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With Europe’s Muslim 'immigrants' come ancient hatreds and a revival of anti-Semitism. The Bergische Synagogue in the German town of Wuppertal has a history with arson. The nearly 120-year-old synagogue was burned down during Kristallnacht in 1938. Rebuilt after World War II, it was targeted again about a week ago by arsonists who threw Molotov cocktails at the house of worship (although, thankfully, they failed to set it aflame). Welcome to the New Europe, where the street thugs have learned a lot from the Old Europe. Their protests of the Gaza War during the past few weeks haven’t been anti-Israel...

The European Union may acquire two Russian warships currently under construction in France, analysts say. The possibility comes as the United States and Western Europe tighten economic sanctions against Russia, and Monday's denial of a German defense contractor's delivery of military components to Russia by the German government. ... The German Navy proposed the EU purchase the ships,

Russia's increasingly aggressive actions on the borders of eastern Europe are acting as a "recruiting-sergeant for Brussels", said Boris Johnson. Writing in the The Telegraph, Mr Johnson said that Russia’s annexation of Crimea and support for separatists in Ukraine were helping to bind countries like Poland more tightly into the European Union. The London Mayor’s comments came after David Cameron raised concerns that Russia was planning to put similar pressure on European Union countries on the eastern fringes of the Continent like Romania. The Prime Minister said that if the UK “stood back and did nothing tomorrow they would be...

The daily Süddeutsche Zeitung newspaper reported on Monday that the German government had canceled a deal to provide Russian forces with a fully-equipped combat training camp. The newspaper said the Economy ministry revoked permission for the camp to be built, granted by Germany’s previous coalition government to Düsseldorf-based defense company Rheinmetall. It claimed to have seen a “written document” that includes the decision to scrap the project, worth some €100 million ($134 million). […] Russia … accused Germany of acting under pressure from the United States and called March’s decision “unconstructive.” …

London could lose more than a million jobs if Britain quits the EU and fails to adopt more outward-looking trade policies, according to a report commissioned by Boris Johnson, the London mayor. In those circumstances, the capital could shed 1.2m jobs and lose out on tens of billions of pounds of gross domestic product, the report says.

The conflict in Gaza should not be an excuse for anti-Semitic slurs and attacks, United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said late Sunday. Ban “deplores the recent upsurge in anti-Semitic attacks, particularly in Europe, in connection with protests concerning the escalation of violence in Gaza,” read a statement from the UN leader’s spokesman. “The Secretary-General emphasizes that the conflict in the Middle East must not constitute a pretext for prejudice that could affect social peace and harmony anywhere.” …

Germany’s high-tech isolation wards remained on alert on Friday, ready to receive Ebola patients should they be required to. German airports seemed less prepared for the potential dangers of the viral epidemic, however. Hamburg’s University clinic Hamburg-Eppendorf (UKE) said on Friday it remains prepared and ready to take Ebola patients from the outbreak in west Africa, despite not expecting any in the immediate future. […] The infectious Ebola virus has killed 672 people in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea since February in the world’s largest ever recorded outbreak of the disease. The World Health Organization (WHO) is still struggling to...

In May, the European Commission summarily rejected the largest democratic initiative in European Union history. The decision left many wondering: Is participatory democracy dead in the European Union? Self-governance is essential to any democratic regime, but that’s merely an inconvenient truth to the bureaucrats in Brussels. The European Union continues to wrestle with criticism of its ever-deepening democracy deficit — the failure of the EU system to involve citizens in the decision-making process. The only EU body elected by the citizenry is the European Parliament. Yet this body is almost perfunctory. The redoubtable European Commission retains total power of initiating...

U.S. law enforcement can force Microsoft Corp. to turn over emails it stores in Ireland, a judge ruled in a case that technology companies have rallied around as they pursue billions of dollars in data storage business abroad. […] The Redmond, Washington-based software company has said rulings forcing it to turn over emails threaten to rewrite the Constitution’s protections against illegal search and seizure and could damage U.S. foreign relations. Its arguments were joined by large technology companies, including Apple Inc., Cisco Systems Inc., Verizon Communications Inc. and AT&T Inc. …

High quality global journalism requires investment. Please share this article with others using the link below, do not cut & paste the article. See our Ts&Cs and Copyright Policy for more detail. Email ftsales.support@ft.com to buy additional rights. http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/6a09af64-18a7-11e4-a51a-00144feabdc0.html#ixzz397k1epX7 The growing threat to France’s mainstream political leaders posed by Marine Le Pen, head of France’s far-right National Front, has been underscored by an opinion poll putting her in the lead for the first time in the race for the next presidential election. The charismatic Ms Le Pen has overtaken former centre-right president Nicolas Sarkozy in voting intentions if the first...

