As former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani finds himself <a href="https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/465168-giuliani-associates-who-aided-ukraine-investigation-arrested-on">squarely engulfed</a> in the Ukraine scandal and impeachment inquiry surrounding President Donald Trump, one piece of the puzzle simply does not seem to fit.
If anything is a given about contemporary Republican Party foreign policy, it is a hawkish stance on Iran. That unified front is led by a president who pulled the U.S. out of the 2015 nuclear deal and continues to <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/20/world/middleeast/trump-sanctions-iran.html">impose new sanctions against Tehran</a>. Giuliani, too, talks tough towards the Iranians — most recently <a href="https://en.radiofarda.com/a/giuliani-says-i-am-for-regime-change-in-iran/30182912.html">backing regime change and declaring “down with the tyrants in Iran”</a> when he spoke at a rally outside U.N. headquarters in September.
Yet Giuliani was on the cusp of making a paid appearance at the Armenian-hosted conference of the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU), a gathering held October 1st–2nd amid the <a href="https://en.mehrnews.com/news/150676/Iran-to-join-Eurasian-Economic-Union-EAEU-from-October">formalization of Iran’s future membership</a> in that Russian-led trade alliance that consists of five former Soviet republics. Although Giuliani <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/giuliani-set-to-make-paid-appearance-next-week-at-kremlin-backed-conference/2019/09/27/a15ab242-e133-11e9-8dc8-498eabc129a0_story.html?outputType=amp">ultimately cancelled his 2019 EAEU appearance</a>, he <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/giuliani-headlines-conference-promoting-russia-organized-2018-10">attended the same conference last year</a> and is <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/trump-impeachment-inquiry/democratic-senators-renew-questions-about-rudy-giuliani-s-apparent-work-n1058686">coming under rising scrutiny</a> for his <a href="https://www.propublica.org/article/trump-inc-podcast-rudy-giuliani-mystery-trips-to-russia-armenia-and-ukraine?utm_content=bufferf7573&amp;utm_medium=social&amp;utm_source=twitter&amp;utm_campaign=buffer">mysterious overseas travel — including to Armenia</a>.
Created to counter the influence of the European Union, the EAEU’s anti-Western approach is particularly apparent through its embrace of Iran, the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism. After the Moscow-based EAEU <a href="https://eurasianet.org/armenia-hopes-to-benefit-from-new-iran-eurasian-union-free-trade-deal">reached a free trade deal with the Iranians last year</a>, EAEU member Armenia this past April signed a <a href="http://www.iran-daily.com/News/251511.html">memorandum of understanding on customs cooperation</a> with Iran in which the two countries agreed to exchange information on the value of goods and vehicles transported through their shared border. In other words, commerce between Tehran and Yerevan flows without restrictions.
On a broader strategic level, both the free trade and customs deals were envisioned as pillars of a bridge linking Iran, the EAEU, and the EU. The final pillar will be cemented on October 27th, when Iran formally joins the EAEU and gains the ability to have its goods “exported to [Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Russia] with almost zero tariffs,” according to Iranian President Hassan Rouhani. Simultaneously, Iran is prepared to increase the natural gas its supplies to Armenia, Rouhani <a href="https://en.radiofarda.com/amp/iranian-president-again-offers-closer-ties-to-armenia/30193900.html?__twitter_impression=true">said at the EAEU conference</a>.
It should come as no surprise that the rapid growth of EAEU-Iran ties is spearheaded by Armenia, the only EAEU member which shares a border with Iran. Armenia is also the only EAEU state which maintains a “Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Agreement” with the EU, meaning that the warm economic ties between Tehran and Yerevan could have a domino effect throughout Europe.
Further, Armenia has a long and ongoing history of offering Iran an escape route from international sanctions. Reuters <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-iran-sanctions-armenia/exclusive-iran-looks-to-armenia-to-skirt-bank-sanctions-idUSBRE87K05420120821">has reported</a> that Armenian banks help the Iranian regime “obfuscate payments to and from foreign clients and deceive Western intelligence agencies trying to prevent it from expanding its nuclear and missile programs.” In August, the U.S. <a href="https://mirrorspectator.com/2019/08/15/us-sanctions-two-armenian-firms/">levied sanctions</a> on two Armenian companies over their business ties with Iran. And upon meeting with Rouhani at the EAEU gathering, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan affirmed that despite U.S. sanctions, Armenia’s “relations with Iran must be beyond geopolitical influences.”
All of which brings us to the recent EAEU conference, where Giuliani was set to participate in a panel led by Sergey Glazyev, a longtime adviser to Russian President Vladimiar Putin who has been subjected to U.S. sanctions since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2014. Giuliani had been the only American scheduled to speak at the gathering.
How did this former Republican presidential candidate make his way onto an anti-Western conference’s agenda this year, while actually attending the same summit last year? <a href="https://www.propublica.org/article/trump-inc-podcast-rudy-giuliani-mystery-trips-to-russia-armenia-and-ukraine?utm_content=bufferf7573&amp;utm_medium=social&amp;utm_source=twitter&amp;utm_campaign=buffer">According to ProPublica</a>, Giuliani’s 2018 EAEU appearance was funded by Ara Abramyan, chair of the Union of Russian Armenians and president of the World Armenian Congress.
Abramyan also sits on the advisory board of TriGlobal Strategic Ventures, which has been organizing trips to Russia and Ukraine since 2004 for the ex-mayor’s Giuliani Partners, and has been described by The New York Times as “a company that provides image consulting to Russian oligarchs and clients with deep Kremlin ties.”
Before he cancelled his 2019 EAEU appearance, Giuliani had quipped in <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/giuliani-set-to-make-paid-appearance-next-week-at-kremlin-backed-conference/2019/09/27/a15ab242-e133-11e9-8dc8-498eabc129a0_story.html?outputType=amp">comments to The Washington Post</a> that he would “try to not knowingly talk to a Russian until this is all over.” Yet it is no laughing matter. By opening the door to free trade, the EAEU has set in motion a slippery slope that may lead Iranian businesses directly to the EU. It is a nightmare scenario in which anti-West meets West, and shockingly, one of its enablers is a high-profile Republican who is presumably aligned with his peers when it comes to cracking down on Iranian aggression.
That is why despite his eventual pullout from the EAEU conference, the question remains: Why would Giuliani even consider attending?
&nbsp;
<a href="http://jessebogner.com/">Jesse Bogner</a> is an author and journalist. His memoir and social critique, <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Egotist-Memoir-Jesse-Bogner-ebook/dp/B0174UNI66/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1452620828&amp;sr=1-2&amp;keywords=the+egotist">The Egotist</a>, has been translated into five languages. His work has been featured in The Daily Caller, MSN, and The Huffington Post.

Rudy Giuliani

BOGNER: The Curious Case Of Rudy Giuliani, Iran, and Armenia

Armenians

Donald Trump

Europe

Impeachment

Iran

Ukraine

United Nations

Vladimir Putin

The ongoing saga that is Brexit may seem distant to some of us here in the United States. News of the latest British capitulation to the ever-expanding political monolith that is the European Union sporadically trickles across our airwaves, but soon crumbles beneath the weight of a frantic news cycle. However, what’s currently unfolding in the United Kingdom should require the attention of everyone who values freedom and fears the creeping threat of authoritarianism.
As the most recent departure date from the E.U. of October 31st fast approached, it seemed like the slog towards Brexit was almost complete. Unfortunately, there has been a continued attempt to undermine the referendum result at every stage by a class of globalist political elites, buoyed by a vocal and petulant minority that has refused to accept reality. Sound familiar?
Prime Minister Boris Johnson, the most recent occupant of the seemingly cursed No. 10 Downing Street, was defeated twice by the House of Commons this week. The first defeat came after opposition members of Parliament (MPs) and Conservative Party rebels <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-49580185">voted 327 to </a><a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-49580185">299</a> in favor of a bill that would block a no-deal Brexit. If passed, Boris Johnson would be forced to “ask” the European Union for yet another deal negotiation extension beyond October 31st. In response, Johnson attempted to push for a new general election, but <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-49584907">MPs turned down his motion</a> — with Labour Party Leader Jeremy Corbyn stating that his party would support Johnson’s call for a new general election once the bill blocking a no-deal Brexit passed.
Now, it is fair to argue that binary referenda aren’t the most effective or positive way of achieving policy changes in a representative democracy. They enable the political evasion of responsibility by punting impactful decisions to the populace, with politicians claiming credit for success and blaming the public for failure. They are also divisive by definition, with the societal impact of Brexit often compared to the vicious aftermath of the 2016 presidential election in the U.S. Regardless, the very foundation of a democratic system is that the decisions made by the voters are respected by those who have been elected as their representatives. The referendum result of June 23rd, 2016 was clear, with 17.4 million people voting to leave the European Union — a gargantuan bureaucracy that has grown far beyond the economic-centric “European Community” that Britons had supported in their last relevant referendum of 1975.
Despite it being a duty bestowed upon the British political class to act in accordance with the will of the people, every method of satisfactory departure from the European Union has been intentionally blockaded by those who have no respect for the referendum result — or for democracy itself. As a final insult, the refusal to hold a general election before officially preventing a no-deal Brexit is simply an attempt to delay Brexit indefinitely.
The reason for this is that “no-deal” is the only remaining way for Britain to leave the E.U. The only deal supported by the E.U. is the disastrous “Withdrawal Agreement” negotiated by former Prime Minister Theresa May, which has been rejected on multiple occasions by the House of Commons. With a no-deal Brexit taken off the table, we are left with two equally unacceptable outcomes.
<ol>
<li>Without facing the threat of crashing out of the E.U., the prime minister will be handed the impossible task of negotiating with the European Union without any meaningful leverage. This will mean that the E.U. can keep the U.K. trapped as the parties fail to negotiate, forcing Britain to beg for extension after extension. Result: U.K. stays in the E.U.</li>
<li>As the deadly combination of impatience and apathy grows among the British public, the government will finally adopt Theresa May’s absurd “Withdrawal Agreement” out of an exhausted desire to “do something” and escape the never-ending chaos of Brexit. Result: U.K. effectively stays in the E.U.</li>
</ol>
Because “no-deal” is the only way that the United Kingdom will ever achieve the result demanded by its 2016 national referendum, it is the final obstacle for hordes of “Remainers” who have decreed a “no-deal” Brexit an apocalyptic disaster that must be avoided at all costs. Combined with the refusal of many politicians who support “no-deal” to respect the intelligence and resilience of the British public by acknowledging the non-disastrous but realistically negative impact of “no-deal,” “no-deal” supporters are seemingly handing the reins of control to the minority. As a result, the only exit from the bureaucratic maze of perpetual servitude to the E.U. is being closed. When this door closes, these politicians may have achieved their desired result, but they will have failed to honor the fundamental principles of democracy.
There are multiple similarities between the societal impact of Brexit and the 2016 U.S. presidential election. As we approach another election in 2020, Brexit should stand as a warning to the threats of those in the U.S. who hope to undermine democracy. We must remember that politicians, at their core, are our servants.
If we allow ourselves to forget that elected officials work for us, then we will enable a growing class of opportunistic politicians who seek to tighten their authoritarian grip on our lives. Brexit is forcefully revealing the true nature of many such politicians. With that in mind, if you care about liberty, then you must care about Brexit.

