to be targeted against Israel.

ISIS Executed More than 3,000 People in 1 Year in Syria Alone

More than half of those executed by Islamic State group in Syria alone were civilians, including 74 children.

Poor Syrians must lament their fate... if even one Jew was involved, every NGO, every UN organization and every leftist in the Western world would be screaming to the high heavens. But since it's just Muslims killing Muslims (and occasional Christians), it's, well, no big deal.

(INN) The Islamic State group (ISIS or IS) has executed more than 3,000 people in Syria, including hundreds of civilians, in the year since it declared its self-described "caliphate," a monitor said on Sunday.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based group monitoring Syria's conflict, said it had documented 3,027 executions by IS since June 29, 2014.

Among those executed are 1,787 civilians, including 74 children, said the Observatory.

Members of Sunni Shaitat tribe account for around half of the civilians murdered.

IS killed 930 members of the clan in Deir Ezzor last year after they rose up against the extremist Sunni Muslim group.

The toll also includes recent mass killings by IS in the Syrian Kurdish town of Kobane, which the jihadist group re-entered briefly this week after being expelled in January.

The monitor said it had counted at least 223 executions in the border town this week.

The Observatory also documented 216 IS executions of rival rebel factions and Kurdish fighters, as well as the executions of nearly 900 regime forces.

IS has also executed 143 of its own members it accused of crimes including spying, many of them captured as they were trying to desert the group, the Observatory said.

And at least 8,000 IS terrorists have been killed in battles and by US-led air strikes, added the monitor.

IS emerged in Syria in 2013, growing from Al Qaeda's one-time Iraq affiliate and initially seeking to merge with Al Qaeda's Syrian affiliate Al-Nusra Front.

When Al Nusra refused the merger, the two groups become rivals, and IS went on to announce its "caliphate" in territory in Syria and Iraq last year, proclaiming its leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi "Caliph Ibrahim".

A real life superman

Dear ISIS - please see picture below of a real man!! You shot him 3 times and still he saved his fiancé #Tunisia pic.twitter.com/X3ZBhCzLDY

— Carl (@AirForce_Carl) June 28, 2015

German school tells pupils to dress modestly so as not to offend... asylum seekers

(Bavaria) In the town of Pockling, situated on the German/Austrian border, the authorities have decided to use the local school gym to house 200 Syrian asylum seekers. However, in order to accommodate them even further, the local authorities have sent out letters in which to inform parents of children at the school that in order not to offend these peaceful Muslims, they should ensure that their girls dress modestly.

The letter states:

"The Syrian citizens are mainly Muslims and speak Arabic. The refugees are marked by their own culture. Because our school is directly next to where they are staying, modest clothing should be adhered to, in order to avoid discrepancies. Revealing tops or blouses, short shorts or miniskirts could lead to misunderstandings."

Naturally, this hasn't gone down too well with the parents, but a local politician has defended it by saying:

"When Muslim teenage boys go to open air swimming pools, they are overwhelmed when they see girls in bikinis, these boys, who come from a culture where for women it is frowned upon to show naked skin, follow girls and bother them without realizing. Obviously this is concerning for us."

And to think that the EU is helping to ferry hundreds of thousands of people like this across the Mediterranean sea in which to dump them on the rest of us.

Ramadan Death Count Round Up (June 28, 2015)

(Congo) Five civilians and three soldiers were killed in an attack by rebels on a Congolese army camp near Beni in the restive east of the country. The killings are the latest blamed on Ugandan rebels of the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), who are accused of murdering around 400 people in nine months of massacres in and around the major eastern trading hub of Beni.

The ADF was formed by puritanical Muslim Ugandans of the Tabliq sect who merged with the remnants of another rebel group, the National Army for the Liberation of Uganda.[citation needed] The main figure of the group was Jamil Mukulu, a former Protestant who converted to Islam. The members were largely from central Uganda, in particular Iganga, Masaka and Kampala, and portray themselves as religious crusaders.

