British PM Theresa May Faces Down a Conservative Attack against Her Brexit Package, while France Suffers Yet Another Predictable Islamic Terrorist Attack

TODAY, WE DEAL WITH TWO BREAKING NEWS STORIES -- BOTH EUROPEAN. France is fighting against terrorists, while Britain is fighting against itself. • • • THE STRASBOURG TERRORIST ATTACK. It started at about 8 PM Tuesday evening in Strasbourg, the French city near the German border that is one of the two capitals of the European Union. The Strasbourg European Parliament was in session and went into lockdown for many hours. The citizens of Strasbourg were told to stay indoors, stay away from windows, and be calm. • The shooter, a 29-year-old French citizen born in Strasbourg with a long police record in France, Germany, and Switzerland for robberies and other criminal acts, and known to police for associating with radicalized groups, was already being hunted before the shooting occurred. According to French BFM TV, the man, Cherif Chekatt, had fled his flat in the Neudorf district of the city on Tuesday morning as it was being searched by police in connection with a robbery. Grenades were found during the search. Police raided the apartment just hours before Chekatt opened fire on a crowded Christmas market in his hometown Tuesday, killing three [one of the three is listed by French officials as "brain dead"] and wounding 11 others -- but the confirmed criminal eluded authorities' grasp, and continued on the run on Wednesday. • The shootings took place in the area near the magnificent Strasbourg Cathedral and Christmas Market -- Strasbourg is known as the "Capital of Christmas" markets and tens of thousands of French and other tourists flock to the city every Holiday season to visit the market. Although no groups have claimed responsibility for the attack, and the motive is still being investigated, France's counter-terrorism prosecutor has opened an investigation. Islamic terrorists have a history of plotting assaults at Christmas markets -- including one disrupted plot in which nearly a dozen militants sought to bomb the Strasbourg market around the millennium. And, on December 19, 2016, an ISIS-inspired attacker rammed his truck into a crowd of people at a Christmas market in Berlin, killing 12 and injuring 56 others. Even before the Strasbourg shooting, police in France have recently been on high alert -- though that security posture has had more to do with the increasingly violent anti-tax and anti-government Gilets Jaunes protests sweeping the country in recent weeks than terrorist fears. • Witnesses described hearing screams around the Strasbourg Christmas Market during the attack. Youann Bazard, 27, told the AP : “I heard two or three shots at around 7:55 p.m., then I heard screams. I got close to the window. I saw people running. After that I closed the shutters. Then I heard more shots, closer this time. I thought maybe it's firecrackers. And then, as it got close, it was really shocking. There were a lot of screams...There were police or soldiers shouting 'Get inside!' and 'Put your hands on your head.' " Eyewitness Pater Fritz told the BBC he heard gunfire and found a person who had been shot, lying on a bridge. He said he tried to resuscitate him but the man died : "There are no ambulance services able to enter the area, apparently. After 45 minutes we stopped the resuscitation [attempt], because a doctor told us on the phone that it was senseless." Another eyewitness, who gave his name as Fatih, told AFP news agency that after the shots were fired there was "pandemonium" on the streets. "People were running everywhere," he said. Local journalist Bruno Poussard wrote on Twitter that there had been a dozen shots fired on his street in the city center -- one or two to begin with, then in bursts. Emmanuel Foulon, a press officer for the European Parliament, wrote that there was "panic" in the centre following the sound of gunfire and that police with guns were running through the streets. A shopkeeper told BFM TV : "There were gun shots and people running everywhere. It lasted about 10 minutes." British MEP Richard Corbett tweeted that he was in a restaurant in the city and the doors had been locked : "Am in restaurant in centre of #strasbourg where shots fired with unconfirmed reports of 3 dead. Restaurant locked and not letting anyone in or out." • The mayor of Strasbourg, Roland Ries, later tweeted that the Christmas market would be closed on Wednesday following events. He added that flags would be lowered to half-mast at the local Town Hall, where people could pay their respects in a book of condolences. • Chekatt escaped after exchanging fire with soldiers and armed police on Tuesday. He was shot the arm according to later French federal officials. A wide-scale manhunt was underway near Strasbourg as the French government raised the security level and sent police reinforcements to the city, located about 305 miles east of Paris. But a top French official admitted Chekatt may no longer be in the city and could have slipped through the police dragnet into neighboring Germany, where he'd spent time in prison. • Police detained at least five people, including