Will alleged deal with Iran include surrender of nuclear materials?

Now, president Donald Trump says a deal with Iran will be signed on Sunday, ahead of a G7 conference he's attending:

President Donald Trump announced Saturday that a deal with Iran will be signed on Sunday, ahead of the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) at the White House and his departure for the G7 in Evian-les-Bains, France.

A short time after Pakistani Foreign Minister Senator Mohammad Ishaq Dar told Saudi Arabian Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan that the deal will be signed electronically, Trump took to Truth Social to confirm the deal will be formalized.

[...] The president said the deal does not include cash exchanges and the nature of his administration’s relationship with Iran is substantially different than that of his predecessors.

“Our relationship with Iran is a much different and better one than previous Administrations have had. Unlike Obama’s Hundreds of Billions of Dollars in payments to them, including 1.7 Billion Dollars in green, cold cash, no money will exchange hands,” he wrote.

Trump added that, at some point, the United States will retrieve the “Nuclear Dust” — enriched uranium that was buried by B-2 Bomber strikes at Natanz, Fordow, and Esfahan in Operation Midnight Hammer a year ago. Iran allowing the United States to retrieve and destroy this material had been a key redline of the president’s throughout negotiations.

Now here's one serious problem: Iran's reportedly trying to seal openings to the underground storages where they've kept the uranium with mines in order to make it difficult for the USA military to reach those areas, if at all. If such reports are factual, that's not shocking Iran's tyrants would do that, but it certainly won't make things any easier.

And of course, the Iranian dictatorship, as it stands now, cannot be allowed to continue running the country in any way. They've threatened to attack Israel again because of the IDF's continued work in Lebanon to defeat the Hezbollah, and if they do, that'll only confirm the regime has no intention of cooperating with even Trump. So it still remains to be seen what'll be the outcome.

Haredi schools visit Poland's Holocaust memorial sites

For the first time possibly, Haredi schools in Israel are organizing delegations to visit the Holocaust memorial sites in Poland:

Every year, tens of thousands of Israeli students walk through the gates of Nazi death camps and visit former Jewish ghettos. These trips have traditionally been attended primarily by students from the state and state-religious school systems.

Now, for the first time in Israel, an organized delegation of ultra-Orthodox yeshiva students has traveled to Poland. The trip, initiated by the Netzach education network—the ultra-Orthodox division of the Education Ministry—along with the municipalities of Jerusalem and Beit Shemesh, marks a historic shift in the ultra-Orthodox community’s engagement with Holocaust remembrance and collective national memory. Although the participants came from religious high schools rather than traditional Haredi yeshivas that avoid core secular studies, they are still ultra-Orthodox students from Haredi homes.

Rabbi Menachem Bombach, founder of the Natzach network, emphasized the national significance of the trip. “When ultra-Orthodox yeshiva students follow a path that was previously reserved for students in state schools, it symbolizes that the memory of the Holocaust belongs to all of us. The Holocaust did not distinguish between Haredi, religious or secular Jews, and its memory should be shared by everyone.”

Shai Calderon, head of the Education Ministry’s ultra-Orthodox division, echoed this sentiment: “This is an important journey that every young man should experience. Confronting the memory of the Holocaust and connecting to the national story of the Jewish people are essential parts of our Jewish and Israeli identity. This trip allows yeshiva students to become part of the collective memory that unites all segments of Israeli society.”

It's also something women have to study, and there's a vital point to make that women were some of the biggest victims of the National Socialists' tyranny at the time too. Something that certain past Haredi movements refused to attend museums dedicated to the topic based on, and one NYC museum also capitulated to. If this is changing, this trip being made by Haredi schools to Poland is certainly a good start. Let's just hope they recognize the legitimacy of women who were victims, and also those who fought against National Socialists at the time.

Minister for diaspora affairs says Muslim migration in Europe is main source of antisemitism now

Also the main source of sexual violence on the continent. Here's what Amichai Chikli says about both the hostage situation and Europe's own crisis:

Chikli linked the rise in antisemitism in Western European countries with their failure to combat rising Islamist violence as a result of mass immigration.

"Antisemitism is a growing problem in Europe due to Muslim immigration,” he said. “The European right wing parties have a point, because they realise the problem and are presenting a solution.

"They understand the challenge of radical Islam and they are willing to take the necessary steps. So many countries have it completely wrong. Look at the UK, for example, I'm not sure that what is happening there is reversable. These countries need to get a hold of the problem."

According to Chikli, figures like Marine Le-Pen in France proved their support for Israel by participating in pro-Israel events and promising not to enable legislation that could block Kosher slaughter.

