THE AMERICAN CALIPHATE

by Jim Fletcher

Jim Fletcher reviews a new book by Michael Coffman and Kate Mathieson called Radical Islam At the Door In the House. It describes "how deeply radical Islam has penetrated not only the White House, but educational institutions, interfaith religious bodies, and with the introduction of Al-Jazeera, even media." It points out how the Islamic goal of turning America into an country ruled by Sharia has succeeded on many levels, from co-opting interfaith partners to do their bidding to making it alright for a cabdriver to refuse to take a seeing-eye dog in his cab because he considers dogs unclean. In many ways it underscores what factual blogs and books have warned for years: resurgent Islam is a well-funded, well-integrated, well-organized, dedicated movement to make Islam globally supreme. Perhaps this book will dissipate the benign haze through which the mainstream media and our own government have taught us to view Islamic infiltration.

ERASING THE 'FACES OF GLOBAL TERRORISM'

by Arnold Ahlert

Respect for Muslim sensitivities triumphs over American security once again. Despite the long and unquestioned association of post offices and posters of criminals wanted by the FBI, Muslim terrorists require special handling. As Arnold Ahlert writes, "the FBI announced it will be pulling ads featuring wanted terrorists off Seattle-area buses. Muslims have complained the posters imply 'Muslims are the face of global terrorism.'" Taking down pictures of Muslim terrorists will not banish the fact that they are the face of global terrorism. "Sunni Muslims were responsible for 'about 70 percent' of the 12,533 terrorist murders committed in 2011." But the media much prefers focusing on White Supremacist terror — which accounted for 77 terrorist murders. As Ahlert points out, "Telling the truth about global jihad is becoming a riskier and riskier business." Speaking the truth about Muslim terrorists is no longer a God-given right. It is unacceptable when done by ordinary citizens. Radical Islamic ideology can not be criticized in polite society. And this non-speak is increasingly being reinforced by Government officials. What it doesn't stop is Islamic terrorism.

OBAMA'S SNOOPING EXCLUDES MOSQUES, MISSED BOSTON BOMBERS

by Investors Business Daily

The Council on American Islamic Relations is an unindicted co-conspirator of the Holyland Foundation that supported Hamas. CAIR itself is a creation of the Muslim Brother (MB), for whom it acts as a front. It and other MB fronts are so well thought of by the Obama Administration that they were able to pressure the Government to purge its terrorist data bases so that Muslim and jihad are no longer linkable (see here and here). They also persuaded the Obama Administration to stop spying and carrying out sting operations at mosques. As this article reports, since October 2011, the Government has cut the FBI off from spying where most terrorist transactions take place: Islamic mosques. The NSA now controls an expensively guzzied up modern equivalent of J. Edgar Hoover's blackmail files on everyone. Rightwingers such as Bill O'Reilly and Dennis Prager don't like it but believe government invasion can save us from a terror attacks. Yet consider this: the majority of terror attacks are by Muslims. The radicalization of most Muslims takes place in or is initiated by people at mosques. And as this article tells us, mosques are where FBI agents are forbidden to snoop. So what good is the huge collection of NSA files, which can only tell you the complete history of everyone a particular person interacted with at particular times in particular places, what he bought, where he ate, what porno sites he visited, his thoughts, how he spends his leisure time, who his children hang out with, and so on and so on? Blackmail? Surely not. Our government officials would never stoop so low, would they?

HATE FILLED, RACIST MANUAL FOUND IN AMERICAN MOSQUES

by Dave Gaubatz

Dave Gaubatz writes of a manual that is available in many Western mosques. It gives the lie to the notion that terror attacks in the West are perpetrated by individuals unaffiliated to major terrorist groups such as the Muslim Brotherhood. Rather, we should think of these individuals as they think of themselves — as Soldiers of Allah, acting "in full compliance with the Islamist movement in America." The manual provides budding terrorists with information on what to do and how to do it, should the FBI contact them or come after them.

CAMPUS ANTI-ZIONISM IS WAR

by Richard H. Shulman

THE TRAGEDY OF DETROIT: HOW IMMIGRATION AND MULTICULTURALISM DESTROYED IT

by Frosty Wooldridge

The great city of Detroit, the locus of America's auto industry, has gone bankrupt. John Hayward (see here) blames it on Detroit's "ruling class of politicians and union bosses [which] spent it into oblivion. Absurdly unsustainable pension plans created a towering mountain of unsustainable liability. The city treasury was looted for the benefit of officials and their very special friends, leaving municipal services at a Third World level. Taxes were raised, driving employers away. The auto industry collapsed under the weight of Big Labor's demands." In the current article Frosty Wooldridge adds an important reasons for Detroit's demise: the legal and illegal immigrants who swarmed into the city. They came for the generous freebies Detroit handed out but they had no intention of assimilating. Among them were a large number of illiterate immigrants from the Middle East, who took over neighborhoods where they imposed sharia law, while milking the welfare system. As Wooldridge writes, "Multiculturalism: what a perfect method to kill our language, culture, country and way of life." Some say that bankrupt Detroit is a early version of what will happen to the debt-incurring Federal Government. There is of course a major difference — Detroit couldn't print funny money, which the Federal Government is happily doing.

LIVING IN A BACKWARDS WORLD

by David Solway

David Solway has observed that many conservative writers and thinkers have started describing the world we live in as "a world turned upside down" As a variant of Garrison Keillor's 'If you da-de-da, you might be a de-da-de', our world might be described as upside down where "anti-jihadist freedom fighters Robert Spencer and Pamela Geller are forbidden entry to the U.K. as disturbers of public order and social peace while avowed terrorists are welcomed into the country and allowed to live handsomely on the public dole." Englishmen, once proud of their individualism and freedom, enforce "the borders of these shariah-controlled zones, applying the rules laid down by the Islamic inhabitants." It's a world where the al-Dura hoax is protected by French courts and Philippe Karsenty is found guilty of presenting evidence of the hoax. Descending to truly black humor, "Iran chairs the UN Conference on Disarmament and Syria was recently a member of the United Nations Human Rights Committee." But then the U.N. has been an indecent joke for many years. Meantime, the Religion of Peace is slowly killing off individual freedoms, civility and multicultural tolerance for other religions. It's even having a go at homousian-heteroousian warfare among its own Salafist sects.

DUTCH ISLAMIC SCHOOL'S LIES AND THREATS OFFER BROADER LESSONS

by Abigail R. Esman

Abigail Esman writes of the Ibn Ghaldoun Islamic school in Holland, where lying, cheating and stealing appear to be the norm for the administration, the students and their parents. Its directors used "subsidies earmarked for books and local educational school outings to take 200 students and their families ... to Mecca." After-school study groups were used to indoctrinate the children in radicalism and to reject assimilation. A group of its students stole "copies of the national final exam ... and were selling it over the Internet." Parents pressured teachers to pass failing students instead of flunking them. Esman suggests that self-inflicted illiteracy and refusal to assimilate have contributed to the high unemployment rate among Muslims in Holland. The take-home lesson from Ibn Ghaldoun is that "[t]he West must at last demand that its Muslim children be part of our cultural and moral fabric — starting in the classroom."

BRITAIN: MUSLIM PRISON POPULATION UP 200%

by Soeren Kern

Soeren Kern points out that "[t]he rate of increase of Muslim inmates in British prisons is eight times faster than that of the overall prison population, and the numbers show a clear overrepresentation of Muslim convicts." Aside from underscoring that the Muslim population is not living up to the claim that they are productive citizens, there is the very serious problem "that British prisons are becoming hotbeds for Islamic radicalization." There is an Islamic gang culture that controls the prison drug trade; there is forced conversion of prisoners who fear for their lives; there are al-Qaeda members who serve as role models for the younger inmates; there is the terrorizing of non-Muslim prisoners who don't conform because they eat pork or listen to Western music. As in the USA where radical imams are prison chaplains, little is being done in Britain to stop these practices.

SILENCE IS NOT AN OPTION

by Elisabeth Sabaditsch-Wolff

Like Geert Wilders who was tried in Holland for the crime of producing a documentary that used quotations from the Koran, Elisabeth Sabaditsch-Wolff was convicted in Austria for calling Mohammed a pedophile. In this essay she discusses European laws that "criminalize public incitement to 'hatred' against 'a group defined by reference to race, colour, religion, descent or national or ethnic origin'". Slander used to mean speaking or writing a malicious lie with intent to do someone harm. Now, European courts are free to redefine slander as Islam has always defined it in sharia law: slander is whatever is resented by a Muslim, whatever he feels harms him. Whether it is true or false is irrelevant. It can be a criminal offense in countries such as Austria, Sweden, Germany and Britain that don't have Constitutional protection for free speech. She makes the important observation that the Muslim Brotherhood "has been working assiduously since the 1970s to place members of its affiliated organizations in state, federal, and local government here in the United States, and within important transnational bodies and NGOs in the European Union." Under the guise of tolerance, anti-racism and diversity, they are redefining what can be written and spoken about Islamic practices and beliefs. In America, jihad and Islam were removed from the lexicon of FBI training manuals. In Europe, one can go to jail for criticizing Islam. She suggests some ways of fighting this insidious and dangerous trend.

CELEBRATING FRENCH DHIMMITUDE AT THE NEW YORK TIMES

by Bruce Bawer

Bruce Bawer writes of a municipality in France, Roubaix, where the French administration actively contributes to the ascendancy of "Ilamo-leftism." It helps a "Palestinian charity that collected for Arab orphans; the money goes to children of suicide bombers. The town mosque is run by Salafists; there is a Muslim enclave, which is 'no-go' to non-Muslims. In sum, Roubaix is "a model of rank, shameless official dhimmitude. Roubaix has attained social harmony — if you want to call it that — by selling out completely to the proponents of sharia." What makes Roubaix a shining example of a world turned upside down is that the New York Times recently wrote about Roubaix and its disregard of French law and culture as if it were "some kind of triumph of multicultural concord." The Times reporter, Alissa Rubin, misinterpreted the many signs of Muslim control as indications that Roubaix "has made a point of embracing its Muslim population." Rubin praised Roubaix as "a role model for other French towns and cities" on how to live in harmony. Judging from how Roubaix succeeded, all it takes is to succumb completely to Islam's demands.

JIHADISTS BOMBING THE BUDDHISTS

by Bill Warner

Apologists for Muslim savagery suggest "its victims as somehow deserving of the jihadist attacks... any Jews killed are payback for the purported Israeli persecution of the so-called Palestinians." This doesn't work when the victims are Buddhists, who are mostly pacifists. Apologists can't claim Buddhists have mistreated Muslims. Moreover, "Buddhism is the pet religion of the media, Leftists, Progressives and Liberals, and even those who are right of center find it hard to dislike Buddhism." Bill Warner speculates that the attacks on Buddhists might have negative consequences, making it more difficult to justify Islam's attacks on other religions. Some people might even rethink their defense of Islam's aggression.

I WAS ONCE A SUDANESE SLAVE

by Simon Deng

Simon Deng, a former Sudanese slave, spoke at the U.N.'s Durban III Conference, which was held in NY in Sept. 2011. Although the Conference was called The Perils Of Global Intolerance, it was a continuation of the virulent anti-Israel lies and ugly distortions heard at the previous Durban conferences. In a remarkable action, Simon Deng spoke out against the real agenda of the Conference. He said:

"The people who suffer most from the UN anti-Israel policy are not the Israelis, but all those people who the UN ignores in order to tell its big lie against Israel; we, the victims of Arab/Muslim abuse: women, ethnic minorities, religious minorities, homosexuals, in the Arab/Muslim world. These are the biggest victims of UN Israel hatred."

EGYPT'S COPTIC CHRISTIANS FACE UNPRECEDENTED REPRISALS FROM THE MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD

by Daria Solovieva

Daria Solovieva describes some of the more recent attacks in Egypt on the Coptic Christians: looting, burning churches, harassing nuns, killing people. The "reason" this time was Morsi's ouster from the Presidency of Egypt. No one is suggesting the Copts were responsible for booting Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood out of the government, but the Morsi supporters needed some way to show their anger, didn't they?

JIHAD ELSENWHERE

by Olivier Guitta

The news about the internecine fights between different colorations of Jihad has concentrated on Egypt and Syria. But the action is much more wide spread. Olivier Guitta writes about what's happening elsenwhere, including Europe, where Hezbollah has encountered little resistance in raising funds from sympathizers and by selling drugs

THE EUROPEAN UNION — HYPOCRISY, HOSTILITY AND BLATANT PREJUDICE

by Amb. Alan Baker

In this article, Alan Baker lays out in succinct fashion why the EU's recent directive boycotting Jews living in Samaria and Judea is legally and politically flawed. The EU has ignored the legal documents encouraging these Jewish settlements by the international community and has based its condemnation of the settlements on inappropriate documents such as the Geneva Convention, which are not applicable. Baker points out that "[t]he repeated use by the EU of the term 'occupied Arab,' or 'Palestinian territories' to refer to the area of Judea and Samaria has no basis in law or fact." These conclusions were also part of a petition he drafted for the Legal Forum for the Land of Israel, which was sent to the EU. The petition was signed by 1100 jurists, rabbis and diplomats around the world urging the EU to shelve its "legally flawed and incorrect assumptions regarding both the legality of Israel's settlements and the status of the pre-1967 armistice lines as Israel's border." (see here). As Nachi Eyal, director of the Legal Forum for the Land of Israel, has said: "The world needs to understand that there is a deliberate deception is being perpetrated [by the EU] and that Judea and Samaria belong to the Jewish people by their historic right as well as by law."

THE BASELESS HATRED OF THE EU TOWARDS ISRAEL

by Melanie Phillips

This article is, in part, a companion article to Ambassador Baker's more general refutation of the European Union's "case" against the Jewish settlements. Melanie Phillips focuses on the San Remo Treaty, which reaffirmed that the land was historically the homeland of the Jewish people, and the Geneva Convention, which the EU misapplied. Phillips calls this "an act of malevolence" "But," she adds, "the fault in large measure surely lies with Israel. For although some may find this incomprehensible, Israel does not make to the world the one case that matters — why Israelis are fully entitled under international law to build their homes in these territories; and exactly how Britain, the EU and the UN have grossly misstated and misapplied that international law." After all, as a reader, Mladen Andrijasevic, asks, "Is it really so difficult to read the San Remo Treaty of 1920, Article 6 of the Palestine Mandate, the UN Charter, Chapter XII, Article 80 and Article 49 of the Geneva Convention and see that Israeli settlements beyond the Green Line are legal under international law?" Phillips suggests reasons why Israel has been remiss. Her assessment needs to be taken seriously. And the situation corrected.

"OCCUPIED TERRITORIES": WHAT ABOUT CYPRUS, KASHMIR, TIBET?

by Douglas Murray

As Douglas Murray writes, "The European Union (EU) has again decided that it should dictate Israeli border and security policy." In this essay, he focuses on a particular aspect of this decree: the EU's double standard in that the EU has not taken such a stand on other disputed borders in the world. He writes in particular of Cyprus, a member of the EU, where Turkey illegally annexed the northern area over forty years ago. Even if one doesn't accept Israel's ownership of the Territories, unlike Turkey, it clearly has security and political justification for maintaining control. Yet, while the EU plans economic and academic shunning of Israel, "the EU does not consider it imperative that Turkey should disengage from the illegal occupation of an EU member state." Curious.

NY FEDERATION HAS ITS OWN BOYCOTT OF JUDEA AND SAMARIA

by Ron Jager

There's a split in the American Jewish community, in that while some 55% oppose a Palestinian Arab state, other Jews, including organizations such as the American Jewish Congress, which should understand the Palestinian Arabs have no intention of being a peaceful neighbor, continue to promote the Arab cause. Left-leaning Jews have been inventive and creative in doing PR — against Israel. They are major suppliers and vindicators of the BSD (Ban, Sanction, Divest) campaign against Israel. The European Union is reprehensible in ignoring all evil in the Middle East and picking on the one democratic state in all of that vast area: Israel. But, as Ron Jager asks: why do American Jewish groups refuse to help Jewish citizens of Israel who live in Samaria and Judea? As he writes, "If New York Federation-funded agencies can so blatantly boycott children who have lost their parents and siblings to terror, why should we be so surprised when the Europeans adopt a similar policy of boycotting Jews?" There is an addendum on an article by Bill Narvey called "Is The Boston JCRCB Jewish Leadership Really From Boston Or From Chelm?" that wonders how interfaith Jews can join forces with Muslim groups that hate Jews and want to kill them.

ISRAEL AS A GULF STATE

by Malcolm Lowe

It seems particularly stupid for the EU to antagonize Israel just as Israel is about to develop its newly-discovered offshore deposits of natural gas. Nevertheless, in split-brain fashion, while the EU is crowing about its plans to humiliate Israel by forcing it to pretend settlements are illegal, another group of EU officials, ignoring EU's righteous convictions, is talking to Israel about linking "Israel's natural gas fields to the Trans-Adriatic Pipeline." It is not surprising, as Malcolm Lowe writes, that "the EU took vehement exception to Special Rapporteur Richard Falk's most recent report, aka baseless diatribe against Israel." European politicos are suddenly denouncing boycotts. European officials are reassuring Israel the EU guide lines don't mean what they say, and even if they sound nasty, they are very limited in what they can achieve, and even if they are legal, some European countries (more aware or less ideological) have denounced them. Thanks to the Trade Unions, the Protestant Churches, an anti-Israel press and Arab money, 40% of the Europeans believe Israel "is conducting a war of extermination against the Palestinians," but the working stiffs in the European governments see it in their national interest to work with Israel. Who will win out: the EU or the EU? Perhaps Israel needs to ask the real EU to stand up and take responsibility for its actions. As an aside, I don't think Malcolm Lowe need worry that with its new riches Israel will behave like a primitive Gulf State. The behavior of Jews, even not very religious Jews, is anchored in the Torah, and not on the mouthing of a 7th century primitive.

GIVING AWAY THE NEGEV

Compiled from articles by Smadar Bat Adam and by AFSI

The treatment by Israel of the Negev Bedouins is a prime example that no good deed shall go unpunished. Israeli has given them the medical support to keep their newborns alive. Bedouin infant medical problems are still high due to long-term cousins marriages but this program has been so successful, it is estimated the Bedouin population will double in 15 years. For at least a half century, Israel has been coaxing the impoverished Bedouins — native to Saudi Arabia, Syria, Iraq and Jordan — to live in permanent housing so that the young can receive an education and join the modern world. This has been partially successful. Mandatory education has reduced illiteracy from 95% to 25% in a generation, but higher education is still not a priority goal in the community. The Bedouin have responded to freebies without responsibility by illegally building on state and private land in a sprawling destructive fashion, including taking over public land set aside for parks. Some 40% continued to live in illegal villages, not entitled to electricity, water or trash pick-up. The government will now try the Begin-Prawer 5-year economic development plan for the Negev Bedouins to clear up the issue of land ownership, improve the condition of Bedouin women and ease the Bedouins into Israeli society. It allocates most of its Negev budget to the Bedouins, rather than helping Jews settle the Negev.

Currently, a major problem is that many Bedouins have been radicalized and where once they saw themselves as separate from the Palestinian Arabs, now they identify with them, so their taking over the Negev means they will want to assign it to areas controlled by the PLO. In July many of them rioted because they would have to move off the land they held illegally in the Negev and Galilee. Are they being treated unfairly? Yes. Jewish settlers have their legal homes demolished with no compensation and there are no plans to build new Jewish towns in the Negev, but billions of shekels are earmarked for the Bedouins. They are given thousands of dunam of free land but also resist giving up their illegal buildings. As one reader said, "Israel is a topsy-turvy world, where incredibly Arabs who seek to destroy the state have more rights than the Jews...Amazing!" Another reader, Stop the Insanity!!!!!!!!!, writes, "Only in Israel are the enemy housed and legalized.The PA has a policy of no Jews in their hoped for state.Why O Why does Israel not respond in kind - No Arabs in the Jewish State.Jewish morality can be our worst enemy at times like this.To rid Israel of this 5th column the Arab population must be 'Encouraged' to join their brethren in the Arab countries. Any foolish agreement Israel concludes with the 'non nation' the palestinians must include their transfer to their own lands."

Bedouin Riot with PLO flags (Beersheva, July 15, 2013. Flash 90)

MK Moshe Feiglin recently spelled out what the Israeli Government is doing: "You gave up on the Temple Mount, you gave up on construction in Jerusalem, you have abandoned the Jews in the eastern section of the city, you have frozen construction in Judea and Samaria, and now you've given away the Negev."

The current article discusses both what an Americans for a Safe Israel (AFSI) group saw as they traveled through the Negev and the implications of the Israeli Government caving to the Bedouin land-grab of the Negev.

WHERE CRAZIES THRIVE

by Sarah Honig

Israel has been invaded by a slew of Africans, posing as refugees but actually looking for an easier life than in their native countries. Most are not qualified to work. They have taken over a part of Tel-Aviv, where, as Sarah Honig writes, "[n]umerous murders, robberies and violent rapes are routinely reported in the city's dark seamy underside. Doubtless, way more go unreported." The influx into Israel has mostly been stopped, but, mainly due to the flak from a Marxist press, little has done little to expel a clear and obvious danger to Israeli citizens. As Honig writes, the irony is that the same Left that that wants to kick Israeli citizens out of Biblical Israel, "eagerly espouses whatever weakens Israel — be it yielding territory to ever-implacable enemies, importing hostile Arabs, opposing legislation to reduce the danger of being overrun by would-be annihilators or even undermining efforts to deport illegal (often Muslim) Africans."

ISRAEL IS LETTING ITS GUARD DOWN

by Mark Helprin

Amir Rapaport (see here) has written of the IDF's new priorities: "the attainment of intelligence superiority, development of knockout fire delivery capability, active defense systems, cyber warfare, and border protection systems, while the ground forces are to be downgraded in importance and priority." Typically, historians complain that Generals seem always to be fighting the last war. But in this case, paradoxically, some experts are concerned that Israel's embrace of innovative new techniques, many of which are robotic, are not suitable if the enemy continues to fight the last war. In this essay, Mark Helprin reports that Israel is preparing for asymmetrical wars such as those Hezbollah and Hamas fight, because its military leaders believe that ground wars with regular armies encountering each other in specific places are a thing of the past. Helprin points out that "[t]he fallacy of this course is ...[that] the Arab confrontation states have coalesced at unlikely times and in unlikely circumstances." Reinforcing this viewpoint, Professor Avi Kober (see here) has written of "the troop-density paradox," in which "low-intensity challenges actually require more troops than high-intensity ones." This would mean that whether the enemy is a seasoned guerrilla force or a regular army fighting openly, men and material are necessary. It seems the wrong time to give up tanks and trained ground troops.

PLEASE NOT AGAIN: RELEASING TERRORISTS FOR 'PEACE'

by Prof. Louis René Beres

Much of the response to Israel's releasing barbaric murderers from jail just to get some illegal and recalcitrant Arabs to come sit and talk yet again, has rightfully been emotional: indignation and anger and demoralization. Demoralized is a very textured word. People become fearful, despondent, uncaring, distraught, terrified, logy, inert, paralyzed, jumpy. A demoralized populace is the very opposite of a citizenry invigorated and full of determination to act: ready for battle, squashing problems as they arise, working around current blocks. And, in this sense, the Netanyahu Gov't, which I respect for helping Israel out of its solipsist socialist inertia into a phenomenally creativity under capitalism, is demoralizing Israelis. In this essay Louis Beres writes of another aspect of the prisoner release. He points out that not only is releasing terrorists "indecent, it is also unlawful." Moreover, in promoting this, the U.S., in the person of Barack Obama, "will be in violation not only of international law, but also the law of the United States. This is because international law is already part of US law (the 'supreme law of the land') by virtue of Article 6 of the U.S. Constitution, and also by virtue of a number of landmark Supreme Court decisions." And the worst of it is that Israel, aside from losing its self-respect, will gain nothing but more wide-spread terrorism from this "good-will" gesture.

RESTORING ISRAEL TO GREATNESS

by Jonathan Pollard

Many have commented on the bitter fact that the Obama Administration successfully pressured Israel to release terrorists who murdered defenseless civilians but has itself refused to release Jonathan Pollard, whose espionage jeopardized no lives yet has been treated worse than spies such as Aldrich Ames, who was directly responsible for the death of Americans. In this article, Jonathan Pollard doesn't speak of the cruel and unusual punishment he has suffered. He argues, instead, that Israel "has the dubious distinction of being the only country in the world so befuddled by moral ambiguity that it is willing to dishonor its dead, betray its bereaved, and disgrace its citizens for the sake of political expediency." And the facts are with him.

BATTERED COUNTRY SYNDROME

by Rabbi Steven Pruzansky

In this essay, Rabbi Pruzansky compares Israel's irrational entering "into negotiations with an enemy sworn to its destruction, when any outcome of those negotiations will redound to its detriment" to the battered wife who can no longer make rational assessments. "Just like the battered-wife blames herself for the violence, thinks she can improve the situation by making unilateral changes, lacks self-esteem, and therefore endures the violence, injury, emotional and verbal abuse and degradation that is her fate — so too Israel. ... Only a country that lacks self-esteem willingly surrenders its land to its enemies..." A reader, Phil, commented, "No argument with any of your statements, but if Israel had leaders who would answer the diplomats pressuring Israel by declaring firmly that the Land of Israel belongs to the Jewish Nation, and not one inch of it is negotiable, I think the pressure would eventually fade, as its futility became apparent. Peace negotiations? Sure. Land negotiations? Never. Not one inch. In this regard, Israel's leaders are indeed to blame, for suggesting that Israel will give up anything for even the chance to talk about peace."

THE ENEMY AGENDA AND ISRAEL'S RULING INTELLIGENSIA

by Zvi November

Zvi November writes that Israel's leaders do not appear to have the smarts "to explain her legitimate rights, the justice of her cause and rebut the outright lies Arabs have succeeded in spreading worldwide." When they should assert sovereignty over the Territories, they waffle and use loser terms such as "disputed territories." They ignore simple truths that would allow them to set the terms of the discussion; e.g., assert that it is time for transfer the local Arabs to Jordon, which sits on land originally set aside for the Jews and has a Palestinian Arab majority.

A HISTORY OF BETRAYAL OF THE JEWISH STATE BY THE BRITISH, FRENCH AND THE US

by Alex Rose

When the Allies won the first World War, the vast Middle East portion of the Ottoman Empire was divided by a set of Mandates into what would be a single Jewish state and many of the current Arab states. The Mandate for the establishment of the Jewish State was an irrevocable trust for the Jewish people. It was unique in that it was considered a reattachment of the Jews to their homeland. In this way, it differed from the the Arab states, where boundaries were drawn for geographic convenience rather than historic connection. As Alex Rose writes, the British betrayed their trust, and indeed, overtly helped the Arabs by allowing them open immigration, supplying them with arms and adding 80% of the Mandate land to the already enormous area gifted to the Arabs, while they closed Palestine to the Jews who in the 1930's and 1940's were fleeing from the Nazis. Just as in Israel currently, when the Arabs were displeased, they threatened mayhem and the authorities would exclude Jews from their property. The attitude and activities of the French and the US administrations over the years have been more sympathetic to the Arab demands than to the Jewish State, which, despite all, has succeeded in providing a good life and freedom for its citizens, an amazing accomplishment in a region suffering from the twin afflictions of rigidity and chaos.