BRITAIN-EU-POLITICS-BREXIT-DEMONSTRATION

HAWORTH: Americans Must See The Brexit Betrayal As A Warning

Boris Johnson

Brexit

Democracy

European Union

Great Britain

United Kingdom

On Wednesday, President Trump sent a stern message to European leaders: if the countries from which captured ISIS fighters came don’t take them back, he’ll air drop them into Europe.
As <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7380719/Trump-warns-Europe-wont-hold-ISIS-fighters-Guantanamo-Bay-50-years.html">The Daily Mail</a> reported, Trump told reporters, “We’re holding thousands of ISIS fighters right now, and Europe has to take them. We beat them. We captured them. We’ve got thousands of them. And now, as usual, our allies say, ‘Oh. no. We don’t want them.’ Even though they came from France and Germany and other places. We’re going to tell them and we’ve already told them, ‘Take these prisoners that we’ve captured because the United States is not going to put them in Guantanamo for the next 50 years and pay for it.’ If Europe doesn’t take them, then I have no choice but to release them into the countries from which they came, which is Germany, and France, and other places.” He concluded, “It’s moving along, my deadline. They know.”
Hours later, the president repeated his assertion before a group of veterans in Kentucky, saying, “Certain countries in Europe, they’ve got to take them back. Because we don’t want to hold them. They’d rather have us hold them, and let us have them for 50 years. We don’t want them. They should take them. Do we agree? They should take them? They say to us, ‘Why don’t you hold them in Guantanamo Bay for 50 years and you just hold them and spend billions and billions of dollars holding them.’ And I’m saying, ‘No, you gotta take them.’”
The Daily Mail wrote, “The White House and State Department have been pressuring governments in Europe to take back thousands of jihadis and their brides captured when ISIS collapsed – and having no success – for nearly two years, a source with knowledge of the conversations told DailyMail.com last week.”
In early August, Trump stated, “We have thousands of ISIS fighters that we want Europe to take, and let’s see if they take them. If they don’t take them, we’ll probably have to release them to Europe.” <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/trump-warns-u-s-allies-take-back-captured-isis-fighters-n1038736">NBC News</a> reported at the time, “Experts estimate U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces hold some 800 European ISIS fighters in makeshift prisons, but the mostly Kurdish militia group is struggling to maintain them more than four months after ISIS lost the last significant part of its so-called caliphate.”
Last February Trump<a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/trump-calls-u-s-allies-europe-take-back-800-captured-n972541"> tweeted</a>, “The United States is asking Britain, France, Germany and other European allies to take back over 800 ISIS fighters that we captured in Syria and put them on trial. The Caliphate is ready to fall. The alternative is not a good one in that we will be forced to release them. The U.S. does not want to watch as these ISIS fighters permeate Europe, which is where they are expected to go. We do so much, and spend so much — Time for others to step up and do the job that they are so capable of doing. We are pulling back after 100% Caliphate victory!”

President Trump Addresses American Veterans 75th National Convention

Trump Warns Europe: I’ll Air Drop ISIS Fighters From Europe Back Into Your Countries

Islamic State (ISIS)

&#8220;The Germans will never forgive the Jews for Auschwitz.&#8221; – Zvi Rex, Israeli psychiatrist
Last month, Jason Greenblatt, who is the Trump administration&#8217;s special representative for international negotiations and, along with Jared Kushner, a co-leader of the administration&#8217;s <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/49232/fleisher-end-100-year-arab-israeli-war-yishai-fleisher">yet-to-be-unveiled comprehensive proposal</a> for Israeli-Palestinian peace, <a href="https://usun.usmission.gov/remarks-at-a-un-security-council-open-debate-on-the-middle-east-9/">addressed</a> the United Nations Security Council. In a <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/greenblatt-peace-plan-wont-be-based-on-fictions-of-international-consensus/">paradigm-shifting</a> speech, Greenblatt assailed the longstanding consensus of much of the morally relativistic &#8220;international community&#8221; — for which the anti-Semitic dullards of Turtle Bay serve as quintessential proxies — in no uncertain terms. Whereas the <a href="https://unwatch.org/un-general-assembly-shames-21-resolutions-israel-six-rest-world/">institutionally anti-Israel</a> U.N. Security Council has long tried its best to unilaterally impose a &#8220;two-state solution&#8221; from the outside in — based on a fundamental misunderstanding of international law with respect to <a href="https://mosaicmagazine.com/response/israel-zionism/2019/07/the-many-incoherences-and-hypocrisies-of-international-law-on-jerusalem/">eastern Jerusalem</a> and <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/11948/breaking-down-israeli-occupation-myth-elliott-hamilton">Judea and Samaria</a> — Greenblatt rebutted that &#8220;if there is to be such a solution, only the parties themselves, through direct negotiations, can work this out.&#8221;
Later in the speech, Greenblatt reiterated, &#8220;Both Israel and the Palestinians have asserted a claim to certain land. This is an unresolved dispute and it will only be through direct negotiations between the parties that we have a chance of resolving that dispute and achieving a comprehensive peace.&#8221;
Greenblatt&#8217;s speech is well worth watching in full:
<div class="embed video fluid-video"><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/cyWt1_irJNI" width="560" height="315" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe></div>
Common sense, right? Alas, perhaps not to anti-Israel, sycophantically pro-Palestinian Europeans on the U.N. Security Council.
As Reuters <a href="https://af.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idAFKCN1UI1ZQ">highlighted</a>, Germany, France, and Russia did not exactly respond favorably to Greenblatt&#8217;s address. That would be the same Germany that refuses to recognize all of Hezbollah as a terrorist organization and is <a href="https://www.breitbart.com/middle-east/2019/03/08/caroline-glick-germanys-love-affair-with-iran-about-more-than-greed/">leading the European effort to undermine</a> President Trump&#8217;s decision to exit the catastrophic Iran nuclear deal, the same France whose insane immigration policies have led to crisis levels of Islamist-inspired anti-Semitism, and the same Russia that de facto allies itself with the genocidal Jew-hating mullahs in Tehran to prop up a murderous madman tyrant in Damascus.
&#8220;For us, international law is not menu a la carte,&#8221; <a href="https://af.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idAFKCN1UI1ZQ">said</a> Germany&#8217;s U.N. ambassador, Christoph Heusgen. &#8220;Security Council resolutions are international law, they merely need to be complied with,&#8221; oh-so-helpfully <a href="https://af.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idAFKCN1UI1ZQ">added</a> Russia&#8217; U.N. ambassador, Vassily Nebenzia.
Greenblatt <a href="http://www.jpost.com/American-Politics/Greenblatt-hits-back-at-Germany-UN-resolutions-are-not-way-to-make-peace-598135">pushed back</a> this week against the European backlash, publishing a <a href="http://www.welt.de/debatte/kommentare/article198179335/UN-Debatte-Mit-Verlaub-Herr-Botschafter-Heusgen.html?wtrid=onsite.onsitesearch">German newspaper op-ed</a> that firmly but diplomatically rebuked Heusgen. &#8220;With respect, Ambassador [Heusgen] &#8230; we clearly stated that a solution cannot be forced upon the parties, and the only way ahead is direct negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians,&#8221; Greenblatt wrote. &#8220;Our point was that collectively, U.N. Security Council resolutions passed with the intent of providing a framework for resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict have failed to create progress.&#8221; Greenblatt also excoriated the Europeans&#8217; insistence on the U.N. as a focal point of the peace process, coupled with their own failure to recognize the U.N.&#8217;s institutional anti-Israel bias, as &#8220;disingenuous.&#8221;
At the risk of stating the obvious: Good for Greenblatt and good for the Trump administration.
Hamas, a <a href="http://www.dailywire.com/news/44732/hammer-israel-must-destroy-hamas-once-and-all-josh-hammer">genocidal Islamist jihadist outfit</a> set not merely on eliminating Israel but also set on killing every Jew in the world, currently controls the Gaza Strip. So-called &#8220;moderate&#8221; Fatah, which directly subsidizes murderous (and <a href="http://twitter.com/MicheleChabin1/status/1159797725199831040">celebrated</a>!) jihad against Israeli Jews, is currently led by <a href="http://www.thetower.org/article/how-holocaust-denial-shaped-mahmoud-abbas-worldview/">Holocaust-denying</a> kleptocratic chieftain Mahmoud Abbas. Much as Ezra Klein&#8217;s Vox would imagine it to be otherwise, there is <a href="http://thefederalist.com/2014/07/17/voxs-motto-should-be-explaining-the-news-incorrectly-repeatedly/">no bridge</a> connecting Gaza with Judea and Samaria. There is approximately zero appetite whatsoever among either the Palestinian-Arab leadership or the Palestinian-Arab populace to forfeit the so-called &#8220;right of return&#8221; — a <a href="http://www.dailywire.com/news/43792/pro-palestinian-frauds-unrwa-called-out-lying-josh-hammer">legally risible</a> claim that would demographically destroy Zionism itself. There is approximately zero appetite whatsoever right now among either the Palestinian-Arab leadership or the Palestinian-Arab populace to recognize Israel as a Jewish and secure state within any cognizable boundaries at all.
In short, those, like the Europeans and the global pro-Palestinian/pro-&#8220;international community&#8221; Left, who insist that Israeli-Palestinian peace can be imposed from the outside in, are simply not living in the real world. There are endless unresolved issues that can truly, only be finalized via direct negotiations between the two sides. The only reasonable conclusion is that such quixotic insistence on an outside-in imposition is hardly motivated by genuine concern for the establishment of a durable, lasting peace — the facts and reality on the ground make such calls, in the present, fanatical to the point of lunacy. On the contrary, such calls for an &#8220;international community&#8221;-imposed solution are ultimately reflective of Europeans&#8217; loathing for Israel. Perhaps there is something fundamentally sinister here, too. Zvi Rex, the above-quoted Israeli psychiatrist, was likely onto something.
In any event, good for Jason Greenblatt and the Trump administration. The jury may still be out on the administration&#8217;s yet-to-be-unveiled comprehensive peace proposal, but the jury is very much in on the administration&#8217;s continued efforts to stand up for Israel and rebuke bullying Israel-haters at the U.N. The Trump administration is in the right — and the Europeans are in the wrong.

White House adviser on Israel Jason Greenblatt speaks during

HAMMER: The Trump Administration Is Right. The U.N. Can Never Dictate An Israeli-Palestinian Peace Deal.

