Trump Takes on Harvey, Hillary's Real Creeps, Merkel's Election Hits Her Open Door, and Rising European Anti-Semitism

TODAY'S REAL NEWS IS MANY-FACETED. It comes from Texas, Germany, and the never-ending Hillary saga. • • • PRESIDENT TRUMP WORKS TO HELP TEXAS. On Sunday afternoon, President Trump held a second Cabinet meeting on Hurricane Harvey to shore up response and recovery efforts. More than 450,000 people are expected to be homeless for at least two months. Trump along with Vice President Pence led a video teleconference with Cabinet and senior administration officials “to discuss ongoing federal support for Hurricane Harvey response and recovery,” the White House press office said in a statement that also announced that Trump will visit affected areas in Texas on Tuesday. Harvey has hammered Texas since Friday, when it made landfall as a Category 4 hurricane. The federal government has 5,000 people on site in Texas and Louisiana, where the storm continues to bring torrential rain and flooding that are expected to last through Wednesday. At least five deaths from the storm have been reported. The director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency said recovery efforts would take years, and FEMA will be there to help, FEMA director Brock Long told the media : "This is 'probably the worst disaster the state’s seen.' ” President Trump spent Sunday morning posting a series of tweets that “continued to stress his expectation that all departments and agencies stay fully committed to supporting the Governors of Texas and Louisiana and his number one priority of saving lives.” Vice President Mike Pence tweeted on Sunday that Trump’s top priority is saving lives : “@POTUS stressed all depts & agencies stay committed to supporting Govs of Texas & Louisiana & his number one priority of saving lives.” The Pence statement added that Trump “reminded everyone that search and rescue efforts will transition to mass care, restoring power, providing life-sustaining necessities for the population that sheltered in place, and economic recovery....“[and] urged survivors impacted by the storm to continue to heed the instructions of their State and local officials.” • President Trump and his administration are pulling out all the stops to help Texas in the wake of what everyone is calling "a catastrophe" that will take years of rebuilding. Rockport is "without any infrastructure." Houston, America's 4th largest city, is under 20 inches of water and the rain continues. But, we have a President fully engaged on the side of Americans, instead of playing golf. It feels much better. • • • MERKEL REAPS WHAT SHE HAS SOWN. As German Chancellor Angela Merkel continues her rallies leading up to the German national elections in September, she is running into angry protesters at her rallies, holding signs and shouting for Merkel to "Get Lost." With less than a month until the German election, Chancellor Merkel was booed and jeered by protesters at an election rally in the eastern German state of Saxony-Anhalt, as reported the German newspaper Die Welt on Saturday. In a YouTube video posted by Lutz Bachmann, the co-founder of Germany’s PEGIDA movement -- Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamization of the West -- Merkel’s entire speech was drowned out by hundreds of angry protesters telling her to “Get lost.” • Merkel’s policy of open borders for illegal migrants, and the resulting migrant crime wave and frequent terrorist attacks, have created a lot of pent-up anger and resentment among German voters. Earlier this week, Merkel’s rally in Bergisch-Gladbach in northwestern Germany was also disrupted by protesters whistling and demanding she “Get lost.” The UK Daily Express noted last week : “[Merkel’s] election campaign team are well used to boos during their tour of Germany a month before the September 24 election.” • Die Welt covered Merkel’s recent election rally in Quedlinburg, Saxony-Anhalt and published this report : "Chancellor Angela Merkel’s campaign appearance in Quedlinburg was partially marred by loud protests. She had to face a barrage of catcalls and shouts of protest at the election event of Saxony-Anhalt State Unit of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU). Citizens held placards belonging to AfD [Alternative for Germany] and hand-made signs with slogans 'Merkel must go' or 'Thank You Merkel' with painted blood spatters. According to CDU estimates, nearly 3,000 people came at the market place of Harz-Stadt. Merkel reacted to the protests, saying, 'Some believe that one can overcome and solve the problems [affecting] the people in Germany by shouting. I don’t believe it, and assume that people [gathered] here at this place don’t think so either.' ” • While Merkel is leading in most of the polls and is