Greece: Turkey’s rise sparks new friendship between Israel and Greece

Via The Wall Street Journal:

It’s hard to find a better example of how geopolitical realities trump ideology than the blossoming friendship between Israel and Greece.

As the leader of Greece’s leftist Syriza party before gaining office in 2015, Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras called to expel Israel’s ambassador and close Greek ports to U.S. arms shipments heading to Israel.

Syriza’s leftist allies in Europe still demonize Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his right-wing government. Many of them back the boycott, sanctions and disinvestment campaign against Israel.  

Not Mr. Tsipras—who intensified cooperation with Israel instead. The leaders of Israel, Greece and Cyprus are holding regular trilateral summits—the fourth was in May—and the Israeli air force uses Greek airspace for training. The three countries, plus Egypt, are jointly developing the eastern Mediterranean’s natural-gas reserves.

The key reason for all this: Turkey. 

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Germany’s sordid Iran policy

Via Mosaic Magazine:

As the U.S. is re-imposing sanctions on the Islamic Republic and trying to curb the dangerous reach of its proxies, Germany has come to Tehran’s defense. Yigal Carmon comments:

If any country in the world could be expected to be extremely cautious about aligning with anyone calling for Israel’s annihilation, it would be Germany, regardless of any extenuating circumstances - economic, political or otherwise. The Bundesrepublik should have distanced itself from any substantial tie with the Islamic Republic of Iran, whose murderous regime is threatening to annihilate Israel.

Germany was the first country that should have told . . . Barack Obama that totalitarian regimes, like Germany’s own Nazi regime, are beyond the pale, and should be denied any legitimacy, particularly when it comes to a nuclear deal with them. Germany’s past should have enjoined it to take the moral lead, publicly, in promoting regime change when dealing with a totalitarian regime such as Iran. The reality is tragically the opposite. . . . Germany . . . has shut its eyes to the notorious human-rights violations in Iran, and to Iran’s terrorizing and murder of its own citizens. Iran, of course, is a major partner, along with Russia, in the greatest humanitarian catastrophe of the 21st century: the Assad regime’s slaughter and displacement of millions of Syrians.

The reversal of the Obama-foisted Iran policy by the Trump administration provided Germany with a golden opportunity to reclaim its professed values. But the reverse happened: Germany is legitimizing Iran, even championing it. . . .

Regardless of Germany’s motivations, this is the moment for Germany to demonstrate national leadership and responsibility that rises above petty considerations . . . and builds a policy on its moral values. If it rises to the moment, Germany could isolate the Iran issue from other issues, and serve as a true global beacon of moral policy. There are other ways to resolve its [other] problems with the U.S., and even to take an assertive stand against Donald Trump on economic matters. Unfortunately, Germany’s grand government coalition and the opposition parties are united in defense of Iran and against the U.S.

read more at JNS

Hungary: The safest country for European Jews? Try Hungary

Via PJ Media (David P. Goldman):

Last Friday evening I put on a kippah and walked half an hour across Budapest to the Keren Or synagogue maintained by the Budapest Chabad. After violent attacks on Jews in German streets, the leaders of Germany’s Jewish community warned Jews last month not to wear a kippah or any other visible sign of Jewish identification in public. The French community issued such warnings years ago. Belgian TV could not find a single Jew in Brussels willing to wear a kippah in public. I walked across Budapest four times (for Friday evening and Saturday daytime services), and no-one looked at my kippah twice. At services I met Hasidim who had walked to synagogue with kaftan and shtreimel, the traditional round fur hat. Whatever residual anti-Semitism remains among Hungarians, it doesn’t interfere with the open embrace of Jewish life. There are no risks to Jews because there are very few Muslim migrants.

On any given Friday evening, the Keren Or synagogue—one of several Chabad houses in Budapest—hosts two hundred people for dinner. Jewish life isn’t just flourishing in Budapest. It’s roaring with ruach, and livened by a growing Israeli presence. About 100,000 Israelis have dual Hungarian citizenship; many own property in the country and vote in Hungarian elections.