Foreign Policy

Germany

Israel

Jared Kushner

Palestinians

Trump Administration

The latest report on the horrific Notre Dame fire is that a newly appointed security guard misunderstood the alert system and sent his colleagues to the wrong building when the fire initially broke out.
&#8220;A security guard in charge of protecting Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris was working only his third day and sent his fellow colleague to the wrong building to check on the alert when the fire first broke out,&#8221; reports <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/world/notre-dame-security-guard-delayed-response-wrong-building">Fox News</a>. &#8220;A major miscommunication occurred amid the early warnings of the blaze as one of the guards went to check the fire-free sacristy, not the attic of the Cathedral, a move that delayed the response to the fire.&#8221;
While Paris prosecutors have largely concluded the fire did not result from a criminal or terrorist act, alleging it most likely stemmed from an electrical shortage or a smoldering cigarette, the delayed response time may indeed have further increased the damage done to the beloved cathedral.
&#8220;Only 30 minutes later, the cathedral staff realized they made a mistake and sent the guard to the attic — also known as &#8216;the forest&#8217; for its aged timber beams that hold up the roof — only to find that the fire was already in full swing,&#8221; the report continued. &#8220;The report found that the person who notified the location of the fire to the guard was working there only his third day and that he just started getting used to the alert system.&#8221;
Though the guard failed to properly read the system, reports are that the system itself was &#8220;complex and dated, prompting questions whether the person in charge of it even understood the alert in general.&#8221;
As The Daily Wire&#8217;s Emily Zanotti <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/48941/devastating-notre-dame-fire-was-probably-started-emily-zanotti">reported</a>, the Notre Dame fire most likely originated from a burning cigarette, leading prosecutors to investigate whether the fire resulted from simple negligence. Several weeks after the initial blaze, the scaffolding firm originally charged with renovating the Notre Dame cathedral <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/46416/scaffolding-firm-construction-workers-smoked-paul-bois">admitted that construction</a> workers were smoking cigarettes on site. However, the company, Le Bras Freres, denies that it started the fire.
&#8220;We condemn it. But the fire started inside the building &#8230; so for company Le Bras, this is not a hypothesis, it was not a cigarette butt that set Notre-Dame de Paris on fire,&#8221; said Le Bras Frères spokesman Marc Eskenazi.
Following the fire, French President Emmanuel Macron announced that the cathedral will be even &#8220;more beautiful&#8221; while also calling for it to be rebuilt in five years.
&#8220;The fire at Notre Dame reminds us that our history never stops and we will always have challenges to overcome,&#8221; Macron <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/apr/17/notre-dame-fire-macron-promises-to-make-cathedral-more-beautiful-than-before">said</a>. &#8220;We will rebuild Notre Dame, more beautiful than before — and I want it done in the next five years. We can do it. After the time of testing comes a time of reflection and then of action.&#8221;
Experts speculate, however, that the rebuilding of Notre Dame could take decades. For instance, the roof was comprised of oak beams cut from centuries-old trees that likely do not even exist in Europe today.
&#8220;Some of that material may be reusable, and that’s a painstaking exercise. It’s like an archaeological excavation,&#8221; Duncan Wilson, chief executive of the conservation organization Historic England, told <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/apr/17/notre-dame-fire-macron-promises-to-make-cathedral-more-beautiful-than-before">The Guardian</a>.

Report: Notre Dame Security Guard Delayed Fire Response

Catholic Church

Catholicism

France

Notre Dame Cathedral

Religion

This past weekend, Kyriakos Mitsotakis was elected prime minister of Greece. Like his father, former Prime Minister Konstantinos Mitsotakis, he is a conservative in a society addicted to the opium of populist socialism.
To call socialism an opiate is to be too kind. It is a poison, and to watch it slowly kill my ancestral homeland is painful. When I would vacation in Greece in days gone by, my Greek friends would find my anti-socialist rants amusing. I was, after all, a patriotic American conservative from the Mitsotakis family.
But it&#8217;s not so funny anymore. Many of the jobs Greeks seek are outside Greece. Some young Greeks learn skills that they would need to work abroad — English and German language skills, technologies, and medicine. Otherwise, there is the tourism sector — and not much else.
There is always the option to go to one of the public universities in Athens, but students would have to put up with the full-time anarchist <a href="https://www.tovima.gr/2019/05/24/international/mitsotakis-stresses-law-and-order-national-unity-prespa-accord-tax-cuts/">presence</a> there. Police are not allowed on university grounds, so anarchists throw firebombs and attack people, and then retreat back into their state-sponsored sanctuaries.
Anarchists and their criminal companions have taken over entire neighborhoods, and the recent leftist government just looked the other way. Many of the officials in former Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras&#8217;s SYRIZA party were once street rabble themselves, and they have the support of the street rabble parties of other European countries. SYRIZA had a cruel way of taunting the Mitsotakis family by granting many weekend furloughs to imprisoned Marxist terrorists — including the November 17 <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/nov/10/greek-terrorist-dimitris-koufodinas-prison-parole-global-outrage">terrorist</a> who murdered Pavlos Bakoyannis, my cousin&#8217;s brother-in-law.
Kyriakos was elected with a promise to change all of that. As <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/greek-voters-turn-to-growth-11562532361">reported</a> by The Wall Street Journal, he &#8220;pledges to cut tax rates — to 20% on businesses in two years from 29%, and on lower individual incomes, while slashing property taxes. He’s also promising a major round of deregulation. &#8230; Mr. Mitsotakis recognizes that fiscal stability requires strong economic growth — and now he has persuaded voters.&#8221;
Furthermore, to fulfill his promise to restore law and order, Kyriakos appointed Michalis Chrysochoidis (known as the &#8220;Terrorist Hunter&#8221; for his work in hunting down and capturing the November 17 terrorist leadership) as citizen protection minister. &#8220;Security is the greatest asset. Without security, democracy rots. We are here to work with all our strength to build a feeling of security for citizens,&#8221; he <a href="https://greece.greekreporter.com/2019/07/09/michalis-chrisochoidis-greeces-terrorist-hunter-returns-to-center-stage/">said</a> upon accepting his appointment. &#8220;All people should feel that their neighborhood belongs to them.&#8221;
Back in 1992, Leslie Gelb <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1992/06/12/opinion/foreign-affairs-macedonia-for-greece.html">wrote</a> in The New York Times about the foreign policy of Prime Minister Konstantinos Mitsotakis. Gelb wrote: &#8220;The conservative Mr. Mitsotakis is the most pro-American Greek leader in a very long time. He consummated a controversial naval base agreement with the U.S. He recognized Israel and got tough on terrorism.&#8221; The foreign policy of his son will likely be the same, with even more urgency now that Turkey has moved into Moscow and Iran&#8217;s orbit.
President Donald Trump called Kyriakos on Tuesday. <a href="https://greece.greekreporter.com/2019/07/10/donald-trump-congratulates-new-greek-pm-kyriakos-mitsotakis/">According</a> to the prime minister&#8217;s office, &#8220;Mr. Mitsotakis told Mr. Trump that the priority of the new Greek government is to fight bureaucracy and stimulate investment.&#8221;
It won&#8217;t be easy. But, God-willing, Kyriakos may turn things around and bring a new day to Greece.

MITSOTAKIS: A New Day For Greece Has Arrived

Conservatism

Economy

Greece

Leftism

Progressivism

Socialism

Michael Knowles interviews Daily Wire 2 sports correspondent Jeremy Boreing about the women’s World Cup and the victory of Team USA on Monday’s episode of “The Michael Knowles Show.” Video and transcript below:
Michael Knowles: The world of sports has been rocked by the Women&#8217;s National Team and Megan Rapinoe. But as you know, I am employed by The Daily Wire and my show is hosted on The Daily Wire. When we want to get to great sports coverage, we have to turn to our sister network, Daily Wire 2, and our Daily Wire 2 sports correspondent, Jeremy the verified god-king Boreing!
Jeremy Boreing: Yowza! Michael, now with verified. Bold but not old. Enormous news, Michael, from the world of sports ball. As for the second time in a row America has proven conclusively that our team is greater than all of the women&#8217;s soccer teams in the world. By our team, I mean the FC Dallas under 15 boys Academy. A squad of 15-year-old and younger lads not quite athletic enough to play football or baseball or even basketball. But who are nevertheless better than America&#8217;s national women&#8217;s team who, in turn, is better than all of the other women&#8217;s national teams from all the other nations who let women play sports ball. This, Michael, despite the overwhelming pay disparity between the female players who reportedly picked up a quarter of a million dollars each for the last game they won and the scarcely pubescent male players whose only compensation for their victory was getting to skip third period for the game and having a shot at the fourth hottest girls in school. Those not quite hot enough to date the high school football or baseball or even basketball players.
Nevertheless, as no average teenage male was yet allowed in the twice-a-year global tournament known as the FIFA Women&#8217;s World Cup, America&#8217;s women&#8217;s national team emerged victorious in a competition, handily defeating Holland, a nation literally filled with Dutch. They won by a score, Michael, of 2-0. The pride of America celebrated their win by trampling the flag of the nation they were being paid to represent during a cute little girl dance and bitching incessantly about how they aren&#8217;t paid the same as men to do the exact same job. Completely missing the point that their job is not, in fact, to kick a sports ball but to generate revenue in the form of ticket sales, merchandise, and TV licensing rights, which they do not do.
International media was quick to provide context for the women&#8217;s nagging by pointing out that men and women are exactly the same because men are famous for nagging. The media also completely ignored the fact that the men&#8217;s World Cup generates a literal order of magnitude more money than the women&#8217;s sport because, and I swear I&#8217;m not making this up, there is a sport people care less about than men&#8217;s soccer.
The media did stick it the president, Donald Trump, however, reporting on how a group of young people calling themselves Americans despite clear on camera evidence that they were watching girls play soccer in public in France were cursing the US president after Team USA&#8217;s win. Donald Trump is reported to have responded by saying, &#8220;I&#8217;m going to be president for life,&#8221; and then drinking from a Daily Wire Leftist Tears Hot or Cold Tumbler available to annual subscribers at DailyWire.com/subscribe. Get yours now.
But as if that&#8217;s not enough information about a sport neither one of us knows anything about, there&#8217;s more. America&#8217;s national men&#8217;s team also competed in a soccer match this weekend, the Gold Cup. Which I can only assume is an even bigger deal than the World Cup, since it&#8217;s gold. They lost however to America&#8217;s southern neighbor Mexico, proving yet again that this is a pathetic non-sport game of chance that in no way represents national greatness and that we should, in fact, build the wall on our southern border immediately to keep our male soccer players in this country where they can&#8217;t humiliate us abroad by losing a child&#8217;s game to a near third world narco-state. Build the wall. Build the wall. Build the wall. Yowza!
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Michael Knowles: Wasn&#8217;t the Gold Cup played in Chicago?
Jeremy Boreing: How the hell would I know Michael?! I&#8217;m just the Daily Wire 2 sports correspondent.
Michael Knowles: Just fabulous coverage as always. I can&#8217;t wait till the World Cup happens again next year and we can do it all again.
Jeremy Boreing: You know I have to admit that this was a subpar performance on my part which I think is appropriate for a subpar sport. It turns out there&#8217;s just not that much funny to say about the women&#8217;s World Cup.
Michael Knowles: If there were, I think you would have found it but unfortunately you along with the rest of the world could find no humor in that sport. Great coverage as always from Jeremy, the now verified, god-king Boreing.
<a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-michael-knowles-show/id1266577963?mt=2">Download full episode of &#8220;The Michael Knowles Show&#8221; on iTunes.</a>
<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/podcasts/show/michael-knowles-show">Watch &#8220;The Michael Knowles Show&#8221; on-demand!</a>