Chikli was asked whether he was concerned that the erosion of democracy in Europe, characterized among others by xenophobia and Islamophobia, would eventually lead to a threat against Jews. The minister responded that he did not believe there to be a problem of islamophobia since there was a “very good reason to worry” about the rise of Islamism in Europe.

Chikli expressed support for immigration policies in Hungary and Poland, as examples of places where Jews can walk around freely. The comment drew murmurs from the crowd, with one person claiming that Hungary had a fascist government.

Chikli also warned against the spread of the Muslim Brotherhood in Syria via its new regime, which is backed by Turkey. Erdogan and Turkey had the “exact same ideology” as Hamas, and therefore the Syrian front was one Israel should be concerned about.

Hugh Fitzgerald followed up on the news, and notes:

Chikli is deeply suspicious of Abu Muhammad Al-Julani, Syria’s de facto ruler, and of the rebel group he headed, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham. Al-Julani claims that he years ago broke all his ties to Al-Qaeda and ISIS, and is now intent on rebuilding the broken nation-state of Syria, not in furthering a pan-Islamic caliphate. But the schoolbooks just adopted in Syria contain worrisome changes in their texts, that stress Islamic themes and anti-Israel propaganda.

As some people were rightly worried, the current Syrian autocrat is another example of going from bad to worse, and cannot be recognized as a valid politician.

US government still fails to aid Ukrainian refugees

It was bad enough when a Ukrainian family in Mexico was denied entry at the US border. But it turns out that's only the beginning the problem, which extends to the fraudulent government's own neglect among the higher echelons:

As a Ukrainian-American I am alarmed and disgusted that more has not been done to help the 3+ million Ukrainian refugees A shocking number of refugees that will continue to increase daily.

Why aren't Ukrainian refugees being allowed to immigrate to America and claim asylum from this horrific war?

Secretary of State Antony Blinken was recently asked if any Ukrainian refugees will be brought to America and he only said, he will "look" at it. In Poland, Vice President Kamala Harris was recently asked a similar question and her nervous answer, with laughter, was to look at the Polish prime minister and say, "A friend in need is a friend indeed." This is no laughing matter! This is a disgrace. Ukrainian refugees have fled with literally only the clothes on their backs. Many are women and children. These refugees are in absolute shock and frightened for their future.

The guy's absolutely correct; this isn't funny, yet Harris laughed at the query raised? Absolutely shameful, and it just compounds the negative impression this whole fraudulent government's given. Worse, it doesn't look like they'll take any convincing action to battle against Russia and Putin either. Are sanctions against Russia enough? Alas, chances are they're not, and as a result, there'll be more tragic casualties in the war that could've been avoided if responsible politicians were in charge.

Update: and in more bad news concerning Russia, they put hypersonic missiles to use:

Russia has reportedly used hypersonic missiles in combat against Ukraine last week, marking the first known use of the new superweapons in combat by any military.

“US officials confirmed to CNN that Russia launched hypersonic missiles against Ukraine last week, the first known use of such missiles in combat,” CNN reported. “The launches were likely intended to test the weapons and send a message to the West about Russian capabilities.”

Hypersonic missiles travel at five times the speed of sound or faster, have lower trajectories than ballistic missiles, and can maneuver before hitting their intended target, which makes it hard to shoot them down.

[...] Hypersonic missiles garnered a lot of attention late last year after China tested hypersonic weapons last July that were more advanced than anything that the U.S. is believed to have in its arsenal.

This certainly is bad news regarding China as well. The communists still prevalent in the world have certainly advanced their vicious horrors, imposing serious danger everywhere, as has Iran, lest we forget.

Europeans speaking out against censorship

There's representatives in Europe who're speaking out not only against censorship, but also failure to condemn leftist violence:

Jerome Riviere, president of the Identity and Democracy group, the bloc of national populist and national conservative parties in the European Parliament, condemned big tech censorship in a speech at the EU legislature this week.

The Identity and Democracy groups includes Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) from a number of mainstream national populist parties in European countries.

The parties include Matteo Salvini’s Lega party in Italy, Marine Le Pen’s National Rally in France, Geert Wilders’ Party for Freedom in the Netherlands, and Alternative for Germany (AfD) in Germany.

National conservative parties from Finland, Denmark, Estonia, Belgium, Austria, and the Czech Republic are also represented.

In his speech, Riviere, a French MEP representing the National Rally party, condemned the recently inaugurated President Biden for his lackluster response to political violence and insurrection from the far left during summer, and said the rise of tech censorship against President Trump and his movement represented a concern for all democracies.

“The other overwhelming spectacle that should worry us is the exclusion by almost all social networks of a democratically elected and still serving president.”

“This represents an unprecedented historical aggression against this essential democratic principle: respect for freedom of expression.”

“Social networks have disconnected Donald Trump, arrogating to themselves the exorbitant right to create new rules. They believe conditions of use of their service take precedence over the constitution of sovereign states.