mainstream media’s pick to win the national parliamentary election that will decide who becomes the next German Chancellor, she faces serious public anger for her ill-advised ‘Refugee Policy’ that opened the borders of Europe to millions of illegal immigrants, mainly men from Arab and Moslem countries. In July, Merkel publicly rejected any future restriction on the number of undocumented migrants entering into Germany if she were to win the election. She told a media interview : “As far as an upper limit is concerned, my position is clear : I will not accept it.” • Merkel has much to account for. Her open-door policy has let more than a million unvetted migrants into Europe. Her open-door policy has split the European Union wide open into factions that publicly refuse to take in her unilaterally-imposed quotas for EU member states, factions that are ambivalent and take very few refugees while mouthing support for Merkel, factions led by EU heads of state that openly support her -- especially France, and factions that bear the brunt of the open-door policy with little help from Merkel or the EU -- especially Greece, Italy and Spain. Her refusal to back down is evidence of her power in the EU and her misguided belief that Europe needs the workers that she hopes these illegal Moslem migrants will become in order to survive economically. • America hears very little about the knife attacks and rapes committed by migrants because they are hushed up even in local media. But, the suicide bombs and vans have taken their toll on Europeans whose complacency and support for Merkel's open door are turning into anger and demands for migrants to be detained and expelled, and for the open door to shut. • If Merkel wins the September election, as most pre-election polls suggest, German voters may well be sealing the fate of their country, if not that of the whole of Christian Europe. It should be the uppermost consideration German voters have as they go to the polls beginning on September 24. • • • HILLARY CLINTON AND ANGELA MERKEL ARE SOMEWHAT SIMILAR. First and foremost, they both hate Donald Trump. • HILLARY. American Thinker's Daniel John Sobieski wrote last week : "The latest evidence of Hillary Clinton’s total detachment from reality is found in the excerpt from the audio version of her book "What Happened," in which she complains of candidate Donald Trump invading her space in the second presidential debate. Not since Captain Queeg in The Caine Mutiny have we seen such paranoia and one sincerely hopes she finds her missing strawberries. Maybe the Russians ate them." NBC News reported : "In the first excerpts from Hillary Clinton's highly anticipated upcoming memoir, the former Democratic presidential candidate said her 'skin crawled' during a debate with Donald Trump. In audio clips of Clinton reading from the book, "What Happened," which were first aired by MSNBC's "Morning Joe" on Wednesday, Clinton recounted her thoughts as she toyed with the idea of telling her Republican rival to "back up, you creep" as he stood behind her during the second presidential debate." Clinton says on the audio clip : "My skin crawled. It was one of those moments where you wish you could hit pause and ask everyone watching 'well, what would you do?' " • Sobieski repeated Hillary's statement that she decided against telling Trump, "back up, you creep, get away from me," and in order to keep her composure, she gripped the microphone "extra hard." Sobieski added : "Her grasp on the truth is less firm. Consider this comes from the serial liar who dodged sniper fire in Bosnia, was named for Sir Edmund Hillary, the man who climbed Mt. Everest years after she was born, and who claimed the Benghazi terrorist attack was caused by a video. If you actually watch replays of that debate you see no such intimidation and the only time candidate Trump was standing behind Hillary was when she crossed to his side of the stage to make a point, ending up in front of Trump who was standing by and walking around his podium." • "Creep"??? Perhaps Mrs. Clinton was thinking of the wrong man -- she probably meant her "creepy" husband, Bill, the serial sexual assaulter and rapist, or perhaps Hillary was thinking of "creepy" disgraced Congressman Anthony Weiner, husband of aide and confidante Huma Abedin, sexting pictures of himself to young women when he wasn’t looking at classified emails from Hillary that Huma forwarded to Weiner’s laptop. • As Sobieski notes, if Hillary Clinton is worried about someone breathing down her neck, perhaps it should be a Trump Department of Justice that has reopened the investigation into her multiples felonies regarding mishandling classified emails and deleting emails that were under subpoena, to name a few : "Hillary Clinton has met a few creeps in her