IT'S TIME TO JUNK OSLO

by Ron Lipsman

The new "peace" negotiations might be useful, were they to raise the return of Pollard as the price of releasing arab monster. Raising the issue of the return of Jewish property in the Arab countries or suitable compensation would be useful. After all the Arab invaders of the newly-created State of Israel created two sets of refugees. One, Jewish, was absorbed as fully empowered citizens of Israel, the other, Arab, was useful as the face of Arab "suffering" and seemed to have hit the jackpot in that our tax dollars have helped pay for their free food, education, medical care and housing. They didn't use their leisure time to create the infrastructure of a state but moldered in welfare status, with little incentive to work for a living and act independently. Ronald Lipsman reviews the sorry history of the Oslo Accords and the damage the agreement has done to Israel. He concludes that it is "time for Israeli leaders— indeed, for the whole nation — to recognize the futility of Oslo, declare it a dead letter, and pursue a completely different path. It is time for Israelis to recognize reality, stop acting like they lost all the wars that they have won, and initiate a new strategy." The fault for the Oslo failure and the initiative for success lies not with Israel but with the Arabs, who continue to dream of destroying Israel.

SO THE WORLD IS AGAINST US

by Sarah Honig

To hear even many of the people who are friendly towards Israel, the Jewish settlements in Samaria and Judea are a singular shiny large-caret jewel radiating Israeli malevolence and needing no context and no factual explanation to arouse international anger. 'Jewish settlements are evil' is a mantra Jew-haters have succeeded in having added to the world's unquestioned set of incorrect beliefs. Ask people why these settlements are evil. It is so obvious to them, they are surprised you ask. Nevertheless, factually, by international law Jewish settlements in the Territories are to be encouraged and helped to develop. (Google San Remo Treaties and UN charter and view 'Gauthier On Jerusalem' here. Google "Think-Israel.org" for additional articles.)

Yet they are automatically rejected as a sign of Jewish unwarranted expansionism, but "Palestinian" Arab settlements that are indeed illegal invasion, constructed by a phony people claiming a country that never was, are acceptable. If the no-longer legal President of the PA. Mahmoud Abbas, can bluff his way into acquiring most of Samaria and Judea and Eastern Jerusalem, this would mean kicking out three-quarters of a million Jews from their homes because Abbas is not willing to have a single Jew on Arab turf. That is considered reasonable but let the Jews talk of exporting the Arabs to a place of their own in the vast lands bestowed on the Arab States, and the world screams in horror. In this essay, Sarah Honig suggests a non-trivial reason why this is so: it is the ancient refusal to accept a viable Jewish state where Jews can live as Jews.

I AM THE REASON THERE IS NO WORLD PEACE

by Sherri Mandell

Sherri Mandell is the mother of Kobi Mandell, who skipped school to take a hike with his friend. They were beaten to death by Palestinian Arabs who then smeared their blood over the walls of the cave where they were found. In this essay, she makes clear the discrepancy between the fantasy that the Jews living in the Territories are the reason that there is no peace in the Middle East and the actuality, i.e., that their religious beliefs do not allow the Arabs to come to terms with a Jewish State, no matter what its size.

'THEY SHOCKED HIM AGAIN AND AGAIN'

by Elad Benari

Elad Benari tells the story of Boaz Albert, a wine maker living in Samaria, who understands that Israel must reclaim its land, not give it away. This is not the operational agenda of successive Israeli administrations, who continue to act as if peace will blossom if only they give away another piece of tiny Israel. He has been harassed and even subjected to a taser attack by the authorities, who would never subject an Arab terrorist to such arbitrary treatment. In an Addendum, Boaz Albert explains why he must defy the authorities.

GIVING UP THE TEMPLE MOUNT?

by Steven Plaut

Steven Plaut writes about the significance of the Temple Mount for Jews and for Christians. When the Jews reclaimed the Temple Mount in 1967, they stupidly allowed the Arabs to retain control of it. The Arab have taken advantage of the government's fear that Arabs will riot. More and more, with the Government compliance, they block Jewish access to the Temple Mount. Jews are frequently and capriciously banned from the Mount and they are never allowed to pray there. Jews who violate the odious restrictions on their rights to their Holiest Site in their Holiest City of Jerusalem are subject to arrest. Meantime, the Arabs destroy artifacts from previous Temple times to eradicate the ancient and continuous connection of Jews and the Temple Mount. As Plaut says, "the entire legal status quo for the Temple Mount, under which Israel relinquishes control to the Muslim religious authorities, serves as yet another reminder that Jewish self-abasement and cowardice do not win Israel any tolerance or goodwill. The time has come for Israel to make it clear that it will no longer seek peace via gestures of debasement of Jewish dignity nor by auto-suppression of the legitimate religious rights of Jews."

SPECIAL REPORT: VIOLATION OF JEWISH RIGHTS ON THE TEMPLE MOUNT

by Michael Fuah

This is a concise and precise report prepared by Michael Fuah on the shoddy treatment of Jews who are not allowed by the Israeli Government to access their most holy site. As unbelievable as it sounds, it is a fact that "Jews are barred from entry for weeks on end when demanded by Muslim clerics; that Jews are not permitted to pray, in any manner or form, even in a murmur; that Jews are not permitted to carry prayer books or any books of a religious nature; Jews are not permitted to bow or prostrate themselves; Jews are not permitted access throughout the day; Jews are not permitted to study text; Jews are not permitted to linger," while Arabs have full access to the Jewish Temple Mount. Arabs can pray there, have picnics and play soccer without restriction.

IMPOSSIBILITY OF A TWO STATE SOLUTION

by Warren Manison

Every American administration in recent years that ran into political problems confirmed by low approval rates had an out. They promoted a major distraction that looked like a legacy-sized mission: let's make peace between the Arabs and the Jews. As Haim Shine (see here) points out, "In practice, that meant Israel conceded material benefits to the Arabs while losing self-respect and self-confidence. And making itself more an easy target for the growing Arab violence." Even if the brokers were honorable, even if Israel were to make itself into a basket case for peace — which she has seemed on occasion to be willing to do — and even if the Arabs, including its current spokesman Mahmoud Abbas, the quasi head of the Palestinian Authority, had not declared that the Arabs intend, sooner or later, to eradicate Israel, Warren Manison in this article tells us why the fantasy of two states, one Arab, one Jewish, living side by side in peace (or one inside the other, or one on both sides of the other) is an impossibility.

THE PERNICIOUS PRICE OF CAPITULATION

by Chloe Valdary

Chloe Valdary writes that America upholds its good name and foundation principles. "[It] realizes that when it comes to its own self-interests, negotiating for peace with those who seek, indeed, live, to see their destruction, is a futile mission." Yet she pressures her most reliable ally in the Middle East, Israel — who also lives by high moral standards — to denigrate her sovereignty by making suicidal concessions to those who work to destroy her. As Valdary says, "It is not Israel's responsibility to convince the leaders of Western civilization to uphold its own standards of justice and truth, nor is it Israel's responsibility to be made to endure a trial and error process of being the 'better, naive' person, which as precedent has shown has only brought death and destruction." "[T]he idea which Israel must aspire to, indeed the idea upon which it was founded, is the national sovereignty of its own people and their right to live in their ancient homeland." Amen to that.

ISLAMIC PRACTICES AND DEMOCRACY

by Bernice Lipkin

Despite all evidence to the contrary, "[t]here is an unshakable belief in many a Western heart that all humanity hungers after democracy." These optimists see the budding of democracy in the Middle East in the flimsiest of evidence. And yet, as Bernice Lipkin suggests, it may be that "the question whether Islam and democracy are compatible has already been answered. "Consider that the State of Israel has for over sixty years been conducting an unplanned field experiment in social relations. There is a large group of Arabs now living in Israel. Unlike so many of the Arabs in the rest of the Middle East who are illiterate, diseased and live in abject poverty, they receive higher education and health care as do all other Israeli citizens. They are given welfare for their large families ...They live in a country where living among others with different life styles without rioting is the norm. They walk without fear in public parks and gardens yet — except for shop keepers — they object when Jews tread on their turf, or what they claim as theirs, often resorting to violent attacks and murder to make their attitude clear." How much more evidence is necessary?

HAS THE "PALESTINIAN CAUSE" BEEN DEMOTED IN THE HIGHER COUNSELS OF THE ARAB WORLD?

by Paul Merkley

The leaders of the Arab world have never encouraged the practice of democracy in their own land or in ours. They have emphasized submission to Allah and striven to eliminate Israel, which they perceive as a major block to their ambitions. In this essay, Paul Merkley points out that the global animosity to Zionism has been in large part the product of an expensive and long-term campaign the wealthier Arab leaders have waged militarily and through various educational and media conduits. It has no basis in history, but there is wide-spread and unquestioned belief that the Palestinian Arabs are an independent people, indigenous to Israel and the Territories; and the Jews stole their land. Now the Arab leaders are themselves in jeopardy and have a more important concern — their own survival amidst the chaos of civil wars and the overt theological war between the Sunnis and the Shi'ites. I find it of interest that, although there is some talk about expanding participatory government, the major response to the chaos has been to bind the populace even more strictly to Islamic fundamentalism or to secular dictatorship, not to democracy. The good news is that "the issue of Palestine has, at least for the time being, lost its priority among the Arab governing classes. Paradoxically, 'the 'Palestine cause' is growing in potency ... among opinion elites and progressive activists in our part of the world." Why, with all the many critical and interactive problems in the Middle East that are time-sensitive and have a direct impact on America economically and politically, has the American administration chosen to devote its energies to the "peace process", which has been sitting on the sidelines for some time now?

CAN ISLAM BE REFORMED? A RESPONSE ESSAY TO DANIEL PIPES

by Nikolaas de Jong

Nikolaas de Jong points out "democracy and rule of law have hardly taken root in the rest of the non-western countries," so it is surprising that scholars such as Daniel Pipes assume incorrectly that the current Middle East revolutions are similar to or will have the same outcomes as those that took place in the West. There are essential differences in Islamic and Western cultures that shouldn't be papered over. de Jong quotes Professor David Bukay, who has described Islam as a "tribal collective." As such, it "concentrates on the distinction between Muslims and 'the others', which is characteristic of all tribal peoples." "There are no human rights, no human dignity outside the tribe, and the only goal its members know is the expansion and prolongation of the tribe...In Islam, there are no concept of universal ethics." Only fellow Muslims are treated with respect. "Islam is a unique phenomenon in world history: it is a tribe of civilizational proportions, and its viciousness is to be explained by the tribal mentality that still utterly dominates its adherents." Islamism is not an aberration in Islam; secularism was and is; "a really secular and democratic strain of thought of course never actually developed within Islamic intellectual circles." The prognosis for Islam ever acquiring modern civilized mores is poor.

BEGIN ON SATURDAY, FINISH ON SUNDAY

by Ali Salim

Ali Salim writes that things have soured since the heady days of the Arab Spring and the Middle East is again lagging behind the rest of the world "in social, economic and technological progress." Naturally, it can't be their fault, so they are asking who is responsible. The Saturday people, the Jews, are an obvious choice to blame just as they have been from Mohammed's time on. The Sunday people, Christians, are hated because they were the Crusaders, and "became the hated European imperialists and the hated colonialists," who made the Muslims feel inferior. The imams in the mosques complete the circle, "claiming that Islam's real enemies are the Christians, manipulated by the Jews who control them." They have also been successful in convincing many Western Christians that if they solve the Palestinian problem, "the entire Middle East will metamorphose into paradise and blossom, and everyone will live in harmony forever." "The radical leaders of political Islam ... do not trumpet their plan to take over the world and rule it as Allah's chosen people; instead, they recruit eager agents among the Christians to make life miserable for the Jews." They also recruit Muslims at home and in the West, who, "[d]ispatched by their imams, go on rampages of slaughter and bloodshed in the name of Allah." Salim warns that "the West's ... refusal to listen to and believe what the political Islamist leadership openly says — and its refusal to defend itself — will lead to catastrophe." "The Jews do not fear to show their determination and willingness to fight a life-and-death battle for their continued existence; it is that determination which has made the Islamists avoid confronting them for the present and target the Christians instead." He calls on America to "give up its dreams of a democratic happy ending for the Middle East and start looking reality in the face."

THE SHAWARMA REPUBLICS ARE BURNING

by Daniel Greenfield

Daniel Greenfield points out that since Mohammed's time, the Muslims haven't just conquered other civilizations, they have destroyed the histories and religions and ways of life of these non-Muslims. But this hasn't led to cohesion. Instead Muslim armies "quickly turned on each other. Edward Cline said of this essay, "It goes far in defining the reason why the Middle East, or at least the Muslim part of it, will always be in bloody turmoil." Greenfield responded that Lawrence Auster at View from the Right has an interesting take on this essay: "Islam cannot develop stable, reasonably humane societies because Islam consists of crushing everything but itself. From the beginning, the victory of Islam has meant the suppression of the culture, ethnicity, religion, and all other traditions of the Islamized country. The whole Islamic world thus consists of suppressed cultures/peoples struggling to live within the stranglehold of Islam. The only way this will-to-life can express itself is through eternal civil war against other cultures/peoples. Whichever group emerges victorious becomes the oppressor, using the fist of Islam to keep down all other groups."

ARAB SPRING: MIRROR, MIRROR ON THE WALL

by Abdulateef Al-Muhlim

In an earlier article (see here), Abdulateef Al-Muhlim wrote, "The Arab world wasted hundreds of billions of dollars and lost tens of thousands of innocent lives fighting Israel, which they considered is their sworn enemy, an enemy whose existence they never recognized. The Arab world has many enemies and Israel should have been at the bottom of the list. The real enemies of the Arab world are corruption, lack of good education, lack of good health care, lack of freedom, lack of respect for the human lives and finally, the Arab world had many dictators who used the Arab-Israeli conflict to suppress their own people." In this essay, Al-Mulhim examines why the Arab Spring didn't lead to the betterment of people's lives but to increased hatred between groups in the Arab world and to Arab governments killing their own people.

THE SIMMERING RIVALRY BETWEEN QATAR AND SAUDI ARABIA

by Daniel Wagner and Giorgio Cafiero

Daniel Wagner and Giorgio Cafiero write about Qatar and Saudi Arabia, two countries in the Middle East that have much in common: they are both vastly wealthy; they both believe that Islam should rule the world and everyone should follow Sharia practices; they both give huge amounts of money to promote their ideology. They should be the best of friends, but they aren't. The Saudis had a bitter separation from the Muslim Brotherhood (MB), who had previously often supplied the people skills to implement many a Saudi propaganda project. Qatar then began sponsoring MB, which angered the Saudis. They both support the Syrian 'rebels', but associate with different terrorist groups within the confederacy. In several countries in the Middle East, they spar for power and dominance, while working for common goals.

THE SUNNI DIVIDE

by Harold Rhode

Harold Rhode writes of the issues that divide the Sunnis fighting against the Assad government and why Russia and China have chosen to help him. Rhode notes that the various groups of "Arabic-speaking Sunnis may loathe Syria's Assad, but they also hate and kill each other. Qatar and Saudi Arabia [both Wahhabi fundamentalists and both supporting the "rebels"] passionately hate each other and support different groups within the Islamic opposition groups in Syria. The Qataris, along with the now only nominally secular Turkish Republic, support the Muslim Brotherhood. The Saudis support Salafi fundamentalists." Though they may disagree on the nature of the future Caliphate, the vast majority of non-fundamentalists still believe that Sunni Islam must rule and all others must know their place inferior to the Sunnis. Rhode suggests that because there is more of them, "Sunni fundamentalism, in the end, is much more dangerous than Shi'ite fundamentalism, because about 85% of the world's approximately 1.4 billion Muslims are Sunni." Maybe we in the West should just get tickets for a different ballgame.

THE BROTHERHOOD'S CURRENCY OF BLOOD

Daniel Greenfield

President Obama, with consistently poor intuition and bad taste, has backed the Muslim Brotherhood (MB) in Egypt's civil war, despite the fact that when the Muslim Brotherhood (MB) candidate, Morsi, became president, his goal was to enforce Sharia law by any means rather than worrying that much of Egypt's population lives on the edge of starvation. Morsi's notion of statesmanship was to rid himself of all who had opposed the MB. Fundamentally, the Brotherhood is a terrorist organization, pursuing its objectives through any and all means. "In or out of power, the Brotherhood is murderous, intolerant and ruthlessly bent on absolute power." In this article, Daniel Greenfield uses the activities and attitudes of the MB to expand our understanding of what Muslim terrorist outfits are all about.

LET ALLAH SORT IT OUT

by Sarah Palin

This article is taken from Sarah Palin's Facebook comments on Syria and was posted by Dr. Eowyn, who wrote, "Palin's essay is the best, most intelligent, and most sensible I've seen on the alleged Syrian chemical attack, which Obama — who has done nothing but lie, and lie, and lie to the American people — claims to have been launched by the Syrian government."

IN SYRIA, AMERICA LOSES IF EITHER SIDE WINS

by Edward N. Luttwak

To put it bluntly, as Edward Luttwak does, "At this point, a prolonged stalemate is the only outcome that would not be damaging to American interests." "Iranian money, weapons and operatives and Hezbollah troops have become key factors in the fighting," So an al-Assad regime victory would increase Iranian and Hezbollah prestige, "posing a direct threat both to the Sunni Arab states and to Israel." "But a rebel victory would also be extremely dangerous for the United States and for many of its allies in Europe and the Middle East." Now would seem the time to waffle and be indecisive. For a change, the American administration seems up to the task.

ARMS FOR PEACE IN SYRIA?

by Gary C. Gambill

Gary Gambill argues against the notion that arming the 'good guy' Syrian rebels to win will "bring about a peaceful resolution of the conflict." More likely, it will be, as in most civil wars, a war to the death, until one side or the other suffers defeat. Gambill lays out a utility model of war and peace for how the various players in the Syria war might react. But, he notes Syria will need a neutral arbiter when "all of the major players are willing to forgo many of their wartime objectives in favor of a compromise that salvages what is left of Syria's state institutions and economic infrastructure." Being neutral is certainly not the way American Administration acts in Israel, where it pushes on Israel to be the one to make concessions.

THE RESURGENCE OF THE REGIMES IN THE ARAB WORLD

by Jonathan Spyer

Mohammed Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood won the election by a small margin and immediately began changing the country to conform to a harsh Salafist ideology, as it has been doing in other countries it now controls. The Egyptian army seemed to have stopped the spread of Muslim Brotherhood takeovers of military-style regimes just when it looked unstoppable. But instead of accepting its loss of control of Egypt, the Brotherhood fought back, by inciting the people to rebel, which would turn a power transfer into a chaotic civil war. The Army acted immediately, brutally and effectively. Jonathan Spyer points out the fight is about which particular Sunni group is in control. It is not over basic ideology — they are both strong on Sharia. Spyer doesn't believe it's even about the style in which the country is run, secular or overtly theocratic [I disagree with him -BSL]. As for the future, practically speaking, to hold onto power, the army needs Saudi Arabia to pay the bill for imported grain. Otherwise, the country will collapse and the people are likely to flip back to vote in the MB.

THE BROTHERS BEDIER OF THE MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD

by Bernice Lipkin

This article examines the activities of Ahmed Bedier, a spokesman for front organizations of the Muslim Brotherhood and his brother, Amir Bedier. It examines a video interview Ahmed gave recently that is representative of how news can be presented in a subtly slanted fashion — in this case to evoke sympathy for the victims of the Egyptian army crackdown on "demonstrators". Prez Obama likes the Muslim Brotherhood, so his media friends like them, too. The CBS video was hostile to the Egyptian Army and sympathetic to the Bedier brothers, who were not identified as members of the Muslim Brotherhood. We caught Ahmed Bedier out in a big lie, but it isn't known whether the interview was ordered by CBS or whether Ahmed just saw an opportunity and took it.

REVOLUTIONARY SALAFI ISLAMISTS IN EGYPT: AN ANALYSIS AND GUIDE

by Barry Rubin

In this essay that was written before the Army takeover, Barry Rubin suggested that the future of Islamist rule in Egypt depended on "whether the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood and the more heterogeneous various Salafist groups can cooperate.The Salafists pull the Brotherhood to take stronger action more immediately and may have faith in the larger organization or consider it to have betrayed the revolution. The Salafists operate with a wide deal of autonomy, being able to take extra-parliamentary action ranging from terrorist armed struggle to violent attacks on Christians and other opponents of the regime. The fact that there are now four competing Salafi parties shows the different streams of ideology and strategy." Although the Army currently holds sway, this article shows the complexity of the interactions among the many Salafist groups in the country. And there is no guarantee that they will not again seize power as they have done before.

EGYPT'S ISLAMISTS ARE OUT BUT NOT DOWN

by Fuad Ajami

Nonie Darwish has pointed out that "[t]his is the central problem in most Muslim countries: the difficult choice between a man-made, civilian, military, 'infidel' government, and a totalitarian Islamic theocracy." In this essay, Fuad Ajami argues that Gen. El-Sissi "can't solve the age-old troubles of Egypt that nourish political Islam. He can't heal the crushing poverty or herd into some modern utopia a country driven by a Darwinism that leaves the vulnerable without support." Alternatively, the Muslim Brotherhood's brand of all-encompassing Islamic practices is not trusted, although it has made deep inroads, partially by persuasion, partially by terrorist acts. Ajami doesn't believe the downfall of Morsi was due to "young, disaffected elements" but to the support of an "economic titan." Whatever the case, the country is now split in support between the two modes of governing. Egypt has a way to go before it can be pronounced as stable, let alone as economically viable.

ISRAEL ADVOCACY OR ZIONIST EDUCATION?

by Jeremy Gimpel

Elliott, a reader of the original article, said, "Great article! This really gets to the heart of the PR issue. We have a great product, we just need to sell it as well as we do Intel chips and Israeli tech know-how..." If we were to continue to describe what Jeremy Gimpel says in marketing terms, it would be that what is needed is not just being pro-Israel but being a passionate Zionist and making that clear to everyone. Israeli politicians talk about security when they should telling the world about their enthusiastic commitment to redeem their ancient homeland. Some promoters have even gone totally ahistoric and promote bikinis, beaches and surfing, as if those were Israel's reason for being. It is the passion that Israelis have for their Land that people need to hear. Then they will understand why Israelis are, despite the religion-based hatred of their neighbors and the mindless propaganda to demonize Israel, a people happy to be living in the Jewish state.

PEACE? NOT A CHANCE

by Corinne Berzon

This is a very personal essay by an Israeli. Using her own history, Corinne Berzon provides us with a sketch of the complex world of the Israelis and how they have survived world-wide animosity and local bombings by their unfriendly neighbors. As Berzon writes, "The dichotomy between living in fear and living to the fullest is a very Israeli invention.This fatalism is our version of joie de vivre." Applied to the peace process, she writes, "These new peace talks will fail, just like all the others have. But we will keep smiling and living because the alternative is despair, and as Golda Meir once said: 'Pessimism is a luxury that no Jew can afford.'"

CHOOSING LIFE IN ISRAEL

by P. David Hornik

David Hornik tackles the question why Israelis — attacked by hostile neighbors in periodic wars, attacked randomly by terrorists and live missiles, and attacked constantly by much of the world's media — are a happy folk. They say so in polls. They live with gusto. But it's not a hedonistic — live every day as your last — sort of happiness. Hornik suggests "the answer is likely to lie in the general Israeli Jewish culture...It is a truism that the Jewish religion and ethos are highly affirmative of earthly life and invest it with great significance." It is also the case that even many of the secular Jews have a Friday night family meal and they enjoy the holidays which aren't just fun but "embody meanings on a national level." As Hornik puts it, "It's not that Israelis feel themselves to be under the shadow of death; it's that they're carried along by the richness of life."

INTERNATIONAL NONGOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATIONS: "GLOBAL CONSCIENCE" OR POWERFUL POLITICAL ACTORS?

by Dr. Rephael Ben-Ari

Becoming an international non-government organization (INGO) gives a group instant and often unwarranted standing and respectability. Their reports are taken seriously by the media and tribunals, simply because they are a INGO. Rephael Ben-Ari points out there is no accreditation system and no regulations; nor are they accountable to the public. Too many INGO's "prioritize campaigning and advocacy instead of relief and charity" and don't even try to hide their extreme political biases. Some use their position to whitewash and act as a shield for terrorists, particularly Muslim salafists, while lambasting, even demonizing, democracies such as the USA and Israel. Because they can act without scrutiny they can make unsavory deals with local power brokers and terrorists that further their own mission but also prolong and/or expand local problems. All in all, too many of them are giving once noble terms such as peace and humanitarianism and civil rights and human rights and ethics a bad name.

THE MAN WHO TOLD FDR ABOUT THE HOLOCAUST

by Rafael Medoff

This is an account of what happened when, in July, 1943, FDR was told of the Holocaust by an eye witness, Jan Karski. Roosevelt already knew of what was happening to the Jews in the Warsaw ghettos and in the concentration camps, but he was no more swayed to rescue them than were the British Anthony Eden and Winston Churchill. It is ironic that Karski was recently posthumously honored at the White House by President Obama, who refuses to react effectively to Iran's openly-stated plans to destroy the Jewish state.

A PROFESSOR OF PSYCHOLOGY TURNS HIMSELF INTO AN OBJECT OF STUDY

by Bernice Lipkin

Bernice Lipkin writes of a case where a psychologist, Micah Leshem, has made himself into an object worthy of psychological study. He produced and published a cartoon where Jewish are hacking the body of a presumed Arab. Why the inversion? Arabs hack and mutilate. Arabs decapitate hostages. Arabs remove hands for trivial crimes. Why create a cartoon attributing such brutal practices to Jews? To make the situation still more bizarre, Leshem is himself a Jew. And he lives in Israel, which suffers from Arab barbarism. Whatever motivated him?

WHY ISRAEL'S PUBLIC DIPLOMACY IS A FAILURE

by Dan Illouz

As Israel's image in the world keeps deteriorating, Dan Illouz suggests her supporters need to start using innovative methods to promote the nation's positive image. "Israel's current strategies in public diplomacy can be summarized into two different schools of thought: the defensive school and the positive school, ... which links it to the state's many great achievements." Illouz argues that "the rebranding that Israel needs is not as the creator of instant text messaging, but as a symbol of freedom in this world, as the consequence of historical justice being done." The Jews are in a position to redeem their ancient homeland. This bond is based on solid facts, not fantasy. He advices that "we start talking about the miracle of the restoration and the great universal values which Israel represents." A novel and sensible idea, indeed. I believe we should also point out that while the Mandate for Israel was seen as restoration, other mandates by the same international authorities created many of the current Arab states by drawing borders on a map, often without regard to tribal and clan loyalties. The Arab states created included Saudi Arabia, Syria, Lebanon, Yemen and Iraq.