(Pakistan) Drug dealer Fazal Husain, didn’t like how local property dealer Iqbal was dealing with his house purchase, so off he popped round to his house dragged him outside and started beating him up. Iqbals daughters on seeing this went out to protect their father, whereupon Fazel pulled out a gun shot four girls dead and wounded 2 others. Naturally as a Pakistani male, he did a runner.

Air-strikes by the Pakistani air force in the country's restive Northwest frontier saw at least 24 terrorists killed.

(Jordan) the bitter fighting inside Syria crossed over into Jordan yesterday when a stray shell impacted in the market of the border town of Ramtha killing one and injured 2 others.

(Afghanistan) Security operations across the country this past 24 hours saw 43 Taliban idiots and 2 soldiers killed

A bitter gun battle between the Taliban and ISIS in the province of Nangarhar resulted in the deaths of 13 terrorists and another 8 wounded.

(Nigeria) A suicide bomber who blown himself to pieces outside a leprosy hospital in the city of Maiduguri killed 5 people and wound 10 others.

(Syria) A push by the Syrian government into the rebel held town of Daraa has seen 30 terrorists killed.

(Yemen) A Saudi border guard was killed when his position came under attack by Yemeni terrorists loyal to Iran.

Saudi Air-stikes claimed the lives of 3 people yesterday.

(Somalia) Unfortunately the death toll amongst Burundi African Union peace keepers in Somalia who were attacked by Islamic terrorists has increased from 30 to 50. This death toll is set to rise as a large number were kidnapped and a larger number injured.

(Iraq) Gunmen shot dead a senior oil official working for Iraq's state-run North Oil Company (NOC) on Sunday, police and company officials said.

Ramadan death toll is now at 2,125.

Wal-Mart store refuses to bake Confederate battle flag cake, accepts request to bake ISIS battle flag cake

(TheDC) Wal-Mart is apologizing for a store in Slidell, La., which refused to bake a cake designed as the Confederate battle flag but accepted a request to bake a cake that looked like the ISIS battle flag.

Chuck Netzhammer, a local resident, presented his story in a YouTube video Friday, saying, “Alright, Wal-Mart, you’ve got some explaining to do. I went to go buy a cake from you all the other day with this image on it and y’all wouldn’t do it. I went back yesterday and managed to get the ISIS battle flag [cake instead].”

Netzhammer shows the ISIS battle flag cake to the camera as well as the rejection letter Wal-Mart gave him for the confederate flag cake request. Netzhammer also shows the receipt that went along with the ISIS battle flag cake that Wal-Mart agreed to bake.

“Wal-Mart, can you please explain why you’re alienating Southern Americans with this trash that you allow to be sold at your store, while at the same point Confederate flag memorabilia is not allowed?” Netzhammer asks.

The Daily caller was contacted by Randy Hargrove, a spokesman for Wal-Mart, who said in an email, “Our local store made a mistake. The cake in the video should not have been made and we apologize.”

Hargrove later explained to TheDC, “We made the decision to stop selling Confederate flag related items promoting the flag’s image. For that reason we did not make the cake. [Netzhammer] brought in the other image of ISIS and really, what happened, was our associate didn’t recognize what that image was and what it meant or it wouldn’t have been made.”

Merchandise that is associated with the Confederate flag was pulled off Wal-Mart and other retailers store shelves this past week following the Charleston, S.C., shooting massacre of nine parishioners at a black church. Photos later showed the gunman, Dylan Roof, posing with the Confederate flag.

Good News Spot

I've decided that with all the crap we are hit with on a daily basis that I will post one pleasant article a day. So on that note, we went to see these nice American fellows in concert in the UK the other week:

French PM: More Muslim terrorist attacks in France are coming

Special forces of France’s Research and Intervention Brigades (BRI) leave the building housing the apartment of a man suspected of carrying out an attack in Saint-Priest near Lyon on June 26, 2015. (AFP PHOTO / PHILIPPE DESMAZES)

Valls says more terrorism in France not a question of ‘if’ but ‘when'; police interrogate suspected killer.