KNOWLES: This May Change Your View On The Women’s World Cup

Jeremy Boreing

Michael Knowles

Soccer

Sports

Team USA

The Dalai Lama, who is revered as a spiritual leader by millions of people and viewed as one of the most compassionate of men, had some surprising advice for Europe as they face an immigration crisis: send the immigrants back where they came from because for Europe to become Muslim or African is “impossible.”
<a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-4877217">Interviewed by the BBC</a>, the Dalai Lama, 84, said bluntly of the refugees from Arab nations and Africa who have migrated to Europe, &#8220;A limited number is OK, but the whole of Europe [will] eventually become Muslim country, African country – impossible.”
Despite the fact that he is hard-line on immigration to Europe, saying, &#8220;European countries should take these refugees and give them education and training, and the aim is return to their own land with certain skills,&#8221; the Dalai Lama said of the problems facing the United States on its border with Mexico, “&#8221;When I saw pictures of some of those young children, I was sad. America &#8230; should take a global responsibility.&#8221;
Although the Dalai Lama would prefer to have Europe evince a parochial attitude, he said of President Trump that his tenure was marked by a &#8220;lack of moral principle,” adding, &#8220;When he became president he expressed America first. That is wrong.” Yet he is appreciative of Vice President Pence for supporting the rights of the Tibetan people.
The Dalai Lama was forced to flee his native Tibet 60 years ago at the age of 24 when China invaded the country. He has made his home in India ever since.
He recalled, &#8220;One Chinese official once called me a demon. When I first heard that, my response was — yes, I&#8217;m a demon with horns. I pity their ignorance, their political thinking is very narrow-minded.”
In September 2018, the Dalai Lama came under fire after he stated at a conference in Malmo, Sweden, &#8220;Receive them, help them, educate them &#8230; but ultimately they should develop their own country. I think Europe belongs to the Europeans,&#8221; adding that &#8220;they ultimately should rebuild their own country,” as <a href="https://www.businesstimes.com.sg/government-economy/dalai-lama-says-europe-belongs-to-europeans">Business Times</a> reported.
He later issued a <a href="https://www.dalailama.com/news/2018/his-holiness-the-dalai-lamas-response-to-a-question-about-refugees">statement</a> clarifying his view in which he asserted:
<blockquote>When refugees from other countries have come to Europe, it’s wonderful that Germany and other European countries have given them help. However, I think that most of those refugees think of their own lands as home, but just now there is lots of killing, bullying and suffering there. That’s why they escaped. So, in the short term, European countries should provide them with shelter, and should particularly provide children with facilities for education and training, including mechanical training, for the young people.
The aim is that they should eventually be able to return to rebuild their own countries. That has been my view right from the beginning. For example, we Tibetans took shelter in India, but most Tibetans want to return to Tibet when the situation there has changed. Each country has its own culture, language, way of life, and it is better for people to live in their own country. That is my view.</blockquote>

Spiritual Leader Revered For Compassion Has Surprising Take On Immigrants To Europe

Immigration

On Thursday&#8217;s episode of &#8220;The Andrew Klavan Show,&#8221; the host discusses President Donald Trump&#8217;s reading of FDR&#8217;s prayer following the landing at Normandy, France during the Second World War. Video and partial transcript below:
I was watching the ceremonies in Normandy yesterday and you know, just incredibly touching. You know, I remember &#8230; I&#8217;m old enough to have had a 7th-grade teacher who was actually in D-Day, and I remember him talking about, you know, walking over the carpet &#8212; charging over the carpet of bodies that lay on the beach. As he spoke, he became almost &#8230; he was almost there, you could tell his voice sped up and his eyes kind of got that thousand-yard stare, and then he just went back to being our social studies teacher. But it was that close.
You know, I mean my dad was in the war and all the adults around us probably suffered from PTSD without us even knowing what PTSD was. So, it really did affect us. And I grew up, of course, playing soldier and fighting the Nazis in my backyard with my brothers. When people started to burn their draft card, that to me was absolutely shocking. I have to say, even though I was a liberal and I was on the left and was sympathetic with the left, I never found that heroic. I never found it heroic that people burned their draft cards or went to Canada.
Although I will have to say I missed the draft. I was too young to be in the draft. But I don&#8217;t know what I would have done had I been drafted at that point. The war had been so discredited, even though today I think there&#8217;s a lot of questions about whether it helped stop Chinese aggression. Because they just thought we were so crazy to expend that many men and that much treasure fighting them in Vietnam. Who knew what we would do in the rest of the world?
So anyway, it was clear that the values had changed. I mean obviously, the long hair and the hippies and the tune in and drop out and the free sex all that made my father&#8217;s generation, the greatest generation, just quail and they looked at us and they thought that we were absolutely crazy. Obviously too, I think you know good things have happened since then. I think our speech is a little freer in some ways so far. I think we&#8217;re a little more tolerant than we were. I think people were more certainly more integrated than we were then. But still, I think we&#8217;re all haunted by the sense that something has been lost.
There&#8217;s a reason that &#8220;Make America Great Again&#8221; slogan resonates with the people who support Trump and drives the people who don&#8217;t support Trump crazy. So, I was watching Trump yesterday and the thing that he did yesterday that really moved me and really got to me was he read FDR&#8217;s prayer.
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<blockquote>
&#8220;Almighty God: Our sons, pride of our Nation, this day have set upon a mighty endeavor, a struggle to preserve our Republic, our religion, and our civilization, and to set free a suffering humanity &#8230; They will need Thy blessings &#8230; For the enemy is strong. He may hurl back our forces&#8230; but we shall return again and again; and we know that by Thy grace, and by the righteousness of our cause, our sons will triumph &#8230; Some will never return. Embrace these, Father, and receive them, Thy heroic servants, into Thy kingdom &#8230; And, O Lord, give us Faith. Give us Faith in Thee; Faith in our sons; Faith in each other; Faith in our united crusade &#8230; Thy will be done, Almighty God. Amen.&#8221;
</blockquote>
Well, the conservative commentary almost writes itself, right. I mean I feel almost cheap &#8230; You don&#8217;t need me. I&#8217;m trying to give added value to the news, but you don&#8217;t need me to write the conservative commentary on that. There was the liberal president that the Conservatives of the day hated as they hated Obama. Although, I think FDR was a far, far greater president in a far, far more dangerous time, but he did a lot of the things, a lot of things he did I didn&#8217;t like. But clearly, a nation that listened to that prayer and knew that their sons were out there and were praying with him is a different nation than we have today.
<a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.dailywire.com/podcasts/show/andrew-klavan-show&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1559915680096000&amp;usg=AFQjCNEXNIYnZ8zxluQ2X773j0VmLx7f_A" href="https://www.dailywire.com/podcasts/show/andrew-klavan-show" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Watch more of The Andrew Klavan Show here</a>.
<a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-andrew-klavan-show/id1045171376?mt%3D2&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1559915680096000&amp;usg=AFQjCNH38kLiHLn5yW1rgWaz9_paAU3xtA" href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-andrew-klavan-show/id1045171376?mt=2" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Listen to more of The Andrew Klavan Show on iTunes here.</a>

KLAVAN: Why Trump&#8217;s D-Day Prayer Reading Is Important

American History

Andrew Klavan

Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR)

On &#8220;The Ben Shapiro Show Sunday Special,&#8221; Daily Wire editor-in-chief Ben Shapiro spoke with several veterans about their experiences on D-Day in preparation for the 75th Anniversary of the landing at Normandy. George Ciampa served in the US Army 607th Graves Registration. He shares his experiences on that fateful day on June 6th, 1944. Video and partial transcript below.
George Ciampa: When we got to the shores of Normandy, they say there are four or five thousand ships out there and I believe it. There were ships all around you, and the shelling above us, 88&#8217;s, you could hear them screaming, we called them Screaming Mimi&#8217;s. But we saw ships getting hit and I remember a tanker blowing up and there&#8217;s bodies in the water and there&#8217;s debris in the water, and you know I was 18 years old, 112 pounds; I was a skinny kid. I finally got down a rope ladder and with all the gear on and I get into an LCI landing craft, that&#8217;s the smaller Higgins boats, and we&#8217;re heading in&#8230; I could hear the 88&#8217;s screaming over us, and I remember when we started heading in and we came back out, and we started heading in and we came back out. I thought it was because of the shelling and thinking we&#8217;re going to get hit anytime, but I found out years later that the guy that&#8217;s driving that thing, he&#8217;s looking for place to land because the Germans had obstacles in the water to keep us from getting all the way in, so we had to wade in, you&#8217;ve probably seen pictures of that. I was so frightened. I mean I was blacked out momentarily, I don&#8217;t remember getting off the LCI, and I talked to a buddy of mine years later, and I said, &#8220;Hey Gus tell me what happened, did we really wade in the water?&#8221; he said &#8220;Don&#8217;t you remember that?&#8221; I said, &#8220;No.&#8221; He said, &#8220;We did; we waded in the water with our rifles over our heads and everything.&#8221;
So, our job was to gather the dead. They didn&#8217;t want any dead on the beaches for the morale of other troops coming in, and so we picked up paratroopers that had landed in the channel there. I don&#8217;t know what happened, but they dropped them in the wrong place and the parachutes came down over them. These paratroopers are loaded with the gear and they drowned and so we wrapped them in their parachutes and buried them. We were attached to the 1st Brigade Combat Engineers&#8217; provisions and 4th Division landed on that beach, on Utah Beach. Two platoons landed at Omaha and two at Utah, and I was at Utah.
Ben Shapiro: So can you talk a little bit about how you ended up in graves registration: What was that like, and what were you doing in the lead-up to D-Day?
George Ciampa: Well you got to go back to when I was a kid because when I was five years old and again at seven years old, I had a few situations of family with deaths, and so I had a big fear of death as a little boy. They put me in Catholic school, and they had the ten funeral masses, and so I dropped out of school, couldn&#8217;t handle it. When I turned 18, I tried to get in the Air Corps, I went down to take the exam and my eyes were 20/22, so I flunked. So, then I got drafted and got sent to Cheyenne, Wyoming and got put in a graves registration company. I said, &#8220;What the hell is that?&#8221; Graves, you know? And when I heard what I was gonna have to do, I thought I&#8217;ve got to get out of this. Well luckily, at least temporarily, there was an airbase next to us, Fort Warren, and they were looking for pilots &#8212; this is March of &#8217;44, like three months before the invasion. My brother was in the Air Corps; he was a pilot, and my brother-in-law also. It looked like a glorious thing to be a part of. They walked with a swagger, hat&#8217;s tipped, you know the girls loved them. Anyway, nobody knows this except me, they lowered the eye requirements to 20/30 with no glasses so I could pass that, so I took the tests, everything was great. They notified my company commander and you know he hit the roof and he was very upset. I didn&#8217;t go to him first of all, guys were recruiting, and I said, &#8220;Hey, here I am; let&#8217;s go.&#8221;
So anyway, there was a company going overseas right away. They only needed one man, so I was the replacement. The guys were all older than I was; they were all killing me on the ship on our way overseas. &#8220;Don&#8217;t worry, Ciampa, they&#8217;re gonna turn the ship around take you home. Roosevelt, our president, said no 18-year-old will set foot on foreign soil.&#8221; Nobody knows that either. So we shipped out, and on the way over there in the middle of the night, we&#8217;re sleeping down in a hold and all of a sudden there&#8217;s a big explosion and the ship was rocking, everybody&#8217;s scurried up on the deck, and then found out that there was a torpedo plane that was dropping a torpedo and the Navy gunner shot him down, that was the big explosion. The Navy gunner I had met the day before, he was my age and he showed me his quarters and we got acquainted, his name was Dennis Reid from Cincinnati, Ohio. I never did get in touch with him after that, and I wish I had because he really saved our lives.
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WATCH: WWII Veteran Describes D-Day Landing At Normandy

