Yakov Kedmi: Western Democracy Cannot Address Islamic Problem! Terror Will Reach New Heights!

Europe is panicking and doesn't know what to do. Militants from ISIS (banned in Russia) are coming back there. The EU citizens who became jihadists want to come back home after being defeated in the Middle East. The European leaders are afraid to admit and try them because any such trial can cause protests among the Arab-Muslim population of those countries.

EVENING WITH VLADIMIR SOLOVYOV

Europe is panicking and doesn't know what to do. Militants from ISIS (banned in Russia) are coming back there. The EU citizens who became jihadists want to come back home after being defeated in the Middle East. The European leaders are afraid to admit and try them because any such trial can cause protests among the Arab-Muslim population of those countries.

 

The UK takes even tougher measures and deprives militants and their family members of citizenship. They canceled the passport of a 19-year-old British citizen who fled from London to Raqqa. A scandal over human rights immediately broke out. Britain seems to be seriously lacking girls who don't get stressed by seeing a "severed head of an enemy of Islam" in the garbage. This is a quote from this girl's testimony.

A lot of interesting things are happening. The French say that they should be held to account at the place where they committed their crimes.

But the most interesting thing is that Donald Trump claimed that there are a lot of EU citizens there, so take them back. In total, there are thousands of people. Different estimates show that there are from 18 to 30 thousand EU citizens who can kill and bomb, sever heads, and who have gotten used to drinking blood if they wanted to. Now, they can come back. They're now being kept in terrible conditions in camps. Some of them, including women, have already been executed because, in Iraq, where they're being tried, participation in ISIS is punishable by death.

Yakov Kedmi, the Israeli statesman, is now live with our studio.

- Yakov losifovich. But Europe almost welcomed, even encouraged its citizens to go fight the bad Syrian regime not long ago. Austria managed to pay over 800 euros to one of the "jihadists," as they call themselves, over a period of a year while he underwent treatment. Then, after a year of treatment, he went back to kill people some more. What happened? Why does Europe not want to take its prodigal children back?

Yakov Kedmi, Israeli public figure: They took a dump and don't want to clean it now. They want others to deal with the mess they made. It embarrasses them. They're cultured, honest, liberal. They're democratic. How can they deal with such a mess? They don't know how to deal with it. It's nothing new. Europe didn't manage to handle the birth of Fascism. Germany... How did Germany deal with Hitler's stormtroopers in 1923, 1924, 1925? Under what conditions was Adolf Hitler kept in prison after his armed coup attempt? Europe wasn't able to deal with it then. It was the Weimar Democratic Republic indeed. But all of Europe is like this, it's nothing new.

Have the Americans coped with arrested terrorists? Why do they keep the Guantanamo prison open? It's because there isn't any other place to put them. And they can't try them in America. That's why the Americans can easily keep them in prison outside the US. The US laws permit it. So-called Western democracy doesn't understand and isn't able to solve the key issues, neither the emergence of terrorism nor how to fight terrorism nor what to do with the tens of thousands of terrorists who then suffered a military defeat.

The best and real solution is suggested by people who lived with it and know it well — Iraq. They can deal with such issues in Iraq. But they can't do it in France. And they can't do it in Belgium. They can't refuse to admit them. They don't understand that. Maybe they should learn from Russia? Russia is dealing with this issue somehow.

- How do they deal with this issue in Iraq?

- They act humanely with respect to women and children. They bring them back to Russia. But the British aren't capable of that. Neither are the French. They're civilized, and Russia is uncultured.

- Yakov losifovich, how does Iraq deal with this issue? And how many terrorists have EU citizenship now?

- I don't know exactly. I haven't seen the statistics. They say that there are already over 5,000 terrorists with EU citizenship who came back to Europe and even more who haven't come back to Europe and are wandering around the Middle East. There are probably several thousand in Iraqi prisons. But Iraq deals with it in a very simple way irrespective of their national origin. All those who took part in the armed hostilities on the side of ISIS are sentenced to the same punishment, also irrespective of their gender: it's capital punishment. I think that it makes sense.