life, but President Trump is not one of them." • MERKEL. Chancellor Merkel has spent the last 8 months attacking President Trump. Newsweek in early July wrote : "German Chancellor Angela Merkel is no longer describing Donald Trump’s US as a 'friend' in campaign literature for the country's elections in September, and divisions are expected to widen between the leaders at the G20 summit this week. Merkel’s conservative party, the Christian Democratic Union (CDU/CSU) four years ago described the US as Germany’s 'most important friend outside Europe,' and the relationship between the countries as the 'cornerstone' of Germany’s international relations. However, the party has dropped the amicable language from campaign literature ahead of federal elections, after a cooling in the relationship between the countries since Trump replaced Barack Obama as president. In its new manifesto the CDU/CSU refers to the relationship as Germany’s most important “partnership” outside Europe." Well, "creeps" can be like that -- actually demanding that Germany pay its fair share in defending the continent along with the US and NATO and criticizing the German Chancellor's open door for making the defense job much more difficult. • Politico reported in late July on the Merkel - US disagreement over trade. "Germany creates American jobs," Angela Merkel said in response to criticism from the White House over Germany exporting significantly more than it imports." Speaking at the annual gathering of The Economic Council of the CDU, the business arm of Merkel’s conservative CDU/CSU, the Chancellor defended German industry, before her meeting with President Trump at the G20 summit : “The fact that we have 10 times as much direct investment from Germany in the United States than there’s American investment in Germany has, of course...a strong effect on the many jobs we create [in the U.S.,]” Merkel said. The Chancellor added the US “should also take into account that BMW has its largest production site not in Germany but in the United States...and exports more cars from there into third countries than Ford and General Motors combined.” • Merkel's remarks -- enthusiastically applauded by the audience -- missed the point the US has been making about Germany. Its current account surplus is the largest in Europe and many European economic and fiscal experts are clamoring for the Chancellor to release some of that surplus cash to help EU countries beaten down into a chronic state of non-competitiveness by Germany's vastly superior industial output to the EU and the rest of the world. Merkel's remarks followed a broadcast statement by US Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, who addressed Merkel and the crowd of business leaders via a live-stream from Washington. Ross said : “As your biggest customer, we hope to attain a larger share of your market,” Ross said, echoing repeated US criticism of Germany’s record current account surplus. In May, Trump called Germany “bad, very bad” during a meeting with EU leaders in Brussels, referring to the country’s exports. • Mrs. Merkel on August 11 also rejected President Trump's direct verbal attacks on North Korea.When asked at a press conference in Berlin whether Germany would “stand by the US in case of war,” Merkel did not respond directly but said : “I consider an escalation of rhetoric the wrong answer. I do not see a military solution to this conflict,” she added. Instead, the chancellor suggested that the crisis should be resolved through the United Nations Security Council and cooperation between the US and regional powers like China, South Korea and Japan. The Chancellor has not noted publicly that Trump's direct challenge brought Kim Jong-un to his "senses" and he chose to "observe" a while longer before launching ICBMs toward Guam. • However, politics is politics and whatever it takes can be said if it helps bring in votes -- Reuters reported last Wednesday that Chancellor Angela Merkel said Donald Trump must be shown appropriate respect for holding the office of the US President, even if she may differ with him on policy issues. As Merkel campaigns for a fourth term in office, she has refused to bend to pressure from her Social Democrat (SPD) rivals to resist demands by Trump for NATO members to increase their defense spending. Merkel has said that as a committed Atlanticist, she has stressed the strength of German relations with the United States even when flagging differences in opinion on policy : “If you take the President of the United States, whatever differences of opinion there may be, I know he prevailed in a tough election. It wasn’t reserved for him on a silver platter. In the end, he won the election under American electoral law and that means he is democratically elected and that this person