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Arabia

Setting the Levers: How Little Qatar Controlled the Politics of Major Countries

2025-05-08

Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
by Leonid Tsukanov

[REGNUM] The European Commission (EC) has decided to stir up the “inconvenient past” and launched a re-investigation into the Qatari corruption scandal of 2022. The focus is on Henrik Hololei, a European official from Estonia, who is accused of secretly working for Doha.

Despite the fact that the investigation is still “internal”, it could well result in criminal prosecution – especially since a precedent has already been set, and not only in Europe.

The EC may have been partly prompted to look at the scandal of three years ago from a new angle by similar crises in other countries, where the interests of official Doha were also involved.

QATARGATE 2022
The 2022 corruption scandal in the European Parliament (also known as "Qatargate") was one of the largest in the history of the EU. The total damage caused to Europe by foreign lobbyists was estimated at several tens of billions of euros in monetary terms.

At least ten senior EU officials were put under investigation, including then-Vice President Eva Kaili and influential MEP Antonio Panzeri. For some, most notably Kaili, it was the end of their political careers.

And although agents of influence from Morocco and Mauritania also had a hand in the behind-the-scenes struggle for control over EU decisions, it was Qatari lobbyists who became the main headache for the European community.

As EC functionaries later noted, Doha skillfully manipulated individual MPs and their family members.

In this way, Qatar has managed not only to improve its own reputation ahead of the 2022 World Cup, but also to secure preferences for national oil, gas and technology companies, as well as to secure generous European investments in the “domestic” digital sector.

In addition, thanks to its connections in the European Parliament, Qatar has gained the opportunity to influence the situation in the Palestinian Authority and the Gaza Strip, unobtrusively promoting its creature through the hands of European officials.

A couple of years later, this greatly helped Doha become a universal mediator between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas.

THE HOLOLEI CASE
However, the shadow of the Qatari corruption scandal did not ruin the careers of all those involved.

The case of the former Director General of the EC for Transport, Henrik Hololei, is indicative. The European official spent a lot of time in Doha, which he allegedly visited "at the expense of the inviting party," and often combined working meetings with sheikhs and vacations in fashionable establishments in the Qatari capital.

Moreover, Qatar's good nature and hospitality coincided with a period when Khololei was authorized by the EU to negotiate with it on "open skies," which would have given the national airline Qatar Airways greater access to the European Union than other Arabian carriers.

It is worth noting that the main and most active negotiations took place precisely during the period when Qatar was under diplomatic blockade and was effectively isolated from its neighbors.

It is not surprising that the European official soon began to face questions from the prosecutor's office and his colleagues at the EC.

In 2022, Khololei was a suspect in the "Qatargate" scandal, but he was not included in the "shameful cohort" with his high-ranking colleagues, since some of the accusations against him were never proven.

In addition, even before the preliminary charges against Kaili and Panzeri were approved, the official made a deal with his colleagues and voluntarily left his position. However, he did not leave the transport directorate itself, but only took a lower position as a political adviser, where he remains to this day.

However, it seems he never managed to completely shake off his past. In the spring of 2025, the EC reopened its internal investigation into Hololei.

Formally, the verification procedure began back in March to re-check information about the European official’s past abuses during his business trips to Qatar.

However, by May, the EC began talking about certain “new episodes” in the already investigated case and about the presence of a “Qatari trace” in its latest decisions and initiatives.

Investigators suggested that even after leaving office, Khololei retained the role of Qatar's behind-the-scenes lobbyist and continued to help his former partners promote decisions in the European Parliament that were beneficial to them. For these purposes, he used the parliamentary network and NGOs close to the European Parliament.

If the accusations against the European official are confirmed, he will be forced to leave the EC permanently and will most likely become a defendant in a criminal case along the same lines as Kylie did earlier.

TWIN SCANDAL FROM 2025
The renewed interest in Europe in the already forgotten scandal can be explained, among other things, by the great hype surrounding the “Qatar dossier” in Israel, also known as “Qatargate”).

The issue is that those close to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have been drawn into a scandal involving lobbying for Doha's interests and passing it secret information for more effective strategic planning.

At first, European law enforcement officials did not pay much attention to developments in Israel.

However, after the Israeli version of “Qatargate” went beyond the borders of the Jewish state, and information emerged about Doha’s attempts to influence the image and policies of other countries (Egypt and the United States), the EC reasonably assumed that the “tentacles” of Doha’s influence could well extend into Europe.

And so they decided to check their officials for dubious connections - and started with those who had already been caught committing abuses in the past.

It is quite possible that Khololei is far from the only one who has decided to reboot old ties with Qatari sheikhs, guided by the idea that the European “Qatargate” is no longer as interesting to investigators as its Israeli “twin”.

This means that new names well known to Europeans may soon appear in the case.

Be that as it may, both scandals – the European and the Israeli – demonstrate that over time Qatar has not only not lost its influence on global processes, but has also been able to increase them with a minimal expenditure of resources.

Having set up “levers” not only in the Middle East, but also in the Old World, Doha remained mostly in the shadow of the major powers, but influenced the vectors of their policies, controlling the situation through its lobbyists.

Link

Europe

‘Words Can't Begin to Express the Outrage I Feel at Having the GERMAN Government Lecture the US SecState on the Need to Spy on Political Opposition’

2025-05-06

See also here.

[GatewayPundit] The war of words continues to escalate between the Trump administration and the parting left-Green German government over the secret police attack on the largest opposition party in Germany, the Alternative for Germany (AfD).

Responding to an X post from the German foreign ministry, Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau issued a scathing smack-down to the self-righteous finger-waggers in Berlin.

The slugfest began with an X post by SecState Marco Rubio — Landau’s boss and confidante — skewering the German government’s attack on the AfD (The Gateway Pundit reported), currently the most popular party in Germany in the polls:

"Germany just gave its spy agency new powers to surveil the opposition. That’s not democracy—it’s tyranny in disguise. What is truly extremist is not the popular AfD—which took second in the recent election—but rather the establishment’s deadly open border immigration policies that the AfD opposes."

The German Foreign Ministry, run until this week by departing Green disaster Annalena Baerbock and her left-hand woman, American former Greenpeace head Jennifer Morgan (World Economic Fund), clapped back with typical self-righteousness:

”This is democracy. This decision is the result of a thorough & independent investigation to protect our Constitution & the rule of law. It is independent courts that will have the final say. We have learnt from our history that rightwing extremism needs to be stopped."

That was obviously too much for Deputy SecState Christopher Landau, who is Jewish and the son of a WW II veteran.

Landau posted:

"Speaking for myself, words can’t even begin to express the outrage and resentment I feel at having an official account of the GERMAN government purport to lecture the US Secretary of State on the need to spy on and censor the political opposition.

And no, Germany, you can’t hide behind smug references to what you’ve learned from "your" history.

As you may recall, it’s "our" history too, as we played a pretty important role in ending that particular chapter in your history.

And it’s "my" history too, as my own father was forced to flee his native Vienna after the Anschluss (and became an American citizen and proudly fought in the US Army to liberate Europe).

He didn’t flee as a result of TOO MUCH free speech; he fled because those who believed in spying on and censoring political opponents were in charge.

You may choose to brand your own citizens as "rightwing extremists" and silence or jail them because, for instance, they oppose open borders. But please spare us the moralizing."

Ouch!