A German Army General has been appointed to Chief of Staff of U.S. Army Europe. This is the first time a non-U.S. officer has held this position.

Hungary leader Viktor Orban has said he wants to build an illiberal state based on national foundations, citing Russia and China as examples.Speaking at a retreat of ethnic Hungarian leaders in Baile Tusnad, Romania, on Saturday (26 July) the right wing leader said that the 2008 financial crisis triggered changes as significant as the two world wars and as those in 1990, the year of transition in Eastern and Central Europe. The experience of the financial crisis showed that “liberal democratic states cannot remain globally competitive.” […] "Today, the world tries to understand systems which are not Western, not liberal,...

A Flemish doctor who manned a medical hotline Wednesday night refused to provide help to a 90-year-old Jewish woman, Bertha Klein, who had suffered a fractured rib. “I’m not coming!” he said. “Send her to Gaza for a few hours, and she will not feel the pain anymore,’ was the reply. The doctor confirmed the exchange, and said that he had spoken the way he did out of “emotional frenzy.” The Health Ministry is investigating the matter, according to Joods Actueel (Jewish News). Klein’s son had been the one to call the hotline. His mother was in agonizing pain after...

Rome’s mayor has denounced anti-Semitic graffiti and swastikas that have appeared across the city, The Associated Press (AP) reported on Tuesday. Some of the graffiti referred to the escalating violence in Gaza and included taunts such as “Jews, the end is near.” […] The head of Rome’s Jewish Community, Riccardo Pacifici, was quoted by AP as having said, “Rome cannot become like Paris where Jews are assaulted, synagogues are surrounded and where wearing the yarmulke is a concrete danger.” …

A wave of anti-Semitism in Germany, unleashed by the Gaza crisis, shows no sign of abating. A synagogue was attacked on Tuesday morning, a rabbi received death threats and anti-Jewish comments online have increased. Attacks on mosques have also risen. Attackers threw Molotov cocktails at a synagogue in the western city of Wuppertal in the early hours of Tuesday in an apparent attempt to burn it down. A neighbour alarmed police after spotting flames near the Bergische Synagogue in Gemarker Straße in the eastern district of Barmen at around 2.15 am. Police said they believed three young arsonists had thrown...

"The symbol of the murderous Islamic State is waving in The Hague. ‘Death to the Jews,’ shout the demonstrators. Yet the Dutch government authorized the protests. “Death to the Jews” chanted the crowd waving the black flags of the Islamic State, or ISIS as it used to be known." Proving yet again what I have been saying for months, years --Europe once again is embracing madness and evil as its central unifying characteristic – only this time it’s under “Palestinianism,” not Nazis

The situation facing European Jewry is “simply intolerable, unacceptable and inexcusable,” Israeli Jewish Congress president Vladimir Sloutsker told MKs and foreign diplomats at a special session of the Knesset Immigration, Absorption and Diaspora Committee on Monday. Calling the rise in anti-Semitic incidents accompanying Israel’s invasion of Gaza an “SOS situation,” Sloutsker warned that if left unchecked, such behavior could lead to another European genocide. “Never before since the Holocaust, have we seen such a situation as today,” he said, referring to the continent-wide demonstrations by pro-Palestinian activists, a number of which have generated into violence and many of which have...

Leaked figures show the average student in Germany still takes around four years to complete a bachelor’s degree, suggesting controversial reforms to higher education have so far failed to cut down the number of Germany’s perpetual students. Reforms to reduce degree times have not yet cut down on numbers of so-called “Dauerstudenten”—eternal students who can take up to six years for their undergraduate degree before embarking on a lengthy master's course. Under the old German system, students were allowed to take semesters off to work, earn cash, travel, do work experience placements or study abroad. This led to lengthy degrees...

It was billed as the biggest protest in London since the Stop the War Coalition marched against the invasion of Iraq. In the end the predictions of one million protesters proved to be fantasy, and some campaigners openly expressed their love for Gaza-based terrorist outfit Hamas.The crowd assembled at an empty Israeli Embassy, as the diplomats do not work on Saturdays, and marched towards an empty Parliament, which is currently on recess. This was the perfect analogy for the hollowness of London's Gaza (or pro-Hamas) protest this weekend.Many of the protesters managed to walk past the heavily guarded Israeli Embassy...

Germany on Sunday advised all citizens currently in Libya to immediately leave the strife-torn country, following measures taken by countries including Britain and the United States to protect citizens from increasing violence. “The situation is extremely unpredictable and uncertain,” the German foreign ministry said. “German nationals are at increased risk of kidnapping and attacks.” …