by Giulio Meotti‏

A traveller to Eastern Europe can visit the sites of once-famous yeshivas like Slobodka, Kelm, Volozhin Telze and Ponevech and mourn at seeing buildings that once echoed with Talmudic study and which are now either empty ruins or have been transformed into community centers or shops.

Those yeshivas, however, abandoned because of the Holocaust and prior periods of persecution, and the shuls burned to the ground by Nazis and their cohorts, have been reborn in Israel (and the USA)..Today, the sound of Torah echoes from thousands of voices, more than there ever were in the renowned European yeshivas.

One cannot say the same about what is happening to Christianity in Europe, with France at the head. The worshipers are no more, and now it is the turn of the buildings.

“Should we abandon the churches of our villages, victims of de-Christianization?”, asks Stéphane Bern, commissioned by Emmanuel Macron to protect French cultural heritage, in a new essay for La Reveue des deux mondes.

On its website, the Patrice Besse real estate agency, which specializes in historic buildings, lists thirty churches currently for sale. Per square meter, desecrated churches are the cheapest lots in the country.

In Berry, a 12th-century Romanesque church is on sale for 150,000 euros. In Granville, the church of Saint Paul is on sale in the form of a lease for €30,000, “agency fees included”. In Paris, the church of Saint Rita, built in 1900, was sold to real estate developer Thierry Mainguet.

Since 2000, fifty churches have not had the luck of Santa Rita and have been destroyed. As in Finistère, the Notre-Dame de Gwel-Mor chapel in Morgat, of which not even the stained glass windows have been saved. The Goélands chapel in Saint-Jean-de-Monts was razed to the ground to make it a residential complex.

Meanwhile, for the first time in its history, no cardinal in office will sit in France, now that Archbishops emeritus Vingt-Trois (Paris), Barbarin (Lyon) and Ricard (Bordeaux) have joined the cohort of retirees.

“Should we perhaps remember that the chairs of Rouen, Toulouse, Lille or Rennes, fifty years ago, were occupied by cardinals?”, wrote Hadrein Desuin in Causeur.

This is the fate of Christianity in France in 2020: The chapel of the Poor Clares in Rennes becomes a gym, the church of Saint-Christophe in Meaux a lingerie shop, the church of Angers is bought by former footballer Steve Savidan to make it a nightclub, the chapel of the convent of Charity-Notre-Dame becomes an Axa agency, the church of Saint-Jean-de-la-Rive in Graulhet becomes a mosque, the church of Saint-Christophe de Meaux is transformed into a restaurant, a hotel in Poitiers, a nightclub in Angers, a shop in Nantes, a cultural center in Tourcoing, a concert hall in Hirson … it goes on.

In Rouen, where Father Jacques Hamel was killed by two Islamic fundamentalists a year ago during the morning mass, the conversion of four churches is underway, two of which suffered damage during the French Revolution: Saint-Pierre-du-Chatel, bombed in 1944, will become La Métropolitaine, a luxury restaurant and hotel rooms; Sainte-Croix-des-Pelletiers will welcome the Bekmiettes café, while the Saint-Nicaise church, classified as a historical monument, will become the Ragnar brewery.

Le Monde: “Five churches transformed into hotels – to sleep like a Pope”.

Marcel Proust, the greatest French writer of the XX century, already realized what was at stake in 1904, when he wrote in Le Figaro: “Suppose for a moment that Catholicism had been dead for centuries, that the traditions of its worship had been lost. Only the unspeaking and forlorn cathedrals remain; they have become unintelligible yet remain admirable”.

We don’t suppose anymore, now we know it. We know that another religion’s minarets rise in the French skies.

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/285939

The link between non-integrated immigration communities and the explosion of violence in France and Germany in recent weeks, is a taboo subject. But even in the absence of ethnic statistics, there are indicators that do not lie.

In a recent cautious but ultimately explicit comment, the former French magistrate Philippe Bilger provided evidence: “The responsibility lies with instigators of foreign origin, Maghreb or African.”

French MP Aurélien Taché on the other hand is worried about the concept of “savages” used in France, which “implicitly links the rise in violence to that of immigration”. Undeniably, these two opposing visions, validated by the statistical reality and the testimonies of police officers and victims, are not being discussed in mainstream media.

In December 2018, two thirds of French voters thought that immigration had a negative effect on security, according to an IFOP survey. Sadly, crime figures confirm the rising feeling of insecurity.