"The German establishment elite are running scared because the German people are sick of their failed climate nonsense and Open Borders madness and are desperate for sensible politics," European Parliament foreign committee member Petr Bystron (AfD) told The Gateway Pundit. "They are turning to the Alternative for Germany despite years of persecution and character assassination, as I experienced myself first-hand. They thought they could pull the same stunts as usual, but now, we have a US government which is on to their tricks and will no longer stand for it. Thank you, Marco Rubio and Chris Landau."

US quarrels with Berlin after German spy agency brands far-right AfD as ‘extremist’

[IsraelTimes] Vance, Rubio attack decision; German foreign ministry responds to US secretary of state: ‘We have learnt from our history that right-wing extremism needs to be stopped’

Link

Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia

Common enemy

2025-04-19

Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.

Text taken from a press release by the Russian spy agency, SVR
[ColonelCassad] A retrospective analysis of the policies of Western states shows Europe's "historical predisposition" to various forms of totalitarianism, which periodically produces destructive conflicts on a global scale. According to experts, the current discord in relations between the United States and the EU countries, which accuse D. Trump of authoritarianism, is becoming, against the backdrop of the upcoming 80th anniversary of the Victory in the Great Patriotic War, a factor contributing to the situational rapprochement between Washington and Moscow, as has happened more than once in the past.

This is evidenced, in particular, by the scandal associated with the demands of the French member of the European Parliament Raphael Glucksmann to the Americans, who "decided to side with the tyrants", to return to Paris the Statue of Liberty, which was previously donated to the United States. R. Glucksmann, being a representative of globalist forces and a staunch supporter of the Kiev regime, criticizes the owner of the Oval Office for weakening support for Ukraine and dismissing civil servants who hold liberal views. White House Press Secretary K. Leavitt gave a sharp rebuke to the "impudent Gaul", recalling that only by the grace of the United States, whose troops landed in Normandy in 1944, is he able to express his thoughts in French, not German.

Attention was drawn to the fact that it was in France that dictatorial regimes came to power many times, distinguished by particular atrocities and cruelty. Among them were the Jacobin dictatorship, which in 1793-1794 destroyed thousands of its own citizens and imprisoned 300 thousand people on suspicion of "counterrevolution", as well as the bloody actions of Napoleon. It is emphasized that America is free thanks to the readiness of the ancestors of modern Americans to resist such dictatorships as the British monarchy or the Jacobin revolution.

According to experts, it was in the works of the French writer and publicist Pierre Drieu la Rochelle, who collaborated with the German occupation authorities during World War II, that the concept of Eurofascism was introduced and its ideology was justified as inherent not only to the Germans, but also to other “societies” of Europe. In the same context, one can recall the French volunteer SS division “Charlemagne”, named in honor of the “unifier of Europe” Charlemagne. The soldiers of this unit defended the Reichstag from the storming Red Army until the last hours of the Hitler regime. 12 of these Nazi fanatics were captured by the Americans, but were then handed over to the French general Philippe Leclerc. On May 8, 1945, by his order, all these war criminals were shot without unnecessary judicial red tape.

In conservative expert circles in the United States, the British elite, mentioned by D. Trump's representative, is considered to be very prone to committing the most serious crimes against humanity. Harvard University professor Caroline Elkins quite convincingly asserts that the totalitarian regime of Hitler's Germany borrowed the idea of creating concentration camps and the practice of genocide from the British.

He is here referencing the treatment of the Boers in South Africa, I assume.

It is emphasized that British "liberal imperialism" is a more stable and therefore even more destructive force than fascism, since it has "ideological elasticity", the ability to distort facts to its advantage, hide realities and adapt to new conditions.

I have no idea what that means.

Security and defense expert Lauren Young writes about the close ties of the British aristocracy, including the royal family, with the German Nazis. Attention is drawn to the visit to Italy by future British Prime Minister Winston Churchill before the start of the Great Patriotic War, who was left with a positive impression of the local fascist regime. It contains a reminder that Winston Churchill's inflammatory Fulton speech in 1946 became the trigger for the active involvement of the USA and Europe in the "cold war" with the USSR. During it, the British (similar to the "Goebbels lie machine") were engaged in "black propaganda", carried out disinformation and special operations that led to the deaths of hundreds of thousands of residents of Africa, the Middle East and Indonesia, Western experts emphasize.

In this regard, analysts are not surprised by London's leading destructive role in the Ukrainian conflict. The British in every way encourage the Kiev regime, which praises the punishers who fought on Hitler's side, Bandera's executioners, and today itself commits numerous crimes against humanity. Incidentally, America felt such inclinations of the British back in August 1814, when British troops occupied Washington, burned the Capitol and the White House. As experts believe, apparently in the context of the above, a proposal has even arisen among American historians about the legitimacy of calling Great Britain the first “evil empire.”

It has? I must have missed it while paying attention to current events.

Experts recall that in the past there have been many moments when Washington and Moscow became partners in opposing London and Paris in the international arena. A typical example of this is the Suez Crisis of 1956. The tough position of the USSR and the USA stopped the triple aggression of Great Britain, France and Israel against Egypt.

Possibly a mistake…

Another little-known page of history in the West is the events of the Crimean War of 1853-1856, when Great Britain, France, the Ottoman Empire and the Kingdom of Sardinia united against Russia (similar to today's "coalition of the willing"). Despite formal neutrality, the sympathies of the White House in this confrontation were on the side of St. Petersburg. This is evidenced by the participation of American doctors in the treatment of the defenders of Sevastopol, the "request of 300 riflemen from Kentucky" to send them to defend this city, the activities of the Russian-American Company to supply gunpowder and food to our fortresses and possessions on the Pacific coast.

I had no idea we were that generous.

It is noteworthy that it was during that Crimean "expedition" that the Anglo-French troops bombed Odessa, ravaged Yevpatoria, Kerch, Mariupol, Berdyansk and other cities of Novorossiya, which the West today calls Ukrainian. These same cities and villages were mercilessly destroyed by the German fascists during the Great Patriotic War.

80 years ago, all the peoples of the Soviet Union participated in the sacred battles against the German and other European fascists. In Crimea, there are monuments to the soldiers of the units formed in the former republics of the USSR - Azerbaijan, Armenia and Georgia - who died during the storming of Sevastopol in 1944. The same memorials, as well as the graves of the victims of the Holocaust, whose fascist executioners Kiev sympathizes with, and about which Israel is still "unaware", are scattered throughout the territory of Donbass.

As for Russian-American relations in the context of past and current events, foreign expert circles express hope for a new unification of efforts by Moscow and Washington, capable of preventing the world from sliding into a new global conflict and resisting possible provocations from both Ukraine and the “crazy Europeans,” traditionally egged on by Great Britain.

Link

Europe

EU admits "fight climate change funds" for financing left-wing NGOs and Greens - the aim of silencing the voices of EU non-left

2025-04-06

[X]
The European Commission admits it has used EU funds that were supposed to "fight climate change" for financing left-wing NGOs and climate organizations with the aim of silencing the voices of European conservatives in a secretive influence operation.

The funds came from the LIFE Program, which is supposed to fund environmental initiatives and has had a total budget of EUR 9 billion since 2014.

The LIFE program is a funding instrument dedicated to environmental, nature conservation, and climate action projects but some of the funds were instead used to attack conservative and eurosceptic voices according to the Austrian newspaper eXXpress.

The European Commission has issued a short statement on the matter:

"The Commission finds that the work programmes presented by the activist organizations (...) contained inappropriate lobbying activities"

According to internal documents, the targeted campaigns were designed in cooperation between EU agencies and climate NGOs, including planning which critics would be targeted.

