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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.

The Munich police have an 18-year-old German-Iranian male shot and killed eight people today. He killed himself afterwards and they do not have a motive. https://twitter.com/dwnews/status/756646211738828800 https://twitter.com/dwnews/status/756647504335216648

“German problems are rarely German problems alone,” wrote German philosopher Ralf Dahrendorf once. German problems tragically tend to engulf the rest of world as well. The two Great Wars of the 20th century have been no exception. As European civilisation, having overcome Nazism and Communism in the last century, faces another existential threat in form of Radical Islam, this maxim might again holds some truth. The European migrant crisis that started last year was result of German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s single-handedly scrapping of the EU asylum laws and the opening of the Schengen Borders. Chancellor Merkel’s actions might have been met with disbelief or even anger in some European capitals, but she got strong backing from Brussels’ bureaucracy, and from Germany's political and cultural elites.

With terrorists associated to the Islamic State striking one European city after another, Secretary John Kerry went on CNN saying, the ISIS was “on the run.” The blood wasn’t yet washed off the pavements of Nice, France where an Islamist mowed down 84 people to death, an Afghan ‘refugee’ went on a stabbing spree in the southern Germany city of Würzburg. As German decision makers go deeper in denial and continue to plead helplessness in face of Islamist attacks, terrorism is fast becoming the 'new normal' for Europe. Just hours after the terrorist attack in Würzburg, Germany’s Refugee-Czar Peter Altmaier reassured the country that “refugees posed no increase security threat.”

Barely 4 days after the deadly attack in Nice, France that killed 84 people and left more than 300 injured, Germany has been hit by a terrorist attack. A 17 year-old Afghan ‘refugee’ went on a stabbing spree inside a commuter train near the southern German city of Würzburg. According to eyewitnesses, the attacker shouted “Allahu Akbar” as he attacked passengers with knife and axe -- critically injuring four people. The attacker was killed by Special Forces just 500 meters from the crime scene, as he tried to flee. German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung reports:
On Monday evening, a 17 year-old man injured 4 people critically and another one slightly in a commuter train. A man attacked passengers in the train, armed with a knife and an axe. After the train was stopped by the passengers in Heidingsfeld [near Würzburg], the 17 year-old escaped on foot. He was shot down by Special Forces as he tried to attack a police officer.

An upcoming startup event promises to bring hundreds of Israeli and Indian entrepreneurs to collaborate in creating healthcare solutions for India. India's largest startup incubator T-Hub has tied up with Pears Foundation to organise the first ‘India-Israel Med4Dev Hackathon’ from July 22nd to 24th, 2016. The organisers expect more than 150 binational teams to participate in the startup event that takes place simultaneously in Tel Aviv, Bangalore, Hyderabad and Mumbai. Pegged presently at $100 billion, healthcare is one of the biggest and the fastest growing sectors in India. The two-trillion Asian economy is growing at a rate of 8 percent per annum. India's growing middle has created a huge market for modern and efficient healthcare. The healthcare sector in India is projected to reach $280 billion by 2020.

Iran has been making repeated attempts to acquire nuclear-, chemical- and biological weapons technology from Germany, reveals the annual domestic intelligence report published by the German State of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) last week. According to the report, last year Iran made 141 attempts to illegally secure technologies related to [nuclear, chemical, biological] proliferation in the state of NRW alone. This indicates an almost 100 percent rise compared to 83 such attempts in 2014. If this intelligence report is to be believed, than German government was aware of Iran’s continued efforts to acquire Nuclear and WMD technologies while it was pushing for a Nuclear Deal with Tehran 0n the world stage. Chancellor Merkel’s Government enthusiastically backed Obama-sponsored Nuclear Deal and was one of the six countries that worked out a nuclear agreement with Iran last year.

According to a latest intelligence report, Germany harbours an alarmingly large number of Islamic terror operatives on its soil. Germany is home to about 300 Hamas and 950 Hezbollah members, the annual report of Germany's domestic intelligence agency -- the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV) -- reveals. The report was released last week by German interior Minister Thomas de Maizière and President of BfV, Hans-Georg Maassen. “The supporters of Islamist-terrorist groups like Hamas and Hezbollah, who aim is to destroy the Jewish State of Israel, are focused on their region of origin [Middle East] and primarily conduct acts of terrorist violence there [Authors translation],” says the 317-page long annual intelligence report.

