In Ireland's Parliament, Talk of Israeli "Terrorists"

Irish President Higgins pictured a few years ago

The Trotsykite chair of the Irish Anti-War Movement (we all know what such movements are often synonyms for, of course, and this one is true to form, targeting the United States and its allies and interests) Richard Boyd Barrett, born  in November 1967, is an extreme example of a member of the generations that grew up after the Six Day War and have learned to perceive Israel only as a "military occupier" with no empathy whatever for the dire situation in which Israel has found itself since its foundation due to Arab rejectionists nor appreciation for the humanitarian efforts and breakthroughs wrought by the embattled little Jewish State.


On 9 June in Ireland's Parliament, in which he sits for Dún Laoghaire, he spewed out invective against Israel, cherry-picking unrepresentative firebrand statements attributed to certain Israelis and using them in a shamelessly distorted attempt to demonise the Israeli government and the Israel position as a whole.

This is rich, considering Mr Barrett's apparent support for Hamas as suggested by, for instance, this news item from 2009 which shows him attending an Islamic event in Ireland's capital and questioning Israel's very right to exist:

'Pro-Hamas speakers at a fundraising event held ... in Dublin at the weekend argued that the recent violence in Gaza, in which more than 1,300 Palestinians were killed, was a “victory” because it put the Middle East conflict back on the international agenda and galvanised Muslims worldwide.

The Al-Aqsa Festival, which was headlined “Gaza Victory: The Road to Al-Quds”, drew hundreds of people to the RDS [Royal Dublin Society] Concert Hall on Saturday.

The event, organised by the Palestinian Rights Institute – a body established several years ago by Palestinians living in Ireland, was covered by a TV crew from Al Jazeera’s Arabic-language channel.

Speakers included Azzam Tamimi, the Palestinian director of the London-based Institute of Islamic Political Thought, and Sheikh Yousef al Baz, a Muslim cleric from the West Bank.

Speaking in Arabic, Sheikh al Baz said the January conflict between Israel and Hamas had “revived the issue of Palestine throughout the world after it was almost dead”, and it had “restored to every Muslim his honour and dignity”. He argued that the war had proved that “resistance is the only way, and not negotiation”.

Hamas is designated a terrorist organisation by the EU and Washington.

Sheikh al Baz’s speech prompted shouts of “Allahu Akbar” from the audience, drawn mostly from the Muslim community. “We supported the jihad and we will do so until Allah grants us victory,” the cleric said. “And that day is not far.”

Pro-Hamas paraphernalia, including DVDs featuring armed Hamas fighters and Sheikh Yassin, the group’s spiritual leader who was assassinated by Israel in 2004, were on sale at the event.

Mr Tamimi, who has written a number of books on Hamas, railed against the US and Europe for insisting that the organisation must meet certain conditions, including recognising Israel’s right to exist, before any engagement occurs.

“Once you recognise Israel, you say to the world that the rape of my country and my people is acceptable,” Mr Tamimi said. “It is a crime against humanity to recognise Israel’s right to exist because that would legitimise the crimes against humanity Israel has committed.” [Emphasis added, here and below]

Had Hamas agreed to meet the conditions laid down by the international community, he said, “they would no longer have my support”.

Hamas, Mr Tamimi argued, was “an alternative to those who sold out” and it “represents our dream” as the “true representative of the Palestinian voice”.

“When the world opposes Hamas, it opposes Palestinian self-determination,” he said, adding that the international community must recognise the “legitimacy Hamas has gained through resistance and elections”.

Branding the EU as “cowards” for not engaging with Hamas, Mr Tamimi added: “Hamas is who the world should be talking to if it is serious about solving the Palestinian issue.”

Later, Mr Tamimi drew applause when he praised insurgents in Iraq and the Taliban in Afghanistan. He said he disagreed with the Taliban’s views on certain matters, but added: “With regard to their attitudes to liberation I say ‘Long live the Taliban’.”

Richard Boyd Barrett of the Irish Anti-War Movement told attendees that it was “entirely legitimate” to argue that “Israel has no right to exist” because “it is not a normal state but a state built on violence, oppression and apartheid”.

“We must convince people that [Israel] has no right to exist as long as it denies rights to Palestinians,” he added.

Organisers told The Irish Times that the €7,000 raised at the event would be given to Human Appeal International, a registered charity with offices in Manchester.

Human Appeal International was one of 36 organisations banned by the Israeli government last year due to alleged links with Hamas.'