- "We see this as a clear misstep by both individual EU officials and organizations," Peter Liese (CDU/Germany), environment policy spokesperson for the conservative EPP group, told eXXpress and added "the misuse of EU funds must stop"

According to the European Commission, changes are now to be introduced to the LIFE program to prevent future excesses.

Guidelines banning subsidized lobbying by EU institutions were already introduced in autumn 2024 - but it is only now that the abuses are being publicly confirmed.

Only a third of organizations and NGOs that received money from the LIFE Program openly disclose their income and how the funds are used, which has led to criticism of lack of transparency.

The former EU Climate Commissioner Frans Timmermans orchestrated the secret contracts with environmental NGOs.

These contracts reportedly included detailed lobbying plans specifying targets and goals. It means that the European Commission provided not just funding but also strategic direction on whom to oppose in a coordinated effort to attack political opponents of the European Commission's climate agenda.

NGOs were instructed to focus on critics of the Green Deal, such as conservative MEPs, national politicians, or parties (Austria’s FPÖ and ÖVP parties are likely among the targets) who resisted stringent climate regulations.

For example, the European Environmental Bureau (EEB), a major NGO network, is accused of being tasked with influencing EU Parliament decisions by targeting lawmakers who opposed ambitious environmental laws, like the Renaturierungsgesetz (Nature Restoration Law).

Practically all the opponents targeted are conservatives skeptical of centralized EU policies, often from populist or nationalist factions of the European Parliament as well as national parliaments.

LIFE Program funds in the order of EUR 15.5 million were sent annually to NGOs—as a tool to enforce this coordination.

It seems that the European Commissions's funding of many of these NGOs came with strings attached: NGOs had to align their campaigns with the Commission’s political goals, including neutralizing opposition by running “shadow lobbying” operations, crafting campaigns to sway public opinion and pressure decision-makers against Green Deal critics.

This included pushing narratives that framed opponents as anti-environment or anti-progress, effectively sidelining their influence.

The EEB, for instance, reportedly had to provide “at least 16 examples” of how their lobbying made EU laws tougher, implying a deliberate effort to counter resistance from conservative lawmakers.

The NGOs leveraged media partnerships and public advocacy to amplify their attacks. By framing critics as obstacles to climate action, they aimed to discredit them politically.

The work was outsourced by the European Commission and major NGOs like the EEB that were responsible for setting priorities, which smaller groups then executed.

Three of the EU's largest conservative party groups, the EPP, ECR, and PfE have called for a pushback against the Commission’s funding practices.

In early 2025, EPP MEPs, alongside ECR and PfE MEPs, threatened to freeze €15.6 million in annual LIFE funding to around 30 environmental NGOs.

The MEPs demanded accountability and alleged that the Commission’s Directorate-General for Environment (DG ENV) secretly paid NGOs to lobby for stricter climate policies and thus undermined the legislative independence of the European Parliament and national parliaments.

EPP figures like Monika Hohlmeier, vice-chair of the Parliament’s budgetary committee, criticized the Commission for what she called “scandalous one-sided methods,” insisting on repayment of misused funds dating back a decade

The EPP MEP @TomasZdechovsky
has said there is whistleblower evidence of “secret contracts” directing NGOs to lobby MEPs.

A few weeks ago, the EPP softened its stance slightly with a last-minute shift: they would drop the funding freeze if the Commission provided a transparency statement.

However, after a narrow defeat in the environment committee (41-40 vote on March 31, 2025), the Dutch EPP MEP @sandersmitwzn
accused the Commission of reneging on a deal to admit abuses, showing lingering frustration in the EPP.

The ECR, a Eurosceptic and right-wing group, has aligned with the EPP in this controversy, amplifying the narrative of overreach by Brussels:

Several ECR MEPs, including @FiocchiPietro
of Giorgia Meloni's Fratelli d’Italia party , co-tabled the objection to LIFE funding with the EPP, arguing that the Commission allowed “targeted lobbying” that disrupted institutional balance.

The ECR's broader agenda of halting EU federalism is closely connected to what it perceives as constant overreach by the European Commission.

EPP, ECR and PfE frame the NGOs’ efforts as targeting “critics of the Green Deal,” which implicitly includes their own members—conservatives and populists who resist aggressive climate policies. Parties like Austria’s ÖVP (EPP) and FPÖ (PfE), Italy’s Fratelli d’Italia (ECR), and Poland’s Law and Justice (ECR) are likely inferred targets, given their vocal skepticism of EU environmental mandates.

Many of the NGOs were focused on issues concerning farming, migration, and climate regulations, making it likely that figures such as the Dutch BBB MEP Sander Smit (EPP), who represents farmer interests, or ECR’s Fiocchi, tied to Italy’s rural and industrial base, were either direct or indirect targets of the NGOs.

Following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, increased Russian aggression against the EU itself (such as sabotage of undersea infrastructure) and the foreign policy changes in the U.S. under President Trump, the debate on the EU abandoning the Green Deal has reignited.

As the Trump administration has stated that all NATO allies should be required to increase military spending to 5% of GDP, many European politicians now realize the Green Deal isn't just making European economies uncompetitive, but also erodes European capabilities to rearm their militaries to the degree needed for Europe to be able to protect EU member states such as Finland, Sweden, the Baltic States and Poland from potential Russian invasions without massive American military support.

The debate in Europe on withdrawing from the Green Deal is just getting started.

Link

Europe

Interview: Descendant of the 'Iron Chancellor' Bismarck: Europe will accept the decision of Russia and the USA

2025-04-04

Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
by Elena Chinkova

[REGNUM] The German aristocrat and politician Alexander von Bismarck, who does not hide his sympathy for Russia, told the Regnum news agency how he sees the negotiation process on Ukraine and what role the European Union has in it.

And also about why he covered a destroyed Russian tank in Berlin with thousands of roses.

When Russia Turned into a Bear

— Alexander, in April it was 210 years since the birth of your great ancestor, the first Chancellor of the German Empire, Otto von Bismarck. He knew Russia and our people well. And, in particular, he said the following about us: “Russians are slow to harness, but they ride quickly.” What would he do in the current situation, when we have harnessed and are riding quickly?

- He wrote many times that Germany and Russia should be friends. Russians do not think about tomorrow, but much further, about the future.

"The secret pillar of our policy must be maintaining good relations with Russia. An alliance against Russia could be a great folly that would lead Germany to a dangerous point," the chancellor noted.

In an alliance against Russia, Germany will always lose. Russians are very friendly, but if you try to pin them down, they turn into a bear.

— Do any German politicians understand this today?

- In essence, no.

— Just you?

- And Gerhard Schroeder. He knew how to talk to Russians and drink. And that's important in negotiations too. But he was thrown out of everything. It's crazy.

Macron has no Soldiers for Ukraine

— What can we expect from the future Chancellor of Germany Friedrich Merz?

- Nothing. These authorities don't know what they want. They don't understand what's going on, they don't understand the scale of BRICS, and they don't talk to anyone.

— How can one explain the reluctance of key European countries to join the negotiation process? After all, Europe is seriously suffering from what is happening.

- They know they are wrong. But there is no government that can admit it: we have made many mistakes and so on. So far only Hungary and Slovakia are telling the EU that this is not our way. Well, perhaps Italy too now.

