Hezbollah’s European Appeasers Forget the Costs of Appeasement are Far-Reaching

...There is no more doubt today that Burgas was the work of Hezbollah than there was in the days after the attack when the identities of the terrorists were revealed. It is simply the result of a political party coming to power that is hostile to the United States and friendlier to Russia and therefore determined to undermine any effort to forge a united European response to Middle East-based Islamist terror.

Jonathan S. Tobin..
Commentary/Contentions..
06 June '13..

Last summer, Hezbollah terrorists escalated their war on Israel by staging a terror attack in Europe. Along with a Bulgarian bus driver, five Israeli tourists were killed and 32 were injured when a bomb exploded on their bus in Burgas, a Black Sea resort. The conspirators were quickly revealed to be two Hezbollah members, and one unidentified person—almost certainly another Hezbollah operative or perhaps an accomplice—that apparently died while placing the explosive in the bus’s luggage rack. Europol, Bulgarian, Israeli and American intelligence all agreed that the Lebanon-based Islamist group that acts on Iran’s orders was not only responsible for the atrocity but also preparing to branch out across the globe instead of concentrating on terrorizing Lebanese or Israelis in the Middle East.

The event helped crystallize the shift by which European governments began to realize how dangerous their past neutrality toward Hezbollah had been. This led to a push led by Britain to add Hezbollah to the European Union’s list of terror groups, a measure that should have happened many years ago but which was put off by a desire by many EU countries not to be seen aligning themselves with Israel or opposing an Islamist group that fought the Jewish state. But that emerging consensus on Hezbollah is facing stiff resistance from those Europeans who are still uncomfortable about confronting the Iranian ally. That unfortunate trend will be strengthened today by the news that the new Bulgarian government, which is led by the country’s former Communist party, is now claiming they are no longer certain that Hezbollah was responsible for the Burgas attack.

It should be noted that the Bulgarian switch is not the result of the emergence of new evidence about the attack or even a change of heart by Hezbollah, whose terrorist cadres are now fighting in Syria to try and save the faltering Bashar Assad regime, another Iranian ally. There is no more doubt today that Burgas was the work of Hezbollah than there was in the days after the attack when the identities of the terrorists were revealed. It is simply the result of a political party coming to power that is hostile to the United States and friendlier to Russia and therefore determined to undermine any effort to forge a united European response to Middle East-based Islamist terror.

Its reps are roused from bed and thrown out of Bulgaria

Frimet/Arnold Roth..
This Ongoing War..
15 February '13..





An excessively polite Associated Press report today says the government of Bulgaria

asked three lawmakers from the Palestinian Hamas party to leave the country, after they arrived at the invitation of an NGO. Interior Minister Tsvetan Tsvetanov said on Friday that the lawmakers had entered the country with regular visas "issued, however, on different motives from what they have demonstrated here." He said they had left the country. [AP]

AFP's report gives us a touch more colour:

Bulgarian security service agents "entered the hotel rooms of the three deputies early on Friday morning and drove them to the airport," said Mohd Abuasi of the Centre for Middle East Studies [the head of the organisation that invited them]. He said they then left for Istanbul. [AFP]

The European-funded pro-PLO newsagency Maan says the organization's name is Center for Global and Middle East Studies. It quotes the center's head, Mohammed Abu Assi, saying that the purpose of the Hamas visit was to "improve Bulgaria's image in the Arab world" after the country's government "made a blunder" by blaming Hezbollah for the 2012 bus bombing. AP however says the invitation was made to the representatives of one of the world's most lethal and active collectives of child-murderers:

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What needs to be done with the world's most dangerous charity

Frimet/Arnold Roth..
This Ongoing War..
10 February '13..







A Jerusalem Post editorial today in the wake of the Bulgarian expose of Hezbollah points out that

Europe permits a dormant terrorist potential to thrive in its midst and it knows so, its denials notwithstanding... EU foreign policy chief, Catherine Ashton, equivocated and spoke about “the need for reflection over the outcome of the investigation.”

The incoming US Secretary of State John Kerry has exhorted the international community, and particularly European states, to take immediate action against Hezbollah. “We need to send an unequivocal message to this terrorist group that it can no longer engage in despicable actions with impunity,” he is quoted saying.