Riviere is the latest major political voice to join a worldwide backlash against the political power of big tech companies; a backlash that begun after Donald Trump – then still the president – was permanently suspended from most major social media platforms.

Seeing that Poland is beginning a major anti-censorship drive of their own, this'll hopefully be the wakeup call needed at a time when Biden is making a major disaster of US policy, beginning - but not limited to - stateside alone.

Britain's birthrate plummets

For the first time of recent, Britain's on its way to developing a birthrate almost as low as Germany's, while the Islamic birthrate rises:

Deaths of British-born people outstripped deaths to British born mothers for only the third time since records began in 1838.

There were only 471,476 live births to British-born mothers in England and Wales in 2018, compared to 487,618 deaths of British-born people, according to Office for National Statistics (ONS) figures reported by The Telegraph.

Deaths of British-born people have only outnumbered births to British-born people twice before, according to the ONS, in years of signifanctly greater economic turmoil than the country faces today — namely 1976 and 1977.

Fertility rates for British-born women have been declining year on year, having fallen from 1.71 children per woman in 2017 to 1.63 per woman in in 2018; a nadir since statistics began being tracked officially in 2004.

Overall, however, the number of births in the United Kingdom is still ahead of the number of deaths by some 115,487 — thanks to births to foreign-born mothers.

Some of whom come from Pakistani Muslim backgrounds, something the UK's establishment isn't particularly interested in noting clearly. That aside, the worst part is that:

Britain’s opposition Labour Party, led by far leftist Jeremy Corbyn, has pledged to not only maintain Free Movement with the European Union if it attains office, but to also to allow free movement from the wider world, as well — and to allow all non-citizen migrants to vote in British elections.

Yup, that's how they plan to do a "great replacement" in Britain. And it figures Israel-hating Corbyn would be one to represent this disturbing path.

European Jews think "far-right" is the problem, and not Islam?

Reading this item by Melanie Phillips, you have to wonder if they're not all that different from US Jews:

The European Parliament elections last week have provided further graphic evidence that Britain and Europe are in the throes of a profound political and cultural upheaval.

In Britain, Nigel Farage’s Brexit Party pulverized both Labour and the Conservatives by winning many more seats than either to become the largest single party in the European Parliament – within just five weeks of being created.

[...] Among other EU countries, which are similarly witnessing a revolt by the people against the erosion of their democratic independence and social cohesion, these elections produced a parallel collapse of mainstream parties and a rise of “populist” nationalists.

Many Jews have greeted these developments with unbridled horror. In Europe, they see the “populist” tide as threatening the resurgence of fascism and anti-Semitism. In Britain, Jewish community leaders try to paint Nigel Farage as an ally of the far Right and as an anti-Semite.

These reactions range from the grossly oversimplified, blinkered and ignorant to the grotesque.

Farage is no anti-Semite. He has repeatedly attacked the anti-Jewish policies of countries that ban Israeli Jews from entering. Remarks he has made about “globalists” and the “new world order” have been wrenched out of context to suggest falsely that he was talking about Jews rather than the EU. Other remarks about the Israel lobby in America have been similarly cherry-picked and distorted.

Farage, a friend of U.S. President Donald Trump, is himself a somewhat Trumpian figure – a loudmouth who is careless about both his language and the company he keeps, rough-hewn around the edges.

Boy, they really must want there to be no difference between right and left. To make things more absurd, they remain almost solidly in countries they presumably don't feel welcome in. And that's regrettable. But as I've been aware, the Jewish leaderships themselves are practically to blame for failing to take any solid positions, and show courage for the same. No wonder Europe won't be able to combat Islamofascism effectively, so long as any phonies are in charge of "representing" communities.

Better leaderships are going to be needed for Jewish communities in Europe, and they're going to have to cut out all this stupidity when it comes to rightists.

Euro-populists make significant gains in EU parliament

The results have come in from the EU election, and it looks like the right-wing parties running have been successful:

Results for the EU Parliament elections are beginning to roll in, with Nigel Farage’s Brexit Party in first place in Britain, Marine Le Pen appearing to defeat Emmanuel Macron in France, and important wins for national populists in bulwarks Poland and Hungary.

[...] Italian Minister of the Interior Matteo Salvini, who is the League’s party leader, remarked on the results in his country, France, and the United Kingdom, telling media: “Not only is the League the first party in Italy, but Marine Le Pen is the First party in France, in the UK Nigel Farage is first. So Italy, France, and England — it’s the sign of a Europe that is changing.”

“A new Europe is born,” he added.

I certainly hope so. The EU needs considerable repairs to clear away all the corruption it's plagued, as do the countries whose populist candidates ran for the EU. Let's hope this is the start of some serious improvements needed everywhere.