Between 2013 and 2014, nearly 24 percent of convictions for theft and 14 percent of those accused for violence against persons holding public authority were of foreign nationality, which, however, only represented 7,4 percent of the French population.

An upward trend, confirmed by the “CVS” victimization survey (living and safety environment) which, until 2014, recorded the nationality of those implicated in crimes and offenses. In 2013, 20,2 percent had a foreign nationality, whereas they were only 15,7 percent four years earlier.

Already, in 2006, the Minister for Tourism, Léon Bertrand, was discussing the issue, which, years later, thanks to deconfinement, resurfaced: “We say that we should not always associate insecurity with immigration, but, for my part, I do, because when people cross the river and cannot find the means to live, they start by petty theft and pilfering, because you have to eat, and that’s how they become delinquents.”

In Germany the majority of the suspects in so-called riots in North Rhine-Westphalia have foreign roots. This emerged from the answer from the Ministry of the Interior to a request from the AfD member of the Landtag, Markus Wagner. Accordingly, 55,6 percent of the suspects do not have German citizenship. In addition, according to the paper, many of the accused with a German passport have a name that suggests a migration background. Overall, 74,5 percent of the suspects are foreigners or Germans with foreign first names such as Ali, Hassan and Mohamed.

According to the Ministry of the Interior, a riot is “a police situation that is caused by or from an aggressively acting group of people in which the number of people, their role or the status of individual people cannot be determined immediately at the first intervention”.

On June 17 there was such a riot in Cologne when, during a traffic control, the passenger in the arrested vehicle suddenly hit a policeman in the face, so that he had to be treated medically. Around 150 onlookers, some of whom were aggressive, immediately gathered at the scene of the incident, temporarily preventing the injured policeman from being treated and disrupting the police operation. Only massive support forces were able to bring the situation under control.

According to the Interior Ministry, 87 Germans and 109 foreigners were among the 196 suspects in the first half of 2020. Among the foreigners, Turks made up the largest group with 20 accused, followed by Syrians (16). Many of the Germans mentioned have foreign roots. In at least 37 cases, the suspects have foreign names.

Wagner blamed migration and integration policy for the crime of foreigners. “Three quarters of the suspects are foreigners or have a migration background. The connection to the failed migration and integration policy of the old parties is therefore unmistakable. Nevertheless, the causes, the lack of border protection, the failure to deport and the refusal to integrate are not addressed.”

freewestmedia.com/2020/08/26/43011/

The Zurich High Court sentenced a 34-year-old Syrian today, Tuesday, to eight years in prison and a deportation from the country for a period of 15 years. One morning, the man suddenly stood in the apartment of a woman he did not know and raped her.

The 34-year-old surprisingly made a full confession in the high court, although he had always stressed that the student was an acquaintance of his and was making a big deal out of the matter.

On Tuesday, however, he read a statement in which he asked the raped student for forgiveness. “I am very sorry that I hurt her body and her soul.” He would do anything to make her feel better.

The high court reduced the first-instance sentence by one year. Last year, the Zurich District Court had sentenced him to nine years imprisonment and 15 years expulsion from the country.

On the morning in question, in September 2018, the female student was standing naked in the bathroom of her apartment, brushing her teeth. Suddenly, a complete stranger opened the unlocked door of her apartment and made his way towards her. Without saying much, he tried to kiss her and pressed her onto the bathtub.

At first she was able to break free. But before she could run out of the apartment, he dragged her into the bedroom, where he strangled and raped her.

blick.ch/news/schweiz/zuerich/ueberraschendes-gestaendnis-8-jahre-fuer-vergewaltigung-an-zuercher-studentin-id16059467.html

Leftist militia training programs are expanding from Berlin and Potsdam into Poznan in Poland, according to German Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV).

The BfV was short on details about the Antifa training program in Poland, bu taccording to Polish news outlet Wsensie.pl, local anarchists organized a march “in defense” of what they said was illegally seized property after the properties were threatened to be auctioned off by a bailiff in 2009.

Warsaw, under the leadership of the Civic Platform, also financed similar events.

Portal nczas.com pointed to “City Tactics – street gymnastics, or techniques of group action” lectures and workshops that were held by the pro-communist Biennale Warszawa in Warsaw, with workshops designed to deliver a “practical session” on “urban tactics”. It is generally believed that the event was a training workshop for militant tactics in urban centers, including fighting techniques and training for mass actions.