PALESTINE: HISTORY OF A NAME

by Simcha Jacobovici

Simcha Jacobovici discusses how Judea acquired the improbable name Palestine. "The area of Judea erupted in a massive Jewish revolt against Rome in 66CE," and in the year 70 CE, the Romans succeeded in destroying Jerusalem and the Second Temple. The revolt was followed by other uprisings, until finally, "in 135 CE, the Romans exiled the majority of the Jewish people and renamed Judea 'Palestina' after the Plishtim, the "Sea People", who had come from the Aegean in the 13th Century BCE and settled along the Mediterranean coast. By the time Judea was called Palestine, the connection to the Plishtim was non-existent. There were no Plishtim. They had died out or been assimilated into the local culture some six hundred years before. Both the history and the misnaming of the region has current relevancy because of the publication of a recent book that has Jesus living in Palestine, a misrepresentation of the geographic and historic facts. As Jacobovici writes, "the people living in Judea at the time of Jesus — including Jesus and all his disciples — would never have referred to their country as 'Palestine'." Syria Palestine officially became a Roman province about a century after Jesus' death.

YEMEN, THE CRUCIBLE OF AL-QAIDA, WAS ONCE A POWERFUL ARABIAN KINGDOM RUN BY JEWS

by Jacob Mikanowski

The Middle East before Islam was full of "complicated conflicts among Jews, Christians, and pagans." There was even a Jewish kingdom called Himyar in present day Yemen. Little was known about it for centuries; and scholars argued whether Himyar's monotheism was authentic Judaism. Thanks to new text and archeological findings, we now know that it begun at the end of the 3rd century CE with the conversion of some of Himyar's rulers and lasted some 150 years, ruled by a dynasty of Jewish kings. G.W. Bowersock, a historian and a classicist, has recently published The Throne of Adulis, in which he "shows the ways in which its[Himyar's] rulers attempted to navigate a course through the great-power conflicts of late antiquity and how their efforts ultimately ended in catastrophe. Along the way, he tells a story rife with intrigue, treachery, and ambition, underpinned by scholarly detective work of the most patient and demanding kind." "As in the Cold War in the 20th century, the rivalry between these superpowers was ideological as well as political, and it created allegiances and enmities with far-flung states." As they say, "the more things change ...."

THE SIEGE OF BYZANTIUM

by Raymond Ibrahim

Since the start of Islam, Muslims have attacked shrines and religious sites of other religions, for religious, political and propaganda reasons. In a relatively short time, they overcame the Persian Empire and conquered Arabia and North Africa. By 717 CE, their only political rival was Christian Byzantium. Suleliman, the new Caliph of Islam, ordered a major offensive, a holy war, against Constantinople, the capitol city of Byzantium. What was then an enormous force, 120,000 infantry and cavalry and a naval force of 80,000, was assembled. The ground troops arrive at Constantinople, having terrorized the natives on route, killing the men and enslaving the woman and children. The walls of the city were impenetrable so the major effort was left to the navy. Ibrahim writes that "two important factors saved the empire: Arab inexperience at sea warfare and Greek ingenuity [using Greek fire]." The troops were also subjected to famine, freezing weather and harassment from local tribes. New reinforcements were sent out, including, Christian Copts, who promptly deserted, fleeing to Constantinople. Constantinople was saved and did not fall to the Muslims until 1453, "giving an inchoate Europe the needed time to mature, strengthen, and unify."

SEVEN PILLARS OF FICTION

by Efraim Karsh

Efraim Karsh provides us with an unflattering but accurate portrait of Thomas Edward Lawrence, the man best known as Lawrence of Arabia. Much of what is accepted about the Great Arab Revolt against the Ottoman Empire was, as Karsh puts it, an "extraordinary feat of historical deception" that Lawrence "single-handedly produced." (In point of fact, it was a complete fiasco.) Even a biographer such as Scott Anderson who was willing to take Lawrence at his word, acknowledged that "earlier than most, Lawrence seemed to embrace the modern concept that history was malleable, that truth was what people were willing to believe." Karsh assesses Lawrence as "an exceptionally gifted charlatan with a keen eye to networking and self-promotion, who successfully cast his spell on far more senior and accomplished contemporaries, such as Allenby and Winston Churchill..."

HOW THE EU'S SETTLEMENT POLICY LEGITIMISES MASS DISPOSSESSION

by Lyn Julius

Lyn Julius writes of little known facts. For example, "at least 13 villas and public buildings around [Cairo's Tahrir] Square (including the present Swiss, German, Canadian, Russian, US, Korean, Bahraini and Algerian embassies) were once the residences of wealthy Jews - properties seized by the Egyptian state." "The World Organization of Jews from Arab Countries estimates that Jews living in Arab countries owned some 100,000 sq km of deeded property, equivalent to four or five times the size of Israel itself." The Jews were expelled in the 1940s and 1950s and never received compensation. In the so-called Arab East Jerusalem, "hundreds of thousands of Arab squatters live [rent-free] on land still owned by the Jewish National Fund" and private Jewish owners. The larger issue is that the European Union and pro-Arab propagandists have made the ethnic cleansing of Jews -- and the stealing of Jewish land and real estate -- acceptable in what they regard as Arab land, while ignoring the genuine claims of Jews to land illegally in the possession of Arabs in Israel and the Territories and in the hands of the Arab governments in Arab countries. Julius asks: who disposed whom? And why is Israel expected to make all the concessions?

HOW IAN FLEMING MASTERMINDED THE INVASION OF SICILY

by Daniel Mandel

In WW2, the Allies fooled the Germans into believing their invasion of Southern Europe, scheduled to take place in 1943 in Sicily, was to take place elsewhere. The story reads like one of Ian Fleming's James Bond thrillers. It is in fact a true story and Ian Fleming, the author and an intelligence agent, was part of a group that created the illusion of a courier on a crashed plane who drowned, carrying papers that spelled out details of a landing in Greece and Sardinia. They created documentation authenticating the invented life and used an available corpse for the courier. Daniel Mandel tells the tale.

60 YEARS AGO THIS MONTH: THE ISRAELI NAVY LAY THE FOUNDATIONS FOR A LONG TRADITION OF HUMANITARIAN AID

by David Saranga

Israel is among the first to offer effective medical and humanitarian aid when a country suffers a disaster such as an earthquake or when a nuclear facility leaks. It is an interesting fact that Israel began the practice soon after it became a state. David Saranga talks of the first such rescue mission; it was done off-the-cuff and without pre-planning or official policy. Greece had been hit hard by a series of earthquakes. By chance, the Israeli Navy, such as it was, was returning home from a training session in the Aegean Sea. The commander of the flotilla requested and received permission to turn back to Greece and do what they could to help. Starting another tradition, they were the first rescue group to arrive. They were able to provide on-the-scene medical assistance -- performing surgery on fractures and delivering premature babies — as well as transportation to the mainland for the seriously wounded. Saranga has a special interest in the rescue operation: his late father, Eliyahu Saranga, was a junior commander on the INS Misgav.

A LANDMARK WORK

by William Mehlman

This article was original posted in Think-Israel in the September-October 2009 issue. This was the original introduction:
William Mehlman begins his review of Howard Grief's recent book, The Legal Foundation and Borders of Israel under International Law: A Treatise on Jewish Sovereignty over the Land of Israel this way:

"With The Legal Foundation and Borders of Israel under International Law (Mazo Publishers, Jerusalem) Canadian-born Israeli constitutional scholar and lawyer Howard Grief has given us a book that shatters every myth, lie, misrepresentation and distortion employed over the 61 years of Israel's existence to negate the sovereign rights of the Jewish People to their national home." This is exactly right. It should be required reading for every self-styled maven, journalist, politician, ethicist and humanist — including the Jewish leaders of Israel — who thinks he knows Middle Eastern political history, when his information is, more often than not, anectodal and received from dubious sources.

ROOTS OF ISRAEL'S SOVEREIGNTY AND BOUNDARIES IN INTERNATIONAL LAW: IN DEFENSE OF THE LEVY REPORT

Wallace Brand

Some years ago, Wallace Brand became interested in the Arab-Israeli conflict and particularly in the facts used to justify the contention that Israel has illegally occupied Judea, Samaria and East Jerusalem. To his surprise, he found "that instead of justifying the adjective occupied, close examination of the facts and relevant law resulted in a more accurate designation as liberated. In the current essay, he examines the legal basis of the Levy report, which concluded that Jewish settlements are legal. In fact, the legality of Israel's presence in Judea, Samaria and East Jerusalem was res judicata as of April 25, 1920, when [at the San Remo Conference] World Jewry received a beneficial interest in the political rights to Palestine that was intended to mature into a legal interest." The policy for the Arab States that were also established at around the same time by other Mandates was to deal with the current Arab inhabitants but the beneficiary for Mandated Palestine was World Jewry. The Mandate thus confirmed a living connection between the Jews and their homeland, extending over some 3700 years. Modern Israel was legally projected to be molded in two stages, where [1] "Palestine was legally recognized as the Jewish National Home as a prelude to [2] a reconstituted Jewish State," which would come into being when the Jews were in the majority. Great Britain was designated as the trustee. "This required Britain to give priority to the beneficiary's interest over its own economic and political interests," by developing the conditions for creating a Jewish state. Brand also provides us with the sorry history of Britain's actual performance: it did all in its power to prevent the Jewish state from ever coming into being. Its most contemptible act was to block Jews fleeing from Nazi-conquered Europe from coming into Palestine. None the less, Mandated Palestine is Jewish by international law. I find the current anti-Israel attitude of the U.N. curiously similar to Britain's, in that it ignores that it is trustee of an irrevocable trust with the Jewish people as beneficiary. (See Shifftan's article here.) For the legal ownership of Jerusalem, start with this interview with Jacques Gauthier here. (Google Think-Israel for additional articles.)

MY PREDICTION: PLEASE HELP PROVE IT WRONG

by Martin Sherman

In recent months, Martin Sherman has taken up various aspects of a recurrent theme: what possesses a presumable intelligent people who have devised many common-sense solutions to economic, health, energy and technology problems to suicidal action for a chimera called "peace", where they give up land that bolsters their security for a peace that is impossible in the current Middle East. Why ever would they allow a terrorist group to control territory that legally belongs to Israel, especially land neighboring Israel's population centers?

Martin Sherman asked in a May 23, 2013 article, "Can the people trust the government?" He concluded that "almost four decades of successive Israeli governments [have frittered] away the fruits — both physical assets and international stature — of Israel's stunning military victory of June 1967." It started with PM Begin evacuating all of Sinai, which is now becoming "a jihadi emirate ... and is slowly evolving into a security nightmare." In 1993, PM Rabin accepted the Oslo Accords, whereby Israel allowed Yasir Arafat and his thugs to control much of the Territories and Arafat returned the favor by raising the slaughter of Israeli civilians to new heights. The next governments didn't bother with the pretext of gaining peace. PM Barak unilaterally left south Lebanon a vacuum that Hezbollah immediately filled, becoming so powerful that the European Union is afraid to declare it a terrorist organization; and in 2005, PM Sharon, in a totally goofy move, pulled all the Jews out of Gaza, leaving it under Hamas control and the terrorists even closer to Israeli population centers. Now, the current Israeli Government is showing symptoms of planning further give-aways of the Land of Israel, knowing full-well it will become yet another terrorist stronghold. As Sherman wrote,

"Given the mounting dangers to national security that the injudicious adoption of a policy based on political appeasement-cum-territorial concessions has precipitated in the South and North, it seems almost inconceivable that it is again being contemplated in the East — where its inevitable failure would have far graver ramifications than elsewhere. Could it be that a government headed by a premier, and composed of a bevy of ministers, senior officials and advisers, who built their political careers on warning of the perils of relinquishing the highlands of Judea and Samaria and control of the Jordan Valley, be the government that does precisely that? The people of Israel are confronting a crisis of credibility. Can they trust the people elected to lead them...?

In "The two-state psychosis: The Oslo Syndrome revisited," Sherman pointed out that "[f]orced to concede that virtually all the assumptions upon which the land-for-peace approach, and its derivative two-state paradigm, were founded, have been demonstrated to be totally without foundation, two-staters refuse to acknowledge error." Instead they developed new unproven, and contrary-to-fact slogans, such as "constructive unilateralism," as if the Gaza fiasco wasn't sufficient to making an IQ 80 understand that withdrawal from land was a bad idea. Nature abhors a vacuous mind.

Sherman wrote that "constructive unilateralism" is better described as "'preemptive surrender', where Israel acquiesces a priori to virtually all Palestinian demands for statehood, in return for absolutely nothing, but [would] shoulder the burden of financing much of their implementation." It will dismantle Israeli settlements, saddling the government with the necessity to relocate 50 times the number of Jews it kicked out of Gaza in 2005. It has not yet provided many of the only 10,000 Gaza Jews with permanent housing, nor are most of these Jews productive and contributing to the economy as they were when they were growing fabulous marketable vegetables and flowers. If in eight years the Government hasn't yet been able to reinstate 10,000 Jews into the economy, how are they going to handle 500,000?

Then came Alan Dershowitz's "Feckless Formula" of a tri-partite dissolution of Biblical Israel. (See also: "Rebut or retract: A public challenge to Dershowitz", May 9,2013,
http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Columnists/Rebut-or-retract-A-public-challenge-to-Dershowitz-312710) In the scheme of things, Alan Dershowitz is seen as pro-Israeli. Relative to such questionable Jews as Peter Beinert and Jews that don't even pretend concern for Israel but are 110% pro-Palestinian, he may well be. Sherman shows us why Dershowitz's arguments for a two-state solution are "puerile, prejudicial and paradoxical."

A common theme of self-proclaimed "friends of the Jewish state" is to show concern for the Jewish character of the State of Israel. They worry Jewishness would be lost if Israel holds on to land inhabited by Arabs. They don't worry that in giving up the land incrementally, sooner or later, there will be no Jews left to embody this Jewishness. None of them suggest that Israel should and could keep the Land that belongs to her and give up the Arabs, transferring them to someplace in the vast Arab land holdings, where they would feel right at home because it is home. Like time which runs only in one direction, they see only one course of action: keeping the rapidly growing number of Arabs in Israel and giving up the Territories. Yet, now and in the future, as Sherman writes, "Israel ... does not have the capacity to end the Arab siege, to force peace upon the Arabs. ... The Arab/Muslim hostility ... can only be placated by the Jewish state ceasing to be Jewish."

I find it ironic that in the Palestinian Arab community, which obviously doesn't have independence of life style or freedom, it is the man-in-the-street that is applying the pressure to demolish Israel and not make peace with it, whereas in Israel, the only democracy in the Middle East, it is a small number of people — the Administration, and some academics — who espouse an unpopular give-away program that are running the show, even though they ran for office against such a program and know it is against the wishes of the majority.

In Deciphering delegitimization , Sherman asks why Israel "is far more reviled today than during the rigid 'rejectionism' of Yitzhak Shamir? This is not a question that should be flippantly dismissed as irrelevant. For experience has shown that continual concessions have proved disastrously counterproductive, while escalating Palestinian intransigence has paid handsome dividends." He points out that "if the legitimacy of a Palestinian state is accepted, then any measures incompatible with its viability are illegitimate... [while] any policy that is designed to secure Israel's minimal security requirements, will preclude the establishment of a viable Palestinian state." He concludes that legitimizing an Arab state on Israeli land can have only one consequence: delegitimizing Israel.

The current essay continues Sherman's exploration. He asks, if the Government planned to empty Samaria and Judea of Jews, how would they go about it? He creates a frightening, feasible way of shrinking Israel, demoralizing the people and making Israel's enemies even more confident of victory. Does the Netanyahu government plan anything like this? Their current actions in destroying Jewish villages and outposts in the Territories without due process are not reassuring.

STEALING A STATE

by Gil Bringer

According to the Oslo Accords, some of Judea and Samaria (aka the West Bank) was to be governed by the Palestinian Authority and some, Area C, by Israel. There is, however, an ongoing surreptitious effort by the Arabs to take possession of area C, where the Jews live. They have been establishing illegal "Bedouin settlements, while providing financial and legal support to the residents, who are increasingly identifying with the idea of a Palestinian state." The Israeli government, which ignored the Levy report that Jewish settlements were legal by international law, had done nothing to protect the Jewish residents and has turned a blind eye to the Arab encroachment. This is a fascinating article by Gil Bringer detailing his investigations into who is behind the Bedouin activity. Unsurprisingly, it is the Palestinian Authority, which, from the beginning has never given Israel the peace it promised, while taking advantage of Israel's generously fulfilling its contractual obligations. It is troubling that the Israeli government is not troubled that it is de facto losing control of some of its sovereign land, land that is both Biblical and historically Jewish, land it will need for defense when the Arabs feel ready to attack openly.

NO EXCUSES, PROGRESSIVE ANTI-ZIONISM IS ANTI-SEMITISM

by Matthew Hausman

Matthew Hausman makes an unusual connection, which, once it is articulated makes good sense. He connects Judaism and Jewish nationalism, or rather, he examines the link between Anti-Judaism and the undermining of Jewish nationalist claims. Jew-haters (and this includes many who are Jews by birth) have to deny "that Jews are entitled to sovereignty in their homeland." They need to hack at the awesome stature Jews have as an ancient people that never totally lost contact with their homeland; over thousands of years, they retained their religion and national identity. Jew haters are in a sense forced to claim that Jews are illegal aliens in Israel, with no affinity to the land. This in turn "requires the suppression of Jewish history and acceptance of an incompatible national myth that has no factual foundation." To counter the wealth of archeological, textual and ethnographic evidence that Jews have lived in Israel since ancient times, Jew-haters have resorted to smashing Jewish artifacts, historical revisionism, blood libel and the ignorant assertion that it's all just Zionist propaganda. "The audacity of such claims is truly Orwellian." Hausman suggest that "[a]pologists who stubbornly cling to the fiction that anti-Zionism is not a form of bigotry need to examine the motivations of social and political activists who reject Israel's legitimacy. Those who deny Jewish history, promote a revisionist Palestinian narrative, or falsely accuse Israel of crimes that actually occur in Arab-Muslim society are not acting with purity of impulse."

THE AL-DURA AFFAIR AND ITS IMPLICATIONS FOR MORALITY AND ETHICS IN FRANCE

by Ambassador Freddy Eytan

Freddy Eytan writes about the recent Israeli governmental inquiry into the al-Dura affair, an investigation made some 13 years after the incident happened. Eytan writes, "The report also glaringly reveals one among many examples of the sort of media coverage that is typical in an arena that is undoubtedly one of the most complicated, volatile, and sensitive in the world. The authors of the report have successfully demonstrated how a Palestinian photographer violated the basic tenets of journalistic work, and how a foreign reporter accepted his version of events and his photos wholesale without questioning their reliability for a moment. Clearly, this does not reflect on those reporters who do their work honestly in Israel. Such phenomena, however, exist and must be denounced and uprooted." Considering the current stonewalling and misleading accounts by many mainstream papers, it's going to take another thirteen years for them to come to terms with the truth.

MY MUHAMMAD AL-DURA CASE JOURNEY

by Shmuel Rosner

When the Muhammad al-Dura story aired on TV some 13 years ago, Shmuel Rosner was working for Ha'aretz, an Israeli newspaper produced by Jews who don't much like Israel and are sympathetic to the Arab cause. Rosner believed the story unconditionally. He suspected the motives of those who didn't accept the story. It took time before the discrepancies started to sway him. He paid attention to the doctor who testified that the scars on the father weren't from IDF bullets but from an operation the doctor performed some eight years before. It says much about the power of the original image, that despite the footage that shows the boy moving his arm after he was "dead", Rosner is only at the point where he suspects he will probably end "with accepting the possibility that Israel might be in the right, after all."

DEFINING 'RIGHTS' IN A TERROR CASE

by Michael B. Mukasey

When a terrorist is captured, usually much of the discussion centers on whether he should be tried in a civil court or a military court. In discussing the legal status of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the Boston Marathon bomber, Michael Mukasey raises another important issue: why was Tsarnaev's interrogation handled as a criminal matter? There was a FBI-led High Value Interrogation Group (HIG) at his bedside to gather intelligence. Ideally, they would be given sufficient time to substantiate his information and ask follow-up questions. Instead, Eric Holder's "Justice Department order[ed] U.S. Marshals to bring a magistrate judge to [the] hospital to advise him of a right he did not have if he was being questioned for intelligence purposes, and to introduce him to a lawyer with no authority to advise him in connection with such questioning." As Mukasey points out, if "no admission of his or lead from information he disclosed was to be used in his criminal case, then he was no more entitled to a lawyer in connection with such questioning unrelated to his criminal case than he was entitled to a lawyer to close a real-estate transaction." Why was Mr. Holder in such a hurry?

SHOULD TERRORISTS BE TRIED IN MILITARY OR CIVIL COURTS: A DILEMMA FOR DEMOCRATIC COUNTRIES

by Brig. General (Ret.) Dov Shefi

Continuing previous practices, the state of Israel tried terrorists in a military court up to 1999; after then it tried people held for acts of terror in civil court. So it has familiarity with both practices. Dov Shefi, who served as an IDF JAG, notes that in a democracy, "one may expect Justice even in a military court," but there are procedural advantages in trying a terrorist in a civil court. But he believes the USA botched the interrogation of Zacharias Moussaoui, arrested in August 2011 and knowledgeable about the forthcoming 9/11 attack. "Once the investigators knew that Moussaoui attended a course of 'limited' flying (waiving lessons for take-off and landing), there could have been and should have been a much more sophisticated investigation without using force." He also believes the trials of the 9/11 al-Qaeda terrorists have gone on far too long. The families of the victims deserve closure. This isn't hypothetical for Shefti. He lost his son in the 9/11 destruction of the World Trade Center.

THE BLACK BOX: INSIDE AMERICA'S MASSIVE NEW SURVEILLANCE CENTRE

by James Bamford

This essay was published more than a year ago by James Bamford, who was one of a small group of writers who tried to alert us that "...for the first time since Watergate and the other scandals of the Nixon administration—the NSA has turned its surveillance apparatus on the US and its citizens. It has established listening posts throughout the nation to collect and sift through billions of email messages and phone calls, whether they originate within the country or overseas. It has created a supercomputer of almost unimaginable speed to look for patterns and unscramble codes. Finally, the agency has begun building a place to store all the trillions of words and thoughts and whispers captured in its electronic net. And, of course, it's all being done in secret." The information about NSA collecting private messages came from a former NSA employee, who went public because of the program's warrantless spying on private individuals. No one seemed to care. Maybe no one thought it applied to his private messages. Now, after an NSA contractor released some secret NSA documents to illustrate that anyone with access to the government servers can wiretap anyone, the public has finally reacted.

WHY EXPANDED GOVERNMENT SPYING DOESN'T MEAN BETTER SECURITY AGAINST TERRORISM

by Barry Rubin

Barry Rubin asks whether bigger is better, security-wise. Specifically, does collecting everybody's emails, phone calls and social network tweets help uncover terrorists? Rubin reminds us it's not the quantity of data bits than counts. We need to understand the enemy and be willing to act on information about potential threats. What does need changing is our mind set. We need to adopt an attitude that is not politically correct toward those that would destroy us. As Rubin puts it, "Isn't it absurd that the United States can't finish a simple border fence to keep out potential terrorists, can't stop a would-be terrorist in the U.S. army who gives a power point presentation on why he is about to shoot people (Major Nadal Hassan), can't follow up on Russian intelligence warnings about Chechen terrorist contacts (the Boston bombing), or a dozen similar incidents must now collect every telephone call in the country?" It's not just absurd. It's useless.

BLIND TO TERROR: THE U.S. GOVERNMENT'S DISASTROUS MUSLIM OUTREACH EFFORTS AND THE IMPACT ON U.S. MIDDLE EAST POLICY

by Patrick S. Poole

In the context of stealth jihad, the March-April 2013 issue of Think-Israel includes material on Salafists who have been allowed into our security agencies and have even been invited to the White House. These Muslims have been successful in having counter terrorist experts dismissed from their jobs. Because of their complaints, American databases on terrorists are now purged so that Islam can not be associated with such terms as terror, jihad and other useful descriptors. Increasingly, their demands "include purges, blacklists, book bans, star chambers, speech codes, mandatory reeducation and official retaliation against federal employees, with the White House setting up a task force authorized to enforce these measures across the federal government." By analogy, it is as if the criminals get to decide which laws apply to them and who will be allowed to prosecute them, knowing that the judges will always back them up. In this essay, Patrick Poole expands on the theme of jihadist infiltration into our security agencies during the Clinton and Bush administration, and more extensively, in the Obama Administration. Perhaps infiltration is the wrong word, because they have been welcomed with open arms by the incumbent President, and our defense agencies have been forced to do the same. Poole's study "poses serious questions as to the efficacy and even security concerns about U.S. government outreach to Islamic groups, which often turn out to be Islamist militants, enemies of Islamic moderation, and even supporters of terrorism."

Since this study appeared, we have learned that NSA databases that collect communications from private citizens are not tightly controlled. Contractors, who may or may not have had extensive vetting, had access to databases which collect information on American citizens, which I assume includes emails from individuals who work in security agencies in the government to their friends and families. Add this to the information available to CAIR, ISNA and MPAC, etc. at our security agencies, we can speculate that the Muslim Brotherhood and perhaps even al-Qaeda have been kept up-to-date on information that might affect them.

THE OBAMA-XI SUMMIT: HOT AIR AND MIRAGE

by by Rachel Ehrenfeld; by Sol W. Sanders

There have been so many problems between China and USA that the recent summit of the heads of the two administrations might have been of some significance. But it wasn't expected to be. And it lived up — or down — to its low expectations. As Rachel Ehrenfeld notes, "The U.S. had given up the fight against China's cyber espionage even before Obama had the opportunity, as many hoped, to confront the Chinese president." Sol Sanders concludes that whether this was because of their capabilities or because of the circumstances under which they govern, "Neither party was in a position to tackle the growing list plaguing the relationship between the superpower and the superpower-wannabe." Perhaps if the Summit had come after the NSA scandal became known, the two leaders could have had a bonding experience, life not being happiness-making for either of them at home at the moment.

THE CALIPHATE ON THE HORIZON

by Dr. Reuven Berko

Reuven Berko brings us up to date on the Syrian civil war from an Israeli and a global viewpoint. To put it simply, "Assad is bad and the Islamist revolutionaries are no better, and it doesn't truly make a difference who survives." It is strange that the USA sides with the Syrian rebels, whose goal is a Caliphate, whose center would be Greater Syria and whose announced mission is to destroy Israel before taking on the rest of the world. It is even stranger when it is known that the rebel ranks are filled with volunteers whose allegiance is to al-Qaeda, which is dedicated to putting the USA under Sharia law — something Assad has never threatened.

AL-QAEDA CALLS ON SYRIAN REBELS TO BUILD ANTI-WESTERN STATE

by Colin Freeman

Remember Zayman al-Zawahiri, co-founder of al-Qaeda, the guy who helped bring about 9/11, the guy who advocates attacking "the far enemy" — America. Well, the al-Nusra terrorists, fighting in Syria on the rebel side, are totally devoted to Al-Qaeda and its ideology; they are dedicated to spreading Sharia everywhere. Colin Freeman writes that al-Zawahiri has formally called on them (that's a polite way of saying he ordered them) to start instituting the Caliphate in Syria. Why do we care? President Obama is planning to send weaponry to the Syrian rebels. Of course they will have to sign a pledge that says: 'These weapons will not be given to al-Qaeda. Promise.'