— Macron, who is eager to send troops to Ukraine, imagines himself to be Napoleon?

— France doesn't have soldiers for this. It's just "blah-blah-blah." And the current verdict on the presidential campaign favorite Marine Le Pen, which puts an end to her participation in the elections, is absolute madness.

— How do you assess the negotiations between Russia and the USA?

— Two strong personalities have come together. Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump have different ways of thinking, but they make real policy and discuss, to put it simply, like this: we do it this way, you get this and I get that. Trump is, first and foremost, a businessman, and Putin is guided by the historical and national interests of the country.

— Is it possible to achieve results without Europe?

- Of course! Europe will sit in the corner and accept any decision made by Russia and the US. Europe had three years to negotiate, but it did not want to talk to Russia. And now the Americans are doing it.

— And what role do you assign to China here?

— 80% of goods in Europe are from China. I see that Moscow is already full of Chinese cars. As for politics, the Chinese working in Berlin told me: we need good relations with Russia, the Russians are very clear, they say what they think, they do business openly.

I have appealed to our business and political circles: let's talk together! I have spoken to military attachés of China, Russia and Belarus and heard from them: they do not want to talk to us. And I am very sorry that they behave this way.

Two Thousand Roses on a Russian Tank

— In February 2023, Ukrainian activists placed a disabled Russian T-72 tank near the Russian embassy in Berlin, pointing its barrel at the diplomatic mission. And in response, you organized a touching action — you showered the tank with two thousand roses. Did you suffer greatly for your sympathy for Russia?

— In the media, yes. For several weeks in a row, I was accused of Putin's propaganda. But otherwise, no — I am a free businessman. Sometimes my friends tell me about another publication: "Alex, have you read this?!" I answer: "Yes, but I have already forgotten!"

If no one says anything, we will find ourselves in a situation that no one really wants. Many ordinary people are already declaring the need to normalize relations with Russia and are taking to the streets for peaceful demonstrations.

My good friend from the European Parliament, also a representative of an aristocratic family, Michael von der Schulenburg, has long-standing friendly ties with Russia, as does my family. In my opinion, he would be a suitable candidate from Germany to conduct a dialogue with Russia.

— When do you expect the conflict to end?

— When Putin and Trump say: “We need a week or two,” when they have a single and clear understanding of the settlement, then it will be over. And Ukraine and Europe will have nothing to say. I think that negotiations are ongoing every day, and it will happen very soon. I would like it to happen by May 9. And Donald Trump and Xi Jinping would be present at the Victory Parade in Moscow.

Alexander von Bismarck was born in 1951 in Reinbek (FRG). He has a law and economics education. In 1972–2017, he was a member of the Christian Democratic Union. Businessman, public figure, founder of the Russian-German public project "Bismarck Dialogue". He is married to the Russian violist Irina von Bismarck and has a son.

Link

Europe

One in Five EU Lawmakers Broke Same Rule as Le Pen Accused of, Almost All Avoided Punishment: Report

2025-04-02

Answering the question we’ve been discussing here.

[Breitbart] ....While the EU has never released a full accounting of all parliamentarians accused of the same misconduct as Le Pen was found guilty of, a 2023 report from the Follow the Money website found that between 2019 and 2022, 139 Members of European Parliament (MEPs), or around one in five members at the time, had been found to have broken the same rules, the Times of London noted on Tuesday.

Yet, according to the report, just one MEP, Eva Kaili, a Greek socialist and former Vice-President of the European Parliament, has faced an actual investigation during the time period studied. However, Kaili was already under heavy scrutiny over her alleged role in the Qatar-gate scandal in which leftist EU parliamentarians have been accused of accepting bribes from the Islamic kingdom, allegedly in exchange for promoting Qatari interests in Strasbourg.

The report found that the other 138 MEPs were merely instructed to return the misused funds to the EU Parliament before criminal charges could be brought.

There have been claims that the rules are enforced selectively, and particularly against politicians who have been critical of the European Union or its Parliament. Indeed, Brexit leader and former MEP Nigel Farage was a notable example of a Eurosceptic politician who had faced investigation for allegedly using EU funds on other expenses and was reportedly ordered to pay back £35,000 to the EU.

Link

Europe

'I won't let myself be eliminated': Le Pen's verdict gives nationalists a new chance

2025-04-02

Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
by Mikhail Kirillov

[REGNUM] A court has sentenced Marine Le Pen, France's most popular politician according to polls, to four years in prison and a ban on running in the elections. Her supporters are disappointed but are confident that it will help "revive" the party.

Lemons into lemonade is always better than the alternative.
The French nationalist leader calls the Paris court's verdict a "black day for democracy." She has publicly pledged not to allow herself to be "removed" from politics and is preparing to appeal.

The day before, on March 31, the head of the parliamentary faction and informal leader of the National Union was sentenced to four years in prison, two of which are suspended, as well as a fine of 100 thousand euros in the case of embezzlement of funds from the European Parliament.

She has also been banned from holding elective office for the next five years, meaning she will not be able to run for president in 2027, although she will retain her parliamentary mandate.

On the eve of the verdict, Marine Le Pen's electoral rating was 37 percent - twice that of the current French President Emmanuel Macron. In addition, this is also a personal record for Le Pen in the last few years. And, of course, many saw this as a political order.

"Today, millions of French people are outraged, outraged to the extreme. I am being eliminated, but millions of French people are being eliminated along with me," Le Pen assured a few hours after the verdict was announced.

The essence of the accusation boils down to a simple formula: Le Pen and her supporters fictitiously hired assistants to MPs for 12 years, and spent the proceeds on financing their party.

The scheme was devised by her father, Jean-Marie Le Pen, back in 2004 to supplement the movement's budget. In total, the right managed to save 4.4 million euros, or about 360,000 euros a year - not a huge sum by the standards of French politics.

And although the judges were unable to prove that the money was spent on the personal enrichment of the Le Pen family, this did not stop them from handing down a sentence that was unprecedentedly harsh by French standards.

But while the politician could theoretically challenge the prison sentence and the 100,000 euro fine in a higher court, it seems that the loss of electoral rights cannot be overturned.

"It is impossible to challenge the immediate entry into force of the ban on standing for election," Le Pen's lawyers explain.

In other words, the ban on nomination can only be lifted if the appellate court issues an acquittal.

Now it is time for the National Union to think not only about how to continue the political struggle without its leader, but also, perhaps, about the ways in which they can turn the current crisis to their advantage.

And there really are a lot of options here.

According to polls by the sociological company Elabe, at least 42% of the French are dissatisfied with the court's decision. In their eyes, the court dealt a blow not so much to corruption as to the opposition as a whole.

Such figures are an excellent chance for the right to first rally the protest electorate around itself, and then carry out a soft transition within the party itself.

The most obvious thing the right can do now is to find a new candidate for the presidential seat.

The most likely candidate to succeed Le Pen is considered to be the chairman of the National Rally, 29-year-old Jordan Bardella. However, both he and other party leaders have so far publicly rejected this possibility.

"Justice must hurry. Imagine if I am acquitted after the presidential elections, in which I was unable to participate, what will be the legitimacy of the elected president?" says Marine Le Pen, hinting that she is not ready to give up the fight for the Elysee Palace.

Yes, many foreign right-wingers and Eurosceptics are now speaking out in her support, which adds considerable weight to her words. Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico, Italian Prime Minister Giorgio Meloni and US President Donald Trump have all shown that they are ready to defend their ideological ally. And this could play a decisive role in the future.