the suspect's father and two brothers, with alleged ties to Chekatt during raids Tuesday morning, but Chekatt, wanted on an attempted murder charge in relation to a botched robbery, wasn't home, senior Interior Ministry official Laurent Nunez told France-Inter radio. Nunez said Chekatt had been radicalized in prison and was being monitored by French intelligence services since at least 2015 because of his suspected religious extremism. Authorities did not say which religion; however, supporters of the Islamic State terror group were celebrating the shooting online, according to the US-based SITE Intelligence group, which monitors jihadist communications worldwide. • Chekatt was the subject of a “fiche S” -- a Watch List used by French law enforcement to signal potential national security threats, according to the BBC. It’s the same tag Amedy Coulibaly had received before he attacked a kosher supermarket in 2015. Chekatt reportedly has a long rap sheet in France, including arrests for robbery. He also was convicted of robbery in Germany in 2016 and sentenced to two years and three months in prison after breaking into a dental practice and pharmacy. He was also sentenced to prison in France in 2008 and in Basel, Switzerland, in 2013 for other robberies, according to a 2016 verdict obtained by the Associated Press. Chekatt was reportedly deported back to France in 2016. • French Interior Minister Christophe Castaner said that border controls had been strengthened and security at all Christmas markets would be stepped up, with 350 security agents hunting for the gunman. He added that France had raised its security alert level to "emergency attack." • French President Emmanuel Macron, who had attended a crisis meeting with cabinet officials in Paris, later tweeted that the "solidarity of the entire nation" was with Strasbourg, the victims and their families. • • • CAN EUROPE FIGHT ISLAMIC TERRORISM? As the Strasbourg attack was unfolding on French TV Tuesday night, the voices of leaders from every spectrum of French conservative political parties were asking the same question -- how long must the French people put up with terrorist attacks. The leader of Les Républicains went further, asking when the French government is going to "eradicate" the "integristes" ["religious fanatics" or "fundamentalists"] who have declared war on France. The meaning is clear -- French conservatives are asking their government to do something about the Islamic terrorism that is rampant and growing in France. • There is a long analysis on the Gatestone Institute site written by Dr. Denis MacEoin concerning a recent European Court of Human Rights decision about freedom of speech being restrained if Islam is involved. We discussed the case a recent blog. I urge you to read the Gatestone Institute analysis if you support freedom of speech, or freedom of religion. It is available at < https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/13377/european-court-human-rights-blasphemy-laws >. Here are a few highlights : "The European Court of Human Rights ruled that criticism of Muhammad constitutes incitement to hatred -- meaning that in Europe, criticizing Muhammad is no longer protected free speech. What the court has actually done, however, is rule out the possibility of any debate in which a range of various experts and members of the public could take part. Now, it seems, the only views that will be respected in the public forum are those of devout Moslems. Underage marriages are considered by some countries child abuse or statutory rape, but are acceptable under sharia law; they also take place in Moslem communities in Western countries such as the UK. This alone is a major reason why platforms must be found to debate the issue instead of sweeping it, as something offensive, under the carpet. Ignoring it is offensive....Particular sensitivities surround religious ideas, and histories....In the West, within secular democratic states, most churches mercifully appear no longer interested in controlling matters such as blasphemy....Possibly a better way of expressing concerns about blasphemy laws is to list the 30 Islamic countries that have such regulations, 13 of them imposing the death penalty for the offence. Here they are, in alphabetical order. Some offer life imprisonment. Afghanistan, Algeria, Bahrain, Brunei, Egypt, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Mauritania, Malaysia, Maldives, Morocco, Nigeria, Oman, Pakistan, Palestinian territories, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Somalia, Sudan, Tunisia, Turkey, United Arab Emirates (UAE), Western Sahara, Yemen....More than one Western country is bringing forth legislation that will allow Islamic blasphemy laws in through the back door. In 2017, Canada passed Motion M-103, regarded as a sharia blasphemy law forbidding free speech about Islam. Although at this stage it is 'non-binding,' one of its supporters, Samer Majzoub, president of the Canadian Moslem Forum and affiliated with the Moslem Brotherhood, wrote, 'Now that Islamophobia has been condemned, this is not the end, but rather the beginning.' The most recent and glaring of these initiatives