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Staging Ground for Anti-Israeli Terror

EU officials acknowledged that a debate on ties with Hezbollah would be difficult and was unlikely to be settled immediately…. “We all know that the member states are divided on these issues. They always have been,” one senior official said…. That would be the same EU that responded with immediate, unanimous condemnation when Israel recently announced it was planning to build homes in West Bank settlement blocs and Jerusalem. What moral grandeur.

P. David Hornik..
frontpagemag.com..
08 February '13..

This week the Bulgarian government announced that Hizballah was behind the terror attack in Burgas, Bulgaria last July 28 that killed five Israelis, including a pregnant woman, and a Bulgarian bus driver.

Bulgarian interior minister Tsvetan Tsvetanov said the perpetrators—one of whom died in the attack—were an Australian and a Canadian who had moved to Hizballah-controlled Lebanon, one in 2006 and the other in 2010.

It was only the most lethal in a wave of attacks against Israeli targets by Hizballah and the Quds Force—both of them arms of Iran—that also occurred in Thailand, India, Georgia, and other places.

U.S. secretary of state John Kerry called EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton about the Bulgarian announcement; Kerry also said in a statement:

We strongly urge other governments around the world—and particularly our partners in Europe—to take immediate action to crack down on Hizballah. We need to send an unequivocal message to this terrorist group that it can no longer engage in despicable actions with impunity.

There were good reasons for Kerry to turn his remarks toward Europe. For one thing, the European Union—unlike the United States, Canada, and Israel—has never agreed to designate Hizballah as a terrorist organization.

Europe’s Moral Standing and Hezbollah’s Culpability in Bulgaria

“There’s the overall fear if we’re too noisy about this, Hezbollah might strike again, and it might not be Israeli tourists this time,” said Sylke Tempel, editor in chief of the German foreign affairs magazine Internationale Politik.

Seth Mandel..
Commentary/Contentions..
06 February '13..

During the early years of the post-9/11 war on terror, then-Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage made one of the most famous statements about Hezbollah in the terrorist group’s bloody history when he said: “Hezbollah may be the A-team of terrorists and maybe Al Qaeda is actually the B-team.” Al-Qaeda’s operatives learned much from Hezbollah; as Thomas Joscelyn pointed out in Iran’s Proxy War Against America:

It was during bin Laden’s time in Sudan that he first met Imad Mugniyah, Iran’s and Hezbollah’s master terrorist. Since the early 1980s, Mugniyah has been implicated in most, if not all, of Iran’s major anti-American terrorist operations. His “accomplishments” include the infamous 1983 U.S. embassy bombing in Beirut and a series of devastating follow-on attacks, which drove the U.S. out of Lebanon. During the early 1990s, bin Laden sought and received Mugniyah’s assistance in transforming al-Qaeda’s capabilities. With Mugniyah’s help, al-Qaeda acquired Hezbollah’s most lethal tactics, including the use of suicide bombers.

The attacks raised the profile and name recognition of Hezbollah once again because of the increased focus on international terrorism and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, but the group was overshadowed by the 9/11 culprits, most of all bin Laden. Since terrorist groups hate to be ignored (they rely on notoriety and information wars), Hezbollah reasserts itself from time to time. It appeared that that was exactly what happened when on July 18 a bus carrying Israeli tourists in Bulgaria exploded, killing six plus the bomber. Now, after the investigation, we appear to have confirmation:

Though investigators did not release names, they identified two of the plotters as a man with an Australian passport, believed to be the bombmaker, and a man with a Canadian passport, both of whom lived in Lebanon.

“We have followed their entire activities in Australia and Canada, so we have information about financing and their membership in Hezbollah,” Mr. Tsvetanov said at a news conference.

Condemnation from the U.S. and Bulgarian authorities was swift and forceful. The reaction of European leaders was less so. The U.S. has been trying to get the European Union to officially designate Hezbollah a terrorist organization–because they plainly are a terrorist organization, and because the EU is out of excuses not to take that step. The obsession with dialogue with one and all, and the EU’s substantially more nuanced view of good and evil than that of the U.S. or Israel, reached comical proportions with its refusal to take appropriate action toward Hezbollah.