First ever US delegation attends March of the Living in Poland

For Holocaust Memorial Day, the USA administration's sent its first official delegation to participate:

The first-ever delegation of U.S. ambassadors to the March of the Living, an annual Holocaust commemoration in Poland, received a warm welcome from participants at an opening ceremony Wednesday evening.

The Trump administration sent a sizable delegation, led by U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman, who was joined by: U.S. Ambassador to Poland Georgette Mosbacher; U.S. Ambassador to Germany Richard Grenell; U.S. Ambassador to the Holy See Callista Gingrich; U.S. Ambassador to Switzerland and Lichtenstein Ed McMullen; U.S. Ambassador to Spain Duke Buchan; Special Envoy for Monitoring and Combating Antisemitism Elan Carr; and Chairman of the Commission for the Preservation of America’s Heritage Abroad Paul Packer.

This is another significant milestone in the Trump administration's achievements. It's another something to congratulate them for.

Poland amends its dreadful law on Holocaust

The Polish government finally made some changes to its ill-advised law on how to comment about anybody's role in the Holocaust there:

Poland on Wednesday amended a controversial Holocaust law that sparked outrage in Israel by imposing jail terms on anyone claiming the government was responsible for Nazi German war crimes.

The amendment removes fines or criminal penalties of up to three years in prison for anyone found guilty of ascribing Nazi crimes to the Polish nation or state.

Lawmakers in Poland’s right-wing dominated lower house of parliament voted 388 in favour of the amendment, with 25 against and five abstentions.

The Senate is expected to adopt the amendment later on Wednesday before it is signed into law by the president.

Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki proposed the changes out of the blue earlier on Wednesday, telling MPs that the criminal penalties had “stirred so much controversy they began to be counterproductive.”

The law, passed by Poland’s Senate in February made it a criminal offense to ascribe “responsibility or co-responsibility to the Polish nation or state for crimes committed by the German Third Reich”.

To put anybody in prison over stating facts is stunningly insane and does as much harm as nazism itself. It's also the kind of thing that gives Europe a bad name, and there's only so many countries there that still have archaic laws that have to be done away with. Poland's current steps are a positive sign for now.

Macron blames Europe for terror, not mass migration

Here's Emmanuel Macron using an approach that's potentially hurtful:

Violent crime, terror attacks, and epidemic levels of sexual assault in Europe are “not linked” to mass migration, Emmanuel Macron has said, blaming “discrimination” and inequality for the phenomena.

Speaking to George Washington University students in the U.S. last week, the French President also acknowledged that “90 per cent” of African migrants arriving in Europe are economic migrants and not refugees.

Macron was prompted to address the topic after a student stood up to say that Americans have watched as mass immigration “from the Middle East and Africa to Europe … over the years”, resulting in the rise of violence, crime, and terror attacks on the continent.

Highlighting “an increase in sexual assault and rape of women to the point that many women are too afraid to leave home” and “an increase in anti-Semitism to the point that in many cities Jewish citizens are advised not to wear religious garb for fear of being attacked”, she asked the President what his government is doing “to ensure the national security and the cultural identity of France and Europe”.

“I am absolutely not naive. In our societies, we have a need for more security, more national security, especially for women,” Macron said, before stating: “I do not believe that these phenomena are linked to migration.”

*Ahem* Maybe they're not linked to migration per se, but they most certainly are linked to Islam. And if he's only placing the blame upon native Europeans and not the Muslims and interlopers from north Africa themselves, that's inicredibly insulting and does no favors for anybody. So he's not helping by claiming he's not naive.

Marine Le Pen had the following to say about Macron at a gathering in Nice:

Front National President Marine Le Pen wants to send a kind word of warning to President Donald Trump following the recent state visit of French President Emmanuel Macron to the United States: he’s not the one you want.

Speaking exclusively to Breitbart London following a large rally of supporters in Nice, France, Ms. Le Pen said President Trump “should not be mistaken” about President Macron and his ambitions.

“Macron is not the new cycle [of politics],” she said. “He is the end of the old cycle.”

Speaking to a crowd of over 1500 supporters in the southern French city, Ms. Le Pen talked of the new wave of European populists and patriots ready to take control and govern across the continent.

The rally — hosted by her pan-European political group ‘Movement for a Europe of Nations’ — included speakers from Austria’s new governing Freedom Party, as well as counterparts from Greece, Bulgaria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Poland, and more.

“Another way has now opened. Everyone sees that the EU’s project is out of breath and that it is cracking from all sides,” she told the crowd.

Sooner or later, that's just what'll happen, and the EU had best come to terms with how its horrendous policies. Macron will have to recognize reality sooner or later as well.