LEBANON OPENLY ENTERS FIGHTING IN SYRIA

by E. B. Picali and H. Varulkar

If the Syrian situation wasn't confused enough, Lebanon has now openly introduced itself into the conflict, ready to fight with the Sunni rebels against Assad and Hezbollah, which controls southern Lebanon. This is in response to the Hezbollah's spokesman, Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah, admitting that Hezbollah has been fighting for the Assad regime to defend both Syria and Lebanon from the Sunni threat. What is clear is that the confrontation is becoming more binary — Sunni against Shiite (Shiite now includes Alewites, with differences in doctrine ignored). The additional factor of the Lebanese Hezbollah fighting against the Lebanese government on Syrian territory looks very much like a second civil war, this one displaced to Syria, which is already fighting its own civil war. E.B. Picali and H. Varulkar discuss the newest restructuring. It is of interest that when Hezbollah asserted that "if Syria falls to the rebels, this will be the end of the Palestinian cause," former Lebanese prime minister Sa'd Al-Hariri told him harshly that "the age of [using] the Palestinian cause, the resistance and [our] national unity as something to be bartered with is over." Moreover, there's a shift in some Palestinian Arabs groups, in that they are joining the rebel side, despite the fact that Hezbollah was a big financial and political supporter.
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HOLLYWOOD'S CREEPY LOVE AFFAIR WITH ADOLF HITLER, IN EXPLOSIVE NEW DETAIL

by David Mikics

David Mikics writes of a little-known de facto partnership between Adolf Hitler and Hollywood producers, almost all of whom were Jews, in the years after Hitler came to power and before World War 2. Ben Urwand, wrote about it in forthcoming book, The Collaboration: Hollywood's Pact With Hitler. Hollywood wanted audiences. "Hitler wanted ... the ability to shape the content of Hollywood movies—and he got it. ... What is shocking and new about Urwand's account is its blow-by-blow description of Hollywood executives tailoring their product to meet the demands of the Nazi regime." Movies depicting the need for a strong leader did well in Nazi Germany. "A film that showed the advantages of democracy over fascism could never be made in Hollywood in the 1930s because of political pressure stemming from Hitler's Germany..." As for Hitler, "[t]he movies he found most inspiring, most magical in the spell they cast on an audience, were made in America." Hitler saw to it that "there would be no reference to the ever-more desperate plight of the Jews under the Nazi rule in any Hollywood film of the '30s." Movies became anti-Nazi of course when the war started but Hollywood's repression of the facts about Jewish persecution continued even during the war years. ... Despite the courageous efforts of screenwriter Ben Hecht to raise public awareness of the Holocaust while it was happening, there was only one reference to what was being done to the Jews in any Hollywood movie made during the war: a 5-minute sequence of a minor courtroom drama called None Shall Escape (1944), in which Nazis shoot a group of Jewish prisoners who fight back while they are being loaded onto a train. ..."

NAZIS ON THE RUN

by Yvette Alt Miller

Yvette Alt Miller tells the unsavory story of how so many Nazis escaped from Germany and from punishment for their ghastly crimes after the war. The Odessa File might be fictional but Nazi war criminals were helped to start new lives with new identities by such respected institutions as the Vatican and the Red Cross. Professor Gerald Steinacher, an Austrian now living in the USA and author of Nazis on the Run: How Hitler's Henchmen Fled Justice, writes how they supplied the Nazis with safe houses and forged documents. Some Catholic churchmen saw this as a return to religion (without probing into how genuine the Nazi new-found religiosity was); some saw the Nazis as victims; some cared for nothing except additional bodies to fight atheistic Communism. Whatever their excuse, they aided Nazis to flee Europe. The Red Cross moronically did no checking, they just issued travel documents; Steinacher suggests these were in the tens of thousands. As Steinacher wrote, "this isn't an oversight — this wasn't a bureaucratic error." We can judge from current practices of the International Committee of the Red Cross that welcomes the Muslim Red Crescent but won't allow the Jewish Magen David to exhibit a Jewish Star on ambulances in the Territories that the Red Cross attitude isn't new. The International Red Cross has been a bitter enemy of Israel and the Jews for a very long time.

TO MAKE A WESTERNIZED TERRORIST: COMBINE RESURGENT ISLAM AND AMERICAN SOFTHEADEDNESS

by Bernice Lipkin

Bernice Lipkin examines the determined efforts of jihadists, aided and abetted by an Administration that is an adherent of the ideology of "progressivism." An unforeseen consequence has been the emergence of the Westernized Muslim terrorist, who is native to the West or who has lived here much of his life. The Lone Wolf and small group terrorists, provided they are imbued with passionate commitment, have advantages over the imported jihadist. They have local knowledge and already "fit" into the environment. The most compelling reason for large terror organizations to utilize them is that it is cost-effective. As Lipkin points out, "Supplies are cheap and terror enthusiasts are plentiful. With reduced need for a large cast, synchronous operations and complicated equipment, the 'script writer' can more easily mock up a plot to use at an oncoming event that will guarantee attention." "There is likely to be more opportunity for roughly scripted rather than rigidly choreographed direction. The field workers may be given the plot and left to work out the details. Or some tasks may be carefully timed and others left for improvisation depending on the circumstances." Until America changes its ways, Islam's activities on behalf of Islamic supersessionism will continue.

IF THE MAJORITY OF MUSLIMS ARE PEACELOVING PEOPLE, DO WE REALLY HAVE ANYTHING TO WORRY ABOUT?

by Citizen Warrior

Citizen Warrior carefully dissects the Muslims we lump together as peaceloving into its components, including those who are peaceloving except when they are rioting; those who look forward to being at peace when the world has readjusted itself to the requirements of Sharia law; those who are peaceloving but are always pushing the envelop, demanding concession at work and at school that suit their lifestyle; those who aren't violent but never speak against rioting and mayhem, and so forth. And there's the more passive Muslims who work by not working and overloading the welfare system, who populate the Muslim enclaves, pay zakat and accept stoning, beheading and mutilation because such punishments are part of their religion. And their religion is immutable. Citizen Warrior notes that even if the peaceloving are in the majority, "it doesn't take a majority to cause serious trouble..." Put another way, if only 10% of the world's Muslim population is violent, that amounts to more than half the entire population of the United States of America.

BOSTON BOMBER EXPOSES ISLAMIST SECRET

by The Investigative Project

If it weren't so deadly, it would be comical. The perpetrator of the Marathon bombing says very seriously, this is why I did it, and Obama administration officials and CAIR snap back, no. that can't be the reason. no.no.no. The Investigative Project (IPT) tells us that "Dzhokhar Tsarnaev is telling investigators he and his brother were motivated by religion to plot their carnage," and high level Government official aren't about to agree that Islam's teachings had anything to do with it. They wouldn't question his explanation if he said he was made to feel different or he was too poor to buy shoes everyone else was wearing. So it is disturbing that the Government and Islamic advocacy groups reject even the possibility that immersing oneself in the teachings of authentic Islam might lead someone to commit an act of terror. Such misplaced certainty makes it unlikely they will look into the "role radical Islam played in past terror plots," no matter how many terrorists proudly try to tell them the truth.

THE GREEN BANNER OF BATU KHAN

by Alexander Maistrovoy

Alexander Maistrovoy wrote this article to examine the large increase in the practice of Salafist Islam in Russia. It has spread everywhere from its confines in the Caucasus Mountains to major cities such as Moscow and St. Petersburg. Where ever it goes, it deliberately incites rage against the Russians. Serendipitously, the article puts into context the growth of Wahhabism in Chechnyia and Dagestan, the homeland of the Tsarnaev brothers, who exploded two bombs during this year's Boston Marathon.

A SHORT HISTORY OF CHECHNYA AND CHECHEN TERRORISM

by Ben H. English

This a companion piece to Alexander Maistrovoy's article above on the growing commitment to Islamic jihad by Muslims all over Russia. This article focuses on the violence in and around Chechnya, itself. As Ben English writes, "the Northern Caucasus Mountains serve as a fertile breeding ground for violent Islamic extremist groups." He recounts some of the atrocities committed by the Muslims of Chechnya. Like the Palestinian Arabs, their culture fosters the development of the mass murderer and the assassin. It isn't true that everybody wants to enjoy their life and take care of their families, just like you and I do. Some cultures are dedicated to a higher calling: the imposition of Sharia law on everybody, using as much violence and barbarity as possible.

NEW SAUDI FATWA DEFENDS PEDOPHILIA AS 'MARRIAGE'

by Raymond Ibrahim

Raymond Ibrahim writes of a recent fatwa issued by Dr. Salih bin Fawzan, a member of Saudi Arabia's highest religious council: "There is no minimum age for marriage, and that girls can be married 'even if they are in the cradle.'" As Dr. Fawzan says, nowhere is there an minimum age for girls to marry in Sharia. ... Muhammad, Islam's role model, married Aisha when she was 6-years-old, 'consummating' the marriage — or, in modern parlance, raping her — when she was 9." Fawzan does allow for the practical consideration that the child should be capable of handling the weight of the man. But her age and/or an extreme difference in age between husband and wife have no bearing on the matter (no pun intended). As Ibrahim points out, "Sharia law is nothing less than a legal system built atop the words and deeds of a 7th century Arab, whose behavior — from pedophilia and sex-slavery to war mongering and plundering — was very much that of a 7th century Arab." As non-Muslims, we might perhaps regard these savage practices as a monstrously sick joke if so many Muslims weren't intent on inflicting Islam's enlightened views on the rest of us.

I SAW SOMETHING, SO I'M SAYING SOMETHING

by Stella Paul

Stella Paul speaks for many when she writes, "The authorities expect us to report suspicious backpacks, but stay silent as the tomb about the nature of the men who put them there." It is another indicator of what has happened to this country because the Chief Executive has been concerned with protecting the Muslim community from unproven hatred but ignores that the Salafists are actively undermining our way of life as they push their mission of bringing Sharia to America. If they can persuade us to criminalize anti-Islam statements, eventually, we would have no freedom of speech. As it is, the Administration's whitewashing terrorists and sneering at our military and border police is a prescription for demoralizing our troops and making the jihadists confident. Pretending that Islam is a peaceful religion doesn't make it so. It only makes us as stupid as the Jihadists think we are.

IS LEFTIST SCHOOL INDOCTRINATION UNSTOPPABLE?

by Bruce Thornton

Bruce Thornton makes clear that the Marxist interpretation of American history and attitudes is no longer an esoteric 'narrative' held by a few obscure intellectuals. It is by now being mouthed by ordinary lower-grade (in the sense of teaching K12) teachers of ordinary American youngsters. Education at this level initiates the implanting of attitudes and opinions that are stored at a level often resistant to later examination. Because Thornton has experienced the impact on his own family, this is not a unanchored theoretic article, though it targets concepts and techniques that need examination. As he points out, "the ideas may be garbled, half-baked, incoherent, and a collection of clichés and slogans. But they are still toxic and effective at transmitting a world-view to impressionable minds." Basically, Thornton alerts us that this is yet another area where the termites munching at our basic freedoms are busily at work. This is an important article that makes clear what's wrong with our current educational system.

TERRORIST? DON'T ASK, DON'T TELL

by Matthew Vadum

Matthew Vadum's article is going to be a surprise for many if not most people, no matter how knowledgeable they are about the dirty laws and regulations the government has put in place the last few years. According to the recently-issued Touchstone document on training FBI agents, if a terror suspect is associated with the "humanitarian" wing of a terror group, that doesn't mean the FBI should think he's acting "in furtherance of the organization's illicit objective(s)." Heaven forfend! Of course, this allows a member of a Salafist organization to appear in public wearing its peace and humanitarian burqa, while promoting Islamic terrorism under the hood. But we wouldn't want to hurt his feelings — why he might have to abandon his noble efforts to make us all live under Sharia.

THE UBIQUITOUS MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD

HISTORY OF THE MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD PENETRATION OF THE U.S. GOVERNMENT

by Clare Lopez

Clare Lopez has written a comprehensive examination of how the United States has bolstered and protected the forces of al-Qa'eda and the Muslim Brotherhood (MB). In the Middle East, they are establishing Salafist governments, not democratic ones. In the USA, the Brotherhood has been allowed to tamper with America's security. Their ambitious but detailed and well-organized plan is to bring back the Caliphate, where Islam is dominant and believers in all other religions — or no religion — are subservient. Over the years it has spread its ideology by establishing seemingly benign schools, mosques, social and student clubs as well as by exploiting interfaith groups and developing political networks at high levels. Sometimes openly, most often undercover and via a third-party, it has used tactics ranging from quiet infiltration into the host country's infra-structure to using the growing Muslim community to intimidate, riot and terrorize the natives. Its greatest accomplishment may be in fostering a politically correct environment that blames Islamic terrorism on a small group of hijackers and discourages "inquiry about the very Islamic doctrine that al-Qa'eda and hijackers themselves declared to be their motivation." Lopez makes clear why "it is urgent that we recognize this clear and present danger that threatens not only our Republic but the values of Western civilization."

'ACTIVISTS' HOPING TO HELP BREACH GAZA BLOCKADE, RAPED IN BENGHAZI

by Lori Lowenthal Marcus

The Gaza flotilla of 2010 gained publicity; the flotilla of 2011 didn't get far out of the gate. This year they tried a truck convoy. As Lori Lowenthal Marcus writes, this too was a bust, and a terrible experience for several of the women who were raped. This story has wider implication. First, with respect to the terrorism of the future (see here), it reinforces the likelihood that terror will be small affairs carried out by local Lone Wolves. Second, it reveals what is an open secret, that the naive Western human shields shipped in by organizations such as ISM to Gaza and elsewhere have been raped by the Arabs they have come to help. Khaled Abu Toameh wrote in a related article on a fatwa issued by Jordanian Salafi Sheikh Yasser Ajlouni allowing jihadists to rape women captured during war. "As of now, families of 'pro-Palestinian' activists around the world will have to think ten times before sending their daughters on humanitarian aid convoys." ("Raping Women in the Name of Islam," April 7, 2013)

NEW TREND IN AL-QAEDA'S RECRUITMENT EFFORTS: AMERICAN MUSLIMS SHOULD CARRY THE BURDEN OF JIHAD IN U.S.

by Y. Carmon and H. Migron

As Y. Carmon and H. Migron write, "Al-Qaeda's effort to recruit Americans for action in the U.S. takes place on two levels." On the ideological level, they try to counteract the "the efforts of moderate Islamic scholars to challenge jihadist and extremist notions." On the practical level, "Al-Qaeda is striving to place the responsibility for jihad in America upon the Muslim community in the U.S. This is instead of having mujahideen come from other parts of the world to attack the U.S., and instead of recruiting American Muslims to fight on other jihadi fronts worldwide." Seems an obvious refinement. We may have seen the fruit of this approach in Boston at the Marathon.

THE PERPETUAL SUNNI-SHIA WAR

by Paul Aston Murphy

The major schism in Islamic theology that produced the Shia versus Sunni differences in religious ideology and practices is also reflected in differences in politics and ideas about government. These differences in turn quite often translate into bloody strife between the two factions, as we see in the current Syrian civil war. But the overwhelming concern for both groups is spreading Sharia globally. The Quran itself is from Allah and thus immutable. The rule of thumb seems to be that Shia and Sunni will fight each other within a Middle Eastern country or even across the region but will cooperate against a perceived enemy such as Western culture or against any non-Muslim religion. (Contrariwise, the West has sided with the Sunni in Syria against the Shiite.) And when engaged in trying to demolish Israel, they become one big happy umma.

MEDIA LABELS ARAB SPRING PRO-DEMOCRACY AS MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD (MB) FULFILLS JIHADIST VISION

by Ashraf Ramelah

An act of desperation in Tunisia triggered uprisings in the Arab World that were labeled the Arab Spring, suggesting the advent of democratic freedom for the Muslims of the Arab world. In retrospect, a more accurate label would be the Muslim Brotherhood's takeover of the Arab world. Better still, recalling the movie The Producers that refurbished Hitler, a close ideological relative, Springtime For MB, might be the most suitable. As Ashraf Ramelah writes, "...in Egypt the controlling Muslim Brotherhood is fully exposed as an enemy of the people ...and their pursuit of democracy." Moreover, "they are at the helm of countries militarily surrounding Israel and strategically critical to 'liberate the land of Palestine.' Assuming Assad falls, Lebanon, now dealing with Iran's Hezbollah, and Jordan could be next."

THE ESCALATING COST OF LEADING FROM BEHIND

by Rachel Ehrenfeld and Ken Jensen

Until way too late in the day, USA ignored Assad's growing arsenal of chemical weapons. The other side of the Syrian civil war has also expanded. As Rachel Ehrenfeld and Ken Jensen write, "the salafist terror group, Jabhat al-Nusra, an extension of al Qaeda in Iraq," have been part of the rebel group for well over a year and has attracted Sunni jihadists from around the world. In point of fact, "it has grown in strength to become the leading rebel force in Syria." In other words, while the Obama Administration reassured us not too long ago that al-Qaeda was just about dead, not only is it alive but the USA is helping supply its team mates with armament and train its brothers-in-arms, the Jordanians and Syrian rebels. Anyone want to bet that al-Qaeda is excluded from our supplies? And when al-Nusra gets hold of Assad's store of goodies, does anyone believe they will destroy them unused? Meantime, back on the golf course ...

SYRIA'S AL-NUSRA FRONT PLEDGES ALLEGIANCE TO AL-QAEDA

by Matthew RJ Brodsky and Michael Johnson

Matthew Brodsky and Michael Johnson provide additional material on the Jabhat al-Nusra Salafist jihadist group, which is fighting the Syrian regime on the side of the rebels, while pledging their allegiance to the al-Qaeda leader, Ayman al-Zawahiri. The U.S. and E.U. are "right to worry about arming any rebel groups in Syria, in part because they fear that weapons could fall into the hands of more Islamist elements and turned against Western allies in the region." Brodsky and Johnson are concerned that the West find a rebel group to support lest "Syria's future will be determined either by al-Qaeda franchises or Bashar al-Asad, his sponsors in Iran and its proxy, Hezbollah." The question is: are there any — let alone a sufficient number of — democratic rebels in the entire region that can hold their own against the Salafist rebels: al-Qaeda, the Saudis and the Muslim Brotherhood?

KURDISTAN — THE OTHER IRAQ

by David Devoss

As noted above, in Syria the U.S. is supporting the side of the anti-regime rebels that is loaded with al-Qaeda and other Salafists, none of whom espouse democracy or like the West. In this essay, David Devoss writes about Iraqi Kurdistan, an American success story. For over twenty years, the U.S. has helped build up three Kurdish provinces in Iraq, and the Kurds are sincerely pro-American. "Iraqi Kurdistan now serves as both a homeland for the Kurdish diaspora and a refuge for persecuted Christians." But now "it appears the Obama administration may be willing to sacrifice Kurdish autonomy in return for illusory strategic leverage [with the Iraqi government.]" As Israel Commentary put it, "Kurds — Another key ally Obama is about to throw under the bus?"

JEFFREY AND ABDULLAH II IN WONDERLAND

by David Ha'ivri

King Abdullah of Jordan was recently interviewed by Jeffrey Goldberg, who painted a pleasing picture of him "as a dynamic, young and intelligent leader working to bring Jordan into the 21st century." Goldberg observed him at kingly work, lunching with Bedouin leaders then flying his plane home. David Haivri adds some needed information. The regime is totalitarian and the king is even losing the support of the Bedouins, his core community. The Palestinian Arabs, who have been stripped of their rights, are 70% of the population and would vote him out. Although he has tried to stay on the right side of the Brotherhood, he is rightly concerned the Muslim Brotherhood will depose him, once they have finished off Assad.

IRANIAN SHIITE TERROR CELL IN NIGERIA FOLLOWED A FAMILIAR PATTERN

by Dr. Jacques Neriah

Jacques Neriah describes the operations of an Iranian terrorist group that was established in Nigeria by Iranian handlers using local Shiite talent, who carry dual passports. "In the first phases they concentrate on the collection of intelligence, and train in the use of weapons and explosives in Iran. In a later phase they will seek to carry out their terrorist attacks through proxies." They focus on pro-Israeli and pro-American targets. Neriah writes that "Shiite communities around the world represent the infrastructure upon which Iran builds its subversive policies worldwide. This has been the case in most terrorist actions carried out by Iranian agents or proxies such as Hizbullah operatives, and Nigeria is no exception." "All these events provide a rare view of the covert war conducted by Israel, the U.S., and its allies against Iran and Hizbullah." It seems a certainty that in Nigeria a single terrorist isn't dismissed as an unaffiliated Lone Wolf.

EFFECTS OF THE ARAB SPRING SO FAR ON CHRISTIANS IN THE MIDDLE EAST

by Paul Merkley

Paul Merkley writes of the treatment of Christians and Jews by Muslims in Middle East countries. When Israel became a state in 1948, the neighboring Arabs vented their rage at such impudence, by forcing the Jews — who had lived in these Arab countries far longer than the Arabs — to flee. Currently, as the Middle East comes under the rule of Salafists, Christians are in jeopardy. In Afghanistan, "Christians are put to death under blasphemy and apostasy laws enforced by a government installed, maintained and subsidized by the West." Elsewhere, as in the Egyptian Coptic community, churches and businesses are burned, Christians are forced to convert to Islam and whole communities flee brutal persecution. Yet the secular Western press and politicos all the way up to the Obama White House ignore the plight of the Copts and pretend the Islamists such as the Muslim Brotherhood are moderate and tolerant.

DEATH TO CHURCHES UNDER ISLAM: A STUDY OF THE COPTIC CHURCH

by Raymond Ibrahim

In article after article, Raymond Ibrahim has been tracking the devastating and unrelenting assault of Islam on Christians by its leaders and its ordinary people. In this essay, he describes the history of the interactions of Islam and the Egyptian Coptic Church — the early history is discussed in Part 1 and the current history is addressed in Part 2. As Wolff Bachner says in his Introduction, "The documentation for Mr. Ibrahim's article does not come from Western historians. It comes directly from the writings of Islamic scholars and historians dating back to the actual events. The faithful recorders of Islamic history never tried to deny or hide the truth. They kept accurate records of the events of the times, unvarnished by any fear of outside criticism or political correctness. To the great Muslim writers, Islam was the only correct religion and they felt no need to apologize for wishing to make it the one faith for all of mankind."

DERIVING MUSLIM MOTIVES FROM MUSLIM DEMANDS

by Paul Austin Murphy

Muslims start by making small and reasonable-sounding demands. When these are fulfilled, their demands blossom like weeds and grow large, larger and finally grotesque and unyielding. It takes colossal egotism to believe that it is proper for a Muslim to spew hatred at and denigrate all other religions but is within his rights to lash out at anyone criticizing Islam in any way. The same arrogance that is incapable of tolerance to other world views is reflected in the Arab's insistence that Allah speaks exclusively in Arabic, therefore the Koran must be read only in Arabic and not translated. Paul Murphy connects the Arabocentric view with Islam's "long-lasting and ubiquitous" racist behavior. Similarly, spoken through the voice of Interfaith Muslims, what they consider a just and proper jihad is a bizarre kind of sharing. Their ultimate goals are: to replace all laws with sharia; to replace all religions with Islam; and to replace all governments with the Muslim Caliphate.

HOW CAN ANY RATIONAL, NORMAL PERSON BELIEVE IN ISLAM?

by Jake Neuman

Jake Neuman presents some of Islam's teachings, those currently reaffirmed by their theologians and leaders: to slay for Allah, to do jihad against the infidel, to subjugate women, to hate Jews, to practice pedophilia, to punish minor infractions with mutilation and stoning, to steal from non-Muslims, to murder apostates, inter alia. These are not unavoidable consequences but direct commands. He asks: How can any normal, rational person believe in Islam, how can anyone believe that Islam is a religion? A follow-up question might be: why do our democratic media, academics and political leaders pay Islam respect and work hard to satisfy its intolerant demands on us kaffirs? It is puzzling, isn't it?

THEY WILL LOVE US ONE DAY

by Zeev Shemer

Zeev Shemer writes of what the civilized world would describe as another senseless killing: "a Jew,[Eviatar Borowski] a father of five was stabbed to death on a street corner by an Arab who he had never met before, wielding a knife, looking for a Jew to kill." My sympathies to the pro-Palestinian media that will have a minor problem in making this appear justified, but there is a larger issue: for the last 40 years, Israel has tried to appease the Arabs. "This pathological approach to Islamists has driven this country to a very dark place." Shemer questions the lunacy of not treating a terror attack as a terror attack. They capture the terrorist, skillfully repair his leg wounds and house him comfortably until the Arabs can swap him for another captured Israeli soldier or free him on humanitarian grounds. Why provide the cult of death Arabs with yet another hero? Oh. Did we mention this murderer, Salam Zaghal, was released from prison a few months ago? He'd been convicted of trying to kill Jews by throwing rocks.

IMPORTING ISLAMIC NIGHTMARES — WHILE DENYING THEM

by Fjordman

Fjordman writes of a proposal legally to ban anti-Feminism "hatred" as akin to racism. Norway's "Ministry of Children, Equality and Social Inclusion," run by an anti-racist from Iran, likes the idea. It would join the critical examination of Islam as hate talk. Actually, exploring Muslim attitudes towards women is already verboten socially and in the media. Practically speaking, that means only white men can be directly identified as criminal. Predictably, even though rape has increased hugely — Muslim immigrants consider Nordic women immodest, hence fair game — it would be racist to attribute this to the Muslim attitude towards women. So little or nothing is done. I have one quibble with Fjordman. Astute media readers and listeners in the USA have already figured out that if an alleged terrorist or rapist or family killer is not specifically described as a white man or as having blue eyes and blond hair, it is more than likely it's yet again a Muslim. If we aren't shown his picture, it's almost certain it's a Muslim.

ANTI-ZIONISTS: A MAJORITY FOR EVIL

by Michael Devolin

Michael Devolin explains the animus against Zionism as well as ever I've seen it done. As he writes,

"Western journalists have portrayed religious observance, especially Jewish observance, as something shameful and an embarrassment for their envisioned type of intellectual. ... Zionism has become their Exempli gratia in the war they have made against all things Jewish. Therefore Zionism is never mentioned as a practical and ancient commandment of the Torah, a commandment as conspicuous and practical as the prohibitions against stealing and murder; instead it is transmogrified as a Jewish evil simply because the political and expansionist objectives of Islam and Christianity have always been given more precedent in the press than the right of the Jew to live safely and securely in the land of Israel."

DECONSTRUCTING OBAMA'S JERUSALEM SPEECH

by Richard H. Shulman

President Obama came to Israel and made a nice speech that was well-received. He gets A for delivery, reassurance and stirring the (selected) audience. Richard H. Shulman writes about other factors, many of which were played down by what is often called Obama's poodle media. Shulman weighs and measures Obama's words against what we know from Obama's previous behavior in similar situations. Obama flunks. As Shulman summarizes the essence of the speech, "Close and sober examination of it, however, confirms his anti-Zionism and his demagoguery."

