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Author: Vijeta Uniyal

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Vijeta Uniyal

Vijeta Uniyal is an Indian journalist based in Germany. He is Senior Distinguished Fellow at the Gatestone Institute.

Posted by Vijeta Uniyal on January 28, 2016 8 Comments
With the recent wave of terrorism unleashed on Israeli civilians, Prime Minister Netanyahu's government is investing in technology to pre-empt “lone wolf” attacks. Since September 2015, more than 100 stabbings attacks have taken place and 29 Israelis have died, including an American teenager. The terror attacks in Israel are not limited to knife attacks alone, about 40 shootings and 20 car ramming incidents have also taken place during the same period. Hamas and PLO-affiliated terrorist group are increasingly using Facebook and other social media platforms to recruit and direct attacks against unsuspecting Israeli civilians. And Israel is doing what Israel does best -- using cutting-edge technology to fight back terrorism. Speaking at a Cyber Technology conference in Tel Aviv, Israel's Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan said that the country is studying the modus operandi of these “lone wolf” terrorists, and devising tools to monitor social media and pre-empt such attacks. Jerusalem Post reports:
Israel will invest more in technology enabling it to gather intelligence on social media about potential “lone wolf” terrorists, Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan said on Wednesday.  (…)

Posted by Vijeta Uniyal on January 26, 2016 9 Comments
German newspaper Berliner Morgenpost reports that Germany's capital Berlin is rapidly turning into an “Islamist stronghold” in the heart of Europe. Germany’s domestic intelligence agency BfV is monitoring some 680 Islamists in the city. The agency classified 360 of these Islamic radicals as capable of carrying out violent attacks. These figure where released by the City of Berlin, as local authorities launched several ‘social programs’ to ‘stop the radicalization of youth.’ The newspaper also confirmed that 50 Islamists have returned back to Berlin after serving in the ranks of the Islamic State. The Berliner Morgenpost doesn't say, but these ISIS-returnees are most likely back on the dole and receiving tax-payer funded counselling from their social workers and psychologists, to help them cope with the trauma of having brutalized underage sex-slaves, beheaded infidels, and desecrated places of worship sacred to Christians or other faiths. These revelations from Berlin coincide with the terror warning by EU’s law enforcement agency Europol. According to Europol, Islamic State may now have "hundreds of militants in countries across [Europe]" that are "ready to bring murder and mayhem to the streets." London-based Daily Mail reports:

Posted by Vijeta Uniyal on January 21, 2016 9 Comments
Shocked by the wave of violent anti-Semitism in Germany following the Gaza conflict of 2014, the Central Council of Jews, apex body of Jewish organisations in Germany in called for the rally “Stand up! Never again anti-Semitism!” on September 14, 2014. The event was attended by German Chancellor Merkel, President Joachim Gauck and other senior government ministers. Speaking under the banner of “Never Again”, leader of the Jewish community, Dr. Dieter Graumann said, “enough is enough” and “we do not want to be compelled to gather here again in two or three years’ time.” The state ceremony graced by Chancellor Merkel and her entire cabinet is barely an year only and here we are again. 70 years after the end of Nazi Germany, the small Jewish community in Germany doesn't feel safe in Germany anymore. In recent months, prominent community leaders in Germany have urged Jews to avoid wearing religious symbols in public and to avid “districts with strong Muslim populations.”

Posted by Vijeta Uniyal on January 19, 2016 16 Comments
The timing could not have been more eerie. As Germany faces its biggest social and political crisis since the Second World War, Hitler’s Mein Kampf has again hit German bookstores. After 70 years, Germans once again have a chance of legally owning the vicious rants of this notorious Austrian-born psychopath -- in a hard bound version for €58,99. The recent migration from Middle East and North Africa did not only increase the level of antisemitism in Germany, it has also given a new lease of life to Neo-Nazi outfits. Last year, Charlotte Knobloch, the former President of Jewish umbrella group the Central Council of Jews in Germany, warned member of the tiny Jewish community in the country to "avoid being recognizable as Jews" in public, calling this the most perilous time for Jews to be in Germany since 1945. Charlotte Knobloch (83), a Holocaust survivor herself, knows what she is talking about.