Prime Minister Orban has been a close friend of Israeli leader Binyamin Netanyahu for twenty years. When Orban first was elected prime minister in 1998 in the thick of an economic crisis, he asked then-Finance Minister Netanyahu for help, and Netanyahu lent him some of his staff to shape Hungary’s economic program. I asked everyone at Keren Or who spoke English what they thought of Orban. In that gathering the prime minister would have polled 100%.

Orban, in turn, is one of Israel’s few staunch supporters overseas. Earlier this month Hungary, along with Rumania and the Czech Republic, vetoed a European Community resolution condemning the U.S. for moving its embassy to Jerusalem. Cynics dismiss this as an instance of “the enemy of my enemy is my friend.” That isn't the case. Hungary is in the middle of a nasty fight with the European Community over migration, and stands to lose up to $4 billion in EC subsidies—roughly 3% of the country’s GDP. It doesn’t help Hungary to provoke Brussels by sabotaging its diplomatic efforts, as in the case of the Jerusalem embassy vote. On the contrary, Hungary is spending precious political capital in defense of the Jewish state, to its own possible disadvantage.

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Belgium: "Jews avoid conflicts. That’s the difference with Muslims", says mayor of Antwerp

Via European Jewish Press:

The leader of the New Flemish Alliance (NVA), a governing Flemish nationalist party in Belgium, said that "Jews avoid conflict, that’s the difference with Muslims." 

In an interview with the Flemish weekly De Zondag, Bart De Wever, who is also Mayor of Antwerp, a city with large Jewish [not really large, around 12,000 Jews live in Antwerp] and Muslim communities, was responding a question on whether his views on migration have become tougher in recent years. 

"Analyze my discourse of the past thirty years. You will mainly see continuity. But because of the false humanitarianism of the left, every other discourse seems hard," he said. 

"The Left now embraces the headscarf as a symbol of equality. I find that very strange. People wanted to destroy Christianity, but they accept everything from Islam. I call that soumission," he said. De Wever said that he is just as critical for the Jewish as for the Islamic community.

"Orthodox Jews also attach great importance to external signs of their faith. But they do accept the consequences. I have not yet seen an Orthodox Jew at a counter. They avoid conflicts. That’s the difference. Muslims do require a place in the public space, in education, with their external beliefs. That creates tensions."

Czech Republic: Miloš Zeman and the Czech tradition of supporting Israel when it matters

Via The Tablet (Edward N. Luttwak):

The only European leader who starkly defied the protesting chorus to applaud Donald Trump’s recognition of Israel’s capital was the President of the Czech Republic, Miloš Zeman.

By so doing, Zeman was renewing a peculiar tradition of his office that started with the founding president Thomas Masaryk, a philosophy professor who first became a public figure in Austro-Hungarian days by powerfully defending Leopold Hilsner, a Jewish tramp tried and convicted of the ritual murder of a girl in 1899. To the fury of the Catholic prelates who had incited mobs against Hilsner, the imperial authorities intervened from Vienna to stop Hilsner’s execution. A long campaign ensued till Hilsner’s liberation, and, in the process, Masaryk won over many Czechs to his view that anti-semitism was a pernicious pack of lies at a time when it was almost Catholic doctrine ( Viennas’s mayor Karl Lueger kept been re-elected till his death in 1910 on an explicitly anti-semitic platform, strongly backed by the Church). (...)

All through this, the Czechs–Israel’s one and only suppliers–were bombarded with American and British complaints, outright threats, and offers of inducements, but they stood firm, just as Miloš Zeman stood firm when Federica Mogherini, Arafat’s ex groupie and Rouhani enthusiast (not one word from her about the recent Iranian protests) and now Europe’s farcical “High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy“, chose to lead the outcry over Jerusalem.