 The "Taoiseach" to whom his remarks are addressed is the prime minister of Ireland, Enda Kelly, who as requested by Barrett gives his reaction to the statements as quoted:

"I Share Israel’s Love For Freedom & Democracy; I Admire Its Tenacious Determination When The Odds Are Stacked Against It" (plus video of some who won't like that statement!)

The UK's Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, Sajid Javid, who as his name suggests is, incidentally, of Muslim heritage (see my earlier post about him here), has delivered a fine speech to at the awards ceremony of UK Israel Business, in which he unequivocally condemns BDS.

 'Good evening, and shalom aleichem.

It’s a great pleasure to be with you tonight to celebrate the ties between our countries, and the very best of UK and Israel business.

Golda Meir said that Israelis only have one complaint about Moses. 

That he led the Jews through the desert for 40 years – then finally stopped at the one place in the Middle East that doesn’t have any oil!

But I guess necessity is the mother of invention. Because over the past 67 years, Israel really has made business bloom in the barren desert.

It’s one of the many reasons I have long admired the country. I’ve travelled there extensively, both for business and with family. And over the years I’ve taken a great interest in its affairs. Because the values that have made Israel such a success are values that matter a great deal to me. 

I share Israel’s love for freedom and democracy. I admire its tenacious determination when the odds are stacked against it.  [Emphasis added here and below]

And, like millions of Israelis, I have a mother who’s still waiting for me to get a proper job!

So we have a lot in common. And that’s why I’m heartened at the growth of British and Israeli trade links. 

Business has always been a part of my life, not just the 20 years I spent in international banking, but the heart and soul of my childhood, growing up in a small flat above the family shop.

And throughout that time I’ve seen how business can do a great many things. 

It doesn’t just provide jobs and local growth. It lifts individuals, communities and even countries up to be the best they can be. 

That’s why tonight we should celebrate the ever-closer business links between Britain and Israel. 

The total value of trade and services between our 2 countries is now well over £4.5 billion a year. 

Last year alone, 25 Israeli companies set up or expanded their operations in the UK. Israeli-owned CinemaCity amalgamated with the UK’s own Cineworld. The Helios Energy Fund committed £30 million to set up 30 biomass installations in the UK. The Noy Fund announced plans to invest £50 million in UK waste-to-energy projects.

There are now over 300 Israeli companies with a physical presence here, responsible for thousands of jobs.

But this is not a one way street. Great British businesses like Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation (HSBC), GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), Barclays, Rolls Royce and others have invested more than £1 billion in Israel. Our exports to Israel are increasing rapidly – and the UK is Israel’s second biggest export market.

In addition, we’ve seen a significant increase in the number of Israeli companies showing interest in raising capital on the London Stock Exchange (LSE). Nine Israeli companies carried out IPOs on the LSE last year – second only to the UK itself.

So the past few years have been a golden era for Anglo-Israeli business. But what really excites me are the possibilities offered by the years to come. 

Collaboration on science and technology is the cornerstone of our shared relationship. As we all know, only Silicon Valley can rival Israel when it comes to developing leading-edge technologies.

We look towards Israel to benefit from its world-leading expertise in cyber security. And equally, we want to support Israel as it exploits recent discoveries of natural gas in its waters – through strategic partnerships, project finance and supply chains.

And we must continue to work together on achieving medical breakthroughs – whether through, the Britain-Israel Research and Academic Exchange Partnership (BIRAX), or as GSK and Technion are doing, or the National Health Service (NHS) and Teva Pharmaceuticals, through a £12.5 million joint-research agreement.

The UK-Israel Tech Hub in the British Embassy in Tel Aviv has also fostered promising collaborations in agriculture, water technologies and in finance, with 14 Israeli start-ups coming to London this March to meet major City players. And initiatives like the Israel Investor Summit are helping to bring together businesses in both our countries. 

It’s a great relationship, and not one we should ever take for granted. 

But sometimes we do. You may have heard that Britain’s National Union of Students recently passed a motion committing itself to a complete boycott of Israel. Last year the same body rejected a motion calling for a boycott of Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), which I think speaks volumes.

Last December, as Culture Secretary, I made a speech to Britain’s Union of Jewish Students. And I told them that I had no time for the boycott campaign. Because for me, freedom is an absolute concept. 