Posted by Vijeta Uniyal on December 31, 2015 2 Comments
India's Foreign Minister Shushma Swaraj is expected to visit Israel in the second half of January. Indian news channel NDTV reported that the much awaited trip would take place around January 16-19, three months after the historic visit by first ever Indian head of state to Israel, when President Pranab Mukherjee visited to the Jewish State in October 2015. Jerusalem Post reported that some logistical issues need to be worked out before Israel can officially announce the visit, quoting government sources in Jerusalem. The announcement came on the heels of the successfully trial of a missile defense system jointly developed India and Israel. On Wednesday, Long Range Surface to Air Missile 'Barak 8' was test fired in Indian Ocean aboard the Indian naval destroyer INS Kolkata. Foreign Minister Swaraj, a former Supreme Court lawyer, has a long-standing ties to the Jewish State. She considers Israeli stateswomen Golda Meir as her role model. She served as the chairwoman of the Indo-Israeli Parliamentary Friendship Group from 2006-09.

Posted by Vijeta Uniyal on December 29, 2015 4 Comments
According to British newspaper Express, city of London and other European capitals have been warned about an imminent terror attack "on or before New Year's Eve." The security alert issued by an unnamed intelligence agency specifically mentions the likelihood of an attack on shoppers and revellers in crowded places around New Year’s Eve in a European city. The warning is considered credible, prompting the police departments across Europe to take security measures in a bid to avert another Paris-style attack. London-based Express writes:
The terror alert was handed to Austrian police from a "friendly" intelligence service, as evidence grows that jihadi sleeper cells are planning to hit Western targets. It has prompted police across the continent to increase security measures in a bid to prevent a Paris-style copycat attack on an unknown location in Europe. (...)

Posted by Vijeta Uniyal on December 24, 2015 11 Comments
This year saw the destruction of some of the oldest continuous Christian communities in the Middle East. As predominantly Christian Europe braces itself to accommodate millions of new Muslim migrants this year alone, Christianity takes its last breath in region where it was first revealed to the world. Israel remains the only glaring exception to this dismal rule. The armed war against Christians is accompanied by a cultural war on Christmas. This year, Muslim countries like Somalia, Tajikistan and Brunei joined the long list of Islamic nations banning the Christian festival -- in many cases making Christmas celebrations even in private settings a punishable offence. With the rising tide Islamist terror, even in the Christian heartland of Europe the Christmas is now under siege.

Posted by Vijeta Uniyal on December 22, 2015 16 Comments
Last week, German Chancellor Angela Merkel received a rockstar reception at her conservative party CDU's annual convention in Karlsruhe. Merkel received a nine-minute-long standing ovation from the party delegates for a speech in which she refused to put a fixed limit on migrant intake. Germany is expecting to take as many as 1.5 million migrant this year. With each migrant expected to bring 4-8 family member in the short-term, the real number for 2015 alone could be well over 7 million. However, some odd 30 party delegates dared to question Merkel's stand on mass migration -- out of roughly 3000 attending delegates. That's 99 percent approval by the party cadre for Merkel's open border policy. Even Stalin-era purges didn't East-German dictators that level of support. The British newspaper Independent reports:
[I]n her keynote address to more than 3,000 Christian Democrat (CDU) delegates at a party congress in Karlsruhe, Ms Merkel effectively threw down the gauntlet to the rest of Europe and insisted that it share the burden in helping to solve the problem. “We face the biggest refugee crisis since the Second World War,” she told the party faithful. Appealing to other EU members for help she called for solidarity, saying that Europe faced a “historic test” and insisting: “The fight for a unified Europe is worthwhile – of that I am deeply convinced.” Ms Merkel conceded that overcoming the problems facing Germany, which has accepted over a million migrants in 2015 alone, amounted to a “giant task”. But the Chancellor flatly refused to accept demands from within her own ranks to set an “upper limit” on the migrant influx, or for the installation of Berlin Wall-style fortifications and controls on Germany’s borders.