FT Journo Tweets Conspiracy Theory “Israel Paid Off Bulgaria”

It is disgraceful for someone who calls himself a journalist to deal in second-rate conspiracy mongering. The fact is, the intended targets and majority of victims of Hezbollah’s terrorism were Israelis, no matter how much some people wish to twist the situation.

Simon Plosker..
Honest Reporting..
06 February '13..


Conspiracy theories involving Israel are the usual fare of anti-Semitic Arab media or neo-Nazi websites. Iranian claims that Israel itself was responsible for the deaths of five Israelis in a bus bombing last summer at Bulgaria’s Burgas airport are unsurprising.

What is shocking, however, is the following tweet from the Financial Times’s Middle East and North Africa correspondent Borzou Daragahi:

The Bulgarian authorities investigated the bombing and their conclusions backed Israel’s charge that Hezbollah was behind the terror attack. Bulgarian Interior Minister Tsvetan Tsvetanov clearly stated: “We have well-grounded reasons to suggest that the two were members of the militant wing of Hezbollah.”

In an interview with AP, Europol Director Rob Wainwright also stated: “The Bulgarian authorities are making quite a strong assumption that this is the work of Hezbollah. From what I’ve seen of the case — from the very strong, obvious links to Lebanon, from the modus operandi of the terrorist attack and from other intelligence that we see — I think that is a reasonable assumption.”

The Bulgarians have fingered Hezbollah - What happens next in Europe?

Frimet/Arnold Roth..
This Ongoing War..
05 February '13..


Reuters and almost everyone else in the global news industry reported today that the Bulgarian investigation into the bombing of an airport bus filled with Israeli tourists last summer has concluded. And there is a clear finding.

Bulgaria blames Hezbollah in bomb attack on Israeli tourists

SOFIA | Tue Feb 5, 2013 1:43pm EST (Reuters) | Bulgaria accused Lebanese militant movement Hezbollah on Tuesday of carrying out a bomb attack on a bus in the Black Sea city of Burgas that killed five Israeli tourists last year. The conclusions of the Bulgarian investigation, citing a clear connection to an attack on European Union soil, might open the way for the EU to join the United States in branding the Iranian-backed Hezbollah a terrorist organization. Three people were involved in the attack, two of whom had genuine passports from Australia and Canada, Bulgarian Interior Minister Tsvetan Tsvetanov told reporters after Sofia's national security council discussed the investigation. "There is data showing the financing and connection between Hezbollah and the two suspects," Tsvetanov said. "What can be established as a well-grounded assumption is that the two persons whose real identity has been determined belonged to the military wing of Hezbollah."

It's not such a surprising outcome to the six month long investigation. That's a conclusion that we hope comes through in a compelling way when you review some of posts we published here in the wake of the Burgas airport murders. For instance

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"All roads lead to Lebanon".

The Bulgarian government is set to announce that all roads regarding the Burgas bombing "lead to Lebanon", implicating Hezbollah in the atrocity

The Commentator..
04 February '13..

Nearly seven months after the bus bombing in Bulgaria that killed six Israeli tourists, the Bulgarian government is set to announce that "all roads lead to Lebanon" in the strongest sign yet that Hezbollah was the key perpetrator behind the attack.

The Commentator has exclusively learned that today, the Bulgarian government will implicate, though likely not name the terrorist group Hezbollah in its report on the 2012 bus bombing that has been the subject of much speculation over the past six months.

The Commentator has learned that both the German and French governments have both piled pressure on the Bulgarians to "use nuanced language" in the report, for fear that Bulgaria may be the focus of future attacks if Hezbollah is openly named. (emphasis added)

The Bulgarian government, it has been stated by leading sources, has been informed through ‘back channels’ that there will be serious repercussions from Hezbollah if it is to publically and overtly name the group. This information comes despite strong pressure from the US government to make clear that the bombing was indeed the work of the Lebanese terrorist outfit.

Trita Parsi, the National Iranian American Council, and a Farcial Claim

Yaniv Salama-Scheer..
The Times of Israel..
22 July '12..