At the time I spoke of artistic freedom. Today I talk of the freedom to trade, the freedom to go about your business in peace. Today I talk of the idea that underpins my entire political philosophy, that of free enterprise. It simply doesn’t make sense to say “I believe in the free market, but…” 

Let me be very clear – I don’t believe in boycotts. Nor, I’m proud to say, does my party, my Prime Minister. Or, for the most part, my country. 

On the contrary, my department – including United Kingdom Trade and Investment (UKTI) – will be working hard to boost Anglo-Israeli trade and investment. And, as Business Secretary, I’ll do anything I can to support and promote it.

So my message to you is clear. Where there are business opportunities, we should actively explore them – just as the winners of tonight’s awards have done to such great effect. And let me, if I may, single out Sir Harry Solomon for his award this evening: congratulations. 

We look forward to working with our Israeli partners in the future. 

Thank you, and todah rabah.

Here are some familiar fanatics, who will be distinctly unhappy at Mr Javid's grand remarks.  These people were making nuisances of themselves outside the Goethe Institut in South Kensington yesterday, angry at the Institut's reception (to mark the 50th anniversary of the establishment of Israel-German diplomatic relations) under the auspices of Eitan Na'eh, Israel's Deputy Ambassador in London, and Tania Freiin von Uslar-Gleichen, Germany's Deputy Ambassador there, at which the Israeli government sponsored SERET 2015 London Israeli Film Festival began with an exclusive preview of the film Farewell Herr Schwarz.

The fanatics explained on their publicity material:

'At the launch of last years Seret film festival Israel's ambassador to the UK Daniel Taub stressed the importance of "the role the Festival plays in providing a platform for spreading a more accurate picture of Israel across all communities". At the launch the programme director "said that the founders saw themselves as informal ambassadors for Israel". Another co-founder of the festival, Odelia Haroush, was previously the marketing manager of the Ahava shop in Covent Garden that sold stolen dead sea produce and was forced to shut down in Sept 2011 after a sustained campaign by human rights activists. She sees the film festival as a direct response to the boycott Israel campaign. The festival is also co-sponsored by occupation profiteers like Bank Leumi.

We have picketed the Seret film festival from its inception 3 years ago and we will be picketing it again this year.' 

The soundtrack to the video has been provided by the intrepid "cinematographer" (my word, not his) of anti-Israel rallies in London, Alex Seymour (aka Seymour Alexander) but from 19:17 the speakers from Central Casting begin to do their party pieces.  The first to perform is the woman with long grey hair who not so long ago used to hop on Tube trains to recite anti-Israel "poetry" to hapless commuters.  She is followed by a woman who reads this letter from The Guardian newspaper signed by big and bigoted egos from the world of show business (Miriam Margolyes, Mike Leigh, Peter Kozminsky) demanding a boycott of the Israel Film Festivals.  Two other Israel-demonisers, one a veritable staple at such rallies, follow.

And here's Shimon Peres in a video denouncing the BDS movement:

"The World Has Been Living With A Two-State Solution For Decades"

Sydney lawyer and international affairs analyst David Singer, who of course is no stranger to regular readers of this blog, has long contended that "Jordan is Palestine".

That thesis is the raison d'être of his blog here

Now, in an important article, Geoffrey Clarfield and Salim Mansur have written a clear and cogent exposition of that view,  argued not only  by David Singer but by others.

Indeed, in their article the authors cite the opinion of another person who will be no stranger to readers of this blog, the Jordanian Palestinian politician and pundit Mudar Zahran, a Muslim friend of Israel and of secular democracy

Write Clarfield and Mansur, inter alia:

'Arab nationalism is dead. It lasted for 100 years and it has suddenly disappeared. In the former states of now war-torn Libya, Syria and Iraq, speaking Arabic now means nothing. However, being a member of a family, lineage or clan of either the Shia, Sunnis, Christians, Druze, Yazidi, Tuareg or Bedouin means everything.....

Yet the new Pope has just recognized yet another Arab state, “Palestine.” ....

Until the end of the First World War, most of the Arabic-speaking Middle East was under the authority of the Turkish Ottoman Empire. The Turks lost their empire when they fought against the allies during the war. And so, after four centuries of subservience to the Turks, Christian and Muslim speakers of Arabic, longing for independence, created Arab nationalism, a political movement that mirrored the ethnic and linguistic nationalisms that were then transforming the landscape of 19th-century Europe.