Posted by Vijeta Uniyal on December 17, 2015 6 Comments
More than 15 months have passed since the end of the conflict in Gaza between Israel and the terrorist outfit Hamas, but the campaign of slander against Israel and witch-hunt against the members of its armed forces still continues. Last week British authorities briefly detained a retired IDF reserves officer, apparently based on a list compiled by a "pro-Palestinian group" of soldiers involved in alleged 'war crimes' during last year's Operation Protective Edge. The officer was held for questioning for hours and was only released after Israeli Foreign Ministry intervened. British authorities have since apologized for the incident, but this once highlights how anti-Israel groups are subverting the laws in the West in an attempt to strip Israel of its right to defend itself in the face of terror. The incident took place just days after a fact-finding group comprising of military experts from around the world published their report on the 50-day clash between Israel Defense Force (IDF) and militant islamist outfit Hamas in Gaza. Around 14 high-ranking military officers came together to form the High Level Military Group (HLMG) earlier this year. Former head of India's Defence Intelligence (DG DIA) Lt. General Kamal Davar was accompanied by former Commander of British Forces in Afghanistan Colonel Richard Kemp, along with other top military commanders from U.S., Germany, Italy, Spain and France.

Posted by Vijeta Uniyal on December 14, 2015 4 Comments
There was a sense of panic on the political stage in France as two mainstream parties Conservatives and Socialists scrambled to prevent French regional government from falling into the hands of Front National in the second round of the voting. Last week, Front National under the leadership of Marine Le Pen had emerged as the leading political party ahead of President François Hollande’s Socialists and former French President Sarkozy’s conservative Les Républicains in the first round of the French Regional Elections. Before the second round of polling, the Socialists pulled out their candidates in key constituencies in a bid to thwart Front National. The tactical voting worked and Socialists voters opted for Sarkozy’s Les Républicains to shut out Front National from the regional government, preventing a historic win for the Right-Wing party. British Newspaper The Telegraph reports:
The far-Right Front National was thwarted in its bid to clinch a historical electoral victory in France on Sunday after failing to secure power in any of the country’s 13 regions.

Posted by Vijeta Uniyal on December 10, 2015 20 Comments
TIME magazine named German Chancellor Angela Merkel as its Person of the Year. The New York-based magazine praised “her resilience and leadership when faced with the Syrian refugee crisis and turmoil in the European Union over its currency this year.” Angela Merkel is the first women to lead Germany and last month completed uninterrupted 10 years at the helm of Europe’s largest economy. Merkel has often been referred to as the most powerful woman in the world. In fact TIME's celebratory issue’s cover story calls her “the Chancellor of the Free World.” Since President Obama has abandoned the leadership of the Free World as a matter of principle, the top job was up for grabs anyway. The problem is only the direction Merkel is steering the Western World in face of the historic migrant crisis. To give credit where it’s due, the liberal editors at TIME Magazine had quite a tough time picking this year’s winner. German Chancellor was pitted against “Black Lives Matter” activists, Islamic State’s “Caliph” Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, celebrity transgender Caitlyn Jenner, and Iran’s dictator Hassan Rouhani. Republican hopeful Donald Trump was upset over the fact that judges at TIME didn’t chose him for this year’s award, and as Trump (rightly) put it, “picked a person who is ruining Germany.”

Posted by Vijeta Uniyal on December 07, 2015 12 Comments
The popular rebellion against Europe’s migration policy has reached the European heartland, with a day that saw one of the worst defeats for the France’s traditional Socialist Party and a historic win for the far-right Front National. The anti-migration and anti-EU party Front National (FN), with Marine Le Pen at the helm, secured 28 percent of the votes and took lead in 6 out of 13 regions that went to polls. The is a huge gain for the far-right party compared to only 11 percent it got in the last regional elections in 2010. Front National has never held the leadership of a French region before in party's more than 40 years of existence. In French regional election being held from December 6-13, 2015, 13 Regional Presidencies within mainland France and 5 Presidencies overseas (out of total 27) are up for grabs. The regions in France hold limited powers, as the country in centrally governed from Paris since the Napoleonic times, but the provincial governments get to manage big regional budgets.