- But at the same time, Europe can't permit itself to use capital punishment. It's prohibited in Europe. What is it if not hypocrisy when Europe says "We're so civilized and great, we can't execute our citizens, so let Iraq execute them for us?" At the same time, Europeans admit that those women, who left and fought there or were married to terrorists, had children, that even their kids aren't allowed back in. Is this democracy? Is this civilized society? Does big, wise, humane Europe now want Iraq to do its dirty work and start fighting children too?

- Yes, of course. They don't want to do the dirty work. In the US, it's prohibited to use torture. But the CIA can use torture if the prison is located outside the US. All those being kept in Guantanamo are prohibited from being kept in prison in America. It's even impossible to try them. But outside the US, the Americans can keep them in some prisons in other states. They say that Guantanamo isn't US territory, although it's a US military base. Then whose territory is it? Cuba's? Then Cuba's laws should work there. If American laws don't work there, then what laws work there? Is there total lawlessness? The same is true for democratic Western Europe. Democracy has long turned into a democratic calling, for the sake of which they can kill, start wars, commit any international crimes because it's for the sake of democracy. When they need to demonstrate it in practice, they can't do it. Nobody demands that they're sentenced to capital punishment in Europe. There's a life sentence.

And take Breivik, the great hero of the Norwegian people. He's to be released soon. He's a murder. He slaughtered children and others. He's to be released. His sentence is to end soon. He'll easily get released. But this is what Western democracy is like. A person may be released after killing children. Why not? Those children were from the wrong party, and he fought for the purity of the white race. So... One can call for Western European democracy as long as one wants. The victims of those terrorist groups, which were nurtured, armed, and supported by the same democracy, called for it.

- In that case, I don't understand. Wasn't Breivik sentenced to a life sentence?

- No, he was sentenced to 18 years. I see.

- Yakov losifovich, they want the Magnitsky Act to be applicable all over Europe. They can't call it that though. But they want to name it a blacklist of human-rights abusers. But it's logical that the law is now applicable to the entire European establishment if they abandon their own citizens, including their children, to their fate. If I understand correctly, if you ask any European if he believes that you get a fair trial in Iraq, he'll think that you're crazy. Can't European civil society oppose it somehow? Or are they so scared of those who already came to Europe that they prefer to keep their mouths shut so that they wouldn't be chased along the streets with catcalls just like a Salafist chased an old French Jewish academician?

- That's what it is. They're scared in France. Have they taken any real measures against those people? No, they tried those whom they caught holding arms. And all the rest just go on. Where did those terrorists grow up? Where were they raised? Where did they study? Again, in Europe. Europe isn't able to deal with any serious national or state issue today. They run away from all of the problems, they want to be left alone. That's it. Did the Swedish clean up the mess in Gothenburg or are the Swedish still afraid to show up there because the city is fully Muslim? They don't know what to do. They can't. They lost the ability to resist a long time ago. If they still had it, neither Nazism nor Fascism would have emerged in Europe. They lost it 100 years ago. Nothing has changed over 100 years. I've said it many times. The fact that the USSR had to defeat and destroy Nazism is an unfortunate incident in the historical development of Europe. It was unable to do it itself. It was able only to develop those movements, let them come to power, and work for them. That's it. So, nothing has changed today. In essence, it's the same old democratic, so-called liberal Europe. It's absolutely incapable of dealing with any serious issue.

- Yakov losifovich, how do they deal with the issue of terrorism in Israel? Are there citizens of Israel among ISIS terrorists?

- Yes, there were several cases where Israeli Arabs went to fight on the side of the terrorists. Some of them were killed, some of them were arrested by us. They faced trial and are now in prison. We put all of the terrorists in prison. We keep them isolated from other terrorists. And this issue doesn’t exist for us. We deal with it as we're used to. A terrorist must be either in a grave or in prison.

- But at the same, they aren't allowed to contact other prisoners. That way they can't canvass.

- Well, this is the work of the penitentiary service and the security service. The majority of those people have long given up on all of the ideas which they had, and they closely monitor what they're capable of. We suppress any attempts to revive it very severely and efficiently.