In this new ideology, an “Arab” was someone who spoke Arabic. The largely Christian Arab proponents of this ideology hoped that as citizens of newly created secular states, they would finally be given the legal and political equality denied to them for centuries under Islamic law and Muslim rulers. And so, after the First World War, a number of “Arab” states were created by the League of Nations, such as Lebanon, Syria and Iraq. By the end of the Second World War, they had all gained their independence. 

Among these newly created states, there arose the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, which became formally independent in 1946. Until then, it was legally part of the League of Nations Mandate for Palestine, implemented on trust from the League of Nations by the British government....

Jordan is a 20th-century British invention, dreamed up in the 1920s, for the peoples living in what Britain illegally hived off from the League of Nations Mandate for Palestine in 1923. Until 1946 its British administrators called it just that — Eastern Palestine. 

No one reads the League of Nations Mandate for Palestine document anymore. But according to international law, it is still valid. It is the legal basis for the creation of the Jewish state of Israel. Its provisions still stand, because all of the legal pronouncements of the League were subsequently recognized as binding, when the United Nations was created after the Second World War. 

In 1923 the British arbitrarily violated the Mandate, morally and legally, by creating the “Emirate of Jordan” in Eastern Palestine. The British announced that this was a “temporary” measure, which they quietly and quickly made “permanent.” Jews were no longer allowed to live there....

The name, the “Hashemite” Kingdom of Jordan, makes reference to the fact that its ruling tribe, the Hashemis, were imported by the British from outside of Jordan in the Hejaz (what is now western Saudi Arabia). The Hashemis rule Jordan today as the Saudis do Arabia, claiming the name of the country by right of tribal conquest and occupation, but in their case with the connivance of the British, who unilaterally lopped off 70 per cent of mandated Palestine, and gave it to them as their compensation for their tribal revolt against the Turks during the First World War.... 

Today the majority of the country’s inhabitants are largely Muslim Arabs who now think of themselves as Palestinians. Before the Mandate, they had no national identity and like that of Jordan, there is no record of a self-defined, self-declared Palestinian national identity in any historical document before the early to mid-20th century....

The Jewish state of Israel lies west of the Jordan River and has sovereignty over that territory by historical and legal right. There is no “occupation.” If the Israeli government decides to give back some of this land in a territory-for-peace deal, it will have done so knowing it is sacrificing part of its historic homeland to hostile Islamic expansionists, not to “a people without a land,” for the Arabs of Palestine, that is the Palestinians, are a majority in Eastern Palestine.

The world has been living with a two-state solution for decades....The majority of Jordanians are Palestinians living in Mandated Palestine. There can be no peace without the recognition of this simple ethnographic truth. The Pope should know this.'

Read the full article here 

Meanwhile, in the UK, the usual big and bigoted show bizz egos try to work their usual Boycott mischief:

Hypocrisy, Thy Name Is NOW

There's this kind of silence and hypocrisy as identfiied by Bibi Netanyahu of course.

And there's this; from Professor Phyllis Chesler, a typically cogent, searing, and justified indictment of the Western feminist movement and its reprehensible habit of keeping shtum when the perpetrators of crimes against women are Islamists (see examples here):

She writes, inter alia:

'The upcoming annual conference of the National Organization for Women does not list ISIS or Boko Haram on its agenda. While the most recent Women’s Studies annual conference did focus on foreign policy, they were only interested in Palestine, a country which has never existed, and support for which is often synonymous with an anti-Israel position. Privately, feminists favor non-intervention, non-violence and the need for multilateral action, and they blame America for practically everything wrong in the world.

What is going on?

Feminists are, typically, leftists who view “Amerika” and white Christian men as their most dangerous enemies, while remaining silent about Islamist barbarians such as ISIS.

Feminists strongly criticize Christianity and Judaism, but they’re strangely reluctant to oppose Islam — as if doing so would be “racist.” They fail to understand that a religion is a belief or an ideology, not a skin color.

The new pseudo-feminists are more concerned with racism than with sexism, and disproportionately focused on Western imperialism, colonialism and capitalism than on Islam’s long and ongoing history of imperialism, colonialism, anti-black racism, slavery, forced conversion and gender and religious apartheid.

And why? They are terrified of being seen as “politically incorrect” and then demonized and shunned for it.

The Middle East and Western Africa are burning; Iran is raping female civilians and torturing political prisoners; the Pakistani Taliban is shooting young girls in the head for trying to get an education and disfiguring them with acid if their veils are askew — and yet, NOW passed no resolution opposing this.