Zeman is up for re-election against Jiří Drahoš, a nice man and a perfectly respectable scientist, but it is clearly Zeman who upholds the Masaryk tradition when it comes to Israel. He received 38 percent of the vote in the first round as against 26 percent for Drahoš, but faces a maximum effort from the Mogherini set in the concluding vote next week (for more on the election see here). He is worthy of support.

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Austria: New FM denies having compared Zionism with Nazism

Via The Times of Israel:

Zionism cannot be equated with Nazism, Austria’s new foreign minister said, rejecting accusations that she had made such a comparison in the past.

In an in-depth interview with The Times of Israel, Karin Kneissl defended the far-right Freedom Party, saying neither its leader Heinz-Christian Strache nor its other members have anti-Semitic inclinations. (...)  

When she was appointed in December, the 52-year-old Vienna native made headlines in Israel for having described early Zionism in one of her books as a “blood-and-soil ideology based on German nationalism.”

The quote, from her 2014 book “My Middle East,” led some observers to believe that she linked Zionism with Nazism.

“Some journalists only pointed out one line of the book without explaining the content,” she told The Times of Israel. “What’s important today is that myself and the new Austrian government are and remain committed to Israel as a Jewish state and to a two-state-solution, where Israel and Palestine live side by side, in peace and prosperity.”

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No more access to the European Parliament for terrorists like Leila Khaled

Background:
Europe: Huge success for terrorist Leila Khaled at European Parliament

Via European Jewish Press:

"My complaint to the President was successful. The European Parliament is now not allowing access to people or groups, who have been involved in terrorist acts. Happy we have established what should have been obvious before!"

The European parliament has endorsed a proposal of its president, Antonio Tajani, to systematically deny access to all persons, groups, or entities involved in terrorist acts.

The decision followed a complaint by several MEPs after Palestinian terrorist Leila Khaled, a senior member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), was invited last September to speak in the European Parliament at a conference hosted by two Spanish far-left MEPs. She used that platform to praise extremist violence and demonize Jews.  She glorified terrorism and trivialized the Holocaust.  "Don’t you see a similarity between Nazi actions and Zionist actions in Gaza?," she declared. "While the Nazis were tried in Nuremberg, no one has ever tried the Zionists," she said.

"The European Parliament’s Bureau unanimously endorsed the President’s proposal to systematically deny access to all persons, groups, or entities involved in terrorist acts, as listed in the annexed Council Decision (CFSP) 2017/1426,"  the parliament's Directorate General for Security and Safety said in an information notice.

"In view of that decision, and in the context of combatting terrorism, Members of the European Parliament and Political Groups are requested not to invite persons listed in the Council Decision or individuals representing entities or groups on that list, nor to facilitate their access to Parliament. In addition, these persons, entities, and groups may not be promoted through audio-visual presentations or other events on Parliament’s premises."

"I am happy that we have eventually established what should have been obvious before!" commented Czech MEP Tomáš Zdechovský (European People's Party, EPP) who was the initiator of the complaints to President Tajani.

''The Council may adopt some amendments now, so we can be sure the situation with Leila Khaled will not happen again," Zdechovský added.

Two other complaining MEPs, Danish Anders Vistisen and Dutch Bastiaan Belder, from the European Conservative and Reformist group (ECR),  thanked and congratulated President Tajani "for his resolute stance against terror."

"Pleased to see that our concerns and that of 57 other MEPs [out of 751] on the presence of terrorist Leila Khaled in the EP were addressed," they tweeted.

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Ukraine: Odessa celebrates Bob Dylan's Jewish roots this weekend

Via Jewish Telegraphic Agency: 

Bob Dylan

Some 950 people are expected to gather over this weekend for Limmud FSU Ukraine, the biggest event geared towards the Jewish community in the country. The event will take place in Odessa, one of the most important cities of Jewish and Zionist movement’s history in the former Soviet Union. Today there are about 400,000 Jews living in Ukraine, with more than 45,000 in Odessa. 

Limmud FSU Ukraine, the dynamic and pluralistic Jewish festival of culture, creativity and learning, will feature an array of more than 180 world-class speakers from around the world on a multitude of subjects ranging from art, to Jewish culture and tradition, literature, music, theater, history, politics, business and lifestyle.