Biennale Warszawa is financed by the Warsaw’s government. The institution did not post any description of the event and underlined that it was a closed one.

Germany’s Antifa already have links to their Polish counterparts dating back for years. In 2011, 40 German left-wing extremists were arrested at the annual Polish Independence March in Warsaw after a confrontation began with right-wing marchers.

According to HNA, Berlin anarchists and the communist movement “Redskins” were attempting to stop the traditional march by blocking it.

According to Germany’s BfV, professional martial arts training is becoming increasingly important among these extremist groups.

“For Leftist extremist, martial arts training is a means to prepare for actual combat with supposed right-wing extremist or the police during protests,” the BfV warned.

In Germany, left-wing supporters have already shown their willingness to use violence in cities such as Leipzig, Berlin and Hamburg, however, the report also pointed to Great Britain and Denmark as other hot spots for Antifa violence.

The law enforcement agency also pointed to a leaflet in Germany where Antifa informed that it wants to use martial arts training during their events in order to “create discrimination-free spaces”.

rmx.news/article/article/german-intelligence-polish-antifa-militants-training-in-martial-arts-combat-and-urban-tactics

In the course of the legal proceedings in the Ibiza affair surrounding the former Austrian Vice Chancellor Heinz-Christian Strache, the transcript of previously unpublished sequences from the illegally recorded Ibiza video have been made public.

Approximately five-minutes from the files of the investigating Austrian judiciary were published in a daily newspaper in Austria. It exonerates the politician who resigned because of corruption allegations surrounding the edited video.

Strache told the alleged Russian oligarch and his partner and current main suspect who had wanted to induce him to commit illegal activities with a promise of 270 million euros: “Yes, but that doesn’t work that way.” Strache also emphasized that he would not be interested in anything dishonest: “No, but it would be dishonest.” And he later responds: “No way, I won’t do it. And with me only honest dealing, very honest dealings.”

The following statement by Strache can also be found in the documents: “There are only very correct standards for me, everything that is attacked in my life today is above board. Yes? And I, there is no such thing as self-enrichment or other shitty plans, there is no such thing.”

In another transcripted sentence, Strache replied to the statement that illegal offers in the East “would be completely common”: “No, no. But now we’re being honest. With every other shit you make yourself vulnerable and I don’t want to be vulnerable. I want to sleep peacefully. I want to get up in the morning and say: I’m clean.”

These statements could also exonerate the former FPÖ chairman, Johann Gudenus, who was also present in Ibiza on July 27, 2017 when the conversations were secretly recorded. For example, according to the transcript, he clearly said, “We’re not doing anything illegal, period.”

After the controversial video appeared in May 2019, which led to the break-up of the ÖVP-FPÖ coalition and new elections, Strache had “repeatedly emphasized” that “he never wanted to do anything dishonest”.

After the newly published material, he commented: “It shows very well how manipulative the video publication was in May of the previous year. The new five minutes, like the rest of the video, will prove that I have repeatedly emphasized that I don’t want to do anything illegal.”

His lawyer Johann Pauer made it clear to Oe24 that “so far only a small part of the Ibiza video has been transcribed”. “The expected, more extensive transcription will show more clearly that the selection of the published passages was deliberately disadvantageous for Heinz-Christian Strache.”

The journalist Boris Reitschuster pointed out that both publications – the Spiegel and the Süddeutsche Zeitung – which had initially published the edited Ibiza video back then in Germany, constituted a “media scandal of unbelievable proportions”.

He said the public “has been deliberately deceived, with immense consequences. It is particularly strange that the German media almost collectively keep silent about the appearance of the new, apparently exonerating positions”.

Another journalist spoke of a “political-media scandal” that could “shake the media landscape in Germany and overshadow the publication of the fake Hitler diaries, from which Stern magazine never really recovered”.

The allegations were rejected by Spiegel. “The alleged new passages from the Ibiza video are neither unknown, nor has the Spiegel concealed it,” Wolf Wiedmann-Schmidt tweeted. “In the first text on the affair of May 17, 2019, we quoted those passages that are now presented as new, partly verbatim.”

The embarrassment of the federal government and in particular of Chancellor Merkel is becoming increasingly evident after the chief editors of the Südeutsche Zeitung and the Spiegel, who had precise knowledge of the details of the Ibiza video, chose to report it as a “scandal” and “corruption”.