Posted by Vijeta Uniyal on December 03, 2015 4 Comments
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban claims that Germany has struck a secret deal with Turkey to resettle 500,000 additional refugees in Europe. The revelations came just days after the EU and Turkey reached an agreement to curb the inflow of migrants. According to Prime Minister Orban, the 'secret pact', which is not part of the deal reached over the weekend, would be announced by Germany in the coming days. European leaders denied any secret deal with Ankara. However, an European Commission officials, quoted by Bloomberg, confirmed EU's intentions to bring in migrants to Europe in a "managed, open, and voluntarily process.” London-based newspaper The Independent reports:
Germany has struck a secret pact with Turkey for the European Union to take in as many as half a million Syrians currently living in Turkish refugee camps, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has claimed. While EU officials were vociferously denying the suggestions of a secret deal with Ankara, they did not dispute that efforts are being made to manage the resettlement of Syrians in Europe more efficiently. Speaking in Budapest, Mr Orban said an EU agreement on the transfer of refugees from Turkey would be announced in Berlin on 3 December or the day after. “A nasty surprise lies in wait for Europe,” he said.

Posted by Vijeta Uniyal on December 01, 2015 1 Comment
A leading British bank has closed the accounts of Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) and several other pro-Palestinian groups amid charges that they might be funnelling funds to terrorist organisations. Manchester-based Co-operative Bank issued a statement saying Palestine Solidarity Campaign's (PSC) accounts failed due diligence checks to ensure that funds were not 'inadvertently funding illegal or other proscribed activities.' The Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) claims to be surprised by the allegations and threatened legal action against the bank, crying foul about “discrimination.” PSC is one of the most influential backer of the anti-Israel boycott campaign (BDS) in UK. Jeremy Corbyn, the newly-elected leader of the Labour Party, has long been a vocal supporter of PSC and other anti-Israel groups championing the "Palestinian cause." The Labour leader enjoys long and close ties to the activist group. PSC's website describes him as “regularly speaks at [its] rallies” and being "tireless in his support for Palestine." The British newspaper The Telegraph reports the latest revelations:
An activist organisation which has Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn as patron has had its accounts closed down over fears that it may be inadvertently funding terrorism.

Posted by Vijeta Uniyal on November 27, 2015 1 Comment
According to a press release issued by Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI), Israeli Navy has successfully tested Barak 8 Air and Missile Defense system developed jointly by Israel and India. The 4.5 meter-long surface-to-air missile can carry a payload of up to 60 kg. The missile is built to counter comprehensive airborne threats including fighter jets, combat helicopters, incoming missiles, and weaponised drones. Jerusalem Post reports:
Israel Aerospace Industries carried out on Thursday the first successful interception test of the next generation Barak 8 missile system, which is designed to protect naval ships and offshore gas rigs from hostile aircraft, missiles and rockets. In the test, the INS Lahav, a Sa’ar 5-class corvette, positioned just south of Haifa, fired a Barak 8 missile and destroyed a fast-moving, jet-powered drone at 7 a.m. It was the first time the missile was launched from a ship, Vice Admiral Eli Sharvit, navy chief-of-staff, told reporters. (...) The project has been in joint Israeli and Indian development in recent years, and is officially due to become operational in both navies within one to two years, he said.
According to London-based newspaper The Guardian, Barak 8 is set to play a key role in securing the Israeli offshore gas fields.

Posted by Vijeta Uniyal on November 26, 2015 13 Comments
In a show of defiance against the European Union, Poland's newly-elected conservative Prime Minister Beata Szydlo has broken with the practice of her liberal predecessors and decided to remove the EU flag from her weekly news conference. Last month, Prime Minister Szydlo's conservative Law and Justice Party won a landslide victory on an anti-immigration and Eurosceptic platform. The new Polish government is opposed to the EU-backed German proposal to distribute migrants across EU member states. Poland is only willing to accept displaced Christians from the Middle East.

Posted by Vijeta Uniyal on November 19, 2015 11 Comments
As German Chancellor Angela Merkel doubles down on her open-border policy just days after the deadly Paris terror attacks by reiterating her government’s willingness to absorb more migrants, the political landscape in changing rapidly before her eyes. The anti-immigration party AfD that was just above 3 percent in opinion polls as recently as August, is now polling above 10 percent. Established in 2013 as a grassroots reaction to the EU’s monetary policy, the party has skyrocketed to the country's third largest political force. AfD (Alternative for Germany) has aligned itself with the anti-Islamisation movement ‘Pegida’, drawing impressive crowds to its rallies, especially in the eastern part of the country.
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