“You never want a serious crisis to go to waste,” Chicago Mayor and long-time Obama confidant Rahm Emanuel once said. Despite being rejected by the UK voters in the last month’s referendum, top bureaucrats running the European Union want to do precisely that. Since Brexit results, they have unveiled plans to build an EU Army, expand the entitlement programmes, and boldest of all -- calls to create a unified EU Government, a pan-European Superstate. What was once confined to the realm of myth and conspiracy theory, is now being proposed from the helm of the EU. On the day of the Brexit result, President of EU Parliament Martin Schluz and German Vice-Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel published a detailed proposal calling for reconstituting the EU into a European Government. Both Gabriel and Schulz are leading members of Germany’s Social Democratic Party (SPD) that is currently in a coalition with Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democrats (CDU). Having tied its lot to Merkel’s policy of open borders, SPD’s poll numbers have hit a historic low. The proposal co-published by two of the Europe’s most powerful politicians wants to wrest remaining economic powers away from the national governments, creating an ‘Economic Schengen’ zone.

The result of the last week’s UK referendum has come as a boost to popular movements across Europe. Arguably the Europe’s most articulate proponent of the anti-EU movement, Netherland’s Geert Wilders has called for a Dutch referendum on EU membership following the British vote. Wilders, leader and founder of Dutch Party for Freedom (PVV), said in written statement that "the United Kingdom is leading the way to the future and liberation. The time is now for a new start, trusting in its own strength and sovereignty. Also in the Netherlands." Wilders believes that Brexit is merely the beginning of the end for the EU. “The Netherlands will be next,” he told the media after the result of the UK referendum was announced. “We want to regain control over our country, our own money, our own borders, our own immigration policy.”

While the doomsday scenario foretold by the EU campaigners and the liberal media of untold misery, political chaos and economic disaster befalling Britain -- if the country votes to leave the EU -- has yet to come to pass. Instead, the British stocks and pound have rallied back after tumbling down initially in the aftermath of the referendum. Even the liberal-minded Financial Times now admits that Brexit will be "neutral to moderately negative for the UK" but "devastating for the EU". The newspaper believes that it is Italy that Eurocrats now need to worry about -- not UK. Italy’s ailing banking sector has been drifting towards a crisis, forcing the government to roll out a $40 billion bailout plan this week. Though Brexit did not causing the crisis, as Italy already suffers from decapitalised banking system, high youth unemployment and sluggish growth. However, the departure of UK, EU’s second largest economy and its third biggest donor, could not have come at a worse time for the country. Nor could economic woes and public discontent in the country come at a less opportune time for EU, as Italy heads towards a constitutional referendum in October.

With EU leadership in Brussels still coming to terms with Britain leaving the union, following the last week's stunning performance by the Brexit campaign in the referendum, popular movements across Europe have renewed their calls to leave the European Union. Nowhere is the opposition to the EU politically better organised than in France. In a poll conducted by University of Edinburgh in March this year, more than half of the French respondents were in favour of a Frexit -- France leaving the EU. Brexit comes as a shot in the arm for Marine Le Pen, the leader of France's right-wing Front National, as she prepares for the presidential election coming up next year. Le Pen's anti-immigration and Eurosceptic party has shown impressive run in the country's regional elections. Now Le Pen wants to make France’s EU membership a central theme of her presidential campaign, as EU establishes itself as the driving force behind the mass immigration and open border policy, with Brussels actively blocking and penalising EU member state from enforcing even basic border controls. In the aftermath of last November’s Paris attacks, a growing number of people in French want to see an end to the open border policy.

Israel and the United States have signed an agreement aimed at increasing bilateral cooperation in the field of cyber defense. The Cyber Defense Cooperation Agreement penned on Tuesday, June 21, seeks to build joint infrastructure in cyber defense, create partnerships in private sector, fund research, and develop new technologies. The agreement wants to improve the existing mechanisms for sharing of operative information between U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and its Israeli counterparty, National Cyber Security Authority. Israel has long established itself as a technology superpower with Tel Aviv and Jerusalem as major centres for cutting edge startup innovation -- second in the world only to the Silicon Valley. In recent years, the city of Beersheba located in the middle of the Negev desert has emerged as the world leader in cyber security. Today, around 20 percent of all technology companies in Israel are working in cyber security, making it the biggest technology related sector in the country.