involves not a country, but the supranational, unaccountable European Court of Human Rights, a body that issues rulings enforceable in all 57 countries of the OIC that are signatories to the European Convention on Human Rights. Forty-seven of the signatory states are members of the Council of Europe, which is different from the 28-state European Union (although all EU states also belong within the Council)....Even though the primary focus of the Council of Europe is the wide network of its member states, it also has close links to, and shares activities with, a large range of international institutions. Through a variety of conventions and treaties, it helps set legal standards for those states, both members and non-members. Those non-member states include many familiar Western countries such as the USA, Canada, Israel, and Australia among others. These are states in which the values in areas such as human rights are closely aligned to those of the European member states. Many of the Council's conventions concern human rights, the protection of democracy, and the prevention of racial and other forms of intolerance. The Council of Europe also engages with a variety of Moslem states, many of which are included on the list above of countries that enact laws on blasphemy. At a minimum, these include Algeria, Lebanon, Malaysia, Mauritania, Morocco, Senegal, and Tunisia....The Council has set out its human rights principles in its Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms. Article 9 of that Convention deals with 'Freedom of Thought, conscience and religion'....However, its second part does permit restrictions : 'in the interests of national security, territorial integrity or public safety, for the prevention of disorder or crime, for the protection of health or morals, for the protection of the reputation or rights of others.'....With these background facts, it is important to look at what happened on October 25 this year when the European Court of Human Rights issued its verdict on a case involving an Austrian woman, called Mrs. S., presumably Elisabeth Sabadtisch-Wolff, and an appeal she had made to the court to protect her right to free speech over a sensitive but factually correct issue concerning the Prophet Muhammad....'The national [Austrian] courts found that Mrs S. had subjectively labelled Muhammad with pedophilia as his general sexual preference, and that she failed to neutrally inform her audience of the historical background, which consequently did not allow for a serious debate on that issue.' What the court has actually done, however, is rule out the possibility of any debate in which a range of various experts and members of the public could take part, to exchange views on a clearly controversial and unresolved subject. Now, it seems, the only views that will be respected in the public forum are those of devout Moslems....In some Moslem countries, such as Yemen, marriages at early ages are not uncommon and may be justified by reference to Muhammad's sexual relations with A'isha at the ages of 9. Underage marriages, considered by some countries child abuse or statutory rape, but acceptable under sharia law, also take place in Moslem communities in Western countries such as the UK. This alone is a major reason why platforms must be found to debate the issue instead of sweeping it, as something offensive, under the carpet. Ignoring it is offensive....the Organization of Islamic Cooperation has been trying for years to persuade the UN Human Rights Council to adopt a general blasphemy law that will block anything deemed by someone as critical of one faith alone -- namely Islam. A few weeks ago, the Islamic Republic of Pakistan informed the UN of an initiative for an international campaign to criminalize criticism of Islam. This year, a significant and influential Western human rights court has shown the future potentially in store for us. It is not hard to imagine that the OIC is already making plans to employ the ECHR as its agency of choice for officially introducing the law it has coveted for so long : 'Defamation of religion,' meaning just one faith, Islam. There do not seem any plans afoot to stop criticizing Christians or Jews, or Christianity or Judaism. If the ECHR builds a foundation for universal censorship, how long will it be before the UN Human Rights Council, pressured by its Islamic state members, will fall in line?" • • • EUROPE BACKS IRAN. That may seem like a non-sequitur to a discussion of Islamic terrorism and freedom of speech and religion -- BUT, consider this. American Thinker's Rowy Lepor wrote on Tuesday : "On August 6, 2018 President Trump announced the re-imposition of nuclear-related sanctions on Iran following his announcement in May that the US would withdraw from the Iran nuclear deal (aka the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action or JCPOA). These announcements were geared at precluding Iran from receiving funding from sanctions-free trade that it could use toward any secret nuclear weapons-related work. However, Europe, led by Germany and France, is attempting to rescue Iran’s flailing economy by bypassing US sanctions. The Iran nuclear