Ben Shapiro

U.S. Army

The results of the parliamentary elections for the European Union were a loss for the European Union itself. Despite pro-EU parties <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2019/05/26/eu-election-results-greens-and-euroskeptics-gain.html">reportedly</a> maintaining two-thirds of seats in the parliament, euroskeptics and nationalists solidified their power and made gains, signaling division and challenges soon to come.
In Italy, the anti-immigration and nationalist party, Lega Nord (League) Party, reportedly secured a victory of 28 seats. Following the win, the leader, Interior Minister Matteo Salvini <a href="https://www.express.co.uk/news/world/1132447/european-elections-latest-news-matteo-salvini-league-lega-italy-democratic-party-brexit">said</a>, &#8220;A new Europe is born.&#8221;
&#8220;As far as I&#8217;m concerned, if the League wins nothing changes in Italy, everything will change in Europe, starting from tomorrow,&#8221; he added. 
In the United Kingdom, the 6-week-old Brexit Party led by Nigel Farage, had a comfortable victory, securing a majority with 31.7% and 29 seats. Farage called the results &#8220;one hell of an achievement.&#8221;
In an <a href="https://metro.co.uk/2019/05/27/nigel-farage-become-prime-minister-brexit-party-9695684/">interview</a>, Farage said if the U.K. does not leave the European Union by October 31, his party will &#8220;go on to a general election and stun everybody there too.&#8221;
Farage repeated his warning on Twitter. &#8220;Never before in British politics has a party just 6 weeks old won a national election,&#8221; he wrote. &#8220;If Britain does not leave the EU on October 31, these results will be repeated at a general election. History has been made. This is just the beginning.&#8221;
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
Never before in British politics has a party just 6 weeks old won a national election.
If Britain does not leave the EU on October 31st, these results will be repeated at a general election.
History has been made. This is just the beginning.<a href="https://t.co/J7xqwdwZin">pic.twitter.com/J7xqwdwZin</a>
&#8212; Nigel Farage (@Nigel_Farage) <a href="https://twitter.com/Nigel_Farage/status/1132794993758941185?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 26, 2019</a></blockquote>
</div>
In France, Marine Le Pen&#8217;s far-right and anti-EU National Right party performed worse than it had in 2014, but still managed to win 22 seats. Le Pen&#8217;s party slightly outperformed President Emmanuel Macron&#8217;s party, which won 21 seats.
&#8220;The French people have clearly punished the president tonight, and taught him a lesson in humility,&#8221; said Jordan Bardella, the 23-year-old who led the party&#8217;s list. &#8220;Tonight, it&#8217;s him and his policies who have been rejected.&#8221;
Macron&#8217;s party did not frame the results as a loss and instead pointed to the environmental Green party making gains as encouraging. 
&#8220;It is clear from this result that the environment is a real concern for the French people,&#8221; said Amélie de Montchalin, the secretary of state for European affairs, according to <a href="https://www.politico.eu/article/france-far-right-beats-emmanuel-macron-green-surge/">Politico</a>. &#8220;The president made it the first priority of the Renaissance list, and we will be able to work with the Greens.&#8221;
German Chancellor Angel Merkel&#8217;s coalition, concerned about the results, is holding &#8220;crisis talks&#8221; on Monday, reported <a href="https://www.france24.com/en/20190527-merkels-coalition-crisis-talks-after-eu-vote-debacle">France 24</a>. Merkel&#8217;s coalition was given their worst score in European election history due to the environmental party, the Greens, receiving significant support.
Voter turnout from the 2014 election to this year&#8217;s election was reportedly up from 43% to 51%. 
Pope Francis expressed his concerns about the results of the elections and warned against fearing migrants. 
&#8220;The signs of meanness we see around us heighten our fear of &#8216;the other&#8217;, the unknown, the marginalized, the foreigner,&#8221; he <a href="https://www.straitstimes.com/world/europe/pope-francis-sounds-racism-alarm-as-eu-nationalists-win-big">said</a> on Monday, which also happens to be the World Day of Migrants and Refugees.
&#8220;To some extent, the fear is legitimate, also because the preparation for this encounter is lacking,&#8221; the Pope said of Europe&#8217;s approach to the migrant issue. &#8220;But the problem is not that we have doubts and fears. The problem is when they condition our way of thinking and acting to the point of making us intolerant, closed and perhaps even &#8211; without realising it &#8211; racist.&#8221;

EU Elections: Nationalists And Euroskeptics Are Here To Stay

Marine Le Pen

Nigel Farage

As The Daily Wire <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/46710/jewish-agency-chairman-jews-are-once-again-unsafe-josh-hammer">noted</a>, yesterday marked the annual March of the Living at Auschwitz-Birkenau in Poland:
<blockquote>
In Europe, 10,000 marched today at Auschwitz-Birkenau as part of the annual &#8220;<a href="https://motl.org/">International March of the Living</a>,&#8221; which <a href="https://motl.org/about/">describes</a> itself as &#8220;an annual educational program, bringing individuals from around the world to Poland and Israel to study the history of the Holocaust and to examine the roots of prejudice, intolerance and hatred.&#8221; The March of the Living, which started in 1988, has had 260,000 unique individuals participate to-date &#8212; with those participants hailing from 52 distinct countries. The marchers always tread the same three-kilometer path at the concentration camp.
</blockquote>
Harrowingly, as The Daily Wire also noted, the chairman of the Jewish Agency for Israel &#8212; which is the largest Jewish nonprofit organization in the world, and which is the group primarily responsible for fostering Aliyah to Israel from Diaspora Jewry &#8212; sounded a clarion alarm on the future (or lack thereof) for Jewish life in Europe. Per <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/watch-10000-join-march-of-the-living-in-commemoration-of-holocaust-victims/">The Times of Israel</a>:
<blockquote>
As over 10,000 people joined in the 2019 International March of the Living on Thursday afternoon in the former Nazi death camp at Auschwitz, Jewish Agency Chairman Isaac Herzog warned that &#8220;Jews are once again unsafe on the streets of Europe.&#8221; &#8230;
&#8220;From this place, I call on world leaders to fight rampant anti-Semitism erupting around the world, especially the shocking and dramatic rise of hate crimes in Europe, Latin America, the United States and around the world,&#8221; Herzog, one of the few Israeli officials to attend this year, said at the gathering&#8217;s main ceremony.
&#8220;It is inconceivable that 74 years after that wretched war, Jews are once again unsafe on the streets of Europe. Jews cannot be murdered in Pittsburgh and San Diego or anywhere[.]&#8221;
</blockquote>
Now, Fox News <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/world/jewish-group-alarmed-after-german-police-let-neo-nazis-march">reports</a> how, on the eve of Yom HaShoah (Israel&#8217;s Holocaust Remembrance Day) and the March of the Living this week, German Jews were alarmed at a highly visible neo-Nazi march that was allowed to peacefully proceed in eastern Germany:
<blockquote>
Germany&#8217;s leading Jewish organization is expressing alarm over footage of flag-waving neo-Nazis in self-styled uniforms marching through a town in eastern Germany on May Day, unhindered by police.
The Central Council of Jews said Thursday the march in Plauen by members of The Third Way party &#8220;brings back memories of the darkest chapter in German history.&#8221;
Footage of the march Wednesday prompted widespread outrage in Germany and calls for authorities in the state of Saxony, where far-right sentiment is particularly strong, to step in.
</blockquote>
The situation in eastern Germany &#8212; and the general balancing of overt, even genocidal animus with free speech protections &#8212; may bring to mind for some Americans the famous 1977 U.S. Supreme Court <a href="https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/432/43/">case</a> of National Socialist Party of America v. Village of Skokie, Illinois, in which the Court&#8217;s majority effectively permitted the American Nazi party to freely march in the largely Jewish Chicago suburb. As the Court&#8217;s per curiam majority held, &#8220;as we read the controlling Supreme Court opinions, use of the swastika is a symbolic form of free speech entitled to first amendment protections. Its display on uniforms or banners by those engaged in peaceful demonstrations cannot be totally precluded solely because that display may provoke a violent reaction by those who view it.&#8221;

There Was An Alarming Neo-Nazi March In Germany On The Eve Of Holocaust Remembrance Day

Anti-Semitism

Holocaust

Judaism

Nazis

Today is Yom HaShoah &#8212; Holocaust Remembrance Day &#8212; in the state of Israel. As the Jewish state does every year, sirens blasted throughout the land as Israelis came to a two-minute standstill to commemorate the six million Jews who were murdered by the genocidal Nazi regime of Germany.
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Israel comes to a standstill with a two-minute siren wailing across the country in remembrance of the six million Jewish victims of the Holocaust. <a href="https://t.co/dVUR96NWIT">https://t.co/dVUR96NWIT</a> <a href="https://t.co/LBICcwpV32">pic.twitter.com/LBICcwpV32</a>
&#8212; ABC News (@ABC) <a href="https://twitter.com/ABC/status/1123918073734606850?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 2, 2019</a></blockquote>
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In Europe, 10,000 marched today at Auschwitz-Birkenau as part of the annual &#8220;<a href="https://motl.org">International March of the Living</a>,&#8221; which <a href="https://motl.org/about/">describes</a> itself as &#8220;an annual educational program, bringing individuals from around the world to Poland and Israel to study the history of the Holocaust and to examine the roots of prejudice, intolerance and hatred.&#8221; The March of the Living, which started in 1988, has had 260,000 unique individuals participate to-date &#8212; with those participants hailing from 52 distinct countries. The marchers always tread the same three-kilometer path at the concentration camp.
At today&#8217;s March in Poland, <a href="http://www.jewishagency.org">Jewish Agency for Israel</a> Chairman Isaac Herzog issued a dire warning to European Jews. Standing in the backdrop of the most ruthlessly efficient death edifice mankind has ever constructed, Herzog bluntly warned that Jews in Europe are &#8220;once again unsafe on the streets.&#8221; He also mentioned the recent synagogue shootings in both Pittsburgh and San Diego. Per <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/watch-10000-join-march-of-the-living-in-commemoration-of-holocaust-victims/">The Times of Israel</a>:
<blockquote>
As over 10,000 people joined in the 2019 International March of the Living on Thursday afternoon in the former Nazi death camp at Auschwitz, Jewish Agency Chairman Isaac Herzog warned that &#8220;Jews are once again unsafe on the streets of Europe.&#8221; &#8230;
&#8220;From this place, I call on world leaders to fight rampant anti-Semitism erupting around the world, especially the shocking and dramatic rise of hate crimes in Europe, Latin America, the United States and around the world,&#8221; Herzog, one of the few Israeli officials to attend this year, said at the gathering&#8217;s main ceremony.
&#8220;It is inconceivable that 74 years after that wretched war, Jews are once again unsafe on the streets of Europe. Jews cannot be murdered in Pittsburgh and San Diego or anywhere. Let us heed the warning and take to heart the lessons of the Holocaust. World leaders must unite with zero tolerance for hate crimes, of any kind,&#8221; he added.
</blockquote>
The Daily Wire has <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/46547/european-wide-problem-there-shocking-anti-semitism-josh-hammer">frequently</a> <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/29805/german-jews-warned-not-wear-yarmulkes-after-anti-ben-shapiro">reported</a> on the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/43200/corbyn-effect-anti-semitism-uk-reaches-record-high-josh-hammer">harrowing</a> and <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/43699/more-anti-semitism-france-80-graves-vandalized-josh-hammer">dramatic</a> rise of anti-Semitism in Europe over the past five to ten years. Here is how Jeffrey Goldberg of The Atlantic put it in a lengthy, eye-opening 2015 <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2015/04/is-it-time-for-the-jews-to-leave-europe/386279/">essay</a> entitled, &#8220;Is It Time for the Jews to Leave Europe?&#8221;:
<blockquote>
[W]hat makes this new era of anti-Semitic violence in Europe different from previous ones is that traditional Western patterns of anti-Semitic thought have now merged with a potent strain of Muslim Judeophobia. Violence against Jews in Western Europe today, according to those who track it, appears to come mainly from Muslims, who in France, the epicenter of Europe&#8217;s Jewish crisis, outnumber Jews 10 to 1.
That the chief propagators of contemporary European anti-Semitism may be found in the Continent&#8217;s large and disenfranchised Muslim immigrant communities&#8212;communities that are themselves harassed and assaulted by hooligans associated with Europe&#8217;s surging right&#8212;is flummoxing&#8230; The failure of Europe to integrate Muslim immigrants has contributed to their exploitation by anti-Semitic propagandists and by recruiters for such radical projects as the Islamic State[.]
</blockquote>