First the good news. It would seem, as Trita Parsi, head of the National Iranian American Council, would have us believe, that in these exceptional days before Tisha B’Av, the exceptional has happened: Sacrifices are once again burning at the behest of the Jewish people’s highest office in Jerusalem. The charred carcasses, however, are not Paschal lambs, sheep bulls or rams burning on the temple altar, but the ordinary, innocent Israelis condemned to sacrifice upon Netanyahu and Barak’s alter of political expediency.

In a column in the Daily Beast, Parsi notes that Netanyahu wasted no time in fingering the Iranians and Hezbollah for Thursday’s attack on Israeli tourists in the Bulgarian resort of Burgas. But the rub was the devious plot through which Israel would finally hatch its own the equivalent of the “shots in Sarajevo in 1914” — an excuse to bomb Bushehr, Natanz, Fordow, and all the other Iranian nuclear sites, happily bringing about the great war of Gog and Magog.

He quotes American officials who have apparently expressed grave concern that “one of the purposes of Israeli attacks in Iran has been to generate an Iranian response that could serve as a casus belli for Israel. That way, Israel could target Iran’s nuclear facilities without paying the heavy political cost of starting a preventive war.”

Kushner - From Israel: Wishing for Good News

Arlene Kushner..
22 July '12..





Wishing fervently, as a matter of fact. But compelled to report on what is...

The Israelis murdered in the terror attack in Bulgaria were brought home Thursday night. There were five Israeli victims, not seven as originally thought -- as one body was that of the Bulgarian bus driver and one that of the terrorist.

A brief military ceremony was held at the airport on their arrival.

"Five coffins," said Tourism Minister Stas Meseznikov, "five dreams and one giant hole in our hearts."

Credit: Trust

They were buried on Friday.

As is always the case, there were painful stories released regarding the victims:

There is Kochava Shriki, age 42. After years of fertility treatments, she had just been informed that she was finally pregnant. After telling her family, she went off joyously with her husband Yitzhak to have a vacation. Wounded himself, Yitzhak returned with her body.

And there are two couples, good friends, who had decided to travel together. Itzik and Gilat Colangi, who had their first baby four months ago, and Amir and Natalie Menashe, whose baby was born 10 months ago. Now both fathers are dead, Gilat severely wounded, and Natalie lightly.

The others killed were Maor Harush and Elior Price.

What does one say?

One senior American official said ....

Fresnozionism.org..
19 July '12..






Tit for Tat?

Regarding the terrorist bombing in Burgas, Bulgaria on Wednesday, The NY Times reports:

One senior American official said the current American intelligence assessment was that the bomber, who struck Wednesday, killing five Israelis, had been “acting under broad guidance” to hit Israeli targets when opportunities presented themselves, and that the guidance had been given to Hezbollah, a Lebanese militant group, by Iran, its primary sponsor. Two other American officials confirmed that Hezbollah was behind the bombing, but declined to provide additional details.

The attacks, the official said, were in retaliation for the assassinations of Iranian nuclear scientists, for which Iran has blamed Israeli agents — an accusation that Israel has neither confirmed nor denied. “This was tit for tat,” said the American official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation was still under way.

Tit for tat?

In my opinion, ‘tat’ was more likely the killing of master Hizballah terrorist Imad Mugniyah in 2008, attributed to Israel. Hizballah has been trying to get revenge since then.

Mugniyah had the blood of literally hundreds of Americans, Jews and others on his hands, being responsible for the Marine Barracks bombing in Beirut in 1983 (241 American and 58 French soldiers dead), the kidnapping, torture and murder of Western diplomats in Lebanon during the 1980′s, the 1992 bombings of the Israeli embassy in Argentina (29 dead) and the Jewish Cultural Center (AMIA) building there (86 dead). There’s much more.

Israel certainly killed Mugniyah, and the world is a better place for it.

Don't ask why Hezbollah attacked. They're Hezbollah.

Ruthie Blum..
Israel Hayom..
20 July '12..