SAINT-QUENTIN-FALLAVIER, France (AFP) — French Prime Minister Manuel Valls warned Saturday that France faced more attacks to come after a grisly killing in which a suspected Islamist pinned the severed head of his boss to the gates of a gas factory.

Valls said Friday’s attack would create tension in France — home to Western Europe’s largest Muslim population — that “will be exploited”.

“It’s difficult for a society to live for years under the threat of attack,” he told AFP on a flight back from Bogota, adding: “The question is not… if there will be another attack, but when.”

French police interrogated the man suspected of the killing on Saturday as they tried to piece together the attack.

“Jihad Nauseum” headlined France’s Liberation newspaper, warning of a new peak in the “global guerilla war launched by Islamist fanatics.”

The suspect, Yassin Salhi, 35, is being held by French police for causing an explosion by driving a delivery van into a warehouse containing bottles of dangerous gas and chemicals at the US-owned Air Products factory in Saint-Quentin-Fallavier, some 25 miles from Lyon.

Firefighters overpowered Salhi before discovering the decapitated body of his 54-year-old boss — who ran a delivery firm — near the car, along with a knife. The victim’s head was pinned to a nearby fence. He was found with Islamic flags and Arabic inscriptions scrawled on him.

The grisly killing came on the same day as two other attacks claimed by the Islamic State jihadist group, which left 38 people dead at a beach resort in Tunisia and 27 in a suicide bombing in Kuwait.

This is the first time someone in France has been found beheaded by a suspected Islamist, a method of killing that has become a trademark of the Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria.

It also came nearly six months after the Islamist attacks in and around Paris that left 17 people dead, starting with a shooting at satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo.

Speaking in Brussels after cutting short an EU summit, French President Francois Hollande labelled the factory beheading “a terrorist attack,” adding that “the intent was without doubt to cause an explosion”.

Salhi had been known to security services for a number of years but did not have a criminal record, Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said.

He had been investigated for links to radical Salafists but had never been identified as planning an attack.

A co-worker described him as “a wolf in sheep’s clothing” to RTL radio, adding that Salhi had spoken to him about Islamic State — “not to try recruit me for anything but simply to ask my opinion.”

More...

Nigerian Sharia court sentences 9 people to death for blasphemy

(Kano) Nigeria is a country of 2 halves. The top half of the country is Islamic, the bottom half is Christian. For some strange reason, the top half is a lot poorer, beset by internal strife and run by Sharia law. Yes, that's right, since 1999, the northern Islamic states voted for and got the right to rule by Sharia law. Here's a break down of the current state of play in the country.

Sharia in Nigeria

The key reads as follows:

   Sharia plays no role in the judicial system

   Sharia applies in personal status issues only

   Sharia applies in full, including criminal law

Funny enough, the idiots in Boko Haram, who have been waging their murderous campaign for Sharia Law on all, have done so primarily in the yellow section above. Anyway, that is another story. In Kano, the largest city in the Islamic half of the country, an Islamic court has found 9 people guilty of blasphemy and sentenced them to death. So, just what happened for them all to receive such a severe sentence? Well, it turns out that these people are Muslims, albeit from a different strand than the ubiquitous violent Sunni lot. These people belong to the Tijaniya sect who apparently were heard to proclaim to anybody who could hear that the founder of their sect was bigger than Muhammed. Which is strange as the biggest event for these Muslims isn’t Ramadan but rather the birth of Mohammed. But hey, you know what its like living amongst Sunni Muslims in predominantly Islamic lands when they feel the need to whittle down the opposition? Out comes the blasphemy card and off with your head.

It appears that the sect was celebrating the birth of their founder when the local Muslims took umbrage and attacked them during a procession through Kano last month. In handing down the sentences the Sharia court explained:

"We are happy the Sharia court handed the death sentences to the nine people who made the blasphemous statements against the Holy Prophet, the sentence should remind Muslims that blasphemy attracts the ultimate penalty.

"The concern is mobs would take extrajudicial action if these convicts are for whatever reason released because they would certainly kill them when they see them on the streets,"

Well, that’s alright them, kill the bastards because if you don’t the braying foaming at the mouth mob will. Funny enough a lot of these people who have seen their country ruined by Islamic law are moving on mass to Europe in which to enrich us all with their magnanimous nature.