Jewish Agency Chairman: ‘Jews Are Once Again Unsafe’ In Europe

The dramatic resurgence of anti-Semitism in Europe, however dastardly and vile it may be, is unfortunately hardly newsworthy at this juncture in time. Indeed, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/29805/german-jews-warned-not-wear-yarmulkes-after-anti-ben-shapiro">The Daily Wire</a> has <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/43200/corbyn-effect-anti-semitism-uk-reaches-record-high-josh-hammer">repeatedly</a> <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/43632/mini-brexit-seven-mps-flee-labour-blast-it-josh-hammer">covered</a> the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/43699/more-anti-semitism-france-80-graves-vandalized-josh-hammer">subject</a>. And in 2015, Jeffrey Goldberg published a lengthy, eye-opening <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2015/04/is-it-time-for-the-jews-to-leave-europe/386279/">essay</a> at The Atlantic entitled, &#8220;Is It Time for the Jews to Leave Europe?&#8221;
<blockquote>
The Shoah served for a while as a sort of inoculation against the return of overt Jew-hatred&#8212;but the effects of the inoculation, it is becoming clear, are wearing off. What was once impermissible is again imaginable. Memories of 6 million Jewish dead fade, and guilt becomes burdensome. (In The Eternal Anti-Semite, the writer Henryk Broder popularized the notion that &#8220;the Germans will never forgive the Jews for Auschwitz.&#8221;) Israel is coming to be understood not as a small country in a difficult spot whose leaders, especially lately, have (in my opinion) been making shortsighted and potentially disastrous decisions, but as a source of cosmological evil&#8212;the Jew of nations. &#8230;
But what makes this new era of anti-Semitic violence in Europe different from previous ones is that traditional Western patterns of anti-Semitic thought have now merged with a potent strain of Muslim Judeophobia. Violence against Jews in Western Europe today, according to those who track it, appears to come mainly from Muslims, who in France, the epicenter of Europe&#8217;s Jewish crisis, outnumber Jews 10 to 1.
That the chief propagators of contemporary European anti-Semitism may be found in the Continent&#8217;s large and disenfranchised Muslim immigrant communities&#8212;communities that are themselves harassed and assaulted by hooligans associated with Europe&#8217;s surging right&#8212;is flummoxing&#8230; The failure of Europe to integrate Muslim immigrants has contributed to their exploitation by anti-Semitic propagandists and by recruiters for such radical projects as the Islamic State[.]
</blockquote>
In Northern Europe, much of the focus of the rise in anti-Semitism has tended to focus on Sweden. For example, The Daily Wire in December 2017 <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/24518/twenty-masked-men-firebomb-synagogue-sweden-harry-khachatrian">reported</a> on how twenty masked men firebombed a synagogue in Gothenburg, Sweden &#8212; the nation&#8217;s second largest city. Only one night prior to that firebombing, protesters in Sweden&#8217;s third largest city, Malmö, were heard <a href="http://jewishnews.timesofisrael.com/we-will-shoot-jews-chants-heard-at-rally-in-sweden/">chanting</a>, &#8220;we want our freedom back and we&#8217;re going to shoot the Jews.&#8221; That would be the same city of Malmö that The Daily Wire separately <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/12466/how-muslim-migration-made-malmo-sweden-crime-michael-qazvini">reported</a>, in January 2017, was being turned into a dilapidated crime capital:
<blockquote>
Malmo, this once quiet city, is now overrun with violence. The culture of fear is so palpable that parents are no longer comfortable sending their children out to play.
&#8220;You have to look over your shoulder when you go out at night now. I don&#8217;t let my little brother go out at night any more,&#8221; said one high school student at Monday&#8217;s protest in front of city hall. &#8220;I hope that the politicians actually view this as a serious problem and start to solve this in Malmö.&#8221; &#8230;
What Johansson failed to mention, however, was the fact that the bulk of the violence stems from one community.
The Muslim immigrant community has a crime problem. It&#8217;s a truism that Swedish (and European) politicians have denied in bold-faced lies and assurances to the public.
</blockquote>
Now, it seems that Europe&#8217;s anti-Semitism woes are coming full-throttle to Sweden&#8217;s neighboring country of Finland &#8212; where a brand-new Parliament member, Hussein al-Taee of the leftist Social Democratic Party of Finland, is facing scrutiny for what The Jerusalem Post <a href="https://www.jpost.com/Diaspora/Antisemitism/Finnish-MP-under-fire-for-comparing-Israel-to-ISIS-588084">reports</a> is the thoroughly unholy trifecta of &#8220;comparing Israel to the Islamic State, antisemitic rants against Jews and pro-Iranian regime advocacy.&#8221; According to a Finnish source who contacted The Daily Wire under the condition of anonymity, and as subsequently <a href="https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&amp;rct=j&amp;q=&amp;esrc=s&amp;source=web&amp;cd=2&amp;cad=rja&amp;uact=8&amp;ved=2ahUKEwiX7eGM4fbhAhVCPK0KHcJeDzAQFjABegQIAhAB&amp;url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.jpost.com%2FMiddle-East%2FWiesenthal-Center-urges-antisemitic-Finnish-MP-to-resign-588182&amp;usg=AOvVaw21-zWOZymidv58Nz-G_HN4">confirmed</a> by The Jerusalem Post, al-Taee has also written about Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg: &#8220;Jew doing what Jew does best. F***s up everyone to gain everything.&#8221;
Per <a href="https://www.jpost.com/Diaspora/Antisemitism/Finnish-MP-under-fire-for-comparing-Israel-to-ISIS-588084">The Post</a>:
<blockquote>
The Finnish-Kurdish blogger and civil rights activist Anter Yasa told The Jerusalem Post that on Sunday, he first revealed the antisemitic Facebook posts allegedly written by al-Taee, who is also an enthusiastic supporter of the Islamic Republic of Iran. Speaking from Helsinki, Yasa said &#8220;I am pretty sure all of the posts are real and al-Taee has confirmed his antisemitic statements.&#8221;
Dr. Efraim Zuroff, the head of the Jerusalem office of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, told the Post on Sunday, &#8220;This guy [Hussein al-Taee] is obviously an antisemite.&#8221;
Zuroff said al-Taee&#8217;s comments raise questions about how he could be elected to parliament and how the NGO Crisis Management Initiative (CMI) can employ him.
</blockquote>
Alas, there is no end in sight to Europe&#8217;s crisis &#8212; partially self-inflicted &#8212; of continental-wide resurgent anti-Semitism.

A European-Wide Problem: There Is Shocking Anti-Semitism In The Parliament Of&#8230;Finland

On Wednesday&#8217;s episode of &#8220;The Andrew Klavan Show,&#8221; the bestselling author discusses how the burning of Notre Dame is a tragedy not just for France and Europe, but for all of Western Civilization. Transcript and video below.
Joan of Arc became a hero to the French in the 15th century during the Hundred Years War. A peasant girl who received heavenly voices and visions, she believed she had a mission to overthrow the English and put Charles VII on the throne. It is said she convinced Charles to place her at the head of his armies by revealing things to him in private only the angels could have told her. Her victories at Orleans and elsewhere gave Charles the crown he wanted. Captured by pro-English nobles and abandoned by the King, she was handed over to England and tried for witchcraft, heresy, and cross-dressing. She was convicted and burned at the stake; a death that understandably terrified her. It&#8217;s said that as she was dying, she cried out to nearby clergymen to lift up a crucifix &#8220;hold the cross high&#8221; she said, &#8220;so I can see it through the flames.&#8221;
I was reminded of those words yesterday as I watched Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris burning. When Saint Joan died in 1431, she was only 19. But the cathedral had already been standing for nearly 170 years. It stood as a symbol of the nation, of its civilization, and of its God from the 13th century on. It has withstood every war and disaster that has fallen on the great city. But while its iconic towers remain and precious artwork and relics have been saved, the fire destroyed much of the interior.
The cause of the blaze is not yet known, and investigators say they have found no sign of arson and are treating it as an accident possibly connected to construction work being done at the site. But the strange silence that has fallen over the press, the sudden unwillingness to speculate, or even question authorities about their investigation and especially the self-imposed censorship of any mention of the plague of church arsons and desecration that has fallen on France during Lent this year, that silence, that censorship speaks more than words about what everyone is thinking and what everyone fears.
I couldn&#8217;t watch the beautiful structure burn from within without sensing I was looking at a symbol of what has happened not just to France but to Europe and maybe to Western Civilization as a whole.
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So, I&#8217;ve got to tell you about Notre Dame. I loved that cathedral. I must have been to that cathedral at least half a dozen times. Every time I go, I would climb up the towers the inside towers these weird 13th-century steps just a very claustrophobic, beautiful climb. You get to the top. It is one of the great views of Paris, you&#8217;ll ever see in Paris, of course, one of the most beautiful cities in the world. &#8230;
If I had to list one of my ten favorite scenes maybe one of my five favorite scenes the 1939 version of &#8220;The Hunchback of Notre Dame.&#8221; If you&#8217;ve never seen it, the Victor Hugo classic turned to a movie. And of course, much changed for the screen, but it had Charles Laughton giving one of his greatest performances as the bell ringer Quasimodo in Notre Dame Cathedral. It has a wonderful scene where he&#8217;s in love with the gypsy girl Esmeralda played by Maureen O&#8217;Hara when she must&#8217;ve been just a kid. She&#8217;s so beautiful in it, and they decide they&#8217;re going to hang her outside the cathedral for witchcraft. And poor Quasimodo this ugly little bent over man is watching from his perch in the Tower of Notre Dame, and he swings down on a rope and he sweeps her off the scaffold where they&#8217;re going to hang her and he carries her back up into the cathedral where by law they were not allowed to arrest her. He holds up her body, she&#8217;s fainted, he holds up her body and shouts &#8220;Sanctuary! Sanctuary!&#8221; and it&#8217;s just one of the great scenes in all movies.
Anyway, I was just watching this, I think all of us felt the same way: we were all appalled to see this incredible monument of Western civilization in flames.
<a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.dailywire.com/podcasts/show/andrew-klavan-show&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1555594681274000&amp;usg=AFQjCNHEEt3ClxylkLHbUv9v2k_3KgwzdA" href="https://www.dailywire.com/podcasts/show/andrew-klavan-show" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Watch more of &#8220;The Andrew Klavan Show&#8221; here</a>.
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KLAVAN: Notre Dame Is A Symbol Of Western Civilization