The event will feature a special ceremony and a concert celebrating Bob Dylan, one of the most prominent Jewish composers and musicians of our time. Dylan’s paternal mother, Anna Zimmerman, together with her husband Zigman, emigrated from Odessa to the US in 1910. The event will also include an exhibition on Dylan’s life “Forever young: behind Dylan's revolution and legacy”, created by the Museum of Diaspora in Tel Aviv, and presented by one of its curators, Amitai Achiman.

Special recognition will be given to the 120th anniversary of the First Zionist Congress of 1897, to be celebrated this year, including a concert and several activities relating to the World Zionist Organization, with the participation of WZO Chair, Avraham Duvdevani. A commemorative plaque will be unveiled on the house where the distinguished Hebrew poet, Shaul Tchernichovsky, lived, in the framework of an official ceremony made possible by the efforts of Nativ and WZO.

“The Ukrainian-Jewish community is among the most thriving Jewish communities in the world, while the city of Odessa is one of the most important cities in Jewish history. We confidently expect that this Limmud FSU 11th festival in Ukraine will be an important part in the life of the Jewish community,” said founder Chaim Chesler, “and we look forward to an inspiring gathering, especially the celebration of Bob Dylan’s Jewish roots in Odessa.”

Among the presenters will be Israel's ambassador to Ukraine Eliav Belotserkovsky; Genesis Philanthropy Group (GPG) Vice-President for External Relations and former Israeli Ambassador to Russia, Dorit Golender; Executive Director  of the Euro-Asian Jewish Congress, Haim Ben Yakov; Nativ's countrty director for Ukraine Gennady Polischuk; Director of The Ukrainian Institute for the Study of the Holocaust Tkuma, Igor Shchupak; Board Member of Ukrainian-Jewish Encounter Adrian Karatnycky, popular Russian satirist and writer, Victor Shenderovich, and many more.

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Norwegian minister: 'We now get what Israel goes through'

Via Ynet News:

Speaking in an exclusive interview with Ynet in Oslo, Immigration Minister Sylvi Listhaug says Europeans 'are experiencing now the fear that you have experienced for decades'; supporting Israel's right to defend itself, Listhaug adds 'you live in a region that has a lot of problems.' 

Norway’s minister of immigration drew comparisons Wednesday between the plight of Europeans suffering from increasingly common terror attacks with the experiences endured by Israel for decades. 

“We are experiencing now the fear that you have experienced for decades,” said Sylvi Listhaug in an exclusive interview with Ynet in Oslo. “Many people now understand the situation you live in. We see what is happening in Sweden, in Britain and in France.”   

European nations, she added, “and their citizens need to understand the situation in Israel better because of the terror attacks in Israel.”  Since taking office, Listhaug has cracked down on illegal immigration into the Scandinavian country by adopting stringent policies that have resulted in just 1,000 illegal migrants entering the country in 2017 from 30,000 in 2015.   

According to Listhaug, her Progress Party, which governs in a coalition with the Conservative Party, is a staunch supporter of Israel.  “The Progress Party has always been a supporter of Israel’s need to protect themselves (sic) in a region where you are the only democracy,” she claimed.

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Germany: Munich lawmakers declare boycott movement antisemitic

Via The Jerusalem Post (Benjamin Weinthal):

City Council members from the two largest parties in Munich – the capital of the German state of Bavaria – submitted a bill banning municipal funding and support for BDS activities in July. 

“The bill will pass because the CSU [Christian Social Union] and the SPD [Social Democratic Party] jointly govern and have the majority in the city council,” a spokesperson for the Jewish community told The Jerusalem Post. 

The legislation, titled “Against every form of antisemitism – No cooperation with the antisemitic BDS (boycott, divestment, sanctions) movement,” is expected to be enacted after the summer break. 