Australia: 16-year-old Muslim faces terrorism charges after compiling list of people to behead

(NT News) A DARWIN teenager could be facing terrorism charges after he allegedly compiled a list of people he wanted to behead.

The 16-year-old was arrested Wednesday after a raid by a strike force of Northern Territory Police investigating property offences.

The list and other materials, including a personal communication device that is understood to contain material linking the boy to Islamic State, was discovered at that time.

It was not immediately clear if the list contained names of people the suspect knew or names of others.

NT Police’s Strike Force Trident raided the boy’s accommodation at Yirra House in Darwin and he was subsequently charged with property offences.

It is believed the AFP was already aware of the teen. The federal agency made the link when he was being booked by Territory police.

The personal communication device is considered contraband at the secure residential care facility that mostly holds troubled teens in government care.

The device is understood to also contain other information of concern to federal authorities.

The NT News understands the teen has been in the custody of the Northern Territory’s Department of Children and Family Services for years. He most recently resided at Yirra House.

The teen had also served time at Darwin’s Don Dale Juvenile Detention Centre.

More...

200 party-goers burnt when spray paint ignites in Tawian

(Taipei) Party-goers at a waterpark music festival in Taiwan became engulfed in flames when the coloured powered paint sprayed all over them ignited and seriously burnt over 200 people. The incident happened at the Formosa Water Park near the island's capital, which thankfully was very quickly brought under control. More than 200 people were taken to a hospital after the blaze, with 80 in a serious condition. It is believed that 1,000 people were inside the amusement park when the powder was sprayed on the crowd as part of a colour party - a festival of dance and music where people cover themselves in bright paint.

Turk beats the crap out of girlfriend on first day of freedom

(Istanbul) Onur Özbizerdik was really glad to get out of prison the other day. You see, he was jailed for shooting at a group of people inside a restaurant where he had taken his girlfirend for a meal on the 20th of May this year (yes, a month a go). Anyway, on his release on probation, he took (now his ex) girlfriend for a nice walk into a forest in Sarıyer where he turned on her and beat the living crap out of her because he believed she had grassed him up to the police.

A nice fellow, Onur Özbizerdik has form where he has shot several people in the past, served jail time over a murder in Istanbul, but was always released in the end. He comes from a long criminal line following in the footsteps of his grandfather and his father. In fact, his father Alaattin Çakıcı was convicted of instigating the murder of his wife in front of their son, Onur Özbizerdik, in 1995.

Personally, I feel that Onur met the man of his dreams in prison and just wanted to get back to his warm loving embrace, hence the attack on a woman.

Analysis: The 21st century Middle East

(JPost) EVER SINCE the “Arab Spring,” the Middle East has been spinning in a giddy vortex.

Alongside major political and social upheavals, there has also been a dramatic shift in geo-political alignments. And although it is impossible to make a coherent forecast of what lies ahead, one thing is abundantly clear: the tried and trusted conceptual frameworks and modus operandi of the 20th century are no longer valid.

For one, the 1916 Sykes-Picot agreement, according to which the borders of the nation states of the Fertile Crescent were artificially drawn after World War I, is unraveling. The countries it created are breaking up into older pre-state sectarian and tribal formations. In this inchoate and as yet unmapped 21st century Middle East, Alawites, Sunnis and Kurds are fortifying regional strongholds in a disintegrating Syria; the ethnic divide in Lebanon is widening; and in Iraq the central government has failed to heal deep Shi’ite-Sunni wounds.

Nowhere is the breakdown of Sykes- Picot more evident than in the conduct of the large Kurdish tribe, who have created a de facto state in northern Iraq and are demanding similar swaths of self-determination in Syria and Turkey, too.

Indeed, religious, tribal and sectarian communities striving for new forms of self-determination is one of the key signs of the times. At the end of the 20th century, scholars marveled at the resilience of the territorial state. Strong-armed “iron dictators” stifled other voices and created the impression that they could impose a national culture that would supersede and even erase the aspirations and dreams of sub-national groups.