“It was always clear, but now it is also obvious to every citizen: I am not for sale, not corrupt, but I stand exclusively by my beliefs and do politics for the people of my hometown Vienna and our Austria,” Strache said on Facebook.

Petr Bystron, foreign policy spokesman for the AfD said: “Reporting by Süddeutsche and Spiegel are the biggest media political scandal in post-war history!”

In fact, in Germany a similar fate has befallen Andreas Kalbitz, former member of the AfD. The party’s approval ratings have been crumbling. In this way, no paradigm shift can be generated in Germany either and no constructive majorities for political change.

Unfortunately, the Kalbitz cause will have a similarly weakening effect on the AfD as the Strache cause has affected the FPÖ in Austria. It is now becoming abundantly clear that a demonstrable plot was carried out with the apparently compromising Ibiza video and that this fact must have been known to both the Süddeutsche Zeitung and the Spiegel.

Although the entire film was available to these two print media outlets, the exonerating film sequences, which clearly prove Strache’s innocence, were deliberately withheld from the public.

In the Kalbitz case, there have so far only been the very controversial claims but no conclusive evidence against Kalbitz.

freewestmedia.com/2020/08/25/ibiza-video-excerpts-exonerate-heinz-christian-strache/

The inhabitants of a village with 2000 inhabitants in the Bitterfeld district of Saxony-Anhalt are confronted with a strange picture almost daily. When the 19-year-old Syrian Ayman N. wants to shop in the village, four plain-clothes policemen with two vehicles follow him in a few meters distance. He is not allowed to leave his accommodation further than the supermarket anyway. This is also controlled by an electronic anklet on his leg.Since 2017 this happens. According to information from the newspaper Volksstimme, 95,000 man-hours are already spent on guarding. At an hourly fee of 52 euros per official, this amounts to almost five million euros. Vehicle costs or other material resources are not yet included. Currently, four men per shift are to be deployed for surveillance, which means twelve officers per day. Most of them arrive from Magdeburg. Reason for the expense: The young man is classified as an Islamist dangerous man and is waiting for the continuation of his trial before the Berlin Court of Appeal.In August 2017, the Regional Court of Halle had opened the trial for the ” attempt to commit a serious act of violence that endangers the state”. The IS sympathizer, who had come as an unaccompanied minor refugee in the fall of 2015, lived in the Osternienburger Land region until January 2017 and made contact with like-minded people on the Internet. According to the indictment, he had had a construction manual for the manufacture of an AK 47 assault rifle (Kalashnikov) sent to him and is said to have asked in a chat room where to obtain weapons and how to make an explosive belt. The Syrian also claimed to an undercover intelligence officer that he was planning “something major”. There was talk of an attack in Berlin.After the third non-public hearing day in September 2017, the Regional Court declared itself no longer competent and referred the case to the Berlin Court of Appeal. The reason: There were new allegations regarding the membership of a foreign terrorist organization. However, the Berlin Superior Court also temporarily suspended the proceedings after the fourth day of the hearing in December. Court spokeswoman Lisa Jani: “Because follow-up investigations were still necessary.

In addition, the General Public Prosecutor’s Office in Naumburg is now responsible. Its spokesman Klaus Tewes confirms: “When the investigations can be completed is still open. The monitoring is a pure police measure for the prevention of danger.

The Ministry of the Interior does not want to comment on the case. The police unions are angry about the continuous operation. State head of the police union (GdP), Uwe Bachmann, speaks of an “extremely unfortunate matter”. His colleague from the Association of German CID Officers, Peter Meissner: “We can’t watch him forever.

volksstimme.de/sachsen-anhalt/sachsen-anhalt-gefaehrder-kostet-land-fuenf-millionen-euro

In the Lortzingbogen in the South Park in Halle’s Neustadt district, a man was attacked by another man with an object at about 5 p.m. on Sunday afternoon and was beaten further while lying on the ground.

According to information from dubisthalle.de, the weapon used was a motorcycle stand.

This inflicted bleeding wounds on the 35-year-old. The injured person was extremely upset and did not want to be treated medically. Finally he could be brought to a hospital for medical treatment.

The attacker is a 30-year-old man from Syria. According to witnesses, he is said to have shouted “Allahu Akbar” during the crime.

The police initiated criminal investigations against him. The reason for the dispute is not yet known.

dubisthalle.de/allahu-akbar-mann-schlaegt-im-suedpark-auf-kontrahenten-mit-motorradstaender-ein