According to the bill, the municipality will “not provide city premises for BDS campaigns, events, exhibits or demonstrations that pursue the goals of BDS.”
In addition, the legislation states it will “not support events in the form of grants to groups” that advocate BDS. 

The lawmakers from the CDU and SPD said the bill is justified because of widespread modern antisemitism in Germany targeting the Jewish state. The council members noted that a recent federal government expert report on antisemitism said 40% of Germans hold Israel-related antisemitic views. 

“Neither the objective of the BDS campaign nor the antisemitic propaganda that it brings with it is compatible with a democratic, respectful city society,” wrote the nine city council representatives. 

The bill took to task the anti-Israel NGO “Jewish-Palestinian Dialogue Group Munich” for antisemitism related to its support of the international BDS movement. The pro-BDS petition signed by the JPDG accused Israel of “ethnic cleansing.”

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Czech Republic: Evangelical Christians successfully campaigned for recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel

Via Mosaic Magazine (Jürgen Bühler):

In the 21st century, evangelical Christians have come to constitute the world’s fastest-growing religious group; if current trends continue, they will outnumber Catholics and possibly even Muslims in a few decades. The movement’s growth corresponds to a shift in its center of gravity; a majority of evangelicals now come from Asia, Africa, and Latin America rather than the U.S. Given that evangelical Christianity tends to encourage a positive attitude toward Jews and the Jewish state, argues Jürgen Bühler, this change could be especially significant for Israel: 

The last few decades have seen evangelical Christianity become the religious denomination with the most rapid growth rates in the world. It is set to surpass Catholicism, and perhaps even Islam, in a few decades. The most significant growth rates, however, are not in cities like Wurttemberg, Geneva, London, Dallas, or Nashville, but places like Manila, Lagos, Beijing, and Sao Paolo. This means a dramatic change in the demographic landscape of the Christian world, in which the average Christian is no longer a white European or North American; most evangelicals today are Asian, Africans, or residents of Latin America. This has enormous significance for Israel. (...)

One factor that unites evangelicals across the world, whether in the Amazonian rainforests, the Niger delta, or in Chinese cities is a great love of Israel. . . . The rapid increase in the number of evangelicals may turn these countries into strategic allies for Israel, as they are becoming a significant part of the general population. In Brazil, between 26 and 30 percent of the citizens are evangelicals. In Guatemala, more than 40 percent. In Uganda, 37 percent. In Nigeria, 40 percent. Even in Muslim Indonesia, 12 percent of the population are evangelicals. Their number in China is estimated at around 100 million. 

Already today, this phenomenon has political and diplomatic influence that aids Israel, both at the national level and in international organizations like the UN—and this influence is set to increase in the coming years. For instance, the previous president of Nigeria, Goodluck Jonathan, ordered the state’s representatives in the UN not to support the vote on recognizing the Palestinian Authority as a state, due to pressure from the evangelical community in his country. 

Even countries with a small evangelical community play a significant role in support for Israel. The International Christian Embassy in the Czech Republic, for instance, played a decisive role in promoting a decision by the country’s parliament, adopted a few weeks ago, which recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel—an unprecedented move in Europe. In addition, the activity of the International Christian Embassy in Muslim countries in West Africa has led to a moving-together between their governments and Israel in recent times. 

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UK: Pro-Israel MP tells of swastika daubing during election campaign

Via The Jewish Chronicle:

Sheryll Murray MP

Sheryll Murray, the pro-Israel Conservative MP for South East Cornwall, has described the abuse she suffered during the general election campaign. 

Speaking at Prime Minister’s Questions, Ms Murray, a Conservative Friends of Israel supporter, told MPs that opponents had carved swastikas into her campaign posters and urinated on her office door. 

She said: "Over the past months, I've had swastikas carved into posters, social media posts like ‘burn the witch’. 

"People putting Labour Party leaflets on my home photographed them and pushed them through my letterbox. 

"Someone even urinated on my office door. Hardly kinder, gentler politics. 