Wednesday’s suicide bombing in Bulgaria may have been a startling reminder that Jews are not safe in the world today, but it did not come as a surprise to anyone involved in intelligence, espionage and counterterrorism. That such acts of targeted, cold-blooded killing have not been carried out on a daily basis, as they were during the Second Intifada, is due to the incredibly heroic work of our security services, not to a weakening of the will or means of our enemies.

Nor was it accidental that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu immediately responded by pointing the finger at Iran and its chief proxy, Hezbollah. Whatever spin analysts have been trying to put on Netanyahu’s blatant and authoritative accusation, made before all the forensic facts were in, anyone paying the slightest bit of attention knows that there is a global war going on between the East and the West — with the former fast and furiously building a nuclear weapons arsenal that could blitz the latter if not into oblivion, then at least into submission.

It is being said by pundits that the purpose of Netanyahu’s statement about Israel’s not being the only entity in danger from the Iranian threat was to prepare the ground for a possible joint military operation against the Islamic republic’s nuclear facilities. This is doubtful.

In the first place, Netanyahu had trouble this week even keeping his own coalition intact. Indeed, the short-lived merger with the Kadima party fell apart over the issue of drafting the ultra-Orthodox into the army. So it is not likely that the prime minister would be able to make out any better with outside elements, particularly not those “allies” who continue to conduct pointless, fruitless — and therefore dangerous — “dialogues” with Tehran, while it marches full speed ahead with its centrifuge perfection and uranium enrichment.

Secondly, even if he could trust the Obama administration’s assertions that the U.S. would not allow the Iranians to stall indefinitely, Netanyahu has pressing problems that go far beyond an election campaign. These include Syria, on Israel’s northern border, and Egypt, to the south — not to mention the need to step up security for El Al and other airlines that fly to and from Israel.

While U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is busy making speeches about Middle East strife, Netanyahu is the only free world leader actually sitting on the front lines of each country in the region engaged in internecine battles between Jack the Ripper and the Boston Strangler. (This makes choosing sides a tad trickier than Clinton would have Americans believe, especially when she has just over three months to sway their ballots in her boss’s favor.)

Washington Post's atrocious news judgment

Leo Rennert..
American Thinker..
19 July '12..




Editors of newspapers from far and wide had no problem grasping the relative news value of what happened on July 18 in Damascus and in a seaside resort in Bulgaria.

The top story obviously was the Syrian rebels' deadly bombing of Assad's inner circle, wiping out his top security leadership. It was a transformative event that dramatically demonstrated the rebels' ability to bring their revolution to the heart of the Assad regime. The dictator suddenly has become highly vulnerable.

The second story, also widely played out on front pages, was the deadly terrorist attack on Israeli vacationers in Burgas, Bulgaria, on the Black Sea. With Israel blaming Iran, this obviously also was top news -- and easily qualified for the second spot on front pages.

But not at the Washington Post, which bumped the slaughter of Israelis to the back page. "Blast kills at least six Israelis on a bus in Bulgaria: Netanyahu blames Iran" bottom of page A18).

Post editors attached more importance to a poll about the mayor of Washington, D.C., the oil boom in North Dakota, Sen. McCain's defense of a Clinton aide tied by some Republicans to the Muslim Brotherhood, and Britain's obesity problems on the eve of the Olympics. Each of these stories topped in significance the murder of six Israelis in Bulgaria.

Tobin - Terror Gives the Lie to Iran’s Pose as Rational Actor

Jonathan S. Tobin..
Commentary/Contentions..
19 July '12..

The terrorist attack on Israelis vacationing in Burgas, Bulgaria yesterday ought to change the nature of the conversation about Iran. If, as Israel is asserting, the bombing which took the lives of five Israelis and left 33 wounded, is the work of Iran’s ally Hezbollah, then those counseling further appeasement of the Islamist regime are going to have to explain why the West should believe more feckless diplomacy will restrain Tehran and its Lebanese auxiliaries from further outrages or persuade them they should give up their effort to get a nuclear weapon. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has made it clear his country’s intelligence sees the long arm of Iran as being behind the slaughter.