Shmuley Boteach spoke with Polish premier about their problematic Holocaust law

As 2018's Holocaust Memorial Day takes place, Rabbi Shmuley Boteach went to Poland and spoke with the Polish prime minister in regards to the needless law they conceived that punishes people for blaming Poland for the tragedy of WW2, which is divisive and only makes the situation worse. We have to hope his conversation will have some effect in getting Poland to cut out this idiocy they've committed.

Polish government still isn't cooperating

And just when Holocaust Memorial Day is soon to take place:

Talks between a Polish government delegation and Israeli officials over Poland's controversial Holocaust law have failed, Channel 20 reported Monday.

According to the report, the sides tried coming to understandings before delegations from across the globe visit Poland next month to mark the 75th anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.

Failing to reach such understandings by April, the report said, could create an embarrassing situation in light of the current diplomatic dispute over the Holocaust law – which imposes jail sentences of up to three years for suggesting Poland was complicit in Nazi crimes.

The law has drawn outrage in Israel and harsh criticism from Poland's NATO ally the United States.

Reportedly, the Polish president and prime minister have been dis-invited from the White House because of the diplomatic fiasco they've caused. It's a terrible shame Poland's politicians are being so divisive at a time when unity is needed badly.

An old report pointed to Polish antisemitism post-WW2

The Simon Wiesenthal Center obtained a 1946 report about attitudes in Poland that indicated antisemitism was very deeply rooted, and could explain why it still is today:

A US State Department report from 1946, which was declassified in the 1980s, states that Poland was highly anti-Semitic before the Nazi occupation during the Second World War. The report was obtained by the Simon Wiesenthal Center and released on Thursday, the same day that the controversial Polish Holocaust Law went into effect.

The report explains that anti-Semitism in Poland is deeply rooted in the country’s history. “Polish anti-Semitism was preached by political parties and church heads and practiced by officials high and low. By 1939, it was one of the distinguishing factors of the country’s political, social and economic life,” the document states.

[...] The State Department concluded in the report that due to the strong anti-Semitic foundation in Poland, anti-Semitism in the European nation “is unlikely to diminish.”

Well I guess that explains how we got to this point. It's apparently still lurking around the corner, if you'll put it that way, in Polish neighborhoods. Now the challenge is how to persuade them to stop? If anything, nobody should let their offensive, divisive "law" intimidate them.

Polish delegation will discuss terrible legal stipulation with Israel

A Polish delegation is heading for Israel to discuss the ill-advised Holocaust law their parliament drafted, which may have been put on hold in the meantime:

An official Polish government delegation is due in Israel on Wednesday amid a bitter diplomatic row over controversial Polish legislation which outlaws blaming Poland as a nation for Holocaust crimes committed by Nazi Germany.

An Israeli foreign ministry statement said on Tuesday that the Polish team would be headed by deputy foreign minister Bartosz Cichocki.

The Israeli side will be led by foreign ministry director general Yuval Rotem, backed by historians, jurists, diplomats and a representative of the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial.

“The purpose of the dialogue is to preserve the historical truth and prevent harm to the freedom of research and expression,” the statement said.

The teams will try to hammer out an agreed text of the legislation, which has passed Poland’s parliament and been signed by its president but not implemented to date.

Well they should by all means reverse it, and not continue frustrating the Israeli side of the spectrum. As I've said before, this is not doing any favors for Europe as a whole at a time when Islamofascism is a serious issue.

Poland's premier is only making things worse

It seems that, at a time when any country in Europe would need all the help it can get in an era where Islamofascism's become a serious threat, Poland's representatives have only led to embarrassment:

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu condemned as “outrageous” his Polish counterpart Mateusz Morawiecki’s remark Saturday that Jewish perpetrators were also responsible for the Holocaust.

“The Polish prime minister’s remarks here in Munich are outrageous,” said Netanyahu, who is also in Germany for a security conference.

“There is a problem here of an inability to understand history and a lack of sensitivity to the tragedy of our people. I intend to speak with him forthwith,” Netanyahu said in a statement from Munich.

To make matters worse, Germany's foreign minister even defended Poland's political idiots, which only compounds the problem more. The primary article continues:

Addressing the Munich Security Conference earlier, Morawiecki was rejecting criticism of a new law that criminalizes mentions of Polish state complicity in the Holocaust, when he was asked by an Israeli journalist if sharing his family’s history of persecution in Poland would be outlawed under the new legislation.

“Of course it’s not going to be punishable, [it’s] not going to be seen as criminal to say that there were Polish perpetrators, as there were Jewish perpetrators, as there were Russian perpetrators, as there were Ukrainian; not only German perpetrators,” Morawiecki told Yedioth Ahronoth’s Ronen Bergman.