The opening decade of the 21st century and the four years that have elapsed since the eruption of the “Arab Spring” have shown the exact opposite: that in the emerging Middle East, pre-state identities – sects and tribes, religious and ethnic minorities – run far deeper than national affiliations.

The cracks that opened up in the state structures and the identity politics that ensued exacerbated existing divisions, especially between Sunnis and Shi’ites. The source of the conflict between the two major religious traditions goes back to the very origins of Islam. But in the opening decades of the 21st century it took on a new urgency. The American invasion of Iraq in April 2003 and the overthrow of Saddam Hussein brought the rule of the country’s Sunni minority to an end. It also led to a highly significant precedent: for the first time an Arab country headed by a Shi’ite regime.

For Shi’ite Iran the revolution in Iraq was very good news. It enabled Tehran to deepen its penetration of its western neighbor, increase its economic, military and diplomatic leverage and enhance its regional standing. The already loaded relations between Shi’ite Iran and the largely Sunni Arab world became a dominant issue on the regional agenda. Arab discourse was punctuated by references to the “Shi’ite wave” and the “Shi’ite revival.”

The Second Lebanon War in 2006, in which Iran’s Shi’ite proxy Hezbollah fired rockets and missiles into Israel for 34 consecutive days, reinforced the impression that the Shi’ite-led rejectionist axis was growing in strength and fueled Sunni fears. The “Arab Spring” uprisings further exacerbated the sectarian struggle.

The open involvement of the Shi’ite Hezbollah in the Syrian civil war from early 2013 dragged Lebanon into the crossfire.Street fighting in Tripoli and the bombing of Hezbollah bases south of Beirut blurred the border between the two countries. The situation was further complicated when radical Sunni Islamist organizations moved into Syria and Iraq, taking over large swaths of territory and intensifying a cruel and bloody conflict that has taken hundreds of thousands of lives and created millions of refugees.

“The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant,” variously known as ISIL or ISIS, which established itself in western Iraq and then swallowed up parallel territory on the Syrian side of the border, is both symptomatic of the 21st century Middle East and reflects its new goals. It only gathered momentum because of the chronic weakness of the regimes in Baghdad and Damascus. But it draws inspiration from an idealized vision of the past, and strives for the establishment of a single Islamic Caliphate to replace the nation states, which it sees as perpetuating inter-Arab divisions and serving Western interests.

At the same time, ISIS stands at the center of a much wider struggle, a clash of civilizations on two parallel levels: Western civilization against the Muslim world and, within Islam, the Sunni majority against the Shi’ite renaissance led by Iran. Thus, in the heart of the 21st century Middle East, there is a sovereign space supported by the economic capabilities and ideological fervor of a terrorist organization intent on changing reality. That is a recipe for chronic regional instability and also poses a serious threat to global security.

These shifting Middle Eastern sands have also been affected by significant changes in great power attitudes to the region. Indeed, another key symptom of the 21st century Middle East is America’s hesitant and inconsistent policy. There have been many explanations for this, from forecasts of a significant reduction in American dependence on Middle East oil and gas to global power shifts, leading the US to prioritize southeast Asia over the Middle East.

Be that as it may, the Obama administration’s reliance on conciliatory diplomacy sent a loud message of weakness across the region and encouraged radical forces and states seeking hegemony to set the pace. The American decision in September 2013 not to take military action against Bashar Assad’s regime in Syria, after its flagrant use of chemical weapons, was a watershed moment: it violated a code of unwritten understandings and undermined America’s regional standing.

At the same time, Russia has unquestionably enhanced its standing in the region. Its involvement in Syria, its cooperation with Iran and the strengthening of its ties with Sunni states point to an assertive policy designed to restore its once dominant role. China’s slow and gradual penetration of regional geopolitical alignments is also having an effect. Even if it is premature to speak of a changing of the guard, it is clear that both state and non-state actors in the region are reevaluating their positions in a way that highlights the fragility of regional power structures and the ephemeral nature of political alliances.