AT BOSTON U: PROPAGANDA DRESSED AS SCHOLARSHIP

by Richard L Cravatts, PhD

Arab pocket money buys a lot of academics. Last year, the Kennedy School at Harvard had a conference on the One-State Solution, an effective way for the Palestinian Arabs to overwhelm the Jews in Israel by sheer numbers. This year Boston University will be doing a variant of the same scheme: a Right of Return Conference, where supposed grown-ups will discuss allowing into Israel some 5-7 million Arabs who claim previous connection to Israel. Richard Cravatts points out that "every one of the participants of the BU conference are part of a retinue of the hate-Israel crowd, a traveling road-show of politicized scholars, propagandists, and pseudo- and non-academic activists with only a thinly-veiled animus towards Israel, Zionism, and Jews in general." Cravatts provides us with excellent portraits of some of the participants, political ideologues, who have long used the Arab refugee as a shield behind which they can safely attack Israel. Oh, that our universities should have come to this!

HAPPY 65th, ISRAEL!

by Ted Belman

On Nov. 29, 1947, the General Assembly of the United Nations adopted a resolution for the establishment of Israel as an independent Jewish state. On the 5th day of Iyar (May 14, 1948, Gregorian) David Ben-Gurion flanked by the members of the Provisional Council of State read the Declaration of Independence to the assembled guests. Israel commemorates this singular event yearly on Yom Ha'atzmaut ("Independence Day") by ceremonies and festivities that include honoring the Israeli Defense Force and holding the International Bible Contest. This year Yom Ha'atzmaut fell on April 16, 2013. Ted Belman has posted an English translation of the Declaration.

THE HOLOCAUST JUST GOT MORE SHOCKING

by Eric Lichtblau

Eric Lichtblau cites the statistics for the number of ghettos and concentration camps during the Nazi era. They are much higher than most people, even scholars, assumed. He also points out that the claims of ignorance by many Germans is specious. A personal anecdote: my husband attended a meeting of pathologists in Germany many years ago. He asked about a concentration camp that had been nearby during World War 2. The local pathologists earnestly claimed they didn't know about murder at the camp. Imagine. Pathologists. And they didn't recognize the smell of burning flesh.

WARSAW GHETTO SURVIVOR IN ISRAEL RECALLS UPRISING

by Aron Heller

Aliza Vitis-Shomron was 14 and one of the few survivors of the Warsaw Ghetto, where Jews rose up and fought their Nazis captors bitterly and heroically until there were no more Jews left. The rebellion "became a symbol of struggle against impossible conditions, illustrated a refusal to succumb to Nazi atrocities and inspired other acts of uprising and underground resistance by Jews and non-Jews alike." The rebels told her she was too young to fight but she should tell the world "'how we died fighting the Nazis. That is your job now.' She's been doing that ever since, publishing a memoir about life in the ghetto and lecturing about the revolt and its legendary leader, Mordechai Anielewicz."

PASSOVER'S GIFT: THE PROMISED AND UNDIVIDED LAND

by Victor Sharpe

We end this issue with an essay by Victor Sharpe on the Passover. Again in 2013, as for the past 3,300 years, we will eat a ceremonial meal and tell our children the story of how HaShem delivered the Jewish people from their enslavement in Egypt. And He gave them as theirs the Land of Israel in an everlasting Covenant from (using modern names) the Red Sea to the Mediterranean to the Euphrates. This year, as in so many years in the past, there are those who would deny us our patrimony. Again and again they try to persuade us or threaten us to give up our land. "Nevertheless, to give away one inch of the land is a profound rejection of the Covenant made between His people and Almighty God. It is also a strategy of national suicide... And it would not go amiss to remind the increasingly Godless European Union [among others] of Passover's gift to the Jewish people: The promised and undivided land."

MANDATE FOR PALESTINE

by Eli E. Hertz

  This is a superb presentation by Eli E. Hertz of the Legal Aspects of Jewish Rights to the Land of Israel. It begins by asking What is Palestine? It explains the importance of the term Mandate and presents the chronology of the events leading to signing of the document that placed Mandated Palestine in an irrevocable trust for the Jewish people, to develop into a Jewish state. Three facts are of particular importance. (1) The representatives of the League of Nations viewed the Mandate as reinforcing an already existing historic connection between the Jews and their ancient homeland. The Land was theirs by right. The Jews would be redeeming, reconstituting and recreating their national Home in situ. (2) The rest of the Middle East part of the Ottoman Empire (some 99.99% of the land) was cut up into states that were given to the Arabs. In some cases there was a long-established connection to the land. In others, boundaries were arbitrary and were a poor fit to the clans and sects of the various local Arabs living in that particular region. (3) The Assets, Rights and Obligations of the League of Nations were transferred to the United Nations where it came into being. The Palestine Mandate is valid.

The version on Think-Israel was compiled to be viewed as a html file. (If you download it, you also need to download the png files to transfer the photos. Do this with a get hertz.palestinemandate* command.) The original powerpoint presentation can be downloaded here. A presentation that emphasizes the text material is available on the Myths and Facts website: here.

TO CARRY OUT THE MANDATE FOR PALESTINE

by Bernice Lipkin

  Bernice Lipkin summarizes some of Israel's recent history of trying to make peace when the Palestinian Arabs don't want peace and have made no effort to cooperate. It is time to stop these attempts to obtain the currently unobtainable. She suggests that it's time to stop appeasing terrorists and go back to nation-building as the San Remo Resolution anticipated. Suggestions for additional reading materials are provided.

THE PALESTINIAN UN UPGRADE: SETTING THINGS STRAIGHT

by Alan Baker

  This is a straight-forward summary of what Mahmoud Abbas' request to the UN General Assembly to upgrade the area controlled by the Palestinian Authority to a state did and did not do. Alan Baker points out that it "neither created a Palestinian state, nor did it grant any kind of statehood to the Palestinians." It has no effect on the situation on the ground between Israel and the Palestinian Arabs, no matter how much significance the media gives the political charade. Unfortunately — and this wasn't within the scope of the article — media distortions are likely to be believed by a public trained to sympathize with Palestinian victimhood.

WHAT OCCUPATION?

by Efraim Karsh

  This essay by Efraim Karsh is exquisitely detailed yet very understandable. It dissects the misleading and fallacious threads that are woven together into the charge that Israel is occupying Palestinian Arab land. As the title says, "What occupation?" In addition to demolishing the non-factual Arab "narrative", Karsh provides a thoughtful insight into what is really keeping the pot boiling: "It is not the 1967 occupation that led to the Palestinians' rejection of peaceful coexistence and their pursuit of violence. Palestinian terrorism started well before 1967, and continued — and intensified — after the occupation ended in all but name. Rather, what is at fault is the perduring Arab view that the creation of the Jewish state was itself an original act of "inhuman occupation" with which compromise of any final kind is beyond the realm of the possible. Until that disposition changes, which is to say until a different leadership arises, the idea of peace in the context of the Arab Middle East will continue to mean little more than the continuation of war by other means."

WHY LIFTING THE ISRAELI 'OCCUPATION' WON'T STOP VIOLENCE

by Steven Plaut

  Steven Plaut reduces the entire Arab-Israeli embroilment to two simple statements. First, the international community is certain that were Israel to Remove its Occupation of the "Occupied Palestinian Territories", it would Lower Violence: the ROLV axiom. Even most Israeli politicians pay lip service to this proposition. Second, "the international consensus about removal of Israeli occupation is empirically false and nearly all Israelis, both Jews and Arabs, understand that it is false." Experience has taught them that when Israel gives up territory, as it did in Gaza, the Arabs in the Territories use it to increase their manufacture and assembly of weaponry to use against the Jewish state — not exactly an occupation of high priority, were the Arabs interested in developing the infrastructure of a viable state.

THE ISRAELI CONSTITUENT — REALISM OVER WISHFUL THINKING

by Yoram Ettinger

  Yoram Ettinger chronicles the new thinking in Israel. Playing Russian roulette with the safety of Israeli citizens is no longer considered the way to ensure Israel's security or its survival. Checkpoints along borders are safer than open entry. Monitoring highways decreases the opportunity for snipers to kill people driving by. As reliable polls show: the Israeli public is "top heavy on realism and low on wishful-thinking." Now if only the politicians, the academicians and the media would catch up.

WINNING THE PEACE

by Daniel Greenfield

  Once upon a time, Judaism was a proselytizing religion, winning many converts in the Roman empire. This went on until the newly empowered Christian Church in Rome made it very clear that the Church would destroy Judaism if Jewish proselytizing didn't stop. The Rabbis internalized this stricture so completely that they didn't just stop actively trying to teaching Jewish ideas and practices to non-Jews, they made it downright hard to become a Jew. Israel has been undergoing a similar incorporation of a practice that could prove to be fatal: the notion that she must show her enemies and critics she is highly moral, more moral than her attackers, when she should be focused on winning the war they are waging against her. Daniel Greenfield makes us see how utterly immoral this behavior is. Out-losing the Arabs is suicidal.

WHAT WE KNOW ABOUT THE BENGHAZI MASSACRE

by Bernice Lipkin

The miracle of the century is that the Obama Administration has managed by smudging the details, distracting the public and blurring the issue to keep the story of the century out of public consciousness. A personal anecdote: after voting, I went over to the table where the Democratic and Republican representatives were handing out literature. I asked, "People comment about Benghazi?" The Republican rep mumbled she's heard something about it. The Democratic party rep said in a puzzled manner, "Ben who?" This article reviews some of the information we have available a month after the Benghazi massacre.

ARMS FLOW TO SYRIA MAY BE BEHIND BENGHAZI COVER-UP

by Clare Lopez

 Clare Lopez writes of what is well-known to the counter terrorist community: the Obama Administration has been furtively supplying the Syrian rebels with armaments coming from Gaddafi's Libyan store houses. Unfortunately for us, the romanticized rebels include a sizable group of al-Qaeda fighters and are backed by the Muslim Brotherhood and Saudi Arabia, who are intent on creating sharia-based governments throughout the Middle East.

SLAIN U.S. AMBASSADOR RECRUITED JIHADISTS

by Aaron Klein

 In what appears to be a repeat of our alliances in taking down Colonel Muammar Gaddafi in Libya, the Obama Administration, openly siding with the Syrian rebels, is also supplying them with weaponry. It is an open secret that seasoned Al-Qaeda fighters are among the star troops of the "rebellion" against Bashar Assad. In this article, Aaron Klein writes about American recruitment of Jihadists to fight Assad. Meantime, while we act to topple nasty dictators, we ignore that Iran continues to develop nuclear weaponry, which will trump all our good works in making Syria safe for a regressive fundamentalist government.

THE HIDDEN REAL TRUTH ABOUT BENGHAZI

by Doug Hagmann

 The reader who sent us this article wrote this about it: "This is the first explanation I've seen that really fits all the details. It makes no sense that the administration would not jump to the rescue in case of a mob action OR EVEN a terrorist attack. What's to lose? It would have been killing Bin Laden all over again. "Yeah there were some remnants of al Qaeda but we dealt with them!" However if the administration recognized that this attack was: (1.) Of unknown size and composition, probably (or known to be) larger than it appeared and including anti-aircraft weapons; and, (2.) A very long thread pulled out of the sweater of their illegal (because not approved by Congressional oversight committees) covert operation. And then doing nothing regardless of consequences on the ground AND displaying total disarray afterward, make perfect sense. Hillary's having taken the blame for the poor 'consulate' (it was actually a CIA facility) security is just falling on her own sword to protect the boss.
    "Talk about a foreign policy reset! Wandering around the world destabilizing governments we don't like for one reason or another AND messing with Russia's national interests is an indescribably bad idea, close to guaranteed to come back at us in U.S. misery within a few years. I don't think Doug Hagmann's closing statement is too strong. At a deeper (yes, deeper than WW III!) level what we see is our president's red line for his policy actions: 'Whatever I think I can get away with.' If he should be reelected — you can still find thoughtful opinions going both ways — then he will be impeached. Possibly immediately as a result of this catastrophic scandal, although much will depend on whether the media continue to bury it. But if not immediately, then later on, probably following some domestic calamity when he goes far enough to scare courage into even Congress."

BENGHAZI: FROM 'SEE NO SHARIA' TO ANSAR AL-SHARIA

by Andrew G. Bostom

 Andrew Bostom writes about Ansar al-Sharia, the terrorist gang that stormed the American compound in Benghazi and killed four Americans, including Ambassador Christopher Stevens. Bostom points out that the group is one of many groups — the Saudis, the Muslim Brotherhood, the many fundamentalists engaged in terror — that are working for a Salafist takeover of all the countries in the Middle East. What is puzzling is why — as in Egypt and Libya — are we helping to create yet another regime fully devoted to brutal and totalitarian pre-medieval Sharia law? It may be different than a sort-of secular dictator, but it aims at re-establishing a Caliphate, not a democracy.

THE MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD IN ITS OWN WORDS

by Itamar Marcus and Nan Jacques Zilberdik

 We begin this section with what the Muslim Brotherhood (MB) sees as its mission in its own words. Itamar Marcus and Nan Jacques Zilberdik cite some pertinent comments made by Mustafa Mashhur, who led the Egyptian MB from 1996 to 2002. They are consistent with what the MB has been saying since its creation in 1928. Can anything be further from the misleading nonsense spouted by the Obama administration and the uncritical media, which insist the MB is secular, moderate and a swell bunch of guys?

THE ILLUSION OF EGYPTIAN DEMOCRACY

by Matthew M. Hausman

 Matthew Hausman goes beyond the superficiality of the claim that Egypt is now a democracy because people used the ballot box and examines the true nature of the new government in Egypt. In doing so, he makes clear the contrast between the underlying theocracy in Egypt and the republican form of democracy we enjoy in the USA. He spells out the difference between the Muslim desire for totalitarian sharia law to encase people and their institutions and the American desire for freedom of action and self-determination for the individual.

UNITED ARAB EMIRATE (UAE) CALLS FOR ANTI-MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD COALITION

by Ryan Mauro

 Ryan Mauro writes that the United Arab Emirate (UAE) recognizes the threat the Muslim Brotherhood (MB) can be to the Gulf states and is proposing a coalition against both the MB, which is a Sunni product, and the Shi'ite Mullahs of Iran. Even Saudi Arabia — which works with the MB to destroy the Syrian regime — sees the MB as the root cause of unrest and turbulence in the region. Mauro writes that the USA is wrongheaded to support the MB when it should be working with Arab governments to counter MB ideology

AL QAEDA IN SYRIA: JIHADISTS USE CHAOS IN ARAB AWAKENING

by Bruce Riedel

 Ayman al-Zawahiri, the current leader of al-Qaeda, was in his younger days a member of the Muslim Brotherhood,(MB) leaving it for a possibly more extremist group, but always determined to carry out the mission of the founder of MB to recreate the Caliphate and revive the practice of every minutia of sharia law. On the Arabian Pennisula, Ansar al Sharia (AAS), is the organizational name shared by multiple, more-or-less autonomous groups in Tunisia, Libya and Yemen. It is variously described as a renamed al-Qaeda or as an affiliate of al-Qaeda. One such group committed the Benghazi massacre. As Bruce Riedel points out, Zawahiri has called for al-Qaeda members to go fight the Bashar al-Assad's Syrian regime, while urging Sunnis to rely only on al-Qaeda. For an organization the Obama administration reassured us was withering away, it seems remarkably energetic.

"UNITED STATES OF ARABS": MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD PLAN BELLIGERENT PAN-ISLAMIC SUPER-STATE

by Yaakov Lappin

 Now that the Muslim Brotherhood(MB) has taken over the Egyptian government, Yaakov Lappin observes that the next stage is to complete the "Islamization of the Egyptian state and society, before they can turn their sights on their final goal, the creation of a pan-Islamic super-state that will encompass the region, and then wage war on Israel." This has been made clear by several prominent clerics. Sheikh Mohammed Badie, head of the MB, who has called for a "jihad for the recovery of Jerusalem."

WILL JORDAN BE NEXT TO FALL?

by Lee Smith

 Lee Smith points out that were Jordon's King Abdullah II's regime to fall, Israel "would lose its remaining strategic partner in the region—having already lost Turkey and Egypt—and face a possible nightmare on its longest border." Abdullah's position is affected by what happens in Syria. "A Muslim Brotherhood victory in Syria could put wind in the sails of Jordan's own Brotherhood party, the Islamic Action Front, and perhaps inspire them to add another Arab state, along with Tunisia and Egypt, to their collection."

PICKING SIDES IN THE MUSLIM WORLD PROVES DEADLY

by Kerry Patton

 The Project is a Muslim Brotherhood (MB) plan to infiltrate and defeat the U.S., using a multitude of flexible methods, all coming under the rubric of stealth jihad. It's been known by the Western intelligence communities since the plan was discovered in 2001 accidentally during a raid on Youssef Nada, director of the Al-Taqwa Bank of Lugano, a member and a leader of the Muslim Brotherhood for more than 50 years. but it has never been publicized by the main stream media. (See for example, two articles detailing their methodology and goals by Patrick Poole: from 2006 here and from 2007 here. In this essay Kerry Patton discusses how Glenn Beck is alerting the public with two shows devoted to The Project. (More details are available in the Appendices to his article.) Patton's main point is that it is true that Shi'ite Iran is evil, but that doesn't make the Sunni MB or the Saudis less of an enemy to us.

THE CHEESEMAKER OCCUPATION MUST END

by Daniel Greenfield

 Daniel Greenfield in the persona of Tim Paulin writes as if he were channeling the British poet Tom Neilson Paulin, a doting Palophile, who identifies so completely with the Arab blood lust culture that he has no problem interpreting barbaric behavior as moral and just. Even fun. As a reader, Shiva, notes, "the point is skillfully made: that this is where the current Leftist mindset inexorably and logically leads, to a 21st century re-incarnation of Jew hatred and Nazism." Or, as Tom Paulin said to Al-Ahram Weekly, "I never believed that Israel had the right to exist at all."

FACES OF PALESTINE

by Bosch Fawstin

 Bosch Fawstin has described himself as a recovering Muslim. Buy or download his "Faces of Palestine" (see below) and share his insights about the Palestinian Arabs. (For an excellent summary of the history, culture and personalities of the Arabs that says in words what Fawstin's drawings say in images, read "Arabism=racism!" here.)

ALL THE ISLAMOPHOBIA YOU CAN SHAKE A STICK AT

by Daniel Greenfield

 After 9/11, as Daniel Greenfield points out, "[j]ust when Americans had good reason to fear Islam, they were cautioned that such fears were symptomatic of an irrational and bigoted Islamophobia..." The number of Muslim-linked phobias has grown. We now have Khwanophobia (the fear and or hatred of the Muslim Brotherhood), Shi'itophobia and Salafi-phobia, to name but a few. Curiously, no one appears to have been diagnosed with a phobia of non-violent Muslim sects, only "of violent Muslim groups—almost as if there is nothing irrational about those phobias at all."

THE ISLAMIC KINGDOM

by Amil Imani

 Amil Imani points out that "Islam is a brutal, tribal warrior cult that glorifies jihad and martyrdom." It can't be mellowed into civilized behavior because its culture was molded by its holy books and these are regarded as immutable. Unfortunately, "Islam is a powerful magnet for the masses who are unable to deal with the uncertainties of life and death on their own. It is from this population, many already thoroughly indoctrinated from birth that the majority of die-hard jihadists emerge."

ANTI-SEMITISM AND ISLAM — EXPOSING A LONG SEATED MYTHOLOGY

by Alex Rose

 It is often argued that Arab hostility to Jews is a modern phenomenon, brought about by the creation of a Jewish state on land the Arabs regard as theirs. Until recently, it is claimed, Jews and Arabs lived harmoniously. Alex Rose informs us this is mythology not history. In point of fact, Jew-hatred has been an integral part of Islam since its inception and it has continued unabated for fourteen hundred years. As Rose writes, "From the days of Mohammed, non-Muslims under Muslim rule were subject to taxation, humiliation, oppression, exile, and murder."

DYING OVER THE TRUTH: MURDER INSIDE THE WIRE

by Diana West

 Diana West speaks bluntly of what our soldiers are subjected to in Afghanistan, when interacting with their Afghan counterparts. There are actual assaults by our supposed allies. There is the pressure by the American leadership that they behave as dhimmis in this Muslim culture, keeping a low profile and being very respectful. The worst is their exposure to a culture that is stomach-turning, a culture that abuses women, rapes children and tortures animals.

ENGLISH TRANSLATION OF THE LEGAL ARGUMENTS IN THE LEVY REPORT

by Hadar of CIFWatch, editing a translation by Joel

 The Elder of Ziyon website posted an English translation of the legal arguments in the Levy Report. Actually, they posted one by Joel, a second by Hadar of CIFWatch that "tidied up" the first and added footnotes and paragraph numbers and a third done by UNISPAL (http://unispal.un.org). This below is the second one posted. All are available at http://elderofziyon.blogspot.com/2012/07/english-translation-of-legal-arguments.html. Previously only the conclusions and recommendations were available in translation.

THE EXCLUSIVE POLITICAL RIGHTS GRANTED TO THE JEWS IN 1920 AT SAN REMO

by Wallace Edward Brand

 Wallace Brand writes that the solution to the Arab-Israeli Conflict is usually presented as either a single bi-national state with an Arab majority OR two states, with the Arab state cutting Israel or residing in its heartland. He reminds us there is a third way that is based on rights to the territory granted at San Remo almost a hundred years ago: a single Jewish state. In this article, he discusses the background, details and implications of the momentous San Remo decision.

WHO IS ENTITLED TO GIFT AWAY JEWISH NATIONAL RIGHTS?

by Yoram Shifftan

 This article by Yoram Shifftan was initially published in the September-October 2004 issue of Think-Israel as a companion piece to his article "Is Israel's Legal System Acting Illegally?" (http://www.think-israel.org/shifftan.legalsystem.html). It emphasizes the lack of awareness of the legal foundation of the irrevocable right of the Jews to what was Mandated Palestine.

PROFESSOR BERMAN'S MISTAKEN VIEWS ON THE LEVY REPORT

by Wallace Edward Brand

 In this essay Wallace Brand focuses on the principle that law is by judicial process, not by concensus. He discusses the circular argument accepted by many that goes like this: most lawyers disagree with the Levy Report. Therefore those wishing to explain why the Levy report is accurate and the opposition have got it wrong. They should be kept from confusing the public. The critical argument is that the Levy Report is not a new idea thought up by Israel right wingers but a circumspect restatement of what was decided a century ago on how to prepare for a Jewish State. In point of fact, by the time the League of Nations issued the Mandates for Jewish and Arab states, the British had lopped off some 78% of the land intended for an eventual Jewish state and given it over to the Hashemites to administer — when no one objected formally, this eventually became transJordan and then Jordan.

REINVIGORATING DEBATE ON ISRAEL'S RIGHTS

by Avi Bell

 Avi Bell writes that the Levy Commission "is on solid ground in observing that neither Jordan nor any other foreign state had territorial sovereignty over the 'West Bank' in 1967 and that the territory cannot therefore be 'foreign' for purposes of the law of belligerent occupation. Indeed, had the Levy Commission chosen to so argue, it could have argued cogently that Israel itself was already the lawful sovereign over the 'West Bank' in 1967." He expects that the Report will open up discussion of "the legitimacy of Israel's position under international law after many years in which Israel has been silent about its legal rights."

SETTLEMENTS ARE NOT ILLEGAL

by Ted Belman

 Ted Belman presents the opinions of some eminent jurists that confirm one consequence that Judea and Samaria were given as an irrevocable trust to the Jewish people; namely, that they can build housing and businesses, and public and private institutions upon their land. Those that would help the Arabs try to steal the land are fond of citing the Fourth Geneva Convention (FGC) to claim that Jewish settlements are illegal, but in point of fact, the FGC doesn't apply.

THE COGNITIVE WAR AGAINST ISRAEL IN THE SETTLEMENT DEBATE

by Richard L. Cravatts

 Richard Cravatts spells out some of the collateral damage the Levy Report does. It makes clear that the world has been fed a fanciful tale by the Arabs. It calls an intellectual halt to the fallacious anti-Israel propaganda promulgated by hostile Western politicians, diplomats and media for whom "the perennial victim status of the long-suffering Palestinians trumps any sovereign rights of Israel regarding its borders, security, and even its survival in a sea of jihadist foes who yearn for its destruction." Thus, Samaria and Judea (aka the West Bank), Gaza and the eastern part of Jerusalem have been untruthfully called "Arab" land and Israel the "occupier" oppressing the po' Palestinians, who no way to fight for their rights except with rocks, knives and explosives against the enemy, in the person of Jewish babies asleep in their cribs, Jewish toddlers in their beds and Jewish children at school. I hope it doesn't take as long for Western leaders to accept the truth of the Levy report as it has taken for the Vatican to admit officially that the earth revolves the sun — it finally conceded this in 1992, 359 years after Galileo was condemned for speaking the truth.

EDMUND LEVY'S REVOLUTION

by Moshe Dann

 Moshe Dann notes that the Levy Report is Israel's "first authoritative and official opinion on Israel's legal right to Judea and Samaria." This is a fact. What is amazing about it is that Israel's legal right to the Territories was established irrevocably well before there was a Jewish State, yet successive governments, anxious for peace with flaky Arab neighbors, never rebutted the myth that Israel was occupying Arab land. As Dann points out, "Whether or not its recommendations are accepted and implemented, the report is a turning point in how Israel and hopefully the international community understand the critical question: whose land?"

60 MINUTES OF MENDACITY

by Tabitha Korol

 60 Minutes staff members have made a career of taking nasty jabs at Israel. Not only are these assertions nasty, they range from misrepresentation to outright lies. Their recent report on Christian life in Israel "was sufficiently twisted to promote the Palestinian narrative." They selected Christian dhimmis who talked about Christianity being a Palestinian export! This blithely ignores that Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea. There never was a Palestinian State. Bob Simon spoke mournfully of the problems of Christians living in the Holy Land, but didn't mention he was talking about Arab-Christians living miserable lives under Muslim Arab rule. In actuality, Christians are wisely fleeing fundamentalist Arab/Muslim countries, while the Christian population in Israel is increasing. Tabitha Korol feels "60 Minutes should apologize and correct its defamation of Israel while exposing the true plight of Christians in the Islamic world." Rots of ruck.

THE NEW ISLAMIC VIGILANTES OF SPEECH

by Edward Cline

As Edward Cline writes, "the de facto imposition of Sharia law on Western non-Muslims is insidiously accumulative." In their unswerving determination to destroy any public message they regard as anti-Islam, cultural Jihadists have singled out the lewd ad –– and that can be anything that shows more female skin than what is visible wearing an ankle-length sack over the head. Edward Cline relates their campaign to "the near psychotic or pathological mindset about women that Islam inculcates in Muslim men." Their religion doesn't encourage respect for women. They grow up believing that women are chattel that lose their value if they lose their chastity. And an immodest woman is fair game for rape and torture –– by them. The connection between the cage-like restrictions on a woman's freedom, honor killings and the permitted raping of any "immoral" woman isn't a coincidence. We might ignore this and mumble multiculturalism were this restricted to their own countries, but unfortunately, they insist their host cultures behave according to their ideas. Or suffer brutal and barbaric punishment.