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Austria: Far-right Freedom Party commits to moving embassy to Jerusalem

i24NEWS:

Heinz-Christian Strache

Heinz-Christian Strache stands a real chance of winning the upcoming national elections 

The head of Austria's Freedom Party Heinz-Christian Strache on Wednesday committed in writing to moving the Austrian embassy to Jerusalem, if the party wins in the upcoming national elections. 

Strache also affirmed, in a letter addressed to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that he believes Israel has the right to build in all areas of the state with Jerusalem as its capital. The letter was signed during a meeting with Member of Knesset Yehuda Glick in Vienna. 

Strache is the political heir of Jörg Haider, the former head of the Freedom Party who was infamous for his anti-Semitism and pro-Nazi opinions. When the party joined the Austrian government in 2000, Israel recalled its ambassador in a diplomatic crisis that continued until 2003. 

Former Israeli elder statesman Shimon Peres refused a visit from Strache last year, reportedly due to advice from the Israeli Foreign MinistryStrache stands a real chance of winning the upcoming elections in Austria, if not to be chancellor, then to be in a coalition. Austria's Freedom Party is widely considered the strongest far right party in all of Europe. (...) 

Having made comments in the past that Austria is not responsible for its previous crimes, namely in relation to Nazi Germany, Strache told i24NEWS last year that "different people in different periods afterwards have interpreted the situation as Austria being occupied. Others certainly wished for this unification with National Socialist Germany."

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Related:

Far-right Austrian party chief visits Israel, tours Yad Vashem

Austria: Jewish leaders mull lifting ban of far-right party

European funded folk dance competition calls to eliminate Israel

Europe claims they support the two state solution.  Well?

Via PMW:

The Yafa Cultural Center, which receives funding from the German development agency GIZ, Norway, and the European Union, recently posted to its website photos from the first Yafa Folk Dance Competition. The gold prize winner danced to the song Pull the Trigger. The following is a longer excerpt from the song's lyrics:

“The Zionists coveted [our] homeland,
compounding damage and enmity
But the popular revolution awaits [them]
The orchard called us to the struggle
We replaced bracelets with weapons
We attacked the despicable [Zionists]
We do not want [internal] strife or disputes
While this invading enemy is on the battlefield
This is the day that Jihad is needed
Pull the trigger.
We shall redeem Jerusalem, Nablus and the country.”

This song was previously broadcast on PA TV in 2010.

In keeping with the song’s theme of destroying Israel, the three top scoring dancers were awarded maps of “Palestine” replacing Israel. Palestinian Media Watch has documented that the PA and Fatah regularly disseminate maps that erase Israel from the map.

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Russia: Moscow’s Chief Rabbi Saddened by "Total Silence" From MPs in Anti-Semitism Row

Via Newsweek:

Moscow’s top rabbi has condemned the “total silence” from Russia’s parliament after its deputy speaker made comments which appeared to blame Jews for destroying cathedrals.

Pinchas Goldschmidt was referring to remarks made by Pyotr Tolstoy, the deputy speaker of Russia’s lower house from the ruling United Russia party and the great-grandson of Russian writer Leo Tolstoy.

Tolstoy had been asked to comment on protests against the planned transfer of state ownership of Russia’s St Isaac’s Cathedral to the Orthodox Church.

The demonstrations were featured in many liberal media outlets. The protesters, Tolstoy argued, were "working in various very respectable places—on radio stations, in legislative assemblies [and] continuing the work" of their ancestors, who had “destroyed our cathedrals after jumping over from the Pale of Settlement with revolvers in 1917."

(...)

Speaking to state news agency RIA Novosti, Goldschmidt said he was disappointed that lawmakers had not distanced themselves from Tolstoy’s words.

The rabbi stated that the deputy speaker’s words were not simply ignorance. “Germany has the highest level of culture in Europe but it spawned Nazism,” he said.