Moreover, in a short period of time, Le Pen managed to attract opposition politicians to her side in France itself.

These include former Republican leader Eric Ciotti and the leader of the far-right Reconquest party, Eric Zemmour. Both have criticized the National Rally in the past, but are now united in their defense of the presidential front-runner.

"It is not for judges to decide who people should vote for. I regret that politicians themselves have given these excessive powers to the justice system. All this needs to be changed," Zemmour is sure.

But, and this is the most surprising thing, the voters themselves, although they express dissatisfaction with the verdict, believe that the forced transition could benefit the National Union.

And here lies both a big problem and a great opportunity for the party to win the support of even more people.

According to a poll by Odoxa-Backbone for Le Figaro, around 57% of party supporters consider Bardell as good a candidate for the post of head of state as Marine Le Pen herself. They are convinced that a new leadership could transform the National Rally from a “family” party into a political force with a much broader political representation.

In addition, six out of 10 French people, including supporters of other political forces, are confident that the court's verdict will not ultimately become an obstacle to the victory of nationalists in the next presidential and parliamentary elections.

To put it simply, a significant part of the right-wing electorate already believes that Marine Le Pen and the National Rally are not the same thing.

Some of them, while agreeing with the disproportionate nature of the punishment, openly express disappointment with their leader. “The Le Pen family, including the late Jean-Marie, was involved in dubious schemes and thus set us, their voters, up,” is how many nationalists are now reasoning.

The same applies to other, less public leaders of the National Rally, who, together with Marine Le Pen, were implicated in the thefts. However, as the investigation showed, Bardell was not among them, which only strengthens his sympathy among voters.

True, there is another possible strategy for the National Rally here, through which both the 29-year-old party chairman and his political mentor could come to power at the same time.

If Jordan Bardella wins the election, he will be able to appoint Marine Le Pen as prime minister without violating the court's verdict.

Of course, in this case, the leader of the nationalists will remain under judicial supervision, but she will have no formal obstacles to leading the government.

Although, of course, a convicted prime minister is a very dubious prospect in the eyes of voters.

True, all this will only be possible in one case - the "National Union" will be able to quickly recover from the shock, redistribute power within the party, consolidate the protest electorate, and then keep it in its orbit until 2027. And this looks like, at the very least, a non-trivial task.

But global political practice in recent years shows that this is very, very real.

The story of Donald Trump's shot ear was perceived by voters in the US as an attempt by "liberal globalists" to eliminate a non-systemic competitor and brought him huge political dividends. No legal proceedings against the Republican, which have been dragging on for many years, could beat the media effect of the "heroic" incident in Pennsylvania.

The same applies to the assassination attempt on Robert Fico, which only strengthened the reputation of the leader of the Slovak right.

True, there are also examples of the opposite in the European right-wing camp. For example, this happened to the candidate for the presidency of Romania, Calin Georgescu, for whom the presidential race, judging by everything, will end with a real prison term.

In other words, the “crisis of March 31” will require the National Rally not only to be united in the fight against the biased bureaucracy, but also to undergo a rapid internal transformation. After all, given the instability of the government coalition of the left and the center, the chance to take revenge in this fight may present itself to Le Pen much sooner than many think.

Link

Europe

Populist Marine Le Pen Banned

2025-04-01

more at the link...

Another from Walking Unvaxxed:

Lawfare against the European right-wing is being taken to a whole new level.
[WhatFinger] Marine Le Pen @MLP_officiel has been convicted for "misusing" European funds and has been BARRED from running for President of France, yet @vonderleyen is under investigation for corruption and refuses to disclose her text messages regarding a 35 BILLION euro deal with Pfizer and is currently the President of the European Commission. Talking about two tier politics.

Prayers for our brothers and sisters in Europe. We have massive challenges here but we have the freedoms to fight most of those challenges. In Europe, freedom is at a premium. Stay strong, y’all. — JD Rucker

The European elite have escalated their lawfare crusade into a full-on blitzkrieg against the right, with Marine Le Pen as their latest scalp. Banned from France’s presidency for misusing EU funds—peanuts compared to the corruption cesspool in Brussels—this is a naked assault on sovereignty. Trump supporters, this is our fight: the globalists are torching democracy to cling to power. Let’s unpack the stench: Le Pen’s convicted over €600,000, while Ursula von der Leyen, queen of the EU swamp, stonewalls an investigation into her shady 35 billion euro Pfizer deal—text messages hidden, accountability zero. She still lords over the European Commission, untouched.

Two-tier justice doesn’t even cover it—this is aristocracy vs. the people. The Left’s playbook is clear: kneecap populist lions like Le Pen who dare roar against open borders and corporate handouts. Sound familiar? They tried it on Trump too. Patriots across continents must unite, expose this double standard, and dismantle their rigged game before it’s too late. — More at Post on X

Just to break down the French charges against Marine Le Pen and other members of her party—the courts allege that she "embezzled" funds by using EU money intended for the EU-wing of National Rally on their national (French) wing. They’re supposed to be separate, but the overlap is basically impossible to avoid and every single European party, including liberal and leftist parties does this.

The fact that they’re going after Le Pen for this is lawfare, plain and simple. The system is being weaponized to go after conservatives and populists over the slightest infraction that the courts would otherwise turn a blind eye to. Marine Le Pen is by far the most popular leader in France and her party has more public support than all of the others, individually. The EU couldn’t beat her in the polls so they used the courts to take her down. — Ian Miles Cheong

More from The Walking Unvaxed:
EXPLAINED: How The Lawfare Against Marine Le Pen Led to Her Prison Sentence and Politics Ban.
[NationalPulse] A French court convicted Marine Le Pen, leader of the populist National Rally (RN) party, on March 31, 2025, of "embezzling" European Parliament funds—but make no mistake, the move was nothing short of politically orchestrated lawfare.

Prosecutors alleged that from 2004 to 2017, during her time as a Member of the European Parliament (MEP), Le Pen and 24 co-defendants funneled over €3 million (~$3.2 million) earmarked for assistants to support their Brussels-based parliamentary work into party operations in France. For this, she received a four-year prison term—two years suspended, two under house arrest—a $108,000 fine, and a five-year ban from public office, slamming the door on a projected 2027 presidential election triumph.

Her lawyer, Rodolphe Bosselut, rightly calls the ban a "declaration of civil death." RN president Jordan Bardella notes she is not the only victim: "It is French democracy that is being executed."

’POLITICAL BY DEFINITION.’
To be clear, RN doesn’t deny Le Pen’s assistants performed RN work. They argue that, as the leader of a national movement, advancing the RN platform she was elected on was a perfectly legitimate part of their work—particularly when it comes to fighting European Union overreach into national affairs.

"Parliamentary assistants do not work for the Parliament. They are political assistants to elected officials, political by definition," she argued at trial. "Their role is to assist us in our political work, which is inseparable from our mandate as elected representatives."

Such work is commonplace, even standard, among MEPs’ assistants, and the fact that Le Pen is being singled out is a dead giveaway of bias from a judiciary in lockstep with France’s liberal elite and the EU she’s vowed to defy.

DOUBLE STANDARDS.
Even if you accept that Le Pen violated some technical, selectively enforced interpretation of the European Parliament’s rules around assistants, the 56-year-old’s sentence is clearly disproportionate.