Twenty-first century feminists need to oppose misogynistic, totalitarian movements. They need to reassess the global threats to liberty, and rekindle our original passion for universal justice and freedom.'

Read the entire article here

And while we're on the subject of Western "feminists" and their double standards, here's the zany Medea Benjamin [pictured] from CodePink, being taken terribly seriously by Israel haters (check out the clown in the green tee shirt, in the front row) from the Stop the War Coalition in London last week.

(She, regular readers will recall, dressed very demurely, headscarf and all, for a conference in Teheran last year attended by Holocaust deniers and others.)


 At 8:17 comes the inevitable topic of BDS:

Mr Mayor Feels Peckish

Yes, folks, the city of Oxford's two-and-a-half-week anti-Israel fest has begun, and the mayor (Rae Humberstone) has been among those having fun in the sun, watching dabke dancers strut their stuff and lending his encouragement to the proceedings with a handwritten message.

Here's what the mayor wrote:

Here he is, complete with chain of office, eyeing some "Palestinian" produce on one of the stalls:

 Buying this time:

Among the amusements, propaganda for kids with coloured pens (red and green, naturellement):

Friday night at the flicks: a lot of grey heads in place, watching a "sold-out" showing of Omar, followed by talks by academics Avi Shlaim and Mahmoud Hawari:

Update: Mustafa Barghouti fans lap up the demonisation:

 And of course there's plenty still to come, before this divisive one-sided extravaganza (as a reader aptly terms it) concludes with this:

Meanwhile, a bunch of Israel-bashers from points north are gearing up for a big bike ride on 15 August that will take them from Edinburgh to London on behalf of (well, not Israel):

Gee, I wonder whether Al Beeb's intrepid cyclist Jon Donnison (a graduate of the University of Edinburgh, incidentally) will be tweeting them a plug nearer to the time.

Nah, he wouldn't do that. Would he?

Of Spots & Leopards & Weasel Words Regarding A "Jewish State"

Following George Galloway's defeat as Respect Party MP for Bradford West at the May General Election some wag posted this image on Facebook.

And sure enough, on London Galloway has set his sights, since as most readers will know by now he's announced his candidature for the elected office of Lord Mayor, presently held by Boris Johnson, who won't be seeking a third term in 2016 since he's now an MP.

Here's an interview Gorgeous George gave a few days ago, setting out his credentials for what is already becoming a hotly contested job:

And here, parading their bile outside the Israeli Embassy last month, are some of the types who will no doubt be voting for him:

And the Gorgeous One is not the only dedicated Israel-demoniser who's thrown his hat into a leadership contest, veteran leftist MP Jeremy Corbyn having announced his ambition to become leader of the Labour Party.

Just something that caught my eye yesterday

Meanwhile, Senator Richard Di Natale, leader of the Australian Greens (remember my post here?) has moved to distance himself from what he replied to the Australian Jewish News (AJN) when its representative asked him whether Mahmoud Abbas should acknowledge Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state:

“Of course. How can you have a two-state solution when you refuse to acknowledge the right of one state to exist?

It’s ­patently nonsense.”

But such a furore did Di Natale's remarks unleash in the hardcore Green Left that Di Natale has backed down from his stated position, his office telling the AJN:

“In Richard’s full response to the interview question, it is clear that he is talking about a state for Israelis and a state for Palestinians.

He had no intention for his comments to be interpreted as support for establishment of a ‘Jewish state’. It’s not a phrase that he used.”

Di Natale himself told the Executive Council of Australian Jewry (ECAJ) this week:

'.... I have never believed that the establishment of a "Jewish state" (as opposed to an "Israeli state") is conducive to this outcome [a two-state solution] and I absolutely do not support that goal.'

 Observed Zionist Federation of Australia president Danny Lamm:

'Senator Di Natale's revised position ... should ... be assessed in the light of Articles One and Four of the Palestinian Basic Law (2003) that respectively declare "the Palestinian people are part of the Arab nation"; and "the principles of Islamic sharia shall be the principal source of legislation".

It would be useful to ask whether Senator Di Natale's objection to ethno-religious identity applies solely to a Jewish Israel, or extends to an Arab/Muslim Palestine as well?"  [My emphasis]

As the AJN's editor, Zeddy Lawrence, comments in the current issue of the paper:

"Ignoring the fact that the Jewish State has existed for almost 70 years and is recognised in international law" Di Natale has in his revised statement "not only sought to turn the clock back to before 1948 but also to before two weeks ago ..."