TIME TO END ISLAMIC APPEASEMENT?

by Vincent Gioia

 Vincent Gioia writes about how Islamists excel in "the art of intimidation - using freedom in western civilization as a weapon in the battle to rule the world." They are helped by the inability of Westerners to believe people can behave so badly, that in our modern world, some people will do anything to "replace all other religions and governments with Islam and Sharia law." Despite all contrary information, "the news media ... is filled with misinformation about Islam. Despite untold acts of atrocities by Muslims, Islam is still regarded in many circles as "a religion of Peace..." Despite the fact that "[i]In Islamic countries the non-Muslims are treated like second or fifth class people and their populations are decreasing enormously." Despite the fact that high-profile refugees from jihad must have police protection from Muslims who openly and without penalty state they are going to kill the apostates. Vincent Gioa says "we need to engage in the effort [to inform the public] not only through films and videos; we must address the financial culture and reveal the truth about Sharia banking and finance. We must also prepare propaganda [if you can call truth propaganda] that is directed towards the blue collar workers." He suggests such topics that might break through the thick layer of media support that shields the public from hearing about what Islam's stealth Jihad campaign is doing to our country. Above all, as Gioia wisely says, "We must become bigot-proof because any challenge will invite accusations of racism." Why should we inflict the pain of action on ourselves? As Gioia says, "It is simple; we either fight or lose our civilization." And dominance by Islam isn't happiness-making.

HAUNTING SMILE OF GIRL FACING THE HOLOCAUST

by Paul Harris

 Paul Harris posted these photographs taken by Hugo Jaeger, the German photographer who was Hitler's personal photographer. They provide us with images hinting at what life was like in Poland for the Jews in 1939-1940 after the German invasion and before the mass extermination of the Jews got underway. They were taken in Kutno, Poland. The Addendum posts the Foreword to the Life magazine presentation of Jaeger's photographs. It was written by Justyna MajewskaJustyna Majewska, who works as a curator at the Holocaust Gallery in the Museum of the History of Polish Jews in Warsaw.

FOR THE SIN I HAVE SINNED: Yom Kippur Story From the Holocaust

by Annette Keen

 Annette Keen was born in a Displaced Persons Camp just after World War 2. Her family moved to the USA, where her father, a trained cantor, together with other Holocaust survivors, became farmers. She writes about Yom Kippur 1952, walking with her father silently along the muddy road to the Synagogue the Survivors had built. When they arrived and he had donned his ceremonial robe, her father shared with her some of the agony he felt on Yom Kippur 1939 when, at his father's insistence, he reluctantly fled the advancing Germans, abandoning his own father, who stayed and chanted Kol Nidre. In a few sentences, she makes the incident a parable of the Jew's relationship to HaShem.

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IN THE MATTER OF VETTING PEOPLE IN HIGH PLACES

by Bernice Lipkin

Bernice Lipkin examines two cases that explore the American security vetting system as it applies to high level jobs in the government: (1) confirming that the legal requirements for being the President are met and (2) doing background checks and examining affiliations of people applying for positions that provide them access to and/or control of classified information and/or security sites. The first case highlights problems that arise because there apparently is no official system in place to confirm that the Constitutional requirements for the Presidency are met. In the second case, the vetting system is in place and is routinely used to check out security issues. In this instance it failed to prevent questionable Islamic infiltration.

THE THREAT OF SHARIA AND THE LEADERSHIP OF AMERICA'S TWO PARTIES

by Eric Allen Bell

 Laura L. wrote this about Eric Allen Bell's article on how the political parties are handling the growing problem of court decisions being based on Sharia law in American courts rather than on American Constitutional law: "It is the goal of the Muslim Brotherhood front groups to implement sharia law in America and in fact it has been applied in American courts. I'm sick of politicians in both parties treating islam as though it's just another benign religious faith when it is in fact a lethal, totalitarian, imperialistic political ideology. I'm sick of being told we must tolerate and respect an ideology masquerading as a religion, which seeks to forcibly convert, subjugate or kill unbelievers. I'm also sick of alleged conservatives proclaiming their patriotism, adherence to the constitution and their deep commitment to the nation's national security and the preservation of American ideals of liberty and so forth [when their] silence on the civilizational or stealth jihad taking place in America reveals that they are more concerned with advancing their careers than in defending America and preserving our future." Because our law makers are allowing Sharia infiltration into our court system, as Bell points out, Muslim women and children are deprived of equal protection under the law. What is of more general concern is that by allowing sharia law to get its nose into the American courts system, we are opening the way for sharia to override American Constitutional law and determine court decisions in an ever widening sphere — to where it could become de facto law for all of us.

THE DARK MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD WORLD OF HUMA ABEDIN

by Jamie Glazov

Jamie Glazov interviews Walid Shoebat on Huma Abedin's ties with the Muslim Brotherhood (MB), an organization whose mission is to give Islam global control. Her mother is in the leadership of the Muslim Sisterhood. Her brother and her father, now dead, have been prominent in MB operations. Shoebat points out that it is also peculiar that her family would allow her to marry a non-Muslim, particularly a Jew, "unless Huma has a 'higher calling' and a unique exception was made for her, since she is an ear into top U.S. sensitive information, or Anthony Weiner has converted to Islam or even both." He suggests the U.S. current policy of gaining "what they deem a 'moderate Muslim Brotherhood' ... is like saying that in order to win the Cold War with Russia, that we needed to promote 'Capitalistic-Communism' or during WWII we should have promoted 'pro-Jew Nazism' in Germany." He makes the case that the Islamists understand us better than we understand them.

THE ABEDIN "AFFAIRS" WITH AL-SAUD

by Walid Shoebat

Walid Shoebat interprets for us projects whose names suggest innocuous pursuits carried out by the Abedin family: mother Saleha, head of the Muslim Brotherhood's (MB) Sisterhood branch and editor-in-chief of the Journal of the Institute for Muslim Minority Affairs (JMMA); father Sayed Zaynul, an author and a launcher of a plan called "Muslim Minorities in the West"; son Hassan, who is also on the board of the Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies (OCIS); and daughter Huma, once assistant editor of JMMA and currently Deputy Chief of Staff to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. There's nothing picayune about the Abedin family's organizational talents. Mama's Sisterhood spans some 16 countries. Papa's publication speaks of recruiting Muslims living in the West to make Islam dominant. We don't have to wait years in the future to determine whether this is true - - we have already seen Islamic Students of North America (ISNA) and Muslim Students of America (MSA) in destructive action on American campuses. Son Hassan's OCIS can boast of having Sheikh Youssef Qaradawi, the leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, the man who can create a full-blown riot with the flick of his finger, as a OCIS Trustee. And Daughter Huma has both an unparalleled view of American policy and the clout to influence it. In this essay, Shoebat emphasizes that while the Abedins are leading figures in the Muslim Brotherhood, they also has a strong connection to the Saudis. In fact, "The House of Saud had used Huma's father Sayed Zaynul Abedin's Muslim Minorities in the West published in 1998 as part of 29 works to construct a plan to conquer the world with Islam."

SALEHA MAHMOOD ABEDIN, A FOUNDING MEMBER OF THE MUSLIM SISTERHOOD

by Discover The Networks

Discover The Networks provides us with a biography and an informative resumé of the achievements of Saleha Mahmood Abedin, a woman who's led a fulfilling life expanding the reach of sharia law around the world. She is a founder of several large organizations and a joiner of others. One, the Muslim Sisterhood, encourages prominent Arab women to promote Muslim Brotherhood ideology in the West by stealth. She's a member in good standing in interfaith and peace groups. A firm believer in Sharia, she promotes the complete subservience of women, child marriage and female genital mutilation. She has translated into English Fatima Umar Naseef's book on how to be a devout Muslim woman. [See Andrew Bostom's article below.] The book, whose views presumably are acceptable to her, views Sharia as saving women from the slavery of man-made laws, from having to decide on her own what type of clothes to wear, what tasks to undertake and what to do with her life. Sharia is her guide. Abedin is also editor-in-chief of JMMA, the Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs, published by the Institute of Muslim Minority Affairs (IMMA). Before becoming Deputy Chief of Staff and aide to the Secretary of State, her daughter Huma worked with her as an editor of JMMA. Another daughter Heba is currently an assistant editor. IMMA was launched and has been supported by Abdullah Omar Naseef, a known financial mainstay of al Qaeda.

SALEHA ABEDIN AND THE MUSLIM SISTERHOOD

by Andrew G. Bostom

Andrew Bostom provides us with a well-researched description of the extent of Saleha Abedin's promulgation of the views and practices of the Muslim Brotherhood (MB), a "modern traditionalist Islamic jihad movement." Dr. Abedin is Professor of Sociology in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. She is Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs (JMMA). She chairs the International Islamic Committee for Women and Child (IICWC) in Amman, Jordan. She is a prominent member of the Muslim Sisterhood, the woman's division of the Muslim Brotherhood. She is a strong proponent of child marriage and clitoridectomy. She midwifed the translation into English of Fatima Umar Naseef's book Women in Islam: A Discourse in Rights and Obligations. The book advocates feminine modesty, where immodesty apparently is whatever might tempt a man. It asserts that a woman's role is primarily that of wife and mother, the one who gives birth to the men who fight in Jihad. The book is anchored in the writings of Sayyid Qutb, an Egyptian writer and a leading member of MB, whose ideology was an extension of the writings of the founder of MB. Both advocated world-wide violent revolution to bring true Islam to all. Bostom makes clear that the views held today "by the entire global Muslim umma's pre-eminent Muslim theologians and scholars" on Jihad and Islamic Jew-hatred are the same as those held by Qutb, and Qutb's views, in turn, "are in full accord with classical Muslim jurists." Considering Dr. Abedin's promulgation of "liberty-crushing Sharia supremacism," "[t]he extent of Dr. Abedin's influence on her daughter Huma Abedin's views and efforts — the latter still a close aide to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton — should long ago have been investigated, clarified, and discussed in the public domain."

WHAT MIGHT CIVILIZED PEOPLE BE THINKING WHEN SOCIOPATHS LIKE TAMIMI BASK IN ADULATION?

by Frimet and Arnold Roth

As Frimet and Arnold Roth write, "Our daughter Malki, murdered at the age of 15 in a restaurant massacre in Jerusalem, was a victim of jihadist hatred and barbarism." Their way of coping was to establish Keren Malki, to take care of Israeli children with special needs, no matter whether they are Christian, Moslem, Jewish, Druze or unaffiliated. In sharp contrast, the entire Arab culture that produced the woman terrorist responsible for Malki's death considers her a heroine, not a monster. She brought death to some and misery to many. She had no positive impact on her own people or changed anything for the better. But actual accomplishments aren't the goal, are they? It's all about feeling superior. The goals of a blood-lust people are seldom ennobling. They destroy what they are incapable of creating. We can ask why do these people play these games that are so grotesque? Perhaps it is because they model themselves on a primitive pedophile who enjoyed destruction. His followers were better at looting than planting, better at demolishing than building. Even today his spiritual descendants don't show the ability to behave in a civilized manner, the way the Roths did. That would take compassion and generosity and disciplined bravery. Not their strong points.

[Note: See the January-February 2012 issue of Think-Israel here for a story on Wafa Al-Biss, another murderous terrorist.]

RACHEL CORRIE AND HER HANDLERS

by Bernice Lipkin

In this essay, Bernice Lipkin brings the information on the sensational death of Rachel Corrie up to date. The emphasis here is on the organizations that, in the name of humanitarianism and peace, recruit patsies such as Corrie, idealistic young exploitables, and use them to further a very different agenda — the delegitimization of Israel, the infiltration of sharia into the West.

TEAM LINE-UPS IN THE SYRIAN CIVIL WAR 101

by Bernice Lipkin

When Syrians rebelled against the rule of President Bashar Assad, it was assumed the well-supplied rebels would soon unseat him. The rebellion has turned into a civil war that threatens to destabilize the region, not just the country. This is in part due to the ideologies of the major players and their plans for the future of the region. Bernice Lipkin provides a summary of the players on the opposing teams and their complex interactions.

WHY REVOLUTIONARY SUNNI ISLAMISM IS THE WORLD'S GREATEST STRATEGIC THREAT AND NONE OF IT IS MODERATE

by Barry Rubin

Barry Rubin begins this essay this way: "No, it sure isn't the age of Aquarius or of Multicultural, Politically Correct love-ins. It's the age of revolutionary Islamism, especially Sunni Islamism. And you better learn to understand what this is all about real fast. Focusing on the Sunni revolutionary Islamist tidal wave, the foundation of knowledge is that there are three types and they are all bad, very bad. A lot of people are going to be misinforming you about this and getting others — never themselves, of course — killed. Rubin is talking about the al-Qaeda style groups, the Salafists and the Muslim Brotherhood. This is information you need to have.

ASHARQ AL-AWSAT TALKS WITH EX-MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD LEADER IBRAHIM EL ZAFARANI

by May Ibrahim

May Ibrahim records an interview with Ibrahim Al-Zafarani, a former Muslim Brotherhood (MB) leader in Alexandria. The interview is noteworthy in that Al-Zafarani acknowledges that MB's rival, the Salafist movement, is growing. But he attributes it to the MB involvement in politics rather than religious advocacy — as if that hasn't always been true. In the face of slaughter and church-burnings, he claims that "Christian fears are not justified." Al-Zafarani does, however, reveal tantalizing tidbits about the structure of the Egyptian MB and the interrelationships of the various cliques and cadres in the MB. I especially liked that major control is in the hands of a group called the Guidance Bureau. As good as George Orwell was, he didn't come up with anything that Orwellian.

WILL EGYPT'S MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD ORIENT TO SAUDI ARABIA OR IRAN?

by David P. Goldman

The major struggle for dominance in the Middle East is between Saudi Arabia and Iran. After that allegiances and interests become murky; traditional linkages can no longer be relied on. In Egypt, the new President, Mohamed Morsi, a member of the Muslim Brotherhood (MB) has eliminated potential challengers at least in the short term and has placed the MB in a position to make binding decisions for Egypt. Will the MB ally itself with the Sauds or with Iran? After presenting the arguments on both sides, David Goldman predicts that Egypt will do neither but will, essentially, tread water, while attempting to keep good relations with everyone. Goldman believes that in the long run, "[t]he most probable outcome is that Egypt's military will assert control with Saudi financial backing and suppress the Muslim Brotherhood."

ILLEGALLY SETTLING THE NEGEV IN A LAND GRAB RACE

by Atara Beck

 Given the timidity of the Government at protesting illegal building by Arabs, it isn't surprising that the illegal grabbing of land by the Bedouins in the Negev has received little official or media attention. The image of the Bedouins as wandering nomads — at least in Israel — has been changing for half a century and has been replaced by the reality of the Bedouins settling down, willy nilly, over the entire Negev. Concomitantly, the Bedouins have been radicalized and as Atara Beck writes, "Those aiming to conquer Jewish land have resorted to destructive behaviour, including 'agricultural crime and theft, extortion through violence and threats, hooliganism in the streets, malls and entertainment centres and environmental pollution.'" They are backed by Peace Now and other radical pro-Palestinian groups, which can be counted on to raise a ruckus whenever the Israeli government tries to stop Arab illegal building or allow Jewish legal building.

IT'S NOT JUST THE TEMPLE MOUNT; THEY EVEN CLAIM SUSYA

by David Bedein

 David Bedein gathers some facts countering the "facts" Arab use to bolster their claim to the town of Susya. What is puzzling is, given that it so easy to determine that the Arab claims are false, why do so many "reputable" academics and journalists go along with the lie? Is it, as one reader commented, that "[w]hat the Arabs and their supporters love to do is use 'creative license' as they come up with their fairy tales, creative license that the anti-Semites of the world love to embrace." What is worse is that so many supporters of the Arab claims are Jews, who would never dream of defending the homes of Jews that live in the Territories and have legitimate claims.

OBAMA'S SANITIZED HISTORY FOR IFTAR DINNER

by Lee Cary

 The White House's report on President Obama's iftar dinner at the White House breaking bread after Ramadan would indicate that Obama's speech was a model of misdirection, misinformation and missing information. The Press Release said that Obama suggested Jefferson entertaining the Tunisian ambassador might be seen as the first Iftar dinner at the White House. Jefferson did invite the ambassador to dinner but the slant given by the White House is all wrong. Perhaps the speech writers fired the fact checkers in the interests of saving a few kopeks — it would the first austerity measure at the White House in these dismal economic times. In this essay, Lee Cary corrects the misleading implication that relations with the Barbary Pirates were friendly or that the Muslims have contributed much to American history. As one reader, Twoiron, commented, "The two major 'gifts' of Islam to America: 1) the Barbary Pirates, and 2) 9/11/2001." Of further interest: it is amazing to read the difference between 2008 when people tiptoed around the possibility that Obama was Muslim, and a committed Muslim to boot, and today's openly-expressed hostility to this now acknowledged fact — for he [Obama] himself has said it.

BARACK OBAMA, THE NEW YORK TIMES, THAT IFTAR DINNER, AND THE REWRITING OF HISTORY

by Hugh Fitzgerald

 This is a companion piece to Lee Cary's piece above. Why are we devoting so much space to a single event? Because it is emblematic. Because it is uncomplicated and the features that are lies show up clearly. No judgment is needed. Its lesson needs to be absorbed — and applied to more difficult subjects: the national debt, which is of tsunami height; the economy, which is tanking; the myriad falsifications, such as crediting GM with recovery when the Gov't, which now owns the company, boosted their sales by buying a fleet of cars from them using our money; the printing of money we can't back, so inflation increases. Think of this essay as Understanding. 101.

ISLAMIC INVENTIONS? HOW ISLAMIC INVENTORS DID NOT CHANGE THE WORLD

by Wiki Islam

 There are many Muslim groupies, employees and devout believers in underdoggery posting a prodigious amount of misinformation on how the Muslims have helped the progress of the human race, inventing everything from the concept of zero in mathematics to windmills. There's only one problem. While these claims would make good material for Scheherazade's tall tales, fact-wise — as this article from WikiIslam makes clear — they just aren't true.

ASSAD'S PROPAGANDA MACHINE TAKES A BIG HIT

by Pesach Benson

 This is a morality play of sorts. It chronicles what it takes to make a media person stop ignoring evil. It is the story of Ola Abbas, who saw the brutality of the Syrian government as it sought to stop the hemorrhaging of its authority as the Syrian rebels gained ground. She saw the secret police in action. She saw censorship of anything not promoting the Syrian president. She finally defected — the first. In her defense, she was right to be afraid. Maybe next someone will write why our esteemed Western media had for these many years cooed over Assad and his well-dressed wife. Who pulled their chain?

FAKED PHOTO? WHAT FAKED PHOTO?

by Yardan Frankl

Yarden Frankl describes how a photographer turned the scene of a poorly-attended demonstration against Israel into a compelling shot of Gaza children behind bars. He scrupulously captioned it as coming from an industrial area during a rally. The Independent (UK) newspaper used it with no caption to illustrate an inflammatory article on the treatment of Palestinian Arab minors detained for criminal activities in the Territories. There is an Editor's Addendum on the subject of the newspaper article: "a Report on Palestinian youngsters in the Territories detained in custody". In its own way, the Report is almost as misleading as the faked photo.

DOWN GOES CNN - WHO'S NEXT?

by Jack Engelhard

Jack Engelhard suggests that "[t]he colossus that was called mainstream news media, as in America-hating/Israel-bashing journalism, is being cut down to size. People are catching on to the deceptions that characterize most of our traditional news organizations..." He notes that CNN is way down and many other networks in America, England and Israel are being ridiculed for poor journalism. Things are better but there's still a long way to go: "...truthful journalism can succeed only if we demand nothing less."

BDS IN THE PEWS: EUROPEAN, US, AND CANADIAN GOVERNMENT FUNDING BEHIND ANTI-ISRAEL ACTIVISM IN MAINLINE CHURCHES

by NGO Monitor

Many anti-Israel boycotts, sanctions and divestiture (BSD) campaigns are carried out with the financial and advocacy support of mainline churches in the U.S. and Canada, which have for a decade openly involved themselves in a sustained effort to demonize Israel. What is most shocking is that "a number of European governments, plus the United States and Canada, provide funds for these church-based efforts to delegitimize Israel. These tax-payer funds are disbursed as grants to church-based humanitarian NGOs, which then transfer these funds to highly politicized pro-Palestinian NGOs." This article is an excellent summation of the support funneled to the Sabeel Ecumenical Liberation Theology Center and the Holy Land Trust (HLT). The World Council of Churches is a major supporter of the Sabeel Center, organizing activist groups and donating money. The Sabeel Center carries out a rage attack against Israel, using imagery in which the death of Jesus is emotionally manipulated to inflame the target audience against the Jews.

ATTACKING ISRAEL ONLINE

by Ben Cohen

 Ben Cohen writes of the material prosperity and impoverished souls of a bunch of Jewish bloggers and think-tankers who insist they have the proper view of the Middle East. In their two-dimensional imagery, Israel is ballooned out as mightier than the combined power of all the poor, put-upon Arabs, who are thus justified in whatever they do in their monomaniacal desire to destroy Israel. Many of these Jews have a novel way of inserting themselves into the picture. They see themselves as this generation's samizdat, dissidents willing to sacrifice themselves, intellectual suiciders, so to speak, verbal shields for non-Jews who otherwise might fear being labeled as antisemites. They see themselves as courageously battling a shadowy but persistent menace, the Israel lobby, that, of course, continues to invent dastardly plots to muzzle them. In reality, they have open and generous support from Zionist-hating organizations directly or from pass-through groups aligned with such organizations. They publish what they want with no fear and with wide distribution. They are derivatives of earlier generations but not from the one they claim. They are, instead, the full blooming of the negativity of early anti-Zionists, the Reform rabbis of the 1800s, and the nineteenth-century American Council for Judaism. Some of the present generation of Jewish Jew-Haters can hide their hate better than others, but in general, this generation of anti-Zionists use their Jewish intelligence to say polysyllablically what klutzy neo-nazi skin heads say more bluntly but with just as much fervor and hate.

THE HONORABLE THING TO DO

by Martin Sherman

 Martin Sherman makes the cogent point that the pursuit of the 2-state solution was an abysmal mistake that has given rise to almost intractable problems, has put Israeli citizens in easy range of Arab missiles, has jeopardized Israel's existence, and has put the possibility of peace at a distance further than ever before. It has also bewildered the two-staters because of the "refusal of reality to conform to their political prescription." He writes about two prominent two-staters: Simon Peres and Gershon Baskin. President Shimon Peres of course will be remembered as the Israeli version of Joe Biden. His inane utterances are the envy of many a comedian. Baskin's crowning achievement was participating in the negotiations that swapped a thousand terrorists, many of whom are recidivists, for the return of Gilad Schalit. He remains Optimist-in-Chief that peace is possible if only Israel ... He is currently begging Prez Obama to stop Israel from striking Iran lest it cause Iran to start a nuclear weapons program. Sherman suggests the two-staters do the honorable thing and retire from political life. I myself would prefer they took the Japanese way of atoning for their dreadful error.

A LOST OPPORTUNITY OF HISTORIC PROPORTIONS

by Daniel Mandel

The enormous Ottoman Empire collapsed when the Ottomans picked the wrong side in World War 1. Initially, there were to be two states, one region for the Jews which included the Gaza, Golan, Judea, Samaria, today's State of Israel and present-day Jordan. The other 99% of the enormous Ottoman holdings were to become a single Arab state. That soon went by the boards and the Arab area was carved into a group of states, some like Egypt with a long history and coherence, others created by drawing lines on the map of the Middle East. Daniel Mandel recounts some of the history of the British Mandate for Palestine, when Britain was granted the supervisory right by the League of Nations to help the Jews develop their homeland. The goal was a Jewish State, where everyone had civil and religious rights but only the Jews had political rights. The British failed miserably. They had much to contend with, including a recalcitrant group of Arabs that were accustomed to lording over docility-conditioned Christians and Jews. The British handled the situation badly, rewarding the Arabs for bad behavior and punishing the Jews for being cooperative. As Mandel writes, "The land once earmarked for the Jewish National Home, in which Jews were to reside by right, not on sufferance, and to which Britain, in the words of the Balfour Declaration, had pledged 'its best endeavors to facilitate,' had become a country in which Jews could neither freely settle, nor (after February 1940) freely purchase land," ensuring that the Jews remained a minority. When the Jews asserted themselves sufficiently, the British gave up control. The Jews then had only to win approval for Statehood from the U.N. countries and fight off an invasion by its Arab neighbors, and there it was: a sovereign state.

THE HEBRON MASSACRE IN PICTURES

By Lenny Ben-David

 The Library of Congress has a collection of pictures taken by photographers who lived in the "American Colony" in Jerusalem between 1881 and the 1940s. Lenny Ben-David presents some of the photographs on the massacre of Jewish families living in Hebron by their Arab neighbors in August 1929. Over the years, we have presented accounts of the Massacre (google hebron massacre under the banner on the home page). Aside from the similarity to current Arab attacks, this was an early example of how authorities react to Arab uprising. When the Arabs slaughtered Jews, the response of the then authorities, the British, was to remove the Jews from Hebron, not punish the Arabs. Why are Westerners so quick to cave to bald barbarism?

BANNING CIRCUMCISION IS DANGEROUS TO YOUR HEALTH

By Spengler

 We started with an examination of some legal requirements. An important issue but a mundane one. The intent was to throw cold water in the face of our complacency. Confronted with the fact that Resurgent Islam is actively engaged in establishing Sharia Law in the West, we have done everything except acknowledge that we must deal with Islamic aggression in a resolute, forthright and aggressive fashion. When told that someone on a high level in the Administration has family in leadership position in the Muslim Brotherhood, our congressmen and media respond that she's a nice person and pooh-pooh security considerations. How inane can one get! We end with a wonderful essay on godliness by Spengler, better known for hardheaded essays on economics and politics. Ponder this as you start preparations for reliving the agony of the destruction of the Temple and approaching the rejuvenation of the New Year.

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FOUNDING NATIONAL MYTHS: FABRICATING PALESTINIAN HISTORY

by David Bukay

  As David Bukay points out, "By appropriating to themselves the values, traditions, and historical facts that belong to the Jews, Palestinians have managed to fabricate a 'legitimate' history and political traditions out of nothing while denying those of Israel." Quite an achievement, particularly when so much of their version is absurd, using historic and geographic facts in a farcical fashion. For example, they claim with a straight face that Jesus the Jew — born well before Islam was invented and the Arabs invaded the area — was their first shahid (martyr). And make no mistake. They have convinced many purportedly educated and knowledgeable people that this is so. At least, their Western comrades, including churchmen, have raised no objections.

THE RHETORIC OF NONSENSE: FABRICATING PALESTINIAN HISTORY

By Alexander H. Joffe

  The Arab world insists that the history of ancient Israel and pre-Israel Canaan was the the history of the Palestinian Arabs and not of the Jews. Alex Joffe makes the important observation that this tells us much about how the Arab thinks as well as giving us "an insightful glimpse into the psyche of their willfully duped Western champions." He proceeds to explain that, in the context of Arab mentation and philosophy, what is important is the impact, however ridiculous the Arab assertions might be. It is something worse than a silly lie. It and the hoaxes such as the Jenin massacre and the lies protective of Islam are more ominous. They allow the Arab to acquire a virtual history more to his liking and in portraying the Jew as a modern upstart, brutal to boot, he assuages the guilt of Europeans who still feel complicit in the massacre of the Jews in World War II. Ignoring the absurdity, Europeans pay for conscience-assuagement by presenting the Arab as the innocent victim in a black and white morality play, wherein the Jew as white colonist treats the Arab as native brutally.