As the U.S. disengages from Latin America as part of President Obama’s broader policy of reducing American presence in the world, Iran is moving in fill parts of that geopolitical vacuum, says a report published by Washington D.C. based Center for a Secure Free Society (SFS). The report used documents and legal wiretaps related to the circumstance surrounding the death of Argentine prosecutor Alberto Nisman who died of a bullet shot on January 19, 2015, a day before he was going to testify before Argentina’s Congress about Buenos Aires Jewish community center bombing carried out by Iranian terrorists. The report cited by the Wall Street Journal shows how the death of Argentine prosecutor “paved the way for [Iran] to move into a new phase of its information and intelligence operations in Latin America.” WSJ concluded that unfettered access for international financial system and assets worth $150 billion given to Iran as the result of Obama-Kerry Nuclear Deal “will increase Iran’s penetration of the Western Hemisphere.” The revelation comes just days after a senior Israeli diplomat in New Delhi warned of a concrete threat of Iran-sponsored terrorism targeting Israelis in India and abroad. In February 2012, Iranian terrorists carried out a bomb attack targeting Israeli mission in New Delhi.

What should be first of its kind, a leading German bank has shut down an account connected to the anti-Israel boycott campaign -- also know by the acronym of BDS. Commerzbank, Germany’s second largest bank, closed the account of anti-Israel and pro-BDS website “Der Semit”. The action is expected to have implications for other banks providing services to groups affiliated to the BDS campaign throughout Germany. Israeli Minister for Public Security Gilad Erdan welcomed the decision taken by Commerzbank and urged other European banks to take similar steps against anti-Israel and anti-Semitic groups raising funds and carrying out transactions in Europe.

While the U.S. mainstream media is still busy churning out stories pondering on the motives of the shooter who killed 50 people in a Gay Club on Orlando, making it the worst terrorist attack since 9/11, the people in Israel are bracing up for another wave of intensified terror. The Gaza-based Islamic terrorist group Hamas has declared a “Month of Jihad” against Israel during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. The Hamas call for a month-long "Jihad-athon" came just a day before two armed Arab terrorists opened fire inside a Tel Aviv restaurant, killing four Israelis and wounding at least 16 others on Wednesday, June 8. Following the deadly attack, Hamas issued a statement saying the two terrorists were members of its group. On its official Twitter account the Islamist group praised the shooting of Israeli civilians as “heroic” and warned of more attacks to follow during the Muslim month of 'prayer and fasting'.

As U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry was in Beijing this week, preaching the virtues of “peaceful resolution” of disputes between the neighbours in the South China Sea, fighter jets belonging to Chinese 'People's Liberation Army' carried out aggressive manoeuvres against a US plane. According to the U.S. Pacific Command, the reconnaissance plane was on a routine mission over the East China Sea when two Chinese J-10 fighters attempted an “unsafe intercept”, making it the second incident of this kind to take place in less than three weeks. Earlier in May, two Chinese fighter jets flew within 15 meters of a US reconnaissance plane flying over the South China Sea. As President Obama set about to reduce the U.S. footprint in the world and divert country’s military preparedness to chase the spectre of Climate Change -- seven years ago, Communist China has been investing in a massive project to build and militarise artificial islands beyond its recognised maritime borders. China now contests 80 percent of the South China Sea, staking its control over one of the busiest maritime route in the world.

Despite massive security measures, dubbed by the French news agency AFP as a “State of Emergency”, the authorities in France remain fearful of a new wave of Islamist terror during the European soccer tournament Euro 2016 -- due to start this week. Over a million soccer fans from all across Europe are expected to visit France during the month long sporting event. France’s President Francois Hollande admitted the likelihood of fresh terrorist attacks during Euro 2016, saying that the Islamist threat “will unfortunately be there for a long time,” even as he refused to be “intimidated” by it. The European soccer championship is being held just six months after a group of suicide bombers tried to enter a stadium in Paris packed with thousands of fans during a soccer match between Germany and France. Despite the foiled attempt, terrorists, owing allegiance Islamic Caliphate (ISIS), killed around 130 people in Paris, arguably one of the most deadly Islamist attacks Europe had ever witnessed.