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Germany Tag

Posted by Vijeta Uniyal on September 18, 2015 25 Comments
Germany’s migration crisis just got even bigger. German authorities have been constantly revising their official estimates and have now concluded that by the end of 2015 over a million migrants would be settling in the country. What mass-migration would mean for Germany and Europe in the long run remains to be seen, but media and activist are already asking locals to adjust to the change. The first casualty appears to be the Munich’s traditional Oktoberfest, 16-day annual folk-fest held every year in September. With just less than a week to go, there are calls to cancel the Oktoberfest. Germany’s leading business daily Handelsblatt ran an article titled “Boycott Oktoberfest." Technology reporter Britta Weddeling lamented the fact that government was not doing enough and “the refugees [were] not invited [to the event].” She made a blunt call, urging readers that, “If you'd travel to Munich to celebrate Bavarian cosiness and hospitality, you'd support a lie. Don’t go. Boycott Oktoberfest.” If Frau Weddeling is not happy with the fact that refugees, predominantly Muslim, are not being given free entry the beer tents in Munich, some devout Muslims are petitioning to call for a ban on “Intolerant and Anti-Islamic Event of Oktoberfest” altogether.

Posted by Fuzzy Slippers on September 13, 2015 16 Comments
In a surprise move today, Germany has announced that it is reversing current policy with regard to refugees entering the country from Austria.  While Germany continues to accept refugees, the border controls are designed to instill some order to the process.  Adam Withnall, writing for The Independent, reports:
Germany has reintroduced border controls with Austria, its interior minister has confirmed, halting all trains and deploying 2,100 riot police to help carry out checks. Speaking at a press conference called at short notice, Thomas de Maizière said the controls were being applied with immediate effect "to bring some order to the entry of refugees". . . . . A spokesperson for an Austrian rail company said German officials had begun halting all trains trying to cross the border into Bavaria from 5pm local time (4pm BST), while the situation involving traffic going the other way remained unclear. Reporting on the unexpected move earlier and citing unnamed officials, German daily Bild said the closing of the border represented "a dramatic shift in refugee policy". Der Spiegel reported that only those with "valid travel documents" would be allowed to enter the country from Austria "until further notice".

Posted by Fuzzy Slippers on September 13, 2015 39 Comments
As the migrant crisis spirals out of control in Europe and though Saudi Arabia refuses to take in any Syrian refugees, they have offered to build 200 new mosques in Germany. The Times of India reports:
Syria's richer Gulf neighbours have been accused of not doing their fair share in the humanitarian crisis, with Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, Oman and the UAE also keeping their doors firmly shut to asylum-seekers. According to the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, which quoted a report in the Lebanese newspaper Al Diyar, Saudi Arabia would build one mosque for every 100 refugees who entered Germany in extraordinary numbers last weekend.
Angela Merkel, who last week announced that Germany would "no longer follow the Dublin accord which stipulated refugees and asylum seekers had to be processed in the first EU member state they arrived in," is reportedly hopeful that the Syrian refugees will assimilate into German language and culture.
Back in Germany, Angela Merkel welcomed two refugee families at a home for asylum-seekers in the Berlin suburb of Spandau on Thursday.

Posted by Vijeta Uniyal on August 13, 2015 7 Comments
A high-profile trial is currently underway in Germany. 26 year-old Ebrahim H.B. and 27 year-old Ayoub B. are facing terrorism charges after returning back from Syria, having served as ISIS combatants. Just like in U.S., the German mainstream media too is clueless about the motivations of these two jihadists. Media can’t credibly talk about “resentment” and “alienation” in case of this relatively prosperous duo, it has to contend with "personal distress" and trauma as main reasons to explain the pathological behaviour of the alleged terrorists. Ebrahim H.B., a German citizen of Tunisian-origin is charged with planning a suicide bombing in Baghdad. The media repeatedly emphasized the "quiet" and "shy" nature of the alleged ISIS-mastermind, who joined the Terrorist group just because his “planned wedding was called off”. The leading German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung reported [Author’s Translation]:
On Monday, Ebrahim H.B. told the Regional High Court in Celle that he had been very upset at that time. In spring of 2014 his fiancée called off their planned wedding. “I felt extremely humiliated by that.”