A CASE OF MYTH-TAKEN IDENTITY

Tabitha Korol

  Muslims haven't tried to change their barbaric ways. Instead, as Tabitha Korol writes, they have concealed them; whitewashed them; spoken bald-faced lies; intimated critics by yelling Islamophobia at any negative remark about Islam, no matter how accurate, no matter how mild; vandalized and destroyed religious emblems and places and renamed areas (calling Judea and Samaria the West Bank) in order to delegitimize their victims and deprive them of visual and verbal confirmation of their history. Like parasites they present other people's histories as theirs — which, I suppose, is understandable, given their own history. Korol presents some of their fantastic claims and refutes them with facts.

UNDERSTANDING EGYPT'S SEXUAL INTERCOURSE LAW

by James G. Zumwalt

  James Zumwalt writes that with women now holding less than 2 percent of seats in the Egyptian parliament and Islamists in power, it is likely that the status of women will take another long step backwards in conformity with Sharia law. Ignoring the possibility a women might seek divorce because of spousal abuse, "Islamists argue [that] increased family law rights for women have been responsible for rising divorce rates and the demise of family unity. Under Mubarak, women were allowed to divorce without the consent of their husbands and were granted limited child custody rights." The age of consent to marriage will likely drop from 18 to 14. And what is truly bizarre, a draft law would allow a husband to have intercourse with his dead wife. But it should not be too unsanitary. He is only allowed intercourse within the first 6 hours after her death. There! Doesn't that make it alright?

DANGEROUS ILLUSIONS ABOUT ISLAMISM

Robert R. Reilly

  Robert Reilly refutes a recent op-ed by Reuel Marc Gerecht that made the optimistic black is white argument that Muslim fundamentalists are critical to "the moral and political rejuvenation of their countries" because they will clean the countries of communist ideologies so that eventually the Arab countries will evolve into democracies, just as the Europeans went from theocracy to democracy. As Reilly points out, upheavals don't necessarily lead to improvement. Previous barbaric wars in Islam against non-Muslims and other Muslims tightened Sharia's grip. Not one produced democracy. Moreover, Gerecht ignores that freedom of conscience, a prerequisite for secularism, is absent in Islam. Reilly concludes that the trajectory of Arab governance is unlikely to be heading toward democracy.

IS THERE ANY VALID SPACE FOR JIHAD IN THE MODERN WORLD?

by Babu Suseelan

  Babu Suseelan asks rhetorically whether there is room for Jihad in our high-tech modern world. He argues that "[t]hroughout its history, everything Mohammedans have touched has been marred with lies, wars, tyranny, massacre, and terror. Islamic blind faiths and its cruel principles cooked up by Mohammad have violently destroyed our original ethical concepts, moral principles and social structures. In fact, Islam is not a religion, but a closed, rigid political dogma fit only for invasion, war, terrorism, plunder, sex perversion, looting, massacre, oppression, abduction, kidnapping, beheading, and cultural destruction The blind followers of Mohammad have successfully twisted empathy, love, harmony, coexistence, pluralism and religious tolerance into submission, hatred, Jihad War and murder." Quite an indictment. Unfortunately, it isn't hyperbole. Suseelan urges we take drastic action now to secure our future.

SWING LOW SWEET SHARIA

by Nidra Poller

  Nidra Poller examines the arbitrariness of the media's reactions in situations that are fairly similar. They insisted on interviewing Gilad Shalit while he was still in Hamas control but they didn't delay the release of the Arab terrorists by a minute. Consider their very different reactions to the killing of the Libyan Mouamar Gaddafi and the waging of the Iraq war. "The media hated the Iraq 'war.' They loved the Libyan 'liberation.'" So they showed no humanitarian horror at the huge number of collateral deaths and the destruction of property when Gaddafi was slaughtered. There was no talk of "disproportionate force." NATO could do no wrong — at least for a day. In Morocco, Islamists, now called Moderates, are suddenly acceptable, even though they can't be told apart from the bad Islamists of a year ago. So taken are the media with the illusion of a changing-for-the-better Middle East, they are incapable in seeing that the winner is inevitably sharia. They've even used their ability to make an event seem significant on Occupy Wall Street (OWS) and ignored the signs this street theatre is in part courtesy of those promoting Islamization of the Western world. As Poller writes, "[t]he unalterable goal of Islam is to impose sharia" and it never stops. But the media are too entranced by the Siren Song of the world they imagine is being birthed to care.

STUDYING ANTISEMITISM ON CAMPUS

by Phyllis Chesler

  Glossy Islamophilic programs are sprouting up all over the place. Because they are given on campus, they are often taken seriously, though few qualify as scholarly. Georgetown University, for example, has a cottage industry in publishing texts that airbrush the history and ideology of Islam; these fairy tales are sold to the public as authentic information. Jewish Studies programs, in contrast, are usually bolder and explore many aspects of Jewish history and ideology without fear of restriction. So what happens when unfettered scholarship steps on a Muslim toe? Phyllis Chesler writes about what happened at Yale, when its Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism and Policy (ISGAP) examined "Islamic Judeophobia and specifically ... Iranian genocidal Judeophobia." It took only a few complaints that ISGAP's research was racist for Yale to decided the subject threatened its "scholarly commitments" (read: who needs a bunch of Muslim kids rioting and oil sheiks withdrawing big-bucks funding?) and closed it down. As Chesler concludes, "Antisemtism is as virulent, threatening and genocidal as it has ever been and the need for a Charles Small and an organization like ISGAP, that is not afraid to seek the truth, is more pressing than it has ever been."

DR. JASSER'S PANGLOSSIAN KORANIC GLOSS

by Andrew G. Bostom

  There are many ex-Muslims who will critically assess Islam but a practicing Muslim willing to adapt his religion to conditions very different than the ones in which it was born is rare. Dr. Zuhdi Jasser, a physician and a pious Muslim, has declared himself to be such a person. In fact, he started an organization with the promising name of American Islamic Forum for Democracy. It has two important goals: (1) the separation of mosque and state; and (2) maintaining Islam as a religion, not a political ideology. He has recently written a book that Dr. Andrew Bostom examines in this essay. It is disappointing that Jasser asserts, contrary to fact, that the Koran doesn't encourage conversion to Islam, enforced or voluntary; that the Koran does not "sanction the jihad conquest of non-Muslims, including their subjugation and justified humiliation"; that the Koran does not "affirms Islam's triumphant supersessionism, vis a vis both Judaism and Christianity"; that the Koran doesn't encourage the elimination of other religions and their artifacts. If the assertions made by Dr. Jasser on the theory and practice of Islam were true, there would be no need for an organization whose preachings, if followed, would eliminate hostile and bloody Muslim attempts at takeovers of host countries. "No drastic reforms [would be] required of mainstream, institutional Islam."

THE BROTHERHOOD'S USEFUL IDIOTS

by Caroline B. Glick

  Caroline Glick provides us with a blow by blow description of the events in Egypt from the first hope-filled days when the populace led by idealistic secularists overthrew Hosni Mubarak's dictatorship. Her essay could almost be entitled: How the West was won. Except this is the Arab Middle East and — to get to the bottom line — the good guys lost. Instead, the Muslim Brotherhood (MB), has emerged as Egypt's dominant power, positioned so it will likely move the Army aside just as it ran circles around the heterogeneous groups who expected the fall of the dictatorship would automatically usher in a secular democracy. The idealists hoped and assumed; the MB had a goal: the formation of a rigidly islamic Egypt that is completely sharia-compliant. It planned realistically and implemented a series of actions designed to reach this goal. Glick isn't telling us a happy-ending Cinderella story but it is important we understand what happened and how it was that the MB, seemingly against the odds, raked in the chips. When things settle down, they will take on their next task: attacking and terrorizing Israel. They will have the use of sophisticated equipment, courtesy of the United States. They will have the services of a well-trained military, courtesy of the United States. They have the good wishes and financial support of President Obama, who sees them as a force for moderation. They will have no problem disregarding the much-praised peace treaty with Israel. It will become just another casualty of the Arab Spring.

THE MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD IN THE ARAB WORLD AND ISLAMIC COMMUNITIES IN WESTERN EUROPE

by Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center

  This is a general summary of what's happening — and what the Muslim Brotherhood (MB) is making happen — in a large chunk of the world. "It deals with the nature of the movement in each country, its relations with the various regimes and evaluates its chances of exploiting regional unrest to its own ends. It also examines the Muslim Brotherhood's branches in Western European countries and the implications of its activity for both internal European affairs and the Palestinian-Israeli conflict." ITIC's tone is moderate but you can figure out whether the MB is as moderate as the media proclaim it from small touches such as "In the Palestinian Authority Hamas, the Palestinian branch of the Muslim Brotherhood, ... in a series of violent military maneuvers it overthrew Fatah and the Palestinian Authority and took political and security control of the Gaza Strip." ITIC updates this summary from time to time and it makes an excellent reference to hold onto.

OSAMA BIN LADEN ON THE MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD

by Thomas Joscelyn

  For those of us accustomed to easily-defined separations in ideology and tactics between contending groups, the relationship of Al-Qaeda and the Muslim Brotherhood (MB) can be confusing. They are often at odds and hurling mutual insults, but they are fighting on the same side against the Syrian regime. This essay by Thomas Joscelyn clarifies some of the confusion. The main point to remember is, as Joscelyn writes, "[t]he disagreements between the Brotherhood and al Qaeda are largely tactical, not ideological or strategic." Practically speaking, it suggests they are willing to defer acting on their own differences until their mutual goals are reached. Nor matter how much Islam's apologists attempt to persuade us that the MB are moderate Islamists, Raymond Ibrahim's dictum remains valid: "Moderate Islamist is oxymoronic, since to be "Islamist," — to be a supporter of draconian Sharia — is by definition to be immoderate."

THE MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD IN AMERICA: A VIDEO COURSE

by Mark Tapson

  Mark Tapson discusses an important new resource to help us fight off Civilization Jihad — a term that describes the non-violent attacks on our civilization and our way of life. The Center for Security Policy (CSP) has developed a series of videos called "The Muslim Brotherhood in America" that details the activities of the MB infiltration and how this furthers their jihad against the West. It examines the infiltration of the Muslim Brotherhood (MB) and its spinoffs into our security and regulatory agencies, our military and counter-terrorism groups — and even into the White House, itself. As Tapson concludes, the course is "both an essential guide to comprehending the depth and breadth of the threat posed to America by the MB and a useful plan of action to counter that threat."

THE HORROR AND THE PITA

by Spengler

  Much of Egypt's population has little margin between minimal survival and actual starvation. So a rise in grain prices could push the country into chaos. In this essay, Spengler examines the role of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood, which, in these uncertain times, has increased instability by encouraging demonstrations against Saudia Arabia. This was biting the hand that previously had promised money to feed Egypt. The Brotherhood apparently believes it is better to have a economic crisis now while they can still place blame on the Egyptian military than later, when they themselves are fully in control. Spengler writes that "...Egypt is in a classic pre-revolutionary situation...with a vanguard party ready to dislodge a disintegrating civil society, and replace it with totalitarian party rule at street level. The Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt's largest political party, is poised to ride to power on the back of this crisis." Already it controls bread and fuel prices. Already people hoard; commodities are unavailable; and Egypt is running out of cash. An Israeli reader, Aryeh Zelasko, reminds us there is something like a silver lining, a tarnished silver lining, to these ominous clouds: "We [Israelis] are actually very fortunate to have enemies like this. Their hatred for us (and nearly everything else in the world) is so profound that they will even cut their own throat if the blood will annoy us. They are only months away from massive starvation and all they can concentrate on is whom to insult." Or it might be that the Brotherhood just didn't want to waste a good crisis, even a manufactured one.

EGYPT GAZA POWDERKEG

by Yaakov Lappin

  Yaakov Lappin writes about the future of Egypt's cold peace with Israel, which may be finished for several reasons. Since the Arab Spring with the regime change in Egypt and turbulence in Syria, terrorists — Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and al Qaeda-affiliated groups — have installed themselves in the Sinai Peninsula with large caches of munitions, weaponry and rockets and have started firing rockets into Israel. Egypt's army is more concerned about losing control of Cairo than the Sinai; it will confine its struggle with the Muslim Brotherhood (MB) to Cairo and Egypt's political institutions. The MB, which is beginning to show its power overtly and whose philosophy is to start wars and to attack in order to further Muslim dominance, will welcome a Hamas-Egypt alliance that boldly attacks Israel. After all, the MB fathered Hamas; they share the same ideology. And Hamas, now chased out of Syria, will have more elbow room in which to operate. This means that Israel will no longer confront terrorist attacks just from Gaza, but from Gaza and the Sinai, which are already linked via in-place tunnels. It is ironic that Israel gave up both Gaza and the Sinai unilaterally in the interests of peace and now will likely have a fierce fight to neutralize them.

IRAN AND OBAMA'S SYRIA HESITATION

by John Bolton

  In the arithmetic of the Middle East, an Israeli soldier who kills a single Arab child acting as a human shield for terrorists is committing a crime against humanity and the U.N. convenes its delegates who declare Israel must cease and desist entire operations. By the same math, an Arab country such as Syria may kill its rebellious citizens by the thousands and the same U.N. will spend months negotiating with Syria's king and never get much beyond a stern warning and a decision to reconvene. And Prez Obama, who had no problem killing off the Libyan king, Moammar Gaddafi, who didn't threaten our security, "seems paralyzed:... he is committed to a U.N. process almost certainly doomed to failure; and [more to the point]... he fears taking on the real nemesis in Syria, namely Iran's ayatollahs," who prop up the Assad regime. He doesn't seem to understand that diplomacy will never stop Iran. Iran is actively our enemy, determined to do us serious damage. Allowing her to acquire nuclear capability would have serious consequences locally in the Middle East and globally. Bolton concludes that "we may have to wait for a more resolute president," but events might not wait.

FORGET SYRIA — NEUTRALIZE IRAN

by David P. Goldman

  In Syria there are some players that care about Syria as Syria. They want to keep the regime. Or change the regime. But for most of the other combatants, the civil war in Syria is a proxy battleground where Sunnis and Shiites duke it out, where Russia shows muscle, where the Muslim Brotherhood tests out a takeover opportunity, where the American administration tries to stack the deck for the MB embedded among the rebels. David Goldman makes the rational suggestion that prolonging the conflict is useful in many way for the proxy players and interested onlookers, including us. And if, per chance, one wanted to deal with Syria, the way to do it is "to beat up the dog's owner, namely Tehran." As he points out, "Iran is the threat, not Syria. The scandal is that the administration has done nothing to neutralize the Iranian threat." How right he is.

WINDS OF WAR?

by David Meir-Levi

  David Meir-Levi has written a remarkable article exploring the possibility that Israel might soon need to fight a nine-front war, a war where all the barbaric nightmare monsters in the neighborhood gang up on Israel. As he suggests, "Israel now seems to be close to that situation." He looks at Iran, Hezbollah, the Sinai inhabited by various terror groups, Egypt, Hamas, Fatah and Syria. He is even willing to tackle a group many ignore: the Palestinian Arab citizens of Israel who are, for the most part, disloyal. And of course, there are the brain-washed Arabs in the Territories.

NEW BEGINNING

by Al Skudsi Bin Hookah

  The Middle East may be engulfed in chaos and strife. It may see populations massacred by their own leaders. It may be creating new refugees running for their lives. The governments taking over from the corrupt dictatorships are not what the West and many democrats in the Middle East were hoping to see. They are totalitarian and fundamentalist. But not everyone is upset by the new regimes. Hamas members such as al Skudsi Bin Hookah see this as an invigorating experience, a time of new beginnings and renewed energy to fulfil their mission: to smash anyone and any group of people that stand in the way of their recreating the Caliphate.

JEW-HATRED IN NORWAY

by Bruce Bawer

  Norway may be earning itself the title of most overtly anti-semitic country in Western Europe. Its leadership mouths platitudes about having "a zero-tolerance policy when it comes to bullying in schools" but ignores documented attacks on Jewish students. Instead, the politicians lash out at those, such as the Simon Wiesenthal Center, who complain. Bawer notes that "... while Norwegian officials ... are terrified of offending Muslims, they are not terribly worried about offending Jews." The situation is not improved by the unmitigated stupidity of the Wiesenthal Center in protesting against Islamophobia while ignoring that "a disproportionate number of anti-Semitic acts in Norway are committed by Muslims" who have been taught Jew-hate from childhood. The Center also has had nothing to say about how the reflexive solidarity of Norway's multicultural elite with the Muslims contributes to creating an antisemitic climate. This does not help encourage Norway to change its ways.

THE LAST DAYS OF JEWS IN THE ISLAMICIZED EUROPE

by Giulio Meotti

When the New York Trade Center and a chunk of the Pentagon were destroyed by a bunch of Muslim Arabs, the Muslim community in America was immediately given absolution. Their dancing in the streets and their joy at the destruction were ignored. We were immediately reassured that Islam was a religion of peace. People sheltered them, ran errands for them, invited them to kaffeeklatsches. They were not blamed for the evil done by their coreligionists. In Toulouse, France, recently a Muslim on a motorcycle slaughtered three people and injured many others at a Jewish school. The Muslims are sufficiently numerous there; they don't need protecting. They are increasingly in control of their environment. They can riot and disrupt at will. As Giulio Meotti points out, the Toulouse killing set off antisemitic incidents across France. You can't blame them on publicity in the media. The press has barely mentioned the spate of antisemitic incidents. Seventy years after the Holocaust, now fueled by the unabashed Jew hate of the immigrant Muslims, European antisemitism is again overt and virulent. And Jews are leaving.

GERMAN CARTOON RIOTS: CLUBS, BOTTLES AND STONES

by Soeren Kern

  Soeren Kern writes about another, more recent, incident where Muslims violently protested the public presentation of a cartoon of Muhammad. To sum it up: An anti-Salafist group in Bonn has rally, holding banners depicting Mohammad. Muslims riot and attack German police trying to separate the two sides. Police arrest many Muslims and then release most of them. German politicians talk a good line about the Salafists being anti-democratic, but in general, as Kern puts it, "German authorities have sought to silence the peaceful critics of multicultural policies that allow the Salafists — who say they are committed to imposing Islamic Sharia law throughout Europe — openly to preach violence and hate." One would almost think one was in Israel, where Jewish police almost always defend Arab thieves, vandals and attackers and blame their Jewish victims.

DON'T LET AMERICA IMITATE A BURNING EUROPEAN UNION

by Bruce Thornton

  There is the old fable about the boy sent to market. He brings back a dog in a brown paper bag and is lectured that he should have put the dog on a leash. The next errand is to bring back bread. He puts it on a leash and drags it along the dusty road. Told the bread should have been tucked in his hat, he comes home with melted butter the next errand. The point is that what is appropriate under previous circumstances may not be currently useful. Bruce Thornton writes of the inappropriate application of the evils of nationalism under Hitler to today's Europe. The politicians pump up the virtues of the European Union (EU), asserting "that supranational institutions and laws would replace the nation-state with its divisive particularities of custom, culture, religion, and language." No such parliament has yet done so, not the League of Nations, certainly not the U.N., and not the E.U. Nor will it, given the individuality of the member nationalities. The differences in attitude and work-ethic have become blatantly obvious in the current currency crisis. The Germans wouldn't bail out Greece unless Greece adopted an austere budget. The result has been greater disparity and little relief for Greece. While some cling to the "utopean dreams of absolute equality, prosperity for all, and a cost-free dolce vita", many have forsaken rosy platitudes and assert it is every country for itself. Thornton points out there is an important lesson here for us in America: "we should take warning and fight against those like Obama who see the EU as a model to follow."

THE DARK SIDE OF PARADISE

Fjordman

  [Note that this article was written in 2006. It holds true, except that, on the one hand, Muslims control more enclaves that exclude non-Muslims and, on the other hand, some right-wing politicians who have campaigned against Muslim immigration have actually been elected. These objectors to immigration are thoroughly reviled by the multiculturalists, who continue to dominate the government, the media and the cultural institutions. ]

Until around 1995, the Swedish population was ethnically homogeneous. They looked the same; they thought the same. They had a state envied for its generous benefits for the unemployed and underemployed. But as time went on and more Swedes were seduced away from their Protestant work ethic to a welfare mentality, the State began finding it difficult to sustain a social structure with more-outgo-than-income, and with a growing number of make-work rather than make-money jobs. Some politicos saw — and see — increased Muslim immigration as the solution, even though statistics would indicate this immigration has not contributed income. Instead, it "has greatly contributed to bringing the Swedish welfare state to the brink of bankruptcy." But instead of confronting the damage the massive Muslim immigration had done to the country — "rapidly declining social harmony and increasing insecurity" as well as a high number of robberies, rapes, attacks on Jews, vandalism, arson and increased welfare costs — debate has been almost entirely silenced. As a reader, Zerosumgame, put it, "The government and media are paralyzed by political correctness. So there is little to prevent the increasing influx of unassimilatable Muslim immigrants into Sweden-- as into all of Western Europe — from, as Fjordman writes, 'transforming the continent into a post-Western entity some call Eurabia.'"

MUSLIM VOTERS CHANGE EUROPE

by Soeren Kern

  There is a simple indicator of the power of the Muslims in Europe. The growing power of the Muslim population in western European countries was clearly seen in the recent French election. As Soeren Kern writes, "Muslims cast the deciding vote that thrust Hollande into the Elysée Palace... it is a preview of things to come." 93% of the votes of the resident 5-6 million Muslims who voted (1.7 million votes) went to Hollande. Muslims responded to Hollande's promise of amnesty to some 400,000 illegal Muslims. Muslim residents without French citizenship will be allowed to vote in the 2014 municipal elections. Moreover, the Socialists have promised them generous welfare benefits. Add to these tangible benefits, "[i]n the ideological sphere, Socialists and Muslims generally share a mutual antipathy for traditional Judeo-Christian values. Although many Muslims oppose the secular agenda of the Socialists, most Muslims wholeheartedly support Socialist multicultural dogma, which they are leveraging to promote the Islamization of Europe." Voting as a solid bloc — and they will — they will keep the Socialists in power indefinitely. Or at least, until they feel ready to take power directly.

IT IS TIME FOR THE EUROPEAN MULTICULTURALISM WORM TO TURN AT LAST

by Babs Barron

  Barbara Barron writes that since Geert Wilders won his case in court, the Dutch government has begun instituting measures that will resist Muslim immigrants taking advantage of the prevailing multicultural ideology to impose its particular lifestyle over Holland. But even if the measures to protect "the rights of all Dutch people against Islamic encroachment" succeed, "Europe and the rest of the non-Muslim world, ... [are] far too ready to cave in to Islam's exaggerated sense of entitlement, far too often underpinned by a subliminal (and sometimes explicit) sense of threat and menace if it does not get its own way." In England, France and cities in Sweden, Muslims infiltrate an area until they dominate it, then declare that it is exclusively for Muslims, no non-Muslims allowed. They continue to expand the enclave by harassing periphery non-Muslims to move out, enlarging the areas where the host Government has no control. "The rest of Europe, if not the world, needs to follow [Holland's] example and soon."

'HAARETZ' VERSUS THE JEWS

by Martin Sherman

  This is a call by Martin Sherman for the Zionist endeavor — the reclamation of the ancient Jewish homeland — to be allowed to prosper. This is a call for the voice of the majority of the Israelis to be heard and not be drowned out by, as Sherman puts it, "an insignificant minority view" of post-Zionists who dominate "the legal establishment, the media and much of academia." "Having eviscerated the Zionist political parties of any resolve and self-confidence, and emboldened by the reticent response of their adversaries, the post-Zionists have now set their sights on the symbols of Jewish sovereignty... the spiritual roots of the Zionist movement." Sherman takes the discourse away from the politically correct worry that a Jewish state complete with Jewish symbols and Jewish values might make its Arab citizens uncomfortable, possibly even humiliate them. Sherman points out that "Arabs in Israel who feel their national identity is incompatible with political realities and the conduct of public life have many options. Demanding that the victors relinquish their ethos to accommodate the defeated is not one." Fundimentally, this is a call for Jewish self-respect.

HOW TO WRITE ABOUT ISRAEL

by Daniel Greenfield

 Israel has been stabbed by the media so many times for so long and so unjustly, it reacts lethargically if at all. For the most part, it seems to have adopted a 'liars will always be with us' attitude — even when the stories the media distribute aren't just distorted but clearly indicate that the writers and photographers and editors and producers willingly participated in yet another Arab hoax and/or baseless attack on Israel. In this essay, Daniel Greenfield lays out the ideational props the Western reporters move around in different contortions when writing about Israel (the bad guys) and the Palestinian Arabs (white as the driven snow). He does so in a precise and bitterly calm way that is as convincing as it is disturbing. One would like to come up with counter examples. But it hard to do so. Reporters in Israel, whether Jew or Gentile, write as enemies of the State and its people. As for Muslim reporters, they don't even have to be in Israel to supply their readers with nonsensical falsehoods and downright hoaxes about the only place in the Middle East standing strong against the Islamacist's desire to establish a universal caliphate. The Muslims have a mission. What is puzzling is why the Jewish and Christian minions of the Western press act as dishonestly as they do.

BEFORE WE LOSE CONTROL

by Guy Bechor

  Guy Bechor writes of a new type of warfare. Africans have been swarming illegally into Israel, increasingly so as time goes bye, not as refugees — although they are so misrepresented — but as economic migrants, wishing to improve their lives. They are unlike the large number of well-behaved Filipinos, Thai, Sri Lankans and other guest workers who fit easily into Israeli society. Instead, like the Muslim immigrants in Europe, the African immigrants, mostly Muslim, are aggressive and confrontational. They invade public parks, harass women, expect free health care and automatic visas, disrupt neighborhoods, commit crimes and create public health problems. It is a sad fact that many NGOs and agencies who don't wish the Jewish state well encourage immigration while charging the government with racism in a well-funded effort to change the demographic balance and make Jews a minority in their own state. There is also the unpalatable fact that these migrants are themselves racist and hold women in low esteem. Bechor points out this influx is a problem that requires urgent attention before it, like America's problem with illegals from Mexico, becomes intractable.

There is an addendum: excerpts from an essay by Nurit Greenger, which fills in some details.

ISRAEL'S PEACE DISEASE

by Daniel Greenfield

  Daniel Greenfield writes of Israel's obsession with what is unlikely to materialize: peace with those committed to slaughtering them. Forsaking logic, forsaking reality, forsaking experience with the worth of an Arab promise, forsaking the knowledge that one can't make a binding contract with those who don't believe a contract is binding, feverishly, Israelis continue to pursue peace. "Israel doles out fortunes in money, land and power in exchange for the promise of peace and an end to the violence... tomorrow, always tomorrow." Peace recedes as they approach; irrationally, they — at least their leaders and the leftists — continue to pursue it. There is no way they can create peace — except the peace of death — and there is no way the Arabs will cooperate in a genuine peace. Israelis are so besotted, so hungry to invent rational excuses, they don't listen to themselves coldly cataloguing the facts. They listen to the siren song of the friends of the Arabs, goading them on to try harder, to fashion the mirage of a peace partner, to ignore reality, to blame themselves, to beg for peace. This doggish attitude — the more suicidal the plan, the more it is considered moral — is so ingrained that even when they are given solid evidence that the land is theirs and there is no reason to give it away, they prefer to stay in the comfort zone where they live happily ever after next to their wonderful neighbors, the terrorists of Hamas and Fatah and al-Quada and Islamic Jihad and so forth and so on.