should be shown the appropriate respect, regardless of how I assess his views." Why is Chancellor Merkel so kind all of a sudden?? Look no farther than her political campaign. Her socialist SPD challenger, Martin Schulz, has been far more critical of Trump, referring to the US President as “this irresponsible man in the White House.” And, whatever else Mrs. Merkel has got wrong, especially her open door, she is too good a politician not to realize that the United States is Germany's most important and dependable partner or friend -- you choose -- and she also recognizes that most Germans agree with her on this issue and find the SPD and Schulz's labeling of President Trump unacceptable. • Now, if we could just get Mrs. Merkel to talk to Hillary and her Progressive Democrat co-conspirators, perhaps President Trump could get on with governing the US and helping the world -- and Europe. • • • ANTI-SEMITISM RAISES ITS UGLY HEAD IN EUROPE. One thing Chancellor Merkel could address is the EU's mounting anti-Semitism. American Thinker's Rick Moran reported on Saturday the results of a new study, "Antisemitic Violence in Europe, 2005-2015," written by Johannes Due Enstad of the Oslo-based Center for Studies of the Holocaust and the University of Oslo and jointly published by both institutions, features conclusions that many would find surprising. • John Bolton's Gatestone Institute summarizes the analysis of statistics from France, Britain, Germany, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, and Russia, showing that one of these seven countries "clearly stands out with a very low number" of anti-Semitic incidents despite its "relatively large Jewish population -- Russia. Gatestone writes : "Enstad concludes that right-wingers, in all four of the major Western European countries in his study, 'constitute a clear minority of perpetrators.' Indeed, 'in France, Sweden and the UK (but not in Germany) the perpetrator was perceived to be left-wing more often than right-wing.' Russia, Enstad adds : "is also the only case in which there is little to indicate that Jews avoid displaying their identity in public." In addition, it is the only one of the six countries in which the majority of perpetrators of anti-Semitic violence are not Moslems." Gatestone Institute explains the result in this way : "Would-be Jew-bashers in Russia know that if they're arrested for committing acts of violence, the consequences won't be pretty. In western Europe, by contrast, the courts are lenient, the terms of confinement short, and the prisons extremely comfortable. And while Moslems know that they are a protected class in Western Europe, able to commit all kinds of transgressions with near-impunity, that is far from being the case in Putin's Russia." And, Enstad found that although politicians and the media in Western Europe like to talk as if Jews (and others) in their countries are principally endangered by the far-right, "Russia is, in fact, the only one of the seven countries in Enstad's study in which that group does play a significant role in anti-Semitic acts." • Jews in France appear to be most at risk for violence. Nearly 10% of French Jews say they have been physically attacked for being Jewish during the past five years; in Germany and Sweden the figure is 7.5%, in Britain 5%. Asked how often they "avoid visiting Jewish events or sites" for fear of danger, 7.9% of Jews in Sweden say they do so frequently, followed by Jews in France, Germany, and Britain (where the number is only 1.2%). Asked if they "avoid wearing, carrying or displaying things" in public that would identify them as Jews, 60% of Swedish Jews say they do so "all the time" or "frequently," with, again, France, Germany, and Britain following in that order. Almost 50% of French Jews have considered emigrating because they feel imperiled in their own country; for Germany the figure is 25%, and for Sweden and Britain it is just under 20%. • Enstad relied on both independent studies and official statistics to compile his report, and he questions the "official statistics" from Germany. Enstad weighed official statistics from all of the countries under examination, but found that while those from most of the countries, according to Gatestone, "essentially jibe with the results of independent studies, those published by both Germany and Sweden are fishy, in some cases betraying an apparent effort by officials to massage the numbers to avoid certain uncomfortable facts. While an independent survey, for example, concludes that right-wing extremists make up a small minority of perpetrators of anti-Semitic violence in Germany, German police statistics blame most such violence on just right-wingers. Enstad, in his polite way, suggests that this discrepancy is the result of 'a categorisation problem.' " • It