The state best able to read the changes was the Islamic Republic of Iran. With a savvy new leadership under President Hassan Rouhani and Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif since August 2013, it clearly identified the new trends and acted accordingly. It set as its chief goal saving Iran from the economic chaos left by the previous president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Within a short space of time, Iran was able to escape from crippling economic and diplomatic isolation and to become a much wooed player in the diplomatic arena.

This without giving any clear guarantees with regard to retreat from its military nuclear aspirations.

For all these reasons, the Middle East is deep in the throes of major geo-political transition. For all the main protagonists, this demands fresh thinking and a new set of policy tools.

For Israel, the 21st century Middle East poses a real challenge. Given the lack of a clear picture of the emerging balance of power, the multiple orientations and the shifting alliances, it seems that pragmatism based on the adage “the enemy of my enemy is my friend” is gaining genuine traction. Israel could find a common denominator with countries like Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the UAE, Jordan, Egypt and Morocco which, like Israel, view with deep concern Iran’s march toward nuclear power and are also declared foes of ISIS.

On the Palestinian question too, the 21st century Middle East demands decisions. On the one hand, it seems that under the pressure of events, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has been shunted into a corner. Moreover, it is now clear that it does not provide the golden key to all the region’s problems, as many argued during the 20th century. On the other hand, the events of the past several weeks underscore that in this highly volatile 21st century Middle East, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict could easily be drawn into the forefront of a religious-cultural struggle.

Israel needs to find the right tools to act to ensure that that does not happen.

Laws Are for Suckers: Obama Refuses to Follow Law Cutting Off Aid to PLO

There is no law that Obama cannot throw under the bus to help his jihadi friends.

(FPM) These days Obama following the law would be news. Obama not following the law is just business as usual. So this is another case of Obama doing what he can to help terrorists while ignoring the limits on his powers.

No wonder he likes the PLO. It too is run by an unelected dictator.

Here’s what the issue is…

Two lawmakers are warning the Palestinian Authority (PA) that its economic assistance from the United States could be suspended because of its decision to initiate charges against Israel at the International Criminal Court (ICC).

“By formally submitting allegations against Israeli forces to the ICC Chief Prosecutor, President [Mahmoud] Abbas has triggered a provision in U.S. law that suspends all economic assistance to the PA,” Rep. Nita Lowey (D-N.Y.), the top Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee, said in a statement.

Lowey said Congress crafted the law to prevent U.S. tax dollars from rewarding “purposely provocative, unilateral steps” that threaten peace negotiations.

“Not only do President Abbas’ actions indicate his abandonment of a two-state agreement, they reveal his willingness to try to discredit Israel in the international community at the expense of the economic and humanitarian wellbeing of the Palestinian people,” Lowey added.

But Abbas need not worry. Barack has got his back.

State Department spokesman Edgar Vasquez told Al-Monitor that while the United States doesn’t believe the Palestinians were eligible to accede to the Rome Statute and join the court, it will “continue to provide critical assistance to Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza.”

“As you are aware, US law includes certain restrictions on assistance to the Palestinian Authority,” Vasquez said. “We evaluate all planned assistance to the PA to ensure we are in full compliance with relevant legislation. We do not consider the relevant restrictions on assistance to the Palestinians to have been triggered.”

Nor will they ever be triggered unless Abbas converts to Judaism, dances the Hora and begins fighting terrorism. Then suddenly there will be a reason to deny aid, just as Obama refused to stop aid to the Muslim Brotherhood terrorist government in Egypt, but slammed the brakes when its leader was replaced by the anti-terrorist leader Al-Sisi.

Still Obama will condemn it in the mildest terms possible.

The White House said on Thursday that the Palestinians’ efforts to prosecute Israel for war crimes at the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague are “counterproductive”, and stressed Washington’s strong opposition.

“The United States has made it clear that we oppose actions against Israel at the ICC as counterproductive,” National Security Council spokesman Alistair Baskey said.

It’s counterproductive… which is right between unhelpful and “Ah come on.”