- Yakov losifovich, the editors are telling me that Breivik is to serve 21 years in prison. So I hope that he won't be released this year but in 2033. On the other hand, knowing how liberal courts can be sometimes, I won't surprised if they'll try to reduce his sentence. But take this war against children. As we know, Ramzan Akhmadovich Kadyrov and all of the Chechen people are very sensitive about women and children who got in that mess. Those children came back not long ago. They met them in Chechnya. They understand that they need to take care of them, they don't write them off. We don't fight against children. I can't wrap my head around any of this. Why is Europe still trying to find every way possible to deprive even children of an opportunity to come back to their homeland, the country which at least their parents were citizens of? The only country which has principles here, one of such countries, is Germany, by the way. They say: no, they have German passports, we should admit them. I know that it sounds pretty weird. Is the level of bitterness so high in the world that they even fight against children now?

- In its current state, Islam, which exists in the territory of Russia, proves that it can be completely different. For example, there's a boom of Islamic anti-Semitism in Europe now. Nobody can say that it's an issue in Russia. Even among Muslims. That's why the Islam that's prevalent in Russia can allow itself and considers it necessary to take care of those children and bring them back. They aren't guilty of what their parents did. They want to bring them back to a normal family, a normal community. This is what the West is incapable of. The French authorities are afraid of French Islam. They aren't ready to give those children to them. And representatives of French Islam, unlike Kadyrov, are afraid and don't want to embrace those children. They want to distance themselves from those children. And this is the difference between a society raised by the ideals of so-called European democracy and those raised in the "terrible conditions of the authoritarian regime" in Russia. It's the attitude toward those children, those unfortunates. Just like a litmus test, it shows the results. And I say that for us, for me, for example, the state of Islamic anti-Semitism in Europe, which is completely unheard of in Russia, is one of the main factors in it.

- Yakov losifovich, the situation in the region is very tense. Many people say that, unfortunately, we have to prepare for another big war, that all of the maneuvers performed, all the diplomatic conversations, nevertheless indicate the target. And Iran will be the target. Do you think that a big war involving America, its allies, and Iran is possible? If it happens, it's obvious that the peace, which is just barely getting being worked out in that part of the East will immediately collapse.

- I'd say that the main opponent of the outbreak of hostilities against Iran is the US military and the Pentagon. They're well aware of what it can result in. They're also well aware of the fact that they can't even imagine what consequences it could have. Every one of their reports says that. But irresponsible politicians can drag the US military into one or another venture in Iran. But I think that it'll end badly for the Americans because it's impossible to conquer Iran, it's impossible to bring down the regime in Iran by military force. It won't lead to anything except for bloodshed. It'll just drag the Middle East into another war. I think that while Trump is in power, he won't let the US start a war either against Iran or North Korea. As to all the shouting, well, politicians always shout because of helplessness. Cowards usually know that they won't be punished for their words, and they behave more aggressively. But in fact, nobody wants to get involved in a new war in Iran. It's too dangerous in our region. And it's absolutely senseless. Iran won't change if a war happens. It would make the regime in Iran even stronger.

- It just bothers me that it isn't clear, with all due respect to the American authorities, it isn't clear when they take their words back. They decided to withdraw their troops from Syria. Now, they decided not to withdraw their troops from Syria. They were ready to deal with the terrible conditions in the refugee camps and are okay with people leaving them. Now, they're against it. Then, they impose some conditions. It's very hard to work with such an unpredictable, to put it mildly, political partner.

- What happened to the US? It's a practical lack of power at the working level. The president thinks and says one thing. But he's unable to implement the policies he wants. Every agency does what it wants. That's why the part of the Pentagon which is in Syria has its own agenda and carries it out independently. And the CIA's goals and actions are different. During the war in Syria, it happened several times that the CIA people were on one side, and the people from the Pentagon were on the other side. And their trainees fought against each other. So, there's a practical lack of power in the US today. It affects that unclear situation because nobody knows what to do. There isn't a common policy and a common strategy. And everyone hogs the blanket, being guided by his own views and small-scale calculations. That's why we have this situation in Syria. It's not only in Syria. It's also in the US.

- Thank you very much, Yakov Iosifovich. This is very sad because our impression that Europe is the leader in the fight for human rights is, unfortunately, being undermined by the Europeans themselves. We'll have a break now. We'll continue to discuss this issue after the break but in a different light. We'll discuss how the West deceived Russia and that it turns out that the Germans are well aware of it.

EVENING WITH VLADIMIR SOLOVYOV