This is just stupefying, mainly because I've got a feeling he's not talking about "kapos", the word for collaborators. The man's a major disappointment, along with quite a few other Polish politicians.

And Jews living in Poland are already starting to feel devastated and uneasy:

Matylda Jonas-Kowalik has spent most of her 22 years secure in the belief that she would never know the discrimination, persecution or violence that killed or traumatized generations of Polish Jews before her. She once thought the biggest problem that young Jewish Poles like herself faced was finding a Jewish boyfriend or girlfriend in a country dominated by Catholics.

But an eruption of anti-Semitic comments in public debates amid a diplomatic dispute with Israel over a new Holocaust speech law has caused to her to rethink that certainty. Now she and others fear the hostile rhetoric could eventually trigger anti-Semitic violence, and she finds herself thinking constantly about whether she should leave Poland.

“This is my home. I have never lived anywhere else and wanted this to keep being my home,” said Jonas-Kowalik, a Jewish studies major at Warsaw University. “But this makes me very anxious. I don’t know what to expect.”

Poland’s Jewish community is the surviving remnant of a vibrant and diverse Polish- and Yiddish-speaking community that numbered 3.3 million on the eve of the Holocaust. Only 10 percent survived the German genocide, while postwar violence and persecution in the first decades of communist rule forced out many of the survivors.

Since communism’s collapse in 1989, Jewish life has been re-emerging, with young people feeling safe enough in Poland’s democracy to embrace a heritage their parents and grandparents had largely repressed.

Yet anxieties have been creeping in amid a global rise in xenophobia that was also felt in Poland.

With this recent shift in Poland, it's clear they never abandoned anti-semitism on a serious basis, and part of the blame for that will have to fall on other countries with alleged common sense who never called on them to modify their legal systems to ensure improvements. Now, we're reaching a situation where Poland's taking away attention that should be reserved for focusing on Islamofascism's terrible impact on Europe. And they obviously don't care.

Israel will have to fight Poland's bad suppression law

World Israel News wrote about the Polish president's sad approval of the offensive law that can be used to fine/imprison anybody who talks about Polish collaborators in the Holocaust:

Ignoring protests from the Israeli government, as well as the United States and Ukraine, Polish President Andrzej Duda on Tuesday enacted a bill that outlaws blaming Poland as a nation for crimes committed by Nazi Germany during the Holocaust.

Duda said earlier in the day that he planned to ask Poland’s constitutional court to evaluate the bill, leaving open the possibility it might be amended.

Nazi hunter Dr. Efraim Zuroff from the Wiesenthal Center told World Israel News (WIN), “Israel must seek some sort of dialogue of experts’ in order to push for fundamental changes to the new law. Poland will not quash it but they can be encouraged to make modifications.”

Zuroff says that there were attempts to talk the Poles down from this well in advance, and said efforts have been underway dating back to 1998 when an international alliance of 31 countries was formed dedicated to Holocaust research and education.

“I am not terribly concerned about reports of fresh anti-Semitism in Poland. So far there have been no physical attacks on Jews. The reaction in Poland has consisted of a rash of anti-Israel and anti-Semitic social media posts and letters to the Israeli Embassy. There are many Polish citizens who want to whitewash the war crimes that Poles committed against Jews,” Zuroff said.

Zuroff was appalled that Ukraine was one of the countries listed as opposing the Polish law, but for its own twisted reasons. Poland is angry that some of the Ukrainians who killed Poles are now being hailed as Ukrainian national heroes. “I am quite concerned about Ukraine condemning the Polish law, for its own reasons.

Ukraine is the worst country in terms of holocaust distortion. They are trying to minimize the role of their nationals in crimes against Jews and Poles, including involvement in systematic mass murder. Ukraine also claims that communism is just as bad as Nazism and they want to brand communist atrocities as genocide. This is particularly problematic because according to them, there were Jewish communists who committed alleged crimes. This allows Eastern Europe a way to de-legitimize claims against Ukrainians because they were victims of ‘communist atrocities. It takes away from the uniqueness of the Holocaust and it is simply untrue historically,” Zuroff said.

While communism was awful, if Ukraine's trying to only blame it on Jews, that's bad. And this whole affair is a very dismaying example of European countries still refusing to let go of the bad side of their cultures, making battles against prejudice longer to complete.

Poland's legislation on the Holocaust only serves to hurt relations with potential allies

Here's an article by a Yad Vashem researcher, Yehuda Bauer, who's got some vital notes to make about Poland and their incredibly stupid law proposal forbidding anybody to acknowledge the involvement of any collaborators in the Holocaust:

The arguments of the Polish authorities in the controversy over the bill that was just approved by the Polish parliament relating to the country’s World War II past actually raises three issues.