Michael Knowles explains how the rich history and symbolism of Notre Dame cathedral cannot be replaced or updated on Tuesday&#8217;s episode of &#8220;The Michael Knowles Show.&#8221; Transcript and video below.
The authorities are saying it doesn&#8217;t seem as though it was arson. And it doesn&#8217;t seem as though it was terror. I sure would like to know what did cause it.
Now on the bright side, there is a silver lining here. A lot of relics, a lot of artwork was saved from within the cathedral. There were priceless artifacts in Notre Dame. There is a relic, the crown of thorns that was placed on Christ&#8217;s head, was in Notre Dame. Father John Mark Fournier who is the chaplain of the Paris Fire Brigade, he ran into the burning cathedral to save that relic, to save the crown of thorns and to save the Blessed Sacrament &#8230; to save the Eucharist, the body of Christ.
There is another relic, a nail from the True Cross, the Cross on which Christ was crucified that was saved. Unfortunately, part of the crown of thorns, a piece of it was stored in the spire that is believed to have been destroyed when that spire burned down. And although the facade remains apparently structurally intact, the roof completely burned down. The frame of that roof, which dates back to the 12th century, over eight hundred years old, destroyed. This oak that dates back, upwards of a thousand years, destroyed. &#8230;
Macron, the leader of France, he says they will rebuild. I hope so, that would be nice. Other conservatives, other Christians and other people in France have called for it to be rebuilt. That would be nice. It would be wonderful to be able to rebuild Notre Dame. But you can&#8217;t. You can do something, and you can try to restore parts of it. You can try to somehow move forward. But you can&#8217;t rebuild it, exactly. First of all, any attempt to rebuild it will take decades. The Cathedral took over a century to build, and it won&#8217;t be the same.
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It just won&#8217;t be the same. This is the sad thing. We don&#8217;t want to acknowledge this in our culture because we think we can replace everything. You break your computer and you can replace that; you drop your iPhone and you get a new iPhone&#8230; we can replace this, and we&#8217;ll rebuild the house and we&#8217;ll rebuild this: you can&#8217;t rebuild Notre Dame.
Why can&#8217;t you rebuild Notre Dame? One, we don&#8217;t really even know how that roof was built. There is so much technical knowledge that has been lost over the centuries. This is hard for us to imagine because we think we&#8217;re modern and we know everything and everyone before us was an idiot. We don&#8217;t know how to build that roof. We don&#8217;t know exactly what they did. Technical knowledge can be lost. But moreover, it took so long to build that it took so much commitment. It took such a strength of the Catholic Church. It took such a unity between the church and the state to build Notre Dame. Those don&#8217;t exist anymore.
Western Christendom is such a shadow of its former self. You can&#8217;t rebuild Notre Dame. This burning is in many ways a symbol of the decay of the faith throughout Europe. Hilaire Baloch, the writer, once said a famous line, it got him in trouble and was controversial, he said, &#8220;the faith is Europe and Europe is the faith.&#8221; He&#8217;s referring to the Catholic faith, Western Christendom. That is what defines Europe. When that cracks, what is Europe? What is left? Then Notre Dame is not a cathedral, it&#8217;s a museum. To listen to people, talk about Notre Dame yesterday, to listen to pundits talk about it, it was as though they were talking about a museum.
It was as though they were talking like Ilhan Omar, &#8220;art and architecture,&#8221; it&#8217;s such a loss of art and architecture. It is, but the art and architecture means something. It&#8217;s not just a museum. It&#8217;s a cathedral. It is animated by a living faith. And if that faith disappears from Europe, then you just have ruins you had ruins before it burned to the ground.
<a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-michael-knowles-show/id1266577963?mt=2">Listen to &#8220;The Michael Knowles Show&#8221; on iTunes. </a>
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KNOWLES: It&#8217;s Impossible To Replace Notre Dame

Emmanuel Macron

The low-budget Icelandic airline WOW Air announced today that all operations would halt, causing thousands of passengers to have their flights cancelled with no notice or refunds.
&#8220;WOW AIR has ceased operation,&#8221; the airline said in a statement on its <a href="https://wowair.com/travel-alert/">website</a>. &#8220;All WOW AIR flights have been cancelled.&#8221;
The statement also said that passengers should book their flights with other airlines and that passengers should check with their credit card companies to see if they are eligible for a refund, adding &#8220;such compensation is often limited.&#8221; WOW Air did not indicate that the airline would be issuing refunds but said, &#8220;Passengers may also be entitled to compensation from WOW AIR, including in accordance with European regulation on Air Passenger Rights. In case of a bankruptcy, claims should be filed to the administrator / liquidator.&#8221;
More than 4,000 passengers were affected, reported <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/01a1fd98-5135-11e9-b401-8d9ef1626294">Financial Times</a>.
The Washington Post reported that the Irish airline Aer Lingus would provide &#8220;rescue fares&#8221; to WOW Air passengers with flights scheduled until April 11 and &#8220;value fares&#8221; to passengers who had tickets with WOW Air after April 12.
Icelandair also offered discounted rates for stranded WOW Air passengers.
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For passengers stranded by WOW air, <a href="https://twitter.com/Icelandair?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@Icelandair</a> is offering discounted rescue fares in economy, $100 btw North America/Iceland and $160 btw Europe/North America, excluding taxes and fees. <a href="https://t.co/AsSX1ZdI1X">https://t.co/AsSX1ZdI1X</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/wowairlines?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#wowairlines</a> <a href="https://t.co/yuS0OklTzN">pic.twitter.com/yuS0OklTzN</a>
&#8212; airfarewatchdog (@airfarewatchdog) <a href="https://twitter.com/airfarewatchdog/status/1111289302875439104?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 28, 2019</a></blockquote>
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WOW Air was founded in 2011 by entrepreneur <a href="https://wowair.us/about-us/the-people/skuli-mogensen/">Skúli Mogensen</a>, according to the airline&#8217;s <a href="https://wowair.us/about-us/our-story/">website</a>, which added that <a href="https://wowair.us/about-us/the-people/skuli-mogensen/">Mogensen</a> was selected as &#8220;Business Man of the Year in Iceland&#8221; in 2011 and 2016 and named &#8220;Marketing Man of the Year in Iceland&#8221; in 2017. In 2018, the airline carried 3.5 million passengers and had 1,000 employees.
Mogensen was reportedly discussing restructuring the company by having bondholders convert their debt into shares to avoid collapsing, Financial Times reported. The airline also reportedly failed to strike a rescue deal with Icelandair and Indigo Partners, which operated the airline Wizz, according to <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/wow-air-flights-icelandic-airline-ceases-operations-passengers-stranded-us/?ftag=CNM-00-10aab8a&amp;linkId=65397492">CBS News</a>.
Mogensen told Iceland&#8217;s state broadcaster RUV that negotiations went on until the early morning but eventually failed. 
&#8220;As is normal, people believed we would get the investment,&#8221; Mogensen said, <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2019/03/28/business/wow-air-scli-intl/index.html">CNN </a>reported. &#8220;We have been very transparent, but it didn&#8217;t happen.&#8221;
&#8220;I&#8217;m very sorry about this as these are people who have supported us,&#8221; Mogensen added. &#8220;I&#8217;m disappointed not to honor our commitments.&#8221;
On Thursday, Mogensen apologized to his employees in an email. &#8220;I will never forgive myself for not acting sooner,&#8221; Mogensen wrote, reported the <a href="https://nypost.com/2019/03/28/stranded-flyers-pissed-over-wow-airs-sudden-shutdown/">New York Post</a>. &#8220;WOW was clearly an incredible airline and we were on the path to do amazing things again.&#8221;
WOW Air is known for its cheap flights from the U.S. to Europe and is responsible for a major rise in tourism in Iceland. In 2015, WOW Air expanded into North America and as a result, the number of American travelers to Iceland increased from 152,000 in 2014 to 242,000 in 2015, Vox <a href="https://www.vox.com/new-money/2016/10/18/13261804/iceland-tourism-on-the-rise">reported</a>.
Some of the passengers affected tweeted about the inconvenience caused by the airline&#8217;s bust.
&#8220;Tempers were high last night,&#8221; one user said in a tweet accompanied by a video. &#8220;I can&#8217;t post anymore of this due to the swearing!&#8221;
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Tempers were high last night at <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/yyz?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#yyz</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/wowair?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#wowair</a>. I can&#8217;t post anymore of this due to the swearing! 
The flight staff had just informed us they were in the same position as us. <a href="https://t.co/tJjcNbVBku">pic.twitter.com/tJjcNbVBku</a>
&#8212; travelgirlto (@travelgirlto) <a href="https://twitter.com/travelgirlto/status/1111267491467141125?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 28, 2019</a></blockquote>
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Some people also took to Twitter to ask for help.
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<a href="https://twitter.com/wow_air?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@wow_air</a> cancels flight to Dublin from Detroit at the last minute, looks like the company has gone bust. Any chance you can accommodate a family of four on <a href="https://twitter.com/AerLingus?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@AerLingus</a> out of Chicago or Tornado tomorrow the 28th. You would make this little girl Maeve very happy to see her cousins <a href="https://t.co/jMnmWSh6zI">pic.twitter.com/jMnmWSh6zI</a>
&#8212; Barrai Omuireagain (@BOmuireagain) <a href="https://twitter.com/BOmuireagain/status/1111098818920153088?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 28, 2019</a></blockquote>
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Several Twitter users joked about WOW Air&#8217;s bust. 
&#8220;I hate it when I get to the airport, check into my flight, and then before we can take off the airline goes out of business and grounds all of its planes,&#8221; Lachlan Markay, a reporter from The Daily Beast tweeted. 
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I hate it when I get to the airport, check in to my flight, and then before we can take off the airline goes out of business and grounds all of its planes <a href="https://t.co/uWlOooUMXU">https://t.co/uWlOooUMXU</a>
&#8212; Lachlan Markay (@lachlan) <a href="https://twitter.com/lachlan/status/1111254049414885381?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 28, 2019</a></blockquote>
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One user detailed the shock of waking up early to find out that their flight was cancelled.
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*books flight to Iceland*
*wakes up at 4:30am for flight*
*<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/WowAir?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#WowAir</a> completely collapses* <a href="https://t.co/n0QQDNEFCM">pic.twitter.com/n0QQDNEFCM</a>
&#8212; James Finnegan (@finntastic7) <a href="https://twitter.com/finntastic7/status/1111227001451491328?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 28, 2019</a></blockquote>
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Well now I don&#8217;t!! <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/wowair?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#wowair</a> <a href="https://t.co/UbOq9iYEzw">pic.twitter.com/UbOq9iYEzw</a>
&#8212; nicolekrystyn (@nicolekrystyn) <a href="https://twitter.com/nicolekrystyn/status/1111257601151520769?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 28, 2019</a></blockquote>
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WOW Air Ceases Operations, Cancels All Flights With No Notice Or Refunds