STUPIDITY — ON STEROIDS

by Martin Sherman

  Martin Sherman asks why the land-for-peace formula is still proposed, given its "accumulation of past failures" and "the accumulating evidence of its future implausibility?" Devout two-staters attribute the lack of peace to every sort of reason and its opposite. For example, they now claim the unilateral Gaza withdrawal in 2005 was an abysmal failure because it wasn't "the product of a negotiation process — the acknowledged impossibility of which was presented as the need for unilateral measures in the first place." But as the 'let's try' wheel has rolled, leaving one peace formula and then another in the mud, Israel is again being encouraged to agree to all Palestinian demands pre-negotiation. This latest is frightening not just because its solemnly-phrased absurdity would lead to intractable problems for Israel and new Arab demands but because it was suggested by some Israelis in prominent positions. Sherman has a suggestion that might actually bring peace to the region: don't push out the Jews from Samaria and Judea; pay the Arabs to leave. By asserting its legal sovereignty over Samaria and Judea, Israel would prevent the area becoming a "giant South Lebanon" — a big step forward.

THE RULE OF LAW

by Paul Eidelberg

  In a real sense a run-away and unelected judiciary has usurped the power Israeli voters believe is invested in the Knesset. It has followed its own ideological interpretations of the Rule of Law. As Paul Eidelberg explains, this is fundamentally due to a lack of a Constitution. Israel doesn't have one. It relies on a set of Basic Laws, ad hoc implementations and the competence and basic decency of its elected officials. Eidelberg argues that what is needed is radical reform of Israel's entire system of governance. "Israel needs leaders committed to the reconstruction of the very foundations of the state, leaders armed with profound knowledge of institutions—the kind needed to make Israel a Jewish commonwealth capable of conquering her enemies." In part 2, Eidelberg provides a detailed example how reviving the Rule of Law would affect the prosecution of public officials on trial for criminal activity.

ISRAEL @ 100 — A LOOK AHEAD

by Brandon Marlon

  Brandon Marlon points out that modern Israel at 64 had done amazing things in developing ways to help mankind. But, naturally, there are areas that could stand improvement, ranging from customer service to electoral reform. He also suggests major changes in how Israel responds to her hostile neighbors. It is time that she asserted her sovereignty over Biblical Israel.

CAN LEFT-WING JOURNALISTS REALLY BE FAIR?

by Fjordman

  Fjordman disputes the oft-proclaimed assertion that left-wing journalists don't let their personal views influence how they report the news. Simultaneously, they believe that a right wing commentator can not be neutral. As a consequence, the reading public can not be blamed for thinking that mass murderers on the right acted upon the information they received from the right wing, but left wing mass murderers had personal motivations having nothing to do with their informational sources. Together with this self-deception, they imagine themselves saving the masses from the evils of right wing propaganda. It is not a recipe for providing the public with the information it needs to handle real-world crises.

'POLITICAL CORRECTNESS' IS TOTALITARIAN MIND CONTROL

by David Kupelian

  David Kupelian argues that far from being an instrument encouraging politeness, civility and sensitivity, political correctness is "an insidious frontal attack on common sense and conscience through language manipulation." As a case in point, the Islamic Jihad that declared war against the West using multiple means including mass terror attacks is called by the American government "man-made disasters, losing in the process all association with Islam, primitive barbarism and religious fanaticism." As Kupelian points out, "our civilization is literally being turned upside-down through the strategic redefinition (and therefore transformation) of our society's operating principles." He provides us with a selection of phrases whose new meaninglessness go far to proving his theme.

WHITEWASH OF SHARIA CLIMBS THE BESTSELLER LISTS

by Bruce Bawer

  Aided by enthusiastic reviews in the New York Times and other mainstream newspapers, yet another pretty fantasy about Sharia law has become a best seller. This one by Sadakat Kadri is awash in reverence about the Koran and that most perfect of men, Muhammad, and his purported conversations with Allah. The analytic level of the writing is captured in Kadri's summary: [Muhammad] "had more access to eternal wisdom than any other human being who had lived." What makes this article by Bruce Bawer so enlightening is that in this astringent critique of the Kadri book, he not only lets the gas out of Kadri's book, he also spells out some of the techniques employed by the fabulist writers on the Koran and Muhammed. May it inoculate you against the latest epidemic of sugar-coated propaganda about Islam.

MORE SHAMEFUL BBC PROPAGANDA AGAINST ISRAEL

by Robin Shepherd

  Robin Shepherd views BBC personnel as "overwhelmingly in thrall to an obsessive anti-Zionist bigotry which appears to know no bounds." Considering their treatment of Israel, that's actually rather mild. When it comes to Israel, one associates the BBC with the bludgeon, the machete, the hatchet. Allowing for differences in time and place, the BBC treats Israel — and increasingly, Jews — much as Mohammad's marauders treated their chosen victims. They have such blood-letting lust, they even will base a story (aka attack) on the pronouncements of Richard Falk, who, when it comes to Israel, incorporates in himself the viciousness distributed among multiple BBC minions. To really pin down Falk's credentials, allow me to point out he is Special Rapporteur on Palestinian human rights at the U.N. He is outrageously bigoted even for that organization. He condemns Israel's killing of a single Arab acting as a shield for a terrorist as a heinous crime, but is silent when Fatah kills its own citizens for selling property to Jews or when Hamas severely punishes its own people for deviating from the increasingly harsh superimposition of Sharia law. UN Watch described him well, saying "While [he] appears highly qualified and well versed in the language of human rights, the reality is that his twisted moral vision negates the basic principles of human rights, recasting tyrants, terrorists and teachers of hatred as heroic victims resisting colonialist oppression."

FDR USED THE JEWS

Rafael Medoff

  Rafael Medoff writes of the interview he had with Benzion Netanyahu in June 2009, who was in the U.S.A. during the 1940, actively working on gaining support to rescue the European Jews, who were being massacred by the Nazis and their cohorts. Netanyahu was asked about the attitudes and support — or non-support — of the then president, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, congressmen and leaders of major Jewish organizations. The interview reinforces what history in retrospect confirms: despite the adoration of the American Jews, "Roosevelt was only superficially sympathetic to the suffering of European Jewry." He had no interest in saving them from certain death. And too many Jews who had reached positions of power in the government and as leaders in the Jewish community did little to push the Administration to rescue the European Jews.

PASSENGERS ON A SHIP TURNED BACK FROM ITS JOURNEY: 64 YEARS LATER, EXODUS SURVIVORS MEET FOR LUNCH

Sherry Gavanditti

  In violation of their mandate to help the Jews develop their homeland, the British curtailed Jewish immigration to Palestine as much as they could during the 1930s and 1940s. Sherry Gavanditti writes of two Holocaust survivors who suffered through the evils perpetrated by Nazi Germany and then, together with the other 4500 Jews aboard the Exodus 1947, were subjected to gratuitous cruelty when the British refused to allow the passengers off the boat bringing them to Palestine. The passengers were returned to Europe, to Germany of all places. The two later fought in the Israeli War of Independence, when the newly-created State of Israel was invaded by its Arab neighbors. Gavanditti writes of the meeting of these two men some six decades later.

THE "IASI" POGROM: A SOLEMN JEWISH ANNIVERSARY

by Jerrold L. Sobel

  Jerrold Sobel has compiled a graphic image of what he accurately describes "as one of the all time most heinous pogroms ever to have befallen the Jewish people during their remarkable but often calamitous history." It occurred June 1941 in Romania, when the Jews "were isolated and differentiated by the Romanian authorities. To avoid the mobs, houses of Christians were marked with crosses, all Jews were forced to wear the Star of David on their clothing, Jewish men were forced to dig ditches in the Jewish cemetery, Jewish homes and shops were broken into and looted, Synagogues burned, random acts of violence against Jews in the streets were commonplace throughout the city." When the savagery subsided, between 280,00 to 380,000 Jews had been killed.

THE TRUTH ABOUT THE NAKBA

by Robert Werdine

  Robert Werdine writes about the attacks by the Arabs in the spring of 1948, even before the State of Israel was declared. The Jewish defenders of one of the settlements in the Etzion Bloc were overwhelmed, surrendered and were slaughtered while they satas prisoners. All the Jews living in Jerusalem's Old City who weren't killed were expelled, the houses and synagogues were deliberately destroyed, and the gravestones in the cemetery on the Mount of Olives broken and used as building material and stepping stones to the latrines. The object was to kill or expel the Jews, so that not one Jew remained. The object lesson was not lost on the Jews, who had little military material or training but understood their choice was to defend themselves or suffer annihilation. For those who know the realities of the Arab assault, the romanticized fantasy of the nakba, where innocent Arabs were thrust out into the world as refugees, loses much in the telling.

A DIFFERENT HISTORY OF DISPLACEMENT AND LOSS

by Matti Friedman

  When Israel became a State, its Arab neighbors invaded it; and in so doing created two sets of refugees. One set consisted of the Arabs who fled Israel as well as each and everyone of their children and their children's children and their children's children's children, plus anyone living in Arab countries with any sort of claim, however flimsy. After more than 60 years, few of the original group are left. But, unlike any other refugee group in the history of the world, their numbers continue to grow because the U.N. declared they are entitled their food, their education and their health care. It's the least it can do to console them for the unhappy fact that they weren't able to destroy Israel. The second group of refugees was created when state-sanctioned mobs in almost all the Arab countries, angry that a bunch of uppity Jews had dared to reclaim land the Arabs knew for sure belonged to them, attacked the Jewish residents. It didn't occur to the U.N. to help these refugees, even though many came of families that had been rooted in the region long before Muslim marauders invaded the Middle East. But then, it wasn't necessary. Israel took them in, and very soon, they were not longer refugees. They were Israeli citizens. Matti Friedman tells the story of some of the Jews living in Aleppo Syria, when Israel became a state.

TRUTH BE TOLD

by Amil Imani

  Amil Imani has written an excellent summary of the Islamic threat throughout the world: "Islamists are hell-bent on imposing their Stone-Age system on everyone." They consider it — including their master-slave model for a well-run society and their brutal tactics in achieving their goal — a religious duty, which rids them of guilt and hesitancy. "Islam, by the nature of its very doctrine, appeals to man's baser nature." This is so alien to other religions and to secular humanism, that there is a tendency to disbelieve the reality.

WHAT'S THAT ABOUT DAUGHTERS?

by Sarah Honig

 Sarah Honig states bluntly what many in the West would like to ignore: "Hamas anchors its Jew-revulsion in the Koran." As the Hamas Charter asserts, "there is no solution to the Palestinian problem except by Jihad." Nevertheless, no matter how openly Hamas states its intent, Westerners, with all the evidence against them, continue to act as if Hamas can be gentled, that we can all reason together, if we but make the effort — again. Honig suggests, using the Swiss as example, that either they "know what Hamas is but just [don't] really give a hoot" or ... "don't wish to burden their selective conscience with excess information — as per precedents from Third Reich days about other genocidal harangues"

HOLOCAUST SPEAKER TOO CONTROVERSIAL FOR PURDUE CALUMET?

by Arnold Ahlert

 Self-censorship is an excellent way to deny the threat of resurgent Islam. If we never get into a confrontational situation, we don't have to think about the consequences of standing up — or not standing up — for our way of life against a group that places no limitations on what it will do to win. One excellent indicator that self-censorship is at work is when Muslims object to the Holocaust being taught, and the school or local school board accede to their demand. Or often, they cut the course or lecture series when no one has yet complained, but they are aware that Muslims objected to it somewhere else. This has become commonplace in Europe, especially England. But it is still fairly new in this country. In this essay, Arnold Ahlert chronicles a recent example that occurred at Purdue University. What makes it particularly appalling is that Jewish Federation, a major Jewish organization, went along with the action.

THIS PASSOVER, FREE US FROM A FAILED JEWISH LEADERSHIP

by Stella Paul

 This being the season in which we celebrate the Passover and our deliverance from slavery into becoming a free people, we present Stella Paul's special prayer for deliverance from an American Jewish leadership which for many years has shown itself to be "A clueless bunch of mini-Pharaohs, strutting around proclaiming their moral superiority"... This being the season of the Passover, she frames her prayer in the format of dayena, "It would have been enough, O Lord." Actually, considering the tone of the essay, a better translation might be the Yiddish-English "genug, already." (Enough already!)

JIHADIST INFILTRATION — THEY ARE WINNING

by David Meir-Levi

 David Meir-Levi provides us with is a detailed summary of how far the Islamists have come in softening us up so that we won't resist their next phase of attack on western civilization. They have effectively used a variety of procedures from lawfare to terrorism. Almost unnoticed is "the quiet, gradual and peaceful infiltration of Muslim operatives and their supporters into our social, legal, educational and political systems under the guise of legitimate democratic activism..." What makes all of this so depressing is that like lobsters slowly subjected to increasing heat, we seem to adapt and remain quiescent. We show no alarm.

THE SPIRIT OF GEERT WILDERS

by Mark Steyn

 Mark Steyn tells us how important Geert Wilders is in the fight for all of us in the West to retain our freedom of speech and thought. Wilders was put on trial for committing the sin of describing Islam accurately in its own words. Unfortunately, in Europe, "[t]hose who seek to analyze Islam outside the very narrow bounds of Eutopian political discourse wind up either banned (Belgium's Vlaams Blok), forced into exile (Ayaan Hirsi Ali), or killed (Fortuyn, van Gogh)." "In 21st-century Amsterdam, you're free to smoke marijuana and pick out a half-naked sex partner from the front window of her shop. But you can be put on trial for holding the wrong opinion about a bloke who died in the seventh century." Fear of Islamic intolerant reactions to what they call Islamophobia — i.e., any criticism of Islam — has made European officialdom intolerant of those of their citizens who question Islam's assessment of itself.

AU REVOIR LES ENFANTS

by Bruce Bawer

 Bruce Bawer writes of the Obin study of the impact of Islam on the educational system published in France in 2005. It contains a litany of refusals by Muslim children to participate in anything or eat anything or accept anything or study anything at odds with their religion — this in a country that prides itself on its multicultural integration. Hand in hand with this, the Muslim children were thoroughly-indoctrinated Jew-haters. "Muslim students objected to anything having to do with Judaism. Holocaust denial was common." It noted that "...there is no school in France — not even a Jewish school! — where Jewish children are safe from the pernicious evil of Muslim Jew-hatred." If anything, the situation has worsened for Jews. France itself is unlikely to remain a democracy much longer, given that this Muslim population is rapidly increasing, they will not assimilate, and the French leadership shows no signs of takings measures to reverse the situation.

MAINSTREAM AMERICAN MUSLIM JURISTS' BLUEPRINT FOR UNDERMINING AMERICA'S LEGAL SYSTEM

by Andrew Bostom

 Whoever is blueprinting the takeover of the West by resurgent Islam must think it is a powerful tool to say exactly what Islam plans to accomplish. Andy Bostom recounts the dream of that patriotic American, Salah al-Sawy, who is willing to live briefly under American law until he has sufficient resources to change things to their proper state, where everyone lives under Allah, and Muslims are in control. Eventually, the Islamic Umma expects to "supercede Western conceptions of human rights as enunciated, for example, in the US Bill of Rights, and the UN's 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights." If they don't succeed, it won't be for want of trying. For "Muslims serving as judges in non-Muslim (including US) legal systems: It is permissible to work as a judge in an infidel nation or a nation which rules by infidel law, even if that leads to ruling by their law, if by so doing one is able to increase the good and decrease the bad as much as possible." As it is said, "he judges by the rulings of the Shari'a as much as possible, even if by a ruse." So now we know.

THE HISTORICAL REALITY OF THE MUSLIM CONQUESTS

by Raymond Ibrahim

 "Because it is now almost axiomatic for American school textbooks to whitewash all things Islamic", Raymond Ibrahim undertakes to gives us a more accurate picture of the Muslim Conquest of the vast land area from the Middle East and Spain to central Asia and India. The inhabitants were offered the usual Muslim choices: conversion, dhimmitude or a fight to the death. This is taught proudly in the Muslim world. But Western textbooks would have you believe the conquered people couldn't wait to accept Islam.

ONLY WORDS

by Edward Cline

 A major objective of resurgent Islam is to criminalize any criticism of Islam that any Muslim might object to. Their campaign has been sufficiently successful that we have become infected with the fear of saying anything that can be considered Hate-Islam-speech. It easily overrides our supposedly-irrevocable and guaranteed-by-the Constitution free speech. It has indeed become dangerous to verbalize a whimsical or logical train of thought that might be politically distasteful. Muslims that aren't too squeamish to decapitate a human apparently are too sensitive, too delicate, to be subjected to hurtful words. In this essay Edward Cline describes the stigmata of the disease with which we are afflicted. If virtue still has power, this essay will become a classic.

I'M BACK!

by Al Skudsi bin Hookah

  Mr. bin Hookah is foreign correspondent and roving reporter for The Gaza Gajeera. In this column, he recounts his experience as an unwilling resident in an Israeli jail these past few years.

THE MIDDLE EAST'S REAL APARTHEID

by Efraim Karsh

  Israel has been accused of killing a handful of human shields in 2009 in Gaza. Syria has in fact murdered some 12000 of its own citizens within the past year, including some 400 children that were jailed and tortured. Yet the Anti-apartheidniks rage against Israel and ignore Syria's barbaric behavior. Efraim Karsh points out in this essay that Syria's human rights record is not atypical. Apartheidism is endemic in the Arab states — as is religious intolerance, ethnic inequality, racism, gender discrimination, slavery and other practices that Western liberals condemn in theory but ignore when they are done by their proteges, the Muslims of the Middle East.

THE PALESTINIAN HUMAN RIGHTS NIGHTMARE

by P. David Hornik

 When a culture is built on aggression and conquest, it's not surprising that the same lack of respect for others spills over into family relations and clan interactions, where brutality is also the norm. David Hornik tackles an important subset: Arab on Arab violence. Ignoring the phenomenon allows Arab propagandists to balloon out grievances against Israel that are likely the expression of the resentment Arabs feel against Jews being in control, when in their perfect world, Jews — and everybody else — should be dhimmis. Given their religion-based culture of violence, as Hornik notes, "...the idea that upgrading the West Bank and Gaza to statehood would be a step toward peace, let alone democracy, is surely in need of a reality check."

PALESTINIAN SENTENCED TO DEATH FOR SELLING A HOME TO JEWS

by Daniel Halper

 In keeping with the discussions in the previous articles, a grave problem is that Palestinian Arabs are in danger from their own leaders, who consider it is a capital crime to sell property to a Jew. This has had consequences. Sales have been handled between Arab and Jew surreptitiously. They avoid filing papers and out of fear of their own leaders the Arab seller can't own up to the sale. Now the Israeli Supreme Court is jeopardizing the use of this outlet.

WHO MAKES THE LAW?

by Moshe Dann

 Moshe Dann writes of the highly discriminatory rulings against Jews in Israeli court cases when a Jew and an Arab have a property dispute, As he notes, "This ruling should send shivers down the spine of everyone who respects the rule of law. It means that Israel's Supreme Court has been compromised by a political agenda that discriminates against Jews. By abandoning the Ottoman rules, the High Court may well have undermined the rule of law, by changing the age-old principles of land occupancy in Judea and Samaria by sudden judicial fiat."

SEX AND SHARIA: MUSLIM WOMEN PUNISHED FOR FAILED MARRIAGES

by Charlotte Rachael Proudman

 A reader of the original article, Michelle Brooks, wrote: "I am always absolutely incredulous to find instances where British laws are broken over and over again without penalty ... Well done Charlotte Proudman for shedding more light on such a dark corner of our judicial system - and for those who will say that Sharia councils are not courts — we know! However, because thousands of vulnerable Muslim women don't know, these operations continue to bring in a steady flow of cash to a sinister bunch who have callous disregard for the welfare of women who are often sent back to their abusive husbands as they haven't been beaten enough to warrant a divorce."

ACID ATTACKS: JUST A CULTURE THING OR JUST ISLAMIC?

by Gadi Adelman

 As Gadi Adelman points out, acid attacks are not unique to Islam, but they are commonly used in the Islamic culture as punishment or retaliation. In Jewish law, 'an eye for an eye' became the foundation for tort law, where an equivalent monetary recompense was substituted for retaliation. In Islamic countries, one can find recent court decisions where someone found guilty of blinding another has his own eye removed. Acid attacks are commonly used against women and children by husbands and fathers angry that they are not obeyed; and these are seldom punished. I was going to say it was a dog's life for women in Islam, but that's not true. Women don't get eaten. They are just brutalized and regarded as inferior creatures.

FORCING WOMEN TO MARRY THEIR RAPISTS

by Arnold Ahlert

 Arnold Ahlert writes about a ruling under Sharia law that seems insane to Westerners. A young Muslim woman aged 16 was ordered by the court to marry the man who had raped her a year before. The important issue in that culture is not that a young girl suffered psychological and physical damage. What matters is that in losing her virginity before marriage, the victim causes her family to lose honor. So says Sharia. Since Sharia law blames the woman when there's a rape, the family often feels marriage to the rapist is the only way to restore the family's honor — it's that or killing the woman that was raped. In this case, after suffering several months of beatings after marriage, she committed suicide. There is a stark difference between Western and Islamic law and attitudes; and stories such as this one cut through the nonsense that "all cultures are equally viable," all ideologies equally acceptable.

WIFE BEATERS AND THEATER CRITICS IN BANGLADESH

by Mohshin Habib

 Not that long ago, Bangladesh, a Muslim country, was noted for being democratic, secular, tolerant and modern in outlook; the attitude was reinforced by its Constitution. But as in Turkey and in Egypt and Iran, the fundamentalists took over and the country has become conventionally Islamic. Mohshin Habib gives us a look at how the Muslim religion influences some every-day matters.

WHO ARE THE PALESTINIAN-ARABS?

by Ambassador (ret.) Yoram Ettinger

  Yoram Ettinger provides definitive information on the origin of the name and region called Palestine and the quite-separate origin of those we now call "Palestinians. The article is noteworthy for using population statistics from various sources. They make it clear, in the words of Dr. Carl Hermann Voss, that "[t]he Arab population of Palestine was small and limited until Jewish resettlement restored the barren lands and drew to it Arabs from neighboring countries." When England was given the League of Nations Mandate to help the Jews develop the area into a Jewish state, she called it Palestine. She betrayed her trust, splitting off the 78% of the territory that was on the east side of the Jordan river to and giving it to the Hashemites to administer, then encouraging Arab immigration into the remainder of the land while making difficulties for Jewish immigrants, "until Arab demography was sufficiently enhanced". Palestinian is a recent name intended to lend support for the false claim that these Arabs are a separate people. But thanks to the multiplicity of cultures, nationalities and races that never assimilated — the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica counted 51 — and the chronic internecine warfare of a volatile and ever changing population in the region, no nation or people had crystallized in all the years since the Arab conquest. Nor had the population increased significantly. "In 1554, there were 205,000 Moslems Christian and Jews in Palestine. In 1800, the total population was 275,000." Then the Jews came. And the Arab population figures increased steeply.

HOW MANY PALESTINIANS ARE THERE?

by David Ha'ivri

 The West invests so much media promotion, economic resources, and political capital on the Palestinian Arabs, one would suppose determining reliably how many Arabs actually live in the Territories would be a simple lookup. It isn't. David Ha'ivri lays out the problem and suggestions possible reasons why the data are sequestered. He refers to "reputable, independent studies" that use accurate statistics to estimate Arab population. We suggest googling articles by Yoram Ettinger on demographics to obtain these. To understand the implication of these data, we also include an article by Ettinger contrasting current fertility rates for Arabs and Jews in Israel and the Territories. Most surprising.

THE DEATH OF OSLO AND THE REBIRTH OF JORDAN-IS-PALESTINE

by Matthew Hausman

 Matthew Hausman elegantly demolishes the notion that the Oslo Process was a vehicle for peace, and suggests an alternative procedure — declaring Jordan, which already has a Palestinian Arab majority, as the Palestinian state.. He makes clear that the Jews have had a historic and religious attachment to their homeland for thousands of years and in point of fact never completely left it. The Palestinian Arabs, in contrast, "had no ancestral connection", nor were they a nation or a people. They were mostly immigrants from the neighboring countries, attracted by the economic opportunities created by the Jews and the British. That being the case, moving them to nearby Jordan does not sever them from their homeland. Just the opposite — it gives a motley group of Arabs, the local Arabs and for the millions living in the refugee camps in the various Arab countries, land that could become their homeland.

A VIABLE ALTERNATIVE FOR THE FUTURE OF ISRAEL

by Dr. Mordechai Kedar

 Dr. Kedar has written, "Tribalism, which may be understood as 'loyalty of individuals and groups to a traditional framework, such as a clan, sect, ethnic or religious subgroup', ... forms the basis of much of the social structure of the Arab and Islamic world. ... tribal or family alliances endure intact even after tribal territory has been incorporated into a state system." Building on this observation, Dr. Kedar suggests a novel suggestion for solving the Palestinian Arab problem and thus bringing peace and stability for at least a small part of the Middle East.

A FAULTY INTELLIGENCE REPORT LIVES ON

by Thomas Joscelyn

 Thomas Joscelyn writes that the 2007 NIE report was "flat wrong about Iran's covert work," in that it ignored Iran's ongoing work on "civilian" uranium conversion and enrichment. It did grave damage in that it supported the notion that Iran wasn't all that warlike in its nuclear ambitions, a conclusion many politicians and 'let's give negotiations and sanctions a chance' ideologues, including the present American administration, welcomed. When dealing with a group of fanatics who wasted some 100,000 to 500,000 of their own children, who were sent to blow-up land mines (and themselves), it would seem more intelligent to err on the side of suspicion of Iran's claims of innocence, particularly when it announces its intent to blow up Israel as soon as it has a bomb. Or maybe it will attack the USA directly. Or just cow its neighbors into political surrender. When the bomb goes off or is used as political blackmail, will Obama blame it on Bush?

THE IRANIAN DECISION ON THE PRODUCTION OF NUCLEAR WEAPONS

by Ephraim Asculai

 Ephraim Asculai provides the basic facts about Iran's ability to produce nuclear weaponry. We are certain of these facts or, at the very least, can make educated guesses about them. He concludes "Iran has the technical know-how and the facilities to enrich its LEU (3.5 and 20 percent uranium) to high enriched uranium (HEU) of about 90 percent enrichment." "the Iranians can, If the technicians receive the order to do so, quite quickly produce HEU for the first core of a nuclear explosive device."

Brett Stephens in a March 19, 2012 Wall Street Journal article entitled "The Bogus Iran Intelligence Debate" uses a less technical way to make the same point: given that the Iranians have the components, focusing on when they will be ready to produce bombs is bogus. He explains the actual core issue (no pun intended) this way: "You may not be able to divine whether a drinker, holding a bottle of Johnnie Walker in one hand and a glass tinkling with ice in the other, actually intends to pour himself a drink. And perhaps he doesn't. But the important thing, at least when it comes to intervention, is not to present him with the opportunity in the first place. [...] To have sufficient quantities of enriched uranium is, so to speak, the whiskey of a nuclear-weapons program. By contrast, 'weaponization'—the vessel into which