Contrast the iron fist used against her with Christine Lagarde’s velvet-glove treatment. In 2016, Lagarde, then France’s finance minister—later head of the International Monetary Fund, and now the head of the European Central Bank—was convicted of negligence over a €404 million (~$428 million) payout to businessman Bernard Tapie.

The court ruled her guilty but handed down no punishment at all—no fine, no jail, no ban. She sailed into one of Europe’s top jobs without consequence. Lagarde’s negligence dwarfed Le Pen’s €3 million case—but Europe’s elite cradle their own, like Lagarde, while smashing outsiders like Le Pen, whose anti-EU, populist politics threaten their power.

THE ROMANIAN PRECEDENT.
Polls show RN well ahead of the Renaissance party founded by Emmanuel Macron, and Le Pen was favored to win the next presidential election in 2027. Now, however, she will have no opportunity to defeat the establishment—because the French people will not be able to vote for her.

It mirrors the tactics used against Călin Georgescu, the Romanian populist barred from his country’s May 2025 presidential race. Georgescu, a skeptic of the EU and NATO, took a surprise win in the first round of the race last year—only for the courts to step in and cancel the election, ostensibly because voters had been tricked into supporting him by Russia-funded TikToks.

His supporters slammed this as a stitch-up by a rattled establishment, and polls suggested he would win a planned rerun—so the Constitutional Court made his exclusion permanent in a March ruling.

The EU playbook is clear: when populists like Le Pen and Georgescu surge, the EU doesn’t seek to defeat them at the ballot box; it shuts them out. Americans should be thankful similar partisan efforts to stop Donald Trump from standing last November failed, but they should be wary of the way Europe is normalizing such behavior.

Link

Europe

Le Pen’s political career in jeopardy as verdict looms for French far-right party

2025-03-31

Doing what they must to keep her out of power, by fair means or foul?

[IsraelTimes] Accused of embezzling European Parliament funds with other members of her party, Le Pen fears that if found guilty, court will declare her ineligible to run for office

Her "political death." That’s how French far-right leader Marine Le Pen described what’s at stake in a verdict expected Monday that could derail her plans to run in the next presidential election scheduled for 2027.

A judge is set to rule on whether Le Pen and her National Rally party embezzled European Parliament funds. She and 24 other party officials are accused of having used money intended for European Union

...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing...
parliamentary aides to instead pay staff who worked for the party between 2004 and 2016, violating the 27-nation bloc’s regulations.

Le Pen, 56, and other co-defendants denied wrongdoing during the nine-week trial that took place in late 2024.

Le Pen’s greatest concern is that she could be declared ineligible to seek public office, if found guilty.

Should she be convicted, the court could impose a period where she is ineligible to run for office "with immediate effect" — even if she files an appeal. The court would also decide whether to give her a prison sentence — which would be suspended during any appeal.

But filing an appeal could prompt another possible headache for the far-right leader, since the new trial automatically granted to her would likely take place in 2026, just months before the presidential election.

Le Pen appeared to be anticipating a guilty verdict, and told the panel of three judges: "I feel we didn’t succeed in convincing you."

During the trial, prosecutors requested a two-year prison sentence for Le Pen and a five-year period of ineligibility. They "want my political death," Le Pen remarked.

In a key decision on Friday, the Constitutional Council — La Belle France’s highest constitutional authority — ruled that a period of ineligibility with immediate effect is in line with the French Constitution.

But it also stressed that it’s up to the judges to assess the consequences of imposing such a ban right away and make sure the ruling is "proportionate" and takes into consideration "the preservation of voters’ freedom."

The Constitutional Council rendered its ruling in a separate case that has no direct link with Le Pen’s, yet its conclusions have been scrutinized, as they provide legal guidance that judges are likely to take into consideration.

The body also underlined that the court can decide to not impose any period of ineligibility immediately. In that case, the ban would be suspended pending appeal.

For over a decade, Le Pen has worked at making her party more mainstream, dulling its hard boy edge to broaden its appeal to voters.

She led the National Rally from 2011 to 2021. She changed its name from the National Front, as part of her efforts to distance it from the period when her father ran the party, which then carried a heavy stigma of racism and antisemitism.

Now a politician in the National Assembly, the French parliament’s powerful lower house, she has already positioned herself as a candidate to succeed President Emmanuel Macron, having twice finished as runner-up to him.

In 2022, Macron won with 58.5% of the vote to Le Pen’s 41.5% — significantly closer than when they first faced off in 2017 and the best score ever of the French far right in a presidential bid.

Ineligibility "would have the effect of depriving me of being a presidential candidate," she pleaded during the trial. "Behind that, there are 11 million people who voted for the movement I represent. So tomorrow, potentially, millions and millions of French people would see themselves deprived of their candidate in the election."

Many speculate that Jordan Bardella, 29, would take over for Le Pen if she were barred from running. He succeeded Le Pen in 2021 at the helm of the party, and he would likely be her prime minister if she were to become president.

Yet observers say there’s no guarantee he would be able to convince as many voters as she does. In recent months, some inside the party have criticized his management as too focused on his personal career.

Since joining the party at age 17, Bardella has risen quickly through the ranks, serving as spokesperson and president of its youth wing, before being appointed vice president and becoming the second-youngest member of the European Parliament in history in 2019.

Link

The Grand Turk

Jailed Istanbul mayor says his lawyer has been arrested UPDATE: along with more lawyers and journalists

2025-03-29

[IsraelTimes] Istanbul’s jailed mayor Ekrem Imamoglu says in a social media post that his lawyer has been detained and demands his immediate release.

“My lawyer Mehmet Pehlivan was detained on fictitious grounds,” Imamoglu says in a post on X published via his legal team. “As if the coup against democracy was not enough, they cannot tolerate the victims defending themselves,” he writes, adding: “Release my lawyer immediately.”

More journalists detained by Turkey after covering anti-government protests

[IsraelTimes] Nobel-winning author says events represent ‘Erdogan’s strong-fisted, autocratic rule at a level we have not seen before’

Two journalists were detained in dawn raids in Istanbul early Friday as part of a crackdown on media workers covering ~~The Sick Man of Europe~~ Turkey
...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire...
’s largest protests in more than a decade, their outlets reported.

Elif Bayburt, who works for the Etkin News Agency, and Nisa Suda Demirel, from the Evrensel news website, were the latest to be arrested in early morning sweeps that have targeted political activists and trade unionists as well as journalists.

"Our news hound, Nisa Sude Demirel, was detained by the police who came to her house at around 6 a.m. this morning," Evrensel said in a statement. "Demirel, who was following the (Istanbul City Hall) protests and the boycotts at the universities, was taken to the Istanbul Police Department’s Counter-Terrorism Branch office."

The demonstrations began last week following the arrest of Istanbul’s opposition Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu, a key rival to President His Enormity, Sultan Recep Tayyip Erdogan the First

His Enormity, Sultan Recep Tayyip Erdogan the First

...Turkey's version of Mohammed Morsi but they voted him back in so they deserve him. It's a sin, a shame, and a felony to insult the president of Turkey. In Anatolia did Recep Bey a stately Presidential Palace decree, that has 1100 rooms. That's 968 more than in the White House, 400 more than in Versailles, and 325 more than Buckingham Palace, so you know who's really more important...
. Imamoglu was tossed in the slammer
Drop the heater, Studs, or you're hist'try!
pending trial on corruption charges that many see as politically motivated. The government insists the judiciary is independent and free of political interference.