Take it from the Counterproductive-in-Chief.

'Despicable' Gaza flotilla is a 'gang of terror supporters'

(JPost) Yesh Atid chairman Yair Lapid on Saturday denounced those taking part in the flotilla to Gaza as “a gang of supporters of terrorism” and a “despicable flotilla that needs to be stopped.”

The former finance minister spoke to a town hall meeting in Holon. He ridiculed the idea that the flotilla was aimed at highlighting the plight of Gaza and advancing Palestinian human rights.

“This flotilla is a kind of provocation against the State of Israel,” he said. “This is a provocation by people who are anything but defenders of human rights.”

Tunisian government says to close 80 mosques for inciting violence, after hotel attack

(Tunis) In response to the murderous attack yesterday in Tunisia, the Government has pushed through an edict to close down 80 mosques which are outside state control, which I can only presume are the hotbeds of radicalism behind the mindset of the idiot who murdered so many people yesterday.

Ramadan Death Count Round Up (June 27, 2015)

(Turkey) 2 weeks ago, Hakan Narlı was divorced by his wife Şerife Akkulak. Like most former married couples, he popped over to his ex's for a cha, and whilst there, he murdered her. This he followed up by murdering his ex-mother-in-law, ex-brother-in-law and his two children.

(Egypt) Security forces shelled different areas of North Sinai on Friday, killing 10 people believed to belong to the Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis militant group. Clashes also occurred between security forces and armed men near the Rafah border crossing, the sources said, leaving one killed and two more injured.

(Iraq) 12 people have been killed after a slew of bombs were detonated in Baghdad today. The first targeted a street of shops which sold car parts, killing 5 injuring 13. The second was detonated inside a market which killed 3 and injured 8, while a third was set off outside shops killing 2 and wounding 8. It's as if these idiots have something against shoppers.

80 ISIS idiots were said to have been killed during air strikes on the city of Kirkuk today. Thirty-five terrorists were killed in Bashir district, 25 kilometres south of Kirkuk. Meanwhile, 45 terrorists, including one reported ISIS commander, were killed in Riyadh district and Rusuliyah town, both in the south-eastern part of the city.

3 terrorists were killed in the battle for Baiji yesterday by Iragi forces as they continue their push north from Tikrit.

A leading commander in ISIS (Abdullah Mohammed al-Huran) was killed during an airstrike in the city of Mosul.

(Syria) The death toll in Kobani has unfortunately increased from 164 to 206. Adding 42 to the total. 18 additional ISIS idiots can also be added making a total of 60 of the f-kers killed.

3 separate assaults by ISIS against Syrian government outposts Friday has resulted in the deaths of 40 soldiers.

Indiscriminate rocket attacks have killed 3 people in the city of Daraa these past 2 days (Friday/Saturday).

(Afghanistan) A couple of armed assaults on police checkpoints in northern Kunduz saw the attacks repelled, with 19 people killed and around a dozen wounded.

An attempted hijacking by Taliban terrorists in Nangarhar province saw 9 of them killed and another 3 wounded when the police caught them in the act.

A roadside bomb detonated as a police vehicle went by in Laghman province saw 2 people killed and another 2 injured.

(Pakistan) Police in Karachi killed 4 and arrested 2 more during a couple of gang related gun battles. Hand grenades and weapons were recovered from the scene.

(Yemen) 14 people were killed in clashes between the Houthis and Saudi-led forces near the southern port city. In northern Aden, eight civilians were killed, including a woman and her three children, in random shelling by Houthi fighters on residential areas in the al Mansoura and Sheikh Othman districts.

(Mali) Islamist terrorists attacked a town in western Mali near the border with neighbouring Mauritania before dawn on Saturday, leaving up to 11 people dead, including three soldiers and eight attackers.

(Niger) Government forces hunting down the Boko Haram idiots who murdered 5 people the other day, got their chance when they caught up with them and killed 15 Boko Haram Islamic terrorists, captured 20 others and destroyed ammunition cars and motorcycles.

Ramadan death toll is now at 1,970.