The first is the purported grounds for the entire controversy over the bill – opposition to calling the World War II-era death camps and concentration and forced labor camps in Poland “Polish camps,” demanding instead that they be called “German camps on the soil of occupied Poland.” This is a justifiable demand, and there is no Holocaust researcher today or country, certainly in the West, that would have it any other way.

Not only is Israel in agreement with this. So is the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance, the intergovernmental organization that serves as the political umbrella group for education and research activities on the Holocaust, and unreservedly supports the Polish position on this. (In the interest of fair disclosure, I am one of the organization’s founders and am currently an active honorary chairman of the group).

The endless rehashing of this issue, over which there is consensus, gives the impression that it is serving as cover for the Polish government’s real aim: preventing significant discussion on the Poles’ relationship with the Jews during the period of the Holocaust.

The second subject is the provision in the bill – legislation that requires the signature of the Polish president before it becomes law – that provides that anyone claiming that the Polish state or Polish people were in any way a partner to Nazi crimes would be subject to a fine or prison sentence. It’s a matter of defending Polish national honor, it is claimed, but the claim is highly peculiar. Poland was an occupied land and the political forces in the country, some military and others political, operated underground. The underground, at least ostensibly, was subject to the authority of the Polish government-in-exile in London.

The “Polish people” therefore couldn’t have been a partner, even if it had wanted to be, to any act because the people was never asked its opinion (and what is the “will of the people” under such circumstances?). The Polish state, meaning the official institutions, were in exile.

The claim that there was no Polish political entity that collaborated with the Germans – in contrast to most of the countries of Europe – is correct. The reason for this is simple. Nazi Germany’s policy was directed at turning the Poles into a nation of abject slaves who would serve the superior Germans. No Polish diplomatic negotiations on any issue would have been met with consideration. (The Germans recognized only a humanitarian relief committee that was, at least purportedly, composed of Polish, Ukrainian and Jewish representatives, but it was not a political entity.) The Polish argument regarding the defense of national honor in this regard is totally bizarre and devoid of historical context and serves nothing more than nationalism, with undertones of anti-Semitism.

The third issue, and apparently the primary one, relates to the argument that although there were in fact bad people among the Poles, as among every people, the occupied and suffering Polish people – and it was indeed occupied and suffering, and at least two million Poles died as a result of the acts of the German Nazis – actually made huge efforts to save Jews. It is even claimed that 60,000 Poles saved Jews.

That of course is a crude lie. Israel’s Yad Vashem Holocaust Remembrance Authority has recognized 6,700 Polish Righteous Among the Nations, and they were true heroes, because they had to hide the Jews not only from the Germans but also from their Polish neighbors. It’s very possible that the actual number of those Poles who saved Jews was at least double the 6,700 figure. There is no question that an exceptionally courageous minority of Poles did help Jews, but if it actually had been 60,000, the history of the Holocaust in Poland would have looked entirely different.

The claim that the Poles were a people who saved Jews found expression with the establishment of the museum in Poland dedicated to the members of the Ulma family, who tried to save two Jewish families in the town of Markowa. The Ulma family was betrayed by a local resident and was murdered along with the Jewish families.

This genuine act of courage is purportedly an example of the conduct of the Polish people as a whole, but meticulous and reliable Polish research has shown that in Markowa and in surrounding villages the Polish farmers set out with pitchforks and sticks as well as rifles hunting for the Jews in the houses and forests in the area to kill them or turn them over either to the Polish police force that collaborated with the Germans or over to the Germans themselves.

In practice, the new legislation prevents any independent research because of the penalties it provides for anyone claiming that the Polish people participated in the German crimes. Granted that there is the assertion that genuine scientific research or artistic work (whatever that may be) is exempt from the scope of the law, but the bill doesn’t define who is to be considered a scientist or artist. If a Polish master’s degree student wishes to examine what happened in any particular place in Poland but knows that he would be subject to imprisonment for disclosing what he finds – because what happened in Markowa happened in many places – he clearly will choose a different topic.

Tour guides will also choose not to tell their groups that at locations that they are visiting Poles robbed the Jews and were pleased that they were killed or that the owners of the property disappeared. The same holds true for investigative journalists and the like.

The law is a crude assault on freedom of expression and research and should be condemned, in the spirit of the courageous remarks issued a week ago by a group of Polish historians from the Polish Center for Holocaust Research and in the strong protest expressed by the Polish historian who heads the museum on Polish Jewry in Warsaw.

And what did the Israeli government do? Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu tweeted appropriate, strong and unequivocal remarks opposing the legislation. That was followed by a conversation of reconciliation with his Polish counterpart, Mateusz Morawiecki. The two decided that a team of experts would be appointed to try to bridge the gaps in their positions.