deal was based on a lie. It was claimed that the deal would allow Iran substantial sanctions relief, and in return delay Iran’s development of nuclear weapons. This lie was promoted by many world leaders, nations, and organizations, and culminated in the 2015 signing of the JCPOA. It was not until President Trump became leader of the free world that the United States stopped enabling Iran’s nuclear ambitions and made it clear that anyone seeking to continue doing business with Iran would face sanctions. The sanctions were reinstated on some sectors of the Iranian economy on August 7, 2018 and the remaining ones went into effect on November 5. President Trump explained the importance of sanctions, stating : 'The JCPOA, a horrible, one-sided deal, failed to achieve the fundamental objective of blocking all paths to an Iranian nuclear bomb, and it threw a lifeline of cash to a murderous dictatorship that has continued to spread bloodshed, violence, and chaos. Since the deal was reached, Iran’s aggression has only increased. The regime has used the windfall of newly accessible funds it received under the JCPOA to build nuclear-capable missiles, fund terrorism, and fuel conflict across the Middle East and beyond....By exiting the JCPOA, the United States is able to protect its national security by applying maximum economic pressure on the Iranian regime.' " • Rowy Lepor notes that : "In contrast to claims by the Obama administration, in all likelihood Iran is heavily invested in a secret nuclear weapons program that is hidden from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and any other inspectors because they are at military sites. Ayatollah Khamenei declared in June 2015 that all Iranian military sites are off-limits, without exception. In a 2016 National Review article, Reagan and Clinton administration officials note that Iran is deceiving the world in order to finance its secret military nuclear program that 'no doubt continues underground.' The article, co-authored by former CIA director James Woolsey, William Graham, Henry Cooper, Fritz Ermarth, and Dr. Peter Vincent Pry, warns : 'Iran sacrificed its overt civilian nuclear program to deceive the Obama administration, to lift international sanctions, to prevent Western military action, while a clandestine military nuclear program no doubt continues underground. That is why Iran, under the nuclear deal, will not allow inspection of its military facilities and prohibits interviewing scientists -- it is concealing the dimensions and status of Iran’s nuclear-weapons program.' On April 30, 2018 Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu revealed 100,000 files and 180 CDs found in a secret 'atomic archive' of Iranian nuclear documents. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said that the documents 'show that Iran had a secret nuclear weapons program for years.' In confirmation of the 2003 IAEA report, these documents confirm that Iran had an implosion testing chamber, a neutron generating device, and what appears to be work geared at making a neutron initiator. In a speech to the UN in September, Netanyahu revealed that the IAEA has not taken action to inspect any nuclear sites discovered in Iran’s nuclear archive. He disclosed a new nuclear site that remained uninspected and that he said already had 15 kilograms of radioactive material recently removed by Iranian officials." • But, despite all the warnings and the US imposition of severe sanctions, and Iran's continuing calls for the destruction of the US and Israel, Europe continues to support Iran -- a recent report in the Wall Street Journal reveals that Europe, led by France and Germany, “have joined forces to rescue a European effort to create a payments channel to keep trade flowing with Iran, defying US attempts to take the air out of the plan.” The payments channel is, says Lepor, "being pushed forward while reports have emerged that Iran has more than doubled the number of missile tests in the past year. According to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Iran recently test-fired a medium-range missile 'capable of carrying multiple warheads' in violation of UN Security Council Resolution 2231. In his UN speech, Prime Minister Netanyahu referred to the European Union’s attempt to circumvent US sanctions on Iran as 'appeasement,' adding, 'Have these European leaders learned nothing from history? Will they ever wake up?' " • The answer sadly seems to be "No" -- Europe has not woken up to the real threat of Iran -- a threat aimed at Europe itself. Lepor warns us : "The Iranian regime seeks to bring widespread calamity to the world. It seeks to wipe out those whom they consider to be infidels, led by the US but including Europe, in the process of preparing for their Messiah. And, all the while, for the sake of short-term financial windfalls, Europe willfully turns the other way, enabling the extremist Iranian regime to threaten the world like never before. There is no doubt that the Iranian regime’s feverish work on a clandestine nuclear weapons program threatens the world. There is also no doubt that many European and other nations seem intent on allowing it to