Reporters Without Borders condemned the journalists’ arrests. "There is no end to the detentions of journalists," its Turkey representative Erol Onderoglu said.

The Ottoman Turkish Journalists’ Union called for the news media to be allowed to do their work and for an "end to these unlawful detentions."

Earlier this week, 11 journalists were detained in morning raids. Although initially tossed in the slammer
Drop the heater, Studs, or you're hist'try!
pending trial, they were freed Thursday but still face charges of "taking part in illegal rallies and marches."

Turkey’s broadcasting authority issued a 10-day airwave ban on Sozcu TV on Thursday, as well as fines and program suspensions to other opposition channels. A news hound from the UK’s BBC was also deported Thursday.

The editor-in-chief of Swedish newspaper Dagens ETC said Friday that its news hound had gone missing. Joakim Medin has not been heard from since he wrote that he was being taken for questioning after arriving in Istanbul on Thursday to cover the protests, Andreas Gustavsson wrote on the paper’s website.

’CHILDREN BEING TREATED LIKE TERRORISTS’
Courthouses across Turkey are dealing with a spike in cases as a result of the protests. Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said Thursday that nearly 1,900 people had been arrested since March 19.

Anxious families have been gathering outside court buildings to await the fate of their loved ones, whom police can hold for four days.

"The youth we call Generation Z are more likely to participate in these protests. They sense that something is wrong," Savas Ozbek, whose daughter was detained Sunday, told ANKA News Agency outside Ankara Courthouse late Thursday.

Zeynep Ulger, who was waiting for news of her friend, said they were protesting for a "free, democratic country," adding: "The only thing we have achieved in the face of this is being beaten by the police on the streets and being detained."

Istanbul-based lawyer Arif Anil Ozturk, who represents many detained protesters, gave his insight into court proceedings.

"It is an unlawful process from beginning to end," he told the Cumhuriyet newspaper. "There is no evidence, no footage. Children... are being treated like terrorists."

Nightly Istanbul rallies organized by Imamoglu’s Republican People’s Party, or CHP, ended Tuesday. In other cities, and in Istanbul since the end of the CHP gatherings, largely peaceful protests have been more organic.

Police, however, have used tear gas, water cannon and plastic pellets to suppress demonstrations that have been banned in Istanbul, Ankara and Izmir.

LAWYERS DETAINED
At the Middle East Technical University campus on the outskirts of the capital Ankara, nine students were detained early Friday, opposition politicians who visited the site said.

"Young people have set up tents inside (the campus). Officious administrators have evaluated this situation as a ’threat’ and invited the police to the university to conduct an operation," CHP Provincial Chairperson Umit Erkol said on social media.

Aylin Yaman, a CHP member of parliament, said students were sitting on the grass and singing when police stormed the area at 2 a.m. "We object to the police entering here as if it were a dawn operation and creating an atmosphere of fear," she said.

The Istanbul Bar Association announced that three lawyers had been among some 100 people arrested at a Thursday demonstration in the city’s Sisli district. Lawyers also said they had been kept waiting for hours outside police headquarters to gain access to detainees.

Following the overnight arrest of Imamoglu’s lawyer Mehmet Pehlivan, it was revealed Friday that he is accused of money laundering. Imamoglu, in a social media post, said Pehlivan had been "detained on fictitious grounds." He was later released on condition of judicial control.

RUBIO: "WE ARE CONCERNED"
Turkey’s Nobel-winning author Orhan Pamuk, writing in several European newspapers, said events over the past 10 days represented "Erdogan’s strong-fisted, autocratic rule (at) a level we have not seen before."

Following a meeting with Turkey’s foreign minister earlier in the week, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio
...The diminutive 13-year-old Republican U.S. Senator from Florida, Secretary of State in the second Trump administration...
described events in Turkey as "disturbing." Speaking on a return flight from Suriname late Thursday, he said: "We are concerned. We don’t like to see the direction that’s going... Anytime you have instability on the ground you don’t like to see it."

A group of European politicians arrived in Istanbul to show support for Imamoglu and meet opposition figures. Led by former Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Lofven, the delegation from the Party of European Socialists also included European Parliament Vice President Katarina Barley.

"This is not just about one person. This is about democracy, and we are here to stand up for democratic values," Lofven said. "These politically motivated accusations are a threat to democracy in Turkey."

In a TV interview Friday, the co-leader of the pro-Kurdish DEM Party appeared to offer qualified support for the protests. "We are not the CHP’s activist group. We support them, but we will not take to the streets for this," Tuncer Bakirhan said.

Commentators have suggested that the recent peace initiative offered to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, is a bid by Erdogan to lure the DEM Party, which is the third-largest in parliament, into supporting an extension of his presidency beyond his current term.

Imamoglu faces charges stemming from two investigations into the opposition-controlled Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality — a corruption case and one alleging support for terrorism.

The mayor has been confirmed as the CHP’s presidential candidate in an election currently scheduled for 2028 but which is likely to take place earlier. He has performed well in recent polls against Erdogan, and his election as mayor of Turkey’s largest city in 2019 was a major blow to the president.

Link

International-UN-NGOs

Right-wing politics take center stage at Israel’s controversial antisemitism confab

2025-03-28

[IsraelTimes] Amid boycotts due to inclusion of far-right EU lawmakers, Jerusalem event features appearances from Bosnian leader facing arrest warrant and sanctioned ex-Paraguay president

There was no shortage of controversy at the Israeli government’s first-ever international conference on combating antisemitism Thursday in Jerusalem, as mostly right-wing speakers hurled scathing attacks at left-wing organizations and news outlets that they claimed have been enabling antisemitism.

The confab at the International Convention Center was thrown into the global spotlight last week after several high-profile Jewish leaders said they would not attend due to the inclusion of far-right European politicians whose parties have long faced their own allegations of antisemitism.

Diaspora Minister Amichai Chikli, whose office organized the confab, opened with a word to the far-right European politicians about the uproar surrounding their participation in the event.

"I apologize for the lies spread against you by those who slander the State of Israel worldwide," Chikli said, before launching into a tirade accusing Israel’s left-wing Haaretz newspaper of manufacturing the controversy. Calling the outlet a "beacon of lies and anti-Zionist propaganda," he insisted that "Haaretz and others like them do not represent the Jewish people."

Anti-Defamation League CEO Jonathan Greenblatt and French philosopher Bernard-Henri Levy — both originally slated to give keynote addresses — along with British Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis, were among those who canceled their participation in the event due to concerns that the inclusion of far-right politicians would legitimize their movements that have long histories of antisemitism, Holocaust denial and racism.

As a compromise aimed at easing tensions, President Isaac Herzog hosted Jewish leaders for a private gathering Wednesday night before the conference, without the presence of the right-wing figures.

Speaking to journalists after the conference, Chikli defended his decision to invite the far-right European parliament members, saying he had spoken at length with each one regarding their beliefs about Israel.

"Actions speak louder than words," Chikli said, noting that Marine Le Pen of La Belle France’s National Union party — whose leader Jordan Bardella attended the confab — had shown genuine concern for the French Jewish community. Representatives from Germany’s AFD party were not invited due to radical voices within, despite its pro-Israel stance, Chikli said.

Hermann Tertsch, member of the European Parliament for Spain’s hard-right Vox party, told The Times of Israel that he felt compelled to participate in the confab despite the controversies.

"I’m here because the fight against antisemitism is a very important question that affects us all," Tertsch said, noting that he had been honored by the Jewish community of Madrid for his work fighting antisemitism. "We are fighting a very serious fight, and what we are doing is annoying other parties that don’t see the danger."