At the time of this writing, however, I am not aware of experts on the subject who have been invited to take part in such a discussion. It appears to be an effort at a cover-up, since the Polish legislature has already approved the bill and it will not be amended. Perhaps they will make do with some kind of statement to silence the opponents and the doubters. After all, it is clear that economic and security interests and support from the Polish government in the United Nations are more important than just some Holocaust.

Prof. Yehuda Bauer is a Holocaust scholar and academic adviser to Yad Vashem, the world Holocaust remembrance center

What makes this a particular disaster is that it takes away attention from the most pressing issues like Islamofascism, and makes modern Poland look little better than the ummah. You could also wonder if they did it to spite the Trump administration and/or undermine it, and who knows? That could be the Polish parliament's intention, which would make the situation all the more offensive. That's why condemnation is called for against them now. The bill is also an alarming assault on free speech values, and that's one more reason why this bill must be challenged.

Poland should not deny the country's role in the Holocaust

Coming at a time when Europe is in serious danger of Islamofascism, that's one more reason why it's ill-advised for Poland to pass the form of bill they're proposing:

The Polish president on Sunday vowed to review a new bill that would outlaw blaming Poles for crimes of the Holocaust committed in the country, after the measure sparked a diplomatic row with Israel.

Poland’s right-wing-controlled parliament on Friday adopted legislation that sets fines or a maximum three-year jail term for anyone who ascribes “responsibility or co-responsibility to the Polish nation or state for crimes committed by the German Third Reich — or other crimes against humanity, peace and war crimes.”

The measure, intended to apply to both Poles and foreigners, must still pass the Senate before being signed by the president.

Poland’s President Andrzej Duda said in a statement on Sunday that he would present his “final evaluation of procedural legal provisions after the completion of parliament’s work and a careful analysis of the final shape of the act.”

The bill includes an article that applies the same penalty of a fine or up to three years in jail to anyone who refers to Nazi German death camps as being Polish.

Israel’s ambassador to Poland Anna Azari told the Polish PAP news agency that Israel believes the latter article could open the door to Holocaust survivors being prosecuted for their testimony should it concern the involvement of Poles in war crimes.

The additional error they'd be making is another passing of a law designed to destroy free speech rights; a particular weakness in Europe. It's stunning that, at a moment when Europe needs all the help it can get, they take a step that only makes the situation worse, and could make you wonder if they're only interested in replacing one bad ideology with another. If they don't break free of that awful mindset, nothing is solved. The sins of the parents don't fall upon the children, but to say the past inhabitants of the country don't have blame to shoulder is totally wrong.

Update: here's a column by Chaim Kozienicki making some crucial points.

Communists were never anti-fascist

A writer for the Federalist makes a valid point that the Soviets were never truly opposed to fascism, which is as totalitarian an ideology as the former. For example, when Poland was invaded:

The two nations agreed that Poland would be split in two, and the two agreed on the spheres of influence in Eastern Europe. Germany would have influence in Hungary and Romania, while the Soviets would gain Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia, Finland, and parts of Romania. The agreement also had a trade deal: Germany would supply the Soviet Union with manufactured goods (weapons), while the Soviets would provide Germany with food and raw materials (such as oil).

While German troops took Norway and Denmark, the Soviet Union sent troops into Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia, and Finland. When Nazi Germany launched its massive offensive in the West against France, Great Britain, and the Low Countries, the Soviet Union provided German troops with food. When the Nazi panzers began to move into North Africa, defeating British troops, and as the German Air Force bombed British cities like London, the Soviet Union provided oil to keep the Nazi war machine advancing.

And Soviet Russia allowed Germany to murder Poles:

In 1940, the Soviets killed 22,000 Polish officers who were captured the previous year in what would become known as the Katyn Massacre. The Soviet Union denied this massacre, as they denied many of their other atrocities during the war. They finally acknowledged it in 1990. Also in 1990, when Poland was finally a democracy, the Polish government—which had been in exile since its invasion and occupation by Germany and the Soviet Union in 1939—could finally return home.

The time between 1939 and 1941 has largely been forgotten by many on the left, who only see the Soviet Union as the nation that beat Nazi Germany in World War II. But the legacy of the Soviet Union—and correspondingly, Communism—should be corrected. The Soviets were Nazi collaborators who saw Nazi Germany as a tool to expand their power and influence, as well as to destroy the West. Without Soviet support in the early years of the war, Germany would not have gotten so powerful. It is estimated that 70 percent of German imports, during 1940, came from the Soviet Union.

It's vital to remember that antisemitism at time was just as prevalent in Russia as it was in Germany. Yet it's also clear the left doesn't care about the terrible influences of nazism any more than they do about communism, so I figure they're as lenient on fascism as they are on communism.

This article makes for important reading, so be sure to check it all out.