continue for the sake of trade with Iran....The European appeasers must not be permitted to unleash the Iranian monster; otherwise it risks Iran wreaking devastation on the world." • AND, the unleashing would fall first on Europe. The Strasbourg attack would become an institutionalized attack of every democratic Europe -- on European culture and Judeo-Christian values, and on the very leaders who are complacent today -- following their "integration" and "accommodation" policies toward Islam, and financing the Iranian nuclear machine that would be used to silence them forever. • • • THE US PROGDEMS ARE ON THE SAME TRACK. TeaParty.org reported last week that Democratic National Committee chairman Tom Perez, speaking at a function for a left wing group called Demand Action, complained that Christianity was hurting Democrats because people who go to church tend to be instilled with Republican values. “And I had someone in northwest Wisconsin tell me : ‘You know what? For most of the people I know, their principle sources of information are Fox News, the NRA newsletter and the pulpit on Sunday.’ And it should come as a surprise to no-one that our message doesn’t penetrate,” Tom Perez said. The Tea Party says : "Perez obviously has not stepped into a church in a while. As noted by the few outspokenly pro-life pastors, getting most Christian pastors to discuss, much less denounce abortion is a difficult task. They fear alienating their major donors, board members and their church membership by being too politically controversial, regardless of the Bible’s teachings. In fact, it is one of the toughest issues plaguing Evangelical Christianity today. 'If you haven’t noticed, there’s a blood-filled gap between what the church believes and what the church does,' said a recent Relearn Church article. 'Unfortunately, this inconsistency isn’t exclusive to abortion. Because of the church’s lethargy in effecting culture, it has lost much of its moral high ground in just about every politically charged topic of our time.' Perez’s speech highlights how out of touch Democrats truly are with ordinary Americans. His idea of Christianity is exactly what one would expect of a non-Christian -- that everyone who goes to church is brainwashed by conservative talking points. In reality, the Christianity has sadly become much more Progressive in America." • And, that could lead America down the same path to "appeasement" and "integration" and "accommodation" that Europe has taken. There comes a time to stand up and speak out. European conservatives are listening to the words of their constituents, many of whom are wearing Yellow Vests -- the French equivalent of US MAGA Deplorables. Both constituencies understand the values that matter -- Judeo-Christian values that define the West and that have made it prosper like no other civilization in history. • • • PRIME MINISTER THERESA MAY. What is going on in Britain? It is, strangely, a revolt of the Parliament against the electoral and referendum instructions of their citizen constituents. Prime Minister Theresa May has followed the wishes of the British electorate in negotiating a Brexit deal to extract the UK from the EU. Her thanks has been a never-ending attack from Parliament -- both by the socialist-marxist leader of the Labour Party, Jeremy Corbyn and his coterie, and by the left and right wings of her own Conservative Party. May faced a vote of no confidence on Wednesday brought against her by her own Party. The ballots were tallied Wednesday evening -- 200 to 117 for May . And, make no mistake, Mrs. May is a tough politician -- she needed 158 votes from her Conservatives to defeat the no-confidence vote, and by late Wednesday afternoon, she already had 174. With her victory, Mrs. May will be safe from another no-confidence attack from her Conservative Party for at least one year. • Leading up to the vote, statements of loyalty for the prime minister were issued by every member of her cabinet, including several who have been touted as possible successors. Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt said Mrs May was "the best person to make sure we actually leave the EU on March 29," while Home Secretary Sajid Javid said a leadership contest would be seen as "self-indulgent and wrong." In her statement early on Wednesday morning, Mrs May said : "A leadership election would not change the fundamentals of the negotiation or the Parliamentary arithmetic. Weeks spent tearing ourselves apart will only create more division just as we should be standing together to serve our country. None of that would be in the national interest." She said she was making progress in her talks with EU leaders and vowed to "deliver on the referendum vote and seize the opportunities that lie ahead"...to build a "country that works for everyone" and delivers "the Brexit people voted for." • In a parliamentary debate on Tuesday, Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said : "The time for dithering and delay is over. The prime minister has negotiated her deal. She has told us it is the best and only deal available. There can be no more excuses, no more running away. Put it before Parliament and