PM: MANY THOUGHT ISRAEL ON VERGE OF EXTINCTION
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also addressed the conference on Thursday, calling antisemitism a "disease" threatening all civilized societies.

Before the Holocaust, Netanyahu said, many people understood that growing European antisemitism would destroy not only Jewry but also the surrounding civilizations.

"Today we issue a similar warning — the fate of free societies is tied to their willingness to fight the scourge of antisemitism."

Now, Netanyahu said, this hatred has reemerged in the form of Hamas
Hamas

..the braying voice of Islamic Resistance®,...
and radical Islam in Yemen
...an area of the Arabian Peninsula sometimes mistaken for a country. It is populated by more antagonistic tribes and factions than you can keep track of...
, Iran, Leb
...Formerly inhabited by hardy Phoenecian traders, its official language is now Arabic, with the usual unpleasant side effects....
and Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with a rusty iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response...
. And unlike during the Holocaust, he added, Jews now have an army to defend themselves and fight back.

"On October 7th, we were surprised," Netanyahu said. "We had a terrible, terrible massacre. And many believed that Israel was on the verge of extinction. [Former Hezbollah leader Hassan] Nasrallah put it very clearly. He said: "The Jewish state, the Jewish army — they’re no more than a spider’s web," and it could be easily swept aside."

"Well, a year and a half later, Nasrallah is gone," Netanyahu continued. "[Former] Hamas chairman Ismail] Haniyeh is gone. [Former Hamas leader Yahya] Sinwar is gone. [Former Syrian President Bashar] Assad is gone. We have battered Hamas. We brought Hezbollah to its knees. We destroyed the remnants of Syria’s army. We hit the Iran's Houthi sock puppets
...a Zaidi Shia insurgent group operating in Yemen. They have also been referred to as the Believing Youth. Hussein Badreddin al-Houthi is said to be the spiritual leader of the group and most of the military leaders are his relatives. The legitimate Yemeni government has accused the them of having ties to the Iranian government. Honest they did. The group has managed to gain control over all of Saada Governorate and parts of Amran, Al Jawf and Hajjah Governorates. Its slogan is God is Great, Death to America™, Death to Israel, a curse on the Jews They like shooting off... ummm... missiles that they would have us believe they make at home in their basements. On the plus side, they did murder Ali Abdullah Saleh, which was the only way the country was ever going to be rid of him...
s with the great help of our American allies. And we exposed Iran’s vulnerability."

SILENCE IS COMPLICITY
At a subsequent panel entitled "Don’t confuse me with the facts," speakers accused left-wing movements of fanning the flames of antisemitism by peddling falsehoods.

Far-right Historian Gadi Taub criticized progressive movements in Israel for undermining Zionism, doubling down on Chikli’s attack on Haaretz — his former employer — saying it "systematically undermines Zionism."

Jordan Bardella, head of La Belle France’s far-right National Union party, described his movement as "the best shield for our Jewish compatriots." He said La Belle France must work with Israel to fight against antisemitism, as defined by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) working definition.

"In the face of the disturbing resurgence of anti-Jewish hatred throughout Europa
...the land mass occupying the space between the English Channel and the Urals, also known as Moslem Lebensraum...
and the world, and in the face of terrorism that intends to destroy our lives and our values, we French believe more than ever that our nations must unite their voices and join forces in the fight," he said.

"I am aware of the symbolic importance of my invitation here, and the responsibility of my party... in the war against barbarism, which is also our war," he added.

Former president of Paraguay Horacio Cartes told the audience that silence in the face of antisemitism "is not neutrality, but complicity."

Cartes, who is sanctioned by the US for alleged ties with Hezbollah, as well as corruption, was invited to the confab by the Prime Minister’s Office, according to a report in Haaretz.

Another foreign leader, Bosnian Serb President Milorad Dodik, attended the conference but exited briefly after being notified that a court in Bosnia had issued an international warrant for his arrest due to his calls for the Serb-run half of Bosnia to secede from the rest of the country.

Dodik left the conference voluntarily and then later returned, event organizers said. As a signatory to the European Convention on Extradition, Israel would be obligated to extradite citizens wanted in other countries. It is not clear whether Bosnia issued an extradition request to Israel during the event.

Link

Arabia

One killed, 15 injured in US airstrikes on Yemen’s capital

2025-03-25

[HodhodYemenNews] US aggression aircraft resumed their criminal raids on the capital, Sana’a, and Sa’adah province, which led to the martyrdom of at least one person and injuring 15 others, including 3 children and 2 women in an initial toll.

According to local sources in Sana’a, reported that the US aggression launched raids on the capital, targeting a residential building in the Asr neighborhood of Mo’een district.

In Saada, the aggression aircraft carried out two raids on the outskirts of the city. The US aggression later launched a raid on Sahar district and another on Saqeen district.

These raids on Saada follow a series of US aggression strikes on Saturday evening and Sunday dawn, which targeted the districts of Kitaf and Saqeen in the same province, as well as Hodeidah airport, Salif port, and areas in Ma’rib province.

The American aggression is aimed at trying to stop Yemen’s operations against Israeli targets, including Israeli ships, and Israeli-linked vessels. They describe the aggression as an attempt on the part of Washington to render Sana’a’s defenses incapable of taking on the regime in response to its bloodshed and destruction in Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with a rusty iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response...
.

The Times of Israel adds:

Saudi news site claims senior rebel killed in strike on residential neighborhood in capital; Trump official claims bombing campaign taking out Iran-backed group’s ‘key leadership’

US airstrikes targeting Yemen’s Houthi rebels pounded sites across the country into Monday, with the group saying the one attack in the capital killed at least one person and wounded more than a dozen others, as the American air campaign against the rebel group entered a second week.

The rebel-controlled SABA news agency reported, citing health officials, that the US-attributed strike on a residential neighborhood in western Sanaa killed one and injured 13, including three children.

According to the Saudi Al Hadath network, a senior Houthi official was killed in the strike on the capital. However, the report did not identify the official by name or by position.

Footage released by the rebels showed the rubble of a collapsed building and pools of blood staining the gray dust covering the ground.

A building next to the collapsed structure still stood, suggesting American forces likely used a lower-yield warhead in the strike.

The Houthis also described American airstrikes targeting sites around the city of Saada, a Houthi stronghold, the Red Sea port city of Hodeida, and Marib province, home to oil and gas fields still under the control of allies to Yemen’s exiled central government.

The American strikes entered a 10th day without a sign of stopping, part of a campaign by US President Donald Trump, targeting the rebel group that threatens maritime trade and Israel, while also trying to pressure Iran, the Houthis’ main benefactor.

So far, the US has not offered any specifics on the sites it is striking, though Trump’s national security adviser Mike Waltz claimed the attacks have “taken out key Houthi leadership, including their head missileer.”

That has not been acknowledged by the Houthis, though the rebels have downplayed their losses in the past and exaggerated their attacks in attempting to target American warships.

“We’ve hit their headquarters,” Waltz told CBS’ “Face the Nation” on Sunday. “We’ve hit communications nodes, weapons factories, and even some of their over-the-water drone production facilities.”

The campaign of airstrikes targeting the rebels, which killed at least 53 people immediately after they began March 15, started after the Houthis threatened to begin targeting “Israeli” ships again over Israel blocking aid entering the Gaza Strip.