Posted by Vijeta Uniyal on July 27, 2015 9 Comments
Before the ink could barely dry on the Iran Deal, Germany's Economy Minister Sigmar Garbiel flew to Tehran, making him the first leading Western figure to do so after the nuclear agreement was reached Vienna earlier this month. Gabriel who is also Germany's Vice-Chancellor met with Iran's President Hassan Rouhani and other top Iranian leaders described the moods of the visit as "being with old friends." Germany's leading newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung wrote [translation by me]:
Germans many not have been at the center of the talks, but as go-betweens for Iran, they were considerably important. Amongst all parties working to bring about a negotiated deal, Germans enjoyed [Tehran’s] special trust.
Germany had tremendous economic interest in ending sanction on Iran and it is not making any secrets of it. In June, just as the Iran deal was nearing its final phases, the Bavarian Chamber of Commerce (BIHK) noted in its newsletter[translation by me]:
The German media landscape agrees on one point: lucrative deals worth billions are waiting to be made in Iran. As soon as the sanction are lifted, the run on the markets begins.
Last week, at a press conference in Berlin, Minister Gabriel brushed aside human rights concerns in Iran, saying that the lifting of sanctions were only coupled to Iranian nuclear program and "not related to other matters." He further explained that his task as Economy Minister is to "help the German economy", pointing out that his French and Italian counterparts now heading to Tehran are doing just the same.

Posted by Anne in Petah Tikva on May 19, 2015 25 Comments
Last Sunday, May 10, 2015,  I set out, together with my husband, brother and sister-in-law, on a “roots” trip to Germany. I was feeling rather ambivalent about the whole trip as I always swore to myself that I would never set foot in Germany after what happened to my family and of course to the Jewish people as a whole. To understand the background of my family history, read my family history page here.  In short, my mother had 3 older brothers who were sent on a Kindertransport to Holland for safety in 1938 after Kristallnacht, but the Nazis invaded in 1943 and shipped them to Sobibor where they were killed on the day they arrived, while my grandparents and their daughters eventually made it to safety in England. [caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="368"] Above: My mother’s 3 brothers who were killed in the Shoah: David, Elchanan (Herbert) and Uri HY”D Below: The 3 brothers with my mother Judith תבדל”א[/caption] The people of Michelstadt, my mother’s home town, issued a memorial book last year, and kindly invited us to come out and visit. Despite my ambivalence I felt it is important to accept their efforts to “make good” towards the Jewish community and they have been extremely gracious towards us. Following is a diary of sorts of our trip.

Posted by New Neo on May 06, 2015 1 Comment
Passengers appeared to have noticed nothing out of the ordinary, but Alps-crash copilot Andreas Lubitz had practiced his descent-programming skills on a previous flight. He apparently waited until the pilot stepped out of the cabin, after which Lubitz set about his nefarious business:
Over the course of three or four minutes, Lubitz...designate[d] "100 feet" as the selected flight level. He did this several times, while the pilot was out of the cockpit. But this was just after the plane had already begun its descent. After each occasion that he chose "100 feet" he then corrected himself and entered the correct flight level. The course of the plane was not altered at all.
So no one noticed at all. Here's how it went: LubitzProgram

Posted by William A. Jacobson on November 14, 2014 7 Comments
David Sheen is a name you probably haven't heard before, at least not the David Sheen who is a leading anti-Israel propagandist. Sheen, along with Max Blumenthal, travels the globe presenting a gross negative caricature of Israel worthy of 1930's cartoons. Sheen and Blumenthal were to present their anti-Israel campaign in the German Bundestag (parliament) until a left-wing German lawmaker, Gregor Gysi, objected (allegedly) on the grounds that the two were anti-Semitic. That objection reportedly almost got Sheen and Blumenthal disinvited, although they did end up giving their presentation. Sheen and Blumenthal then chased the lawmaker down the hallway. Both men got in Gysi's face, and Sheen tried to push his way into a bathroom as the lawmaker tried to shut the door. Sheen, writing at the anti-Israel, anti-Zionist Mondoweiss website, explained how it developed:
At the end of our presentations, Max called upon those assembled to join us and confront Gregor Gysi, and this call was applauded by many in the audience. A group of us then walked to his office, prepared to talk to him politely and explain the consequences of his cavalier political ploy. However, he refused to come out of his office and meet with us, even for a minute. When he finally emerged, he strode right past us at a brisk pace, and – well, you probably saw the rest – I followed him and demanded that he acknowledge responsibility for the repercussions that I would have to face as a result of his actions.
Sheen shot this video: Someone else filmed from a different angle, starting with an initial confrontation (which appears to be outside Gysi's office):
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