let's have the vote." Mrs. May answered that the vote will take place, and as Labour MPs shouted "when?" at her, she said : "We've had a meaningful vote, we had it in in the referendum in 2016." PM May added : "And if he wants a meaningful date I'll give him one; 29 March 2019 when we leave the European Union." Veteran pro-European MP Ken Clarke then called the prospect of a leadership contest "unhelpful, irrelevant and irresponsible," prompting loud cheers from the Tory benches. • Prime Minister May is strong and stable, but she is at the top of a Conservative Party that looks weak and chaotic at a critical time. • • • DEAR READERS, does that remind us of the American Republican Party? It still is split into several factions -- from #NeverTrumpers to "Gosh, I'd like to support Trump RINOs" to "MAGA Trump Republicans. • President Trump is suffering from a Republican History Gap -- the GOP still thinks it's 1987 and Ronald Reagan would have solved everything without missing a step. Mrs. May is suffering from a Conservative History Gap -- they think it's still 1989 and Mrs. Thatcher would have solved everything without missing a step. • WRONG on both counts. The last quarter century has dramatically changed the world. Perhaps if Reagan and Thatcher were younger and had experienced the last 25 years, they would be able to brilliantly solve every problem -- and instantly make the world safe for real people, most of whom have conservative instincts and values. BUT, as a trusted advisor keeps telling me -- you dance with the lady -- or the man -- you brought to the prom. While the US Democrat Party and their RINO pals ride roughshod over American liberties and undermine the President's accomplishments every day, President Trump's middle-class revolution has spread across the Atlantic -- first to Britain where the Brexit referendum put an end to British cooperation in the destruction of Europe led by the EU but with a whopping financial bill every year for British taxpayers -- and now to France, where President Macron's climate change agenda prompted him to raise fuel taxes, which in turn fueled riots in Paris and other cities that show no sign of stopping any time soon. • Sooner or later, citizens of socialist and trending-socialist countries wake up to the evils of the ruling-class elites and their self-serving policies. Americans have now witnessed Progressive-Globalist-funded caravans of third-world invaders at the US southern border. The French have been hit by one terrorist attack after another -- 26 since 2012 -- while the Macron government tries to explain why already overtaxed and poor French middle classes ought to pay for integrating a hostile Islam into their country. Nancy Pelosi -- like Jeremy Corbyn in Britain, who is chomping to become Prime Minister -- is waiting in the wings to destroy President Trump and all his achievements, calling the protection of the US border with a wall "immoral." Take note -- she lives in a million-dollar mansion surrounded by a white wall. • More and more people, liberal and conservative, American and European, are questioning the Globalist Left's hypocrisy and the insanity of allowing millions of illegals to be rewarded with citizens' tax dollars while they attack our values and kill our citizens. Those who protest against elected representatives stuffing down taxpayers' throats their ProgDem propaganda about our duty to the "poor migrants" are told to sit down and shut up. The problem for Pelosi, like Macron in France, is that they don't know when Americans or the French will simply stop paying their salaries. Mrs. May is now seeing this play out in Britain -- will Corbyn and his witless British Conservatives-In-Name-Only allies continue to try to bring down Brexit and force the UK, against its voters, to stay in the despised European Union? • They will try, but I don't think they will win. And, what is amusing, if it were not so sad, is that I spend a lot of time trying to convince my British Conservative friends that Mrs. May will win. French teacher and journalist Marie Brunerie says Macron's latest announcement of a fuel tax hike roused "diverse, if not totally incompatible" groups to rally in the streets with cries of "enough is enough." In Britain, the taxpayers are watching their money being funneled across the Channel to Brussels to feed an EU apparatus that they fundamentally do not agree with. In the United States, Americans on both sides of the ideological aisle believe that the reliance on working and middle classes to finance the estimated $135 billion-per-year cost of illegal immigration may eventually drive the 63 million Americans who voted for Trump into the streets. The American middle class is paying the biggest part of the bill for the ProgDem agenda of open borders and social welfare programs while simultaneously being called "racist," "irredeemable," and "fascist." When will Americans once again start wearing their their own version of Yellow Vests -- their MAGA baseball caps? • But, for tonight, we say, "Thank you, Theresa May, for staying the course and facing down the Progressive-Globalist elitists who oppose you and the citizens of Great Britain."