“What bothers me is something else—the reaction to this statement,” Goldschmidt said. “Instead of having Pyotr Tolstoy meet with the head of the Jewish Communities Federations of Russia, Alexandr Boroda, it would have been much more effective and pleasing if the head of [his] party in the lower house, speakers and other politicians distanced themselves from the aforementioned statement and made it known that they do not agree with this opinion. But from them, all that came was total silence.”

If there had been a similar situation in another country, the rabbi said, “we would have immediately seen how other non-Jewish politicians would distance themselves from such a statement. I am very saddened this did not occur here.”

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French Funding to NGOs Involved in Boycott Campaigns and with Alleged Ties to Terror Groups

Via NGO Monitor:

An international peace summit, spearheaded by the French government, will be held on January 15, 2017, in Paris. In this report, NGO Monitor documents French government support of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that support discriminatory BDS (boycott, divestment, and sanctions) campaigns against Israel and with alleged ties to terror groups. This type of financial support casts doubts on the ability of France to serve as an impartial host of a summit dedicated to peace.

Executive Summary

•     The French government funds numerous French, Israeli, and Palestinian organizations that support and promote BDS (boycott, divestment, and sanctions) campaigns against Israel, despite the fact that such boycotts are illegal under French law.
  
•     The Platform of French NGOs for Palestine (The Platform) is one such grantee. One of the Platform’s government-funded projects is explicitly geared towards influencing elected officials, media, and public opinion regarding the conflict – an obvious abuse of taxpayer money. The Platform supports boycott campaigns targeting Israel and partners with organizations instrumental in BDS efforts.
  
•     France directly and indirectly funds several other NGOs with alleged ties to the PFLP terror group.

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European diplomats meet with Hamas, express 'positive position'

When  the EU court ruled that Hamas was not a terror organization, European countries hurried to explain this was just a 'bureaucratic matter'.

Via al-Monitor:

In an exclusive interview with Al-Monitor, Hamas' foreign relations chief Osama Hamdan revealed that several weeks ago in Qatar, the movement's leadership met a delegation of high-ranking European diplomats. He expressed optimism about a European decision to strike Hamas from its list of terrorist organizations.

(...)

Hamdan:  Hamas is keen to maintain balanced and open relations at the regional and international levels. It has succeeded over the past three decades since its founding in 1987 to establish channels of communication with several Arab, Islamic and Western states. It now has a wide network of political and diplomatic relations, but the United States has exerted pressure on many countries, influencing them not to cooperate with Hamas’ efforts to build relations.

Hamas today has a good communications system, including many countries other than Arab and Islamic countries. It has relations with the Russian Federation, Brazil in Latin America, Nigeria and South Africa on the African continent and China, Malaysia and Indonesia in Asia. On the European continent, Hamas has strong ties with Switzerland and Norway. It also has good ties with three other European countries that prefer not to be open about this relationship to avoid any embarrassment with Washington.

(...)

Al-Monitor:  News has been recently spreading among Hamas circles about the possibility of striking Hamas’ name off the European Union's list of terrorist organizations. What is new on this subject? What about your latest meetings with European officials?

Hamdan:  Hamas has won a legal battle, as the General Court of the European Union had decided in 2014 to annul EU measures maintaining Hamas on the European list of terrorist organizations, and we are still waiting for the European political decision to implement the court ruling. We believe that this positive decision in favor of Hamas is approaching day by day.

Hamas has held a series of meetings with European political circles, most recently in the first week of November 2016 in Qatar, when the head of the movement’s political bureau, Khaled Meshaal, and a Hamas leadership delegation met a high-level European delegation, including European Foreign Ministry officials. The two sides discussed various topics, and the European delegation expressed a positive position toward Hamas, although the visit was not covered by the media.

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European members of UN Security Council support resolution denying Jewish rights to Jerusalem

Via Reuters:

The Obama administration on Friday allowed the U.N. Security Council to adopt a resolution demanding an end to Israeli settlements, defying pressure from U.S. President-elect Donald Trump as well as Israel and several U.S. senators who urged Washington to use its veto.