There are those who will treat this incident as merely a tit-for-tat attack in which Iran was retaliating for the assassinations of its scientists and other Western and Israeli efforts to set back their nuclear program. But it should be remembered that Iran and its terrorist allies have a long record of targeting Jews. Tuesday was the 18th anniversary of the bombing of a Jewish community building in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in which 85 persons were murdered. The role of Iran and Hezbollah in that atrocity has long been established, but both the Lebanese group and its Iranian sponsor have escaped international retribution for its crimes.

(+Video) BBC and AFP Flummoxed by Terror Attack in Bulgaria

DVZ..
CAMERA/Snapshots..
19 July '12..

Yesterday’s terror bombing attack that killed at least five Israelis and injured more than 30 others at Burgas, a resort town in Bulgaria, caught journalists at the BBC and Agence France Press a bit flat-footed. For one reason or another, the two outlets characterized the bus-bombing in a manner that downplayed its horror, violence and the certainty about it being an act of terrorism.


BBC announcer refers to terror attack as "awful accident." Video from Cifwatch

CifWatch documented the BBC’s inability to call the bombing by its correct name – an act of murderous terrorism. At 21 seconds into the posted below, (also available at this link), A BBC commentator who was attempting to downplay the possibility that Iran was behind the attack said the following to an Israeli official:

As you say, it’s a very short time after this awful accident, well this explosion, occurred. Isn’t there a danger that you’ve been hasty in automatically looking to Iran?

Kushner - From Israel: The Balance

Arlene Kushner..
19 July '12..





Today I'm going to start with the good stuff I never wrote about yesterday, because I was too heavy-hearted about the terror attack. What we must keep in mind -- why my sharing that good stuff is important -- is that in spite of the obscenities and the horrors, we are also making progress in some very positive ways.

Those who are devoted to Jewish rights in the Land saw this as a significant victory this week:

The Judea and Samaria Council for Higher Education voted on Tuesday that Ariel University Center be accorded full accredited status as a university. It will be the first institute of higher learning to be accorded this status beyond the Green Line.

Credit:Israelnationalnews

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Certain criteria had to be met before this status could be achieved and the institute has been working towards this goal since the 2004-2005 academic year. It boasts 26 departments in three schools, and serves over 14,000 students -- many of whom live within the Green Line and a percentage of whom are Arab. All of the degrees it confers are recognized by the Council for Higher Education.

Reactions to Wednesday's Terror Attack on Israeli Tourists in Bulgaria

UN Watch..
News Bulletin Vol. 374 ..
18 July '12..




A bus carrying Israeli tourists at Bulgaria's Burgas airport suddenly exploded today, killing seven and wounding at least 30 more.

• A U.N. spokesperson said that Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon condemned the attack "in the strongest possible terms." In fact, however, the U.N. chief's choice of terms was weak in comparison to his statement two weeks ago on the bombing of churches in Kenya. In that case, Mr. Ban rightly spoke of "terrorist" attacks, "reprehensible and criminal," saying the perpetrators "must be held to account." Yet today he referred only to the deadly "bombing" of Israelis -- noticeably declining to describe it as an act of terrorism -- and he made no call for holding the perpetrators to account. UN Watch today urged Mr. Ban to clarify his position and to truly use the strongest possible terms to condemn today's terrorist attack.

• U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay has remained silent on today's attack. By contrast, hours after the Gaza Flotilla incident of 2010, Ms. Pillay expresed her "shock" and condemned Israel. The top story on her office website instead criticizes Western states for how they combat terrorism, with America accused of having "dangerous" laws that violate due process. Supported by a Facebook campaign now going viral, UN Watch called on the High Commissioner to speak out for victims of terrorism, condemn today's gruesome murders in Bulgaria, and instruct her staff to investigate the perpetrators and hold them fully accountable for the crimes.

Israel’s Struggle to Survive. Does the Obama Administration Actually Care ?

Anne Bayefsky..
pjmedia.com..
18 July '12..

The terrorist attack against Israeli civilians in Bulgaria, the flurry of drive-by visits from members of the Obama administration to Israel in the past few days, and the president’s failure to visit the Jewish state throughout his tenure should prompt a consideration of the extent to which Mr. Obama really understands Israel’s life-and-death struggles.