In 2015, hundreds of thousands of Syrian refugees arrived at the borders of Europe in a desperate attempt to escape conflict. This wave of mass migration was a large source of controversy in the West, sparking debates regarding how to best cope with humanitarian crises in Syria and North Africa. 
European countries such as Germany and France accepted several hundred thousand Syrians and North Africans, which deeply divided the European population. Other countries, including Hungary and Italy, did their best to limit the influx of refugees.
Algeria is currently facing increased political instability and corruption, leading to mass protests across the country. Located in the most northern part of Africa, only the Mediterranean separates Algeria from southern Europe. Algeria&#8217;s 82-year-old president, Abdelaziz Bouteflika, recently announced he would not run for his fifth re-election following weeks of mass protests from disgruntled citizens. Bouteflika is wheelchair-ridden and has not spoken publically since suffering a stroke in 2013. 
Although eventually cowing to protestor demands, many believe that Bouteflika still plans to maintain power despite not running for re-election. A recent press release from his administration announced that elections, which are supposed to be held on April 18th, are being delayed to create the Inclusive and Independent National Council, which he claims will be tasked with drafting a new constitution and election date.
Regardless, protestors continue to demand Bouteflika immediately relinquish his power to a younger generation of Algerian leaders and end his more than 20-year reign. If Bouteflika refuses to step down, protestors are only likely to grow more restless and violent, increasing the likelihood of a civil war. 
Libya, a country already plagued by civil war, borders Algeria to the east. The Sahel, a region spanning across Mauritania, Mali, Niger, Chad, and Sudan, partly borders Algeria from the south (only Mauritania, Mali and Niger). Various African jihadist groups, including Al-Nusra, Boko Haram, and Al-Qaeda and ISIS affiliates, currently operate in this area. Algeria has virtually non-existent border security with these surrounding countries.
Combine the growing political unrest in Algeria, the current civil war in Libya, and expansionist endeavors of African jihadist groups in the Sahel, and what you get is a power void looking to be filled by both rebel groups inside Algeria and jihadist groups outside Algeria. 
If a power void is created and these groups fight for control of the country, millions of Algerians will become displaced in search of safer place to live. If Algeria does go belly-up, Europe will encounter its second refugee crisis in under a decade, with Algerians having nowhere to go but up through the Mediterranean and into southern Europe. 
This begs the question: How will Europe deal with the millions of displaced Algerians and other North Africans attempting to cross the Mediterranean? 
If the European Union (EU) decides to handle the potential refugee crisis similar to how they did in 2015, they risk substantial destabilization of Europe and the EU system. That being said, it&#8217;s unlikely that the EU handles their second refugee crisis as they did their first. 
The Syrian refugee crisis in 2015 was arguably the largest contributing factor to the rise in populist parties in Europe, who aimed to close borders, salvage &#8220;Europe as we know it,&#8221; and (in some cases) secede from the EU. If even some European countries handle a second refugee crisis in under a decade analogous to the first, populist parties in Europe will not merely rise in prominence &#8211; as they did in 2015 &#8211; they will win resoundingly. 
The result will be an upsurge in intra-national political division. There will also be more division between EU countries because of the Schengen Agreement and the Common European Asylum System. The former allows those within the EU to move across borders easily, while the latter commits EU countries to a shared responsibility in welcoming asylum seekers. 
If just a few countries accept a swarm of Algerian refugees, the consequences will be felt across the entire continent. Compound this with the already existing cultural clashes between Europeans and migrants in Europe from the first crisis, the result will be unprecedented social/political crisis in Europe, which will likely spiral into more political polarization and reactionary fringe-movements. It is therefore in the interest of both EU leaders in Brussels and left-leaning European parties in general to limit, to the greatest extent possible, the influx of refugees. 
That being said, if Europe refuses to accept the millions of refugees following a crisis in Algeria, they will still aim to solve (what will be) a massive humanitarian crisis with a high potential for regional contagion. Their best option, aside from full-scale intervention, will be to set up safe-zones for displaced Algerians. Their other option is to nip this problem in the bud before it escalates into a refugee crisis. How exactly they would do this is unclear. 
While this foreseeable crisis is currently in an infancy stage, it&#8217;s worth keeping an eye on Algeria, the surrounding region, and subsequent responses from the EU. 
Follow Joshua Eisen on <a href="https://twitter.com/JoshEisen?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor">Twitter</a>.

EISEN: Europe’s Next Refugee Crisis

For any Americans who wonder why so many Jews in America are grateful to live here, where anti-Semitism is condemned by people of conscience, here&#8217;s a chilling reminder of how Europe has not lost its taste for targeting Jews. On Sunday, in Belgium at the annual Carnaval street celebration in the city of Aalst, a float was displayed with two giant puppets of Orthodox Jews standing on top of money bags and a rat on one&#8217;s shoulder.
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No, these aren&#8217;t vintage photos from 1939. These obscenely anti-Semitic puppets with money bags at their feet were on display just two days ago at a carnival parade in <a href="https://twitter.com/stadAalst?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@stadAalst</a>, Belgium. There is no place for this kind of hate! <a href="https://t.co/Z3cgtJUpjF">https://t.co/Z3cgtJUpjF</a>
&#8212; Transatlantic Inst. (@AJCTAI) <a href="https://twitter.com/AJCTAI/status/1102849847634333696?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 5, 2019</a></blockquote>
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OUTRAGEOUS: Belgian carnival float features puppets of grinning Jews, a rat and money bags.
Don&#8217;t be silent to this disgusting <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Antisemitism?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Antisemitism</a>! We must stand up to it. <a href="https://t.co/R4TrvkTOtZ">pic.twitter.com/R4TrvkTOtZ</a>
&#8212; Hananya Naftali (@HananyaNaftali) <a href="https://twitter.com/HananyaNaftali/status/1102860067097985024?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 5, 2019</a></blockquote>
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The carnival is the Aalst version of celebrations that precede Lent, the 40-day period before Easter. Last month, according to the <a href="https://www.jta.org/2019/03/04/global/belgian-carnaval-party-features-puppets-of-grinning-jew-with-a-rat-money-bags?fbclid=IwAR2m64KPnYFWvXXHUvSBl-rz0gW7NgnTKidOhTbFqrgJ4eczQ9uKqkMtd2E">Jewish Telegraphic Agency</a> (JTA), the Vismooil&#8217;n group that created the puppets, calling the display &#8220;Shabbat Year,&#8221; told a Belgian blogger that the display was a response to rising prices. One member of the group said, &#8220;Everything has become so expensive [we though that] if we do 2019, there would be no more money left for next year. So we all went quiet until we smartly decided to go for the Shabbat Year and that was that. So simple.&#8221;
Dutch Chief Rabbi Binyomin Jacobs told JTA that the float showed &#8220;typical, anti-Semitic caricatures from 1939.&#8221; The umbrella groups representing Flemish and French-speaking Jews in Belgium, FJO and CCOJB, addressed the federal UNIA watchdog on racism, writing, &#8220;In a democracy like Belgium, there is no room for such things, carnival or not.&#8221;
JTA described the puppets:
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The display features two giant puppets with streimels, hats favored by some Orthodox Jews, in pink suits. They both have sidelocks. One of the puppets is grinning while smoking a cigar and extending a hand, presumably to collect money. That puppet has a white rat on his right shoulder. Both puppets are standing on gold coins and have money bags at their feet. In the background is a round window reminiscent of the architecture of many European synagogues and a small box resembling a mezuzah on its right-hand side.
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In 2013, the same carnival featured a float imitating the Nazi railway wagon that took Jews to death camps. The FTP group, which designed the float, marched alongside either garbed as Nazis or Orthodox Jews. JTA <a href="https://www.jta.org/2013/02/13/global/unesco-official-slams-anti-semitic-display-at-agencys-belgian-carnival">reported</a> at the time, &#8220;A poster on the wagon showed Flemish Belgian politicians dressed as Nazis and holding canisters labeled as containing Zyklon B, the poison used by the Nazis to exterminate Jews in gas chambers in the Holocaust.&#8221;
In 2010, UNESCO <a href="https://ich.unesco.org/en/6-representative-list-00335">inscribed</a> the Aalst carnival on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.
UNESCO <a href="https://ich.unesco.org/en/RL/aalst-carnival-00402">warmly describes</a> the Aalst carnival this way:
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When the three-day Aalst Carnaval begins each year on the Sunday before the Christian Lent, it is the culmination of a year of preparation by the inhabitants of this city in East Flanders in northern Belgium. Exuberant and satirical, the celebration features a Prince Carnaval, who symbolically becomes mayor and receives the key to the city in a ceremony marked by ridicule of the city&#8217;s actual politicians; a procession of effigies of giants and &#8217;Bayard&#8217;, the horse from the Charlemagne legends; a broom dance in the central market to chase away the ghosts of winter; a parade of young men dressed as women with corsets, prams and broken umbrellas and a ritual burning of the carnival effigy &#8211; accompanied by shouts insisting that the feast will go on for another night. In addition to the carefully-prepared floats of official entrants, informal groups join the festivities to offer mocking interpretations of local and world events of the past year.
The 600-year-old ritual, drawing up to 100,000 spectators, is a collective effort of all social classes and a symbol of the town&#8217;s identity in the region. Constantly recreated by new generations, the ancient carnival&#8217;s collective laughter and slightly subversive atmosphere celebrate the unity of Aalst.
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Video below:
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WHY JEWS CAME TO AMERICA: Vicious Anti-Semitic Float In Belgium Carnival Parade

Belgium

On Tuesday morning, local officials in eastern France discovered that 80 graves in a Jewish cemetery had been defaced with swastikas and other vile symbols and phrases. As <a href="https://www.france24.com/en/20190219-80-graves-vandalised-jewish-cemetery-france?ref=tw">noted</a> by France 24, France&#8217;s top security official for the region, Jean-Luc Marx, condemned &#8220;in the strongest possible terms this awful anti-Semitic act and sen[t] his complete support to the Jewish community which has been targeted again.&#8221;
The Times of Israel <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/80-graves-vandalized-at-jewish-cemetery-in-france/">reports</a>:
<blockquote>
The damage was discovered on Tuesday morning at a cemetery in the village of Quatzenheim, close to the border with Germany in the Alsace region, a statement from the regional security office said.
Photos show the Nazi symbols in blue paint spray-painted on the damaged graves, one of which bears the words &#8220;Elsassisches Schwarzen Wolfe&#8221; (&#8220;Black Alsacian Wolves&#8221;), a separatist group with links to neo-Nazis in the 1970s.
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The attacks may well have been intentionally timed &#8212; France had already been set to host on Tuesday nationwide marches against a rise in anti-Semitic attacks. Last year, French authorities <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/80-graves-vandalized-at-jewish-cemetery-in-france/">recorded</a> a massive 74% increase in reported anti-Semitic offenses. For decades, following World War II, France has had the largest Jewish population in Europe.
&#8220;I don&#8217;t know how long we are going to carry on [in France]&#8230; It makes me feel sick,&#8221; Maurice Dahan, the regional head of France&#8217;s Israelite Central Consistory of France, told AFP, <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/80-graves-vandalized-at-jewish-cemetery-in-france/">according</a> to The Times of Israel.
As The Wall Street Journal <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/jewish-graves-vandalized-in-france-ahead-of-macrons-march-against-anti-semitism-11550592868">reports</a>, French President Emmanuel Macron paid an emergency visit to Quatzenheim to stand in solidarity with the grieving local Jewish community:
<blockquote>
&#8220;I&#8217;m here to show the support of the entire nation,&#8221; Mr. Macron said. &#8220;We will take actions, we will pass laws, we will punish,&#8221; he added.
For several minutes, he stood silently in front of the Quatzenheim graves beside the chief Rabbi of France, Haim Korsia, who spoke a prayer. The president then took a walk around the cemetery alongside members of the Jewish community.
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Such despicable anti-Semitic vandalism acts are hardly rare in contemporary France. As The Wall Street Journal also <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/jewish-graves-vandalized-in-france-ahead-of-macrons-march-against-anti-semitism-11550592868">notes</a>, it was only two months ago when &#8220;several dozen Jewish graves were vandalized in another town near Strasbourg.&#8221;
The timing of the bigoted attacks, considering that France had already been planning to hold nationwide marches against anti-Semitism on Tuesday, was more than a little suspicious. President Macron had already been planning to visit the Shoah Memorial, a Parisian Holocaust memorial, later on Tuesday. Macron also gave a nationally televised address against anti-Semitism on Tuesday, in which he <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/jewish-graves-vandalized-in-france-ahead-of-macrons-march-against-anti-semitism-11550592868#_=_">said</a>, &#8220;Anti-Semitism is the complete opposite of the Republic and what France stands for. Every time a French person is insulted, threatened, or worse, wounded or killed, because he or she is Jewish, it&#8217;s an attack against the entire Republic.&#8221;
France is hardly the only Western European country currently dealing with a ubiquitous pandemic of anti-Semitism. As The Daily Wire has <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/43200/corbyn-effect-anti-semitism-uk-reaches-record-high-josh-hammer">reported</a>, Britain is facing a very similar spike in reported Jew-hatred:
<blockquote>
On Wednesday [February 6], the United Kingdom&#8217;s Community Security Trust (CST) released its survey on nationwide anti-Semitic incidents for the year 2018. &#8230;
In total, the CST found a whopping 173 anti-Semitic incidents in 2018 that were motivated by anti-Israel sentiment; by contrast, the year 2017 featured only 70 such incidents.
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