The resolution was put forward at the 15-member council for a vote on Friday by New Zealand, Malaysia, Venezuela and Senegal a day after Egypt withdrew it under pressure from Israel and the U.S. president-elect. Israel and Trump had called on the United States to veto the measure.

It was adopted with 14 votes in favor, to a round of applause. It is the first resolution the Security Council has adopted on Israel and the Palestinians in nearly eight years.

The European members of the UN Security Council are Spain and Ukraine, along with the permanent members - France, Russia and the UK.

The countries that voted for the resolution say that this has been their policy all along.  Indeed, this is not new.  Europe does not think Jews have any rights to Jerusalem or to Judaism's most holy sites.

Less than a month ago, all European members of the UN voted in favor of yet another resolution ignoring Jewish ties to Jerusalem.

Austria: FPÖ cozies up to extreme right

Via DW:

Norbert Hofer has earned the nickname "the friendly face of the FPÖ" (Freedom Party of Austria). He manages to keep a smile even when things get heated on TV talk shows. His image is important, for Hofer hopes to become Austria's next president in December. He and his party, which also wants to provide Austria's next chancellor, present themselves as statesmanlike and avoid appearing overly close to the country's extreme right. Hofer has even gone to court to maintain that image. This summer he sued a member of the SPÖ (Socialist Party of Austria) for calling him a "Nazi."

But now, a controversial appearance has again sparked discussions about the FPÖ's relationship with the extreme right. FPÖ Secretary General Herbert Kickl will address a congress in Linz on Saturday of right-wing student fraternities (Burschenschaften), new rightists and anti-Semites calling themselves the "Defenders of Europe."

(...)

Bernhard Weidinger sees the congress as an important networking opportunity for German-speaking right-wing groups. The German journalist Jürgen Elsässer, editor-in-chief of "Compact" magazine and most recently a speaker at the second-year anniversary of the anti-immigrant "Pegida" movement (Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamization of the West), will be among the featured speakers.

"The spectrum ranges from right-wing conservatives, to right-wing extremists with ties to neo-Nazism," says Weidinger. Above all, right-wing media outlets will be present. "That particular scene sees itself as the movement's intellectual avant-garde." He considers several participants to be anti-Semitic, even if that is not the common consensus of the movement. "I would say the mainstream includes groups like the 'Blauen Narzisse,' the 'Sezession' and the so-called 'Identitarians.'"

All of these groups are unified in the fight against the supposed "Islamization" of Europe. The "Identitarian Movement" in particular, has made a name for itself of late: In April, members stormed a play put on by refugees in Vienna, and this August, in Berlin, they unfurled a huge banner on the Brandenburg Gate.

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Austria: Neo-Nazi Party ‘Becoming Legitimized’ By Anti-Refugee Rhetoric

Via MintPress:

Reports neo-Nazi crimes have increased in Austria could have been “easily predicted” but have little chance of “becoming a mainstream movement,” expert on immigration and political attitudes told Sputnik.

Responding to offences reported in the Austrian states of Tyrol and Upper Austria, including spraying Nazi related graffiti on walls and posting glorifications of Adolf Hitler on Facebook, Dr. Sergi Pardos-Prado from Oxford University suggested an increase in support for populist parties has led to a “legitimization of radical movements.”

“Populist parties like UKIP and the AFD legitimize the small but very radical Nazi-movement and that’s when you witness the graffiti and increase in hate crime in Europe,” Dr. Pardos-Prado said.

“I don’t suspect this movement has any chance of becoming a mainstream movement. It’s very attractive for the media to report on it — and it’s very scary and shocking considering Europe’s history — but it is a minority movement that is becoming legitimized by populist parties and magnified by all of us.”

Dr. Pardos-Prado who is currently presenting his academic research at conferences across Europe, told Sputnik it is important to distinguish the difference between the neo-Nazi movement in some corners of Eastern and Central Europe from the populist and anti-immigrant parties in the rest of Europe.

“Both of course are anti-immigrant and both respond to different narratives and ideologies.”

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