Particularly telling is the recent rollout of the president’s signature global anti-terrorism institution, the Global Counterterrorism Forum (GCTF). The GCTF was announced by Secretary Clinton last September, but in June and July it held its first “ministerial level plenary” and “High Level Conference on Victims of Terrorism.” Successive announcements from State Department officials from Clinton on down have described the GCTF as a “major initiative,” “an international counterterrorism network as nimble and adaptive as our adversaries,” “a global venue to identify essential priorities,” and a “platform for senior counterterrorism policymakers and experts from around the world to devise solutions for addressing key counterterrorism challenges.”

And yet, the Obama administration selected Turkey as its co-chair and then agreed to Turkey’s request to veto Israel’s participation.

The founding members of the GCTF include the EU and virtually all other members of the “Western European and Others” (WEOG) regional group of the United Nations — which the Obama administration has long claimed ought to include Israel — along with eleven Muslim-majority nations. According to Ambassador Daniel Benjamin, the State Department coordinator for counterterrorism, the “key” Muslim states were included because they “are on the front lines in the struggle against terrorism.” A criterion that should have put Israel at the top of his list.

Kushner - From Israel: Hanging Tough

Arlene Kushner..
18 July '12..





I ended yesterday's post with good news and hoped to begin today's the same way. But it is not to be:

A shuttle bus at the Sarafovo Airport in the city of Burgas, in Bulgaria, has been hit by a terrorist -- it is believed, a suicide bomber. An explosion tore the bus apart, at about 5:30 PM, killing at least seven Israelis and wounding more than 20. A local Bulgarian tour guide and the bus driver may have been among the casualties.

Credit: YNet

This was one of three buses at a terminal in the airport that were picking up Israeli tourists who had just arrived; according to an eye witness, the bus blew almost immediately after the tourists, roughly 40 in number, had boarded.

There had been no intelligence about the possibility of such an attack. But now Israeli security officials, having consulted on the situation, are warning of the possibility of additional attacks on Israeli targets elsewhere in the region of the Mediterranean.

Israel's Muslim Problem is Not Unique

Daniel Greenfield
Sultan Knish
11 January '10

The visit of Bulgarian Prime Minister Boiko Borissov to Israel this week is a timely reminder that Israel's problems with Islam are not unique. Like Israel, Bulgaria was ruled over by the Ottoman Empire, which exported their population to Bulgaria, oppressed the native Bulgarians, seized their lands and attempted to become the dominant majority. And when the Ottoman Empire lost control over Bulgaria, it left behind a huge Muslim population in Bulgaria.

The key difference between Bulgaria and Israel, is that Bulgaria since the 1870's forced much of its Turkic Muslim population to leave. As a result millions of Turkic Muslims left Bulgaria, leaving it a quieter place than neighboring Yugoslavia or Russia, or for that matter modern day France. Muslim clothing was banned, mosques were torn down and lands held by the Ottoman Muslim settlers were returned to native Bulgarians.

Today Bulgaria still has a troublesome Muslim minority of under a million, led by Ahmet Dogan, and backed by Turkish intelligence, which under Islamist PM Erdogan has branched out into promoting Jihad, much as Pakistan had. But despite Turkish attempts to intervene in Bulgaria, the country's Prime Minister, Boiko Borissov is a staunchly anti-Muslim leader, who has challenged Turkey's EU bid over its expulsion of Bulgarian in the 1920's.

Bulgaria is an example and a warning not just to Israel, but to Europe, Russia, Australia, America and many other parts of the world as well. Had Bulgaria not made life uncomfortable for Muslims, its fate in the 1990's would have probably resembled that of Yugoslavia, torn apart by foreign backed civil war and then carved up by Clinton and Albright. That same fate is now overtaking Israel and will overtake Europe as well.

That is because Israel's Muslim problem is not unique. Israel, like so many other lands, was overrun by Muslim conquerors who repressed the native Jewish population and settled their own population in its stead. The only unique thing about Israel's dilemma is that when the Ottoman Empire was defeated, Israel did not receive its freedom. Instead a British Mandate that was supposed to create a Jewish state, instead tried to create an Arab client state by expanding Arab immigration to Israel, while restricting Jewish immigration.

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