And Aussie Foreign Minister Julie Bishop [pictured] has condemned Di Natale's volte-face and what triggered it.

To quote from a report in The Australian newspaper:

 '.... Foreign Minister Julie Bishop has accused Greens leader Richard Di Natale of “caving in” to ­extremists after he denied ­endorsing Israel as “a Jewish state”....

Ms Bishop said she was “dis­appointed” by the episode.

“Richard Di Natale has caved in to the anti-Semitic boycott, ­divestment and sanctions activists in the green movement,” she said.... [My emphasis]

Executive Council of Australia Jewry head Peter Wertheim said the senator had “been bullied by the far-left zealots in his party into adopting a position on this issue that is intellectually and morally untenable”.

“I now look forward to the Greens withdrawing recognition from the Arab Republic of Egypt and the Islamic Republic of Iran because of the unacceptable ­ethnic and religious identifiers in the official names of these states,’’ he said.

“To lecture other countries about their identity, and to refuse to recognise and respect the way they define themselves, is a truly unique approach to international relations.” ....'

Altogether now, boys and girls, you should know this by heart (no pun intended) by now:

David Singer: Russia Demands American Capitulation To Help Eradicate Islamic State

Here is the latest article by Sydney lawyer and international affairs analyst David Singer.

He writes:

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov [pictured] has called on America to end its attempt to remove Syria’s President Assad from power in return for Russia’s co-operation to militarily confront Islamic State.

Lavrov reportedly told Bloomberg on 2 June 2015: 

“The U.S.’s “obsession” with [Syria’s President] Assad isn’t helping in the common fight against the threat from Islamic State…

People put the fate of one person whom they hate above the fight against terrorism. Islamic State can go “very far” unless stopped, and air strikes alone “are not going to do the trick.

If people continue to acquiesce with what is going on and continue to acquiesce with those who categorically refuse to start the political process until Bashar Assad disappears, then I’m not very optimistic for the future of this region…”

America is part of the Friends of Syria core group known as the London Eleven that has been assisting rebel forces in Syria attempting to overthrow Assad.

Assad – backed by Russia, Iran and Hezbollah – has rebuffed such attempts during four years of horrendous conflict that has so far seen over 220,000 Syrians die, four million citizens made refugees and another 7.6 million internally displaced. A report published by the UN in March 2015 estimated the total economic loss since the start of the conflict was $202 billion and that four in every five Syrians were now living in poverty – 30 per cent of them in abject poverty. Syria's education, health and social welfare systems are also in a state of collapse.

America apparently intends to ignore Lavrov’s sage advice and continue to pursue its Syrian policy to oust Assad. Marie Harf  – a US State Department spokeswoman – told reporters in Washington that:

“we’re certainly not going to coordinate with a brutal dictator who’s massacred so many of his own citizens.”

That’s just an absurd proposition. That’s certainly not going to happen.”

Lavrov’s comments come at a time when Islamic State  – already controlling a large part of Syria and Iraq covering an area greater than the United Kingdom  – continues to make further advances – recently seizing the city of Ramadi 110 kilometers west of the Iraqi capital – Baghdad – and capturing the strategic northern Syrian city of Palmyra – a World Heritage listed site containing the monumental ruins of one of the most important cultural centres of the ancient world.

Islamic State reportedly controls up to 80 per cent of oil fields in Syria and has destroyed and also sold looted antiquities in Hatra, Nimrod and Mosul to acquire a major source of its funding  – sometimes for seven figure sums.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-27838034

The American led coalition of some 62 States – meeting in Paris this week - has proved totally unable to stem the advance of Islamic State in its stated objective of restoring the Islamic Caliphate and Sharia law wherever it seizes territory. Graeme Wood – a contributing editor at The Atlantic – sums up Islamic State’s vulnerability:

"If it loses its grip on its territory in Syria and Iraq, it will cease to be a caliphate. Caliphates cannot exist as underground movements, because territorial authority is a requirement: take away its command of territory, and all those oaths of allegiance are no longer binding.” 

Only a UN sanctioned military force can hope to achieve this objective.

Obama and Putin need to urgently do a deal that sees:

1. A UN led process on the political future of Syria being undertaken without first removing Assad 

2. A UN Security Council Chapter VII Resolution passed under Article 42 of the UN Charter authorising military action against Islamic State.

Senseless head-butting needs to give way to sensible brain-storming.