could also be Germany's way of avoiding the reality that its new Moslem migrant population is both anti-Semitic and left-wing. • The new report shows that the anti-Semitism in Europe that directly led to the Holocaust is alive and well and crawling out from under the rock where it has been hiding. And, American Thinker's Rick Moran says it's only going to get worse : "As Europe becomes more and more Islamized, the kind of casual, nauseating anti-Semitism that most Moslems feel toward Jews will manifest itself in more violence. Eventually, it's possible to envision a point where most European Jews will either be expelled or leave voluntarily. • But, says Moran, the report is a warning that will probably go unheeded : "History weighs heavily on Christian Europe, and the arrival of hundreds of thousands of anti-Semites who are taught that Jews are lower than dogs and pigs will only exacerbate the problem." • The rising anti-Semitism in Europe led to Barcelona's Chief Rabbi Meir Bar-Hen's saying after the Barcelona terror attacks : "Jews are not here permanently. I tell my congregants : Don’t think we’re here for good. And I encourage them to buy property in Israel. This place is lost...Europe is lost." • Israel Today, writing about the Chief Rabbi's comment, stated : "Generally speaking, European Jewish leaders are extremely cautious, and would seldom, if ever, dare to call upon Jews of their respective countries to pack their belongings and move to Israel. The negative backlash to Netanyahu urging Jews to leave Europe following the January 2015 attack on a Jewish supermarket in Paris is still well remembered. 'To all the Jews of France, all the Jews of Europe, I would like to say that Israel is not just the place in whose direction you pray; the State of Israel is your home,' said the Israeli leader at the time. Netanyahu made a similar plea just a month later following the February 2015 attack outside a Copenhagen synagogue that left a Jewish security guard dead. These calls to immigrate, which were made by other Israeli officials as well, were criticized by many European Jewish leaders. Rabbi Menachem Margolin, director of the European Jewish Association, argued that encouraging Jews to leave Europe "severely weakens and damages the Jewish communities that have the right to live securely wherever they are." Chief Rabbi of Denmark, Yair Melchior, likewise criticized Israel by stating that 'if the way we deal with terror is to run somewhere else, we should all run to a deserted island.' " • Israel Today says the Barcelona call for Jews to leave is different : "The ISIS attack on Barcelona has elicited a similar reaction, but this time it's not Israeli officials urging Jews to flee to their ancestral homeland. It's coming from a prominent leader in the European Diaspora. Rabbi Bar-Hen wasn't referring only to the terror attack. He says that Spain is not only reluctant to confront Islamic terror, it fails to recognize the danger of Moslem fanaticism, as the case of Leila Khaled has clearly demonstrated. Khaled, a Palestinian terrorist convicted for hijacking airplanes in 1969 and 1970, was allowed to participate in the latest Barcelona 'Revolution Means Life' book fair in May....This wasn't an oversight by Barcelona's municipality. Five months ago, the city, led by Mayor Ada Colau Ballano of the far-left en Comú party, issued a statement supporting the anti-Israel Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement. The city's official declaration from last April states that the 'Barcelona City Council puts an end to the complicity of the city of Barcelona in the flagrant, systematic human rights violations of the colonizing occupation and expansion of the State of Israel in Occupied Palestinian Territories, and recognizes the right to BDS.' " A city welcoming BDS and convicted terrorists is enough for Bar-Hen to reach the conclusion that European Jewish communities are doomed. But, as was always the case, most Jews are the last to recognize their own precarious situation. So it's little surprise that we now hear Barcelona Jewish Community spokesman Victor Sorrenssen saying : 'We Jews will not leave our city...we are living a revival of Jewish culture.' " • • • LABELING ISRAELI PRODUCTS SOLD IN THE EU. In November 2015, the EU infuriated Israel by adopting a motion declaring that products from settlements would have to be labelled as such across the EU. Israel suspended some co-operation with the EU and a minister called the decision "disguised anti-Semitism." Israel’s Ambassador to the United Nations, Danny Danon, also reacted when the UN Human Rights Council insisted in proceeding to publish a 'blacklist' of the names of companies operating in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and in the Golan Heights. The list will be useful for adherents of the international Boycott, Divest and Sanctions (BDS) campaign against Israel, such as the EU, which has ordered its member nations not to allow the goods to bear the label, “made in Israel” but rather to label products imported from Israeli companies located in Judea or Samaria as “Made in the West Bank” or “Made in Judea” or “Made in Samaria.” Danon said : "This shameful step is an expression of modern anti-Semitism and reminds us of dark periods in history....the Human Rights Commissioner is seeking to harm Israel, and in doing so has become the world’s most senior BDS activist.” • The United States has been adamantly opposed to the UN plan to publish a blacklist of companies that do business with Israeli settlements in Judea and Samaria. US diplomats say the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights -- Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein -- told US officials he intends to publish the blacklist by the end of 2017. The Geneva-based UN Human Rights Council has approved the database of these companies. Al Hussein, the former Jordanian Ambassador to the US, postponed publishing the blacklist in response to a US request. But he is adamant about publishing what he argues is a vital resource for consumers and travelers. The US and Israel say the criteria for who makes the blacklist are vague and arbitrary because the definition of what constitutes “settlement activity” can be stretched to include any imaginable commercial activity in Judea and Samaria. The Jewish Express says : " It should be noted that Arab media, including in Jordan, habitually refers to all Israelis as 'settlers,' as in reports on Israeli visitors to the Temple Mounts who are regularly described as 'settlers storming Al-Aqsa Mosque.' ” • The UK Independent reports that France is the first EU country to label Israeli goods : "France has said goods from the Israeli occupied Palestinian territories must be labelled as such, prompting Israel to accuse the country of aiding a boycott of the Jewish State. Paris published guidelines on enforcing European Union (EU) regulations on produce from the West Bank, including annexed east Jerusalem, which the international community considers occupied Palestinian land, and the Golan Heights, which Israel seized from Syria in 1967. The EU ruled that products from Israeli settlements should be clearly labelled a year ago, but France is the first member state to enforce the decision....An advisory notice on the French Government website said: 'Under international law the Golan Heights and the West Bank, including east Jerusalem, are not part of Israel.' It said labelling goods simply as 'from the West Bank' or 'from Golan Heights' without providing more details is 'not acceptable.' Instead, goods must be clearly marked as coming from an 'Israeli settlement,' when that is the case, to avoid 'the risk of misleading the consumer.' " The Israeli Foreign Ministry says it "regrets that France, which actually has a law against boycotts, is advancing measures that can be interpreted as encouraging radical elements and the movement to boycott Israel." Hugh Lovatt, Israel coordinator at the European Council on Foreign Relations think tank, says France is the first member state to act on the EU decision. Lovatt said France's frustration in recent months at Israel's refusal to attend a Paris-led peace conference, together with Israel's continued expansion of the settlements, could have motivated the move. He added there had also been concerted action by French civil society and lawmakers. • If the idea of labeling Israeli goods being sold in the EU market reminds you of the Nazi regime's yellow patches forced to be pinned to every Jewish person's chest, you are not alone. • • • DEAR READERS, anti-Semitism has not died in Europe where it has thrived for a thousand years. One can only hope that European Jews are right to believe they are safe in the EU. But if not, at least Jews now have a safe haven waiting for them in Israel. Chancellor Merkel, instead of bashing President Trump, ought to consider how to better secure the rights of European Jews. And, she should also consider in the greatest haste the fact that her Christian and other non-Jewish fellow Europeans do not have even the security of an Israel to flee to, a place where they can be safe from the Moslem migrants who are not welcome except by the EU elites who support Merkel because of her German funding for the collapsing EU experiment. The millions of Europeans who currently see their way of life, their culture, and their religion threatened by the Chancellor's open door should weigh heavily their vote in September. When the next election rolls around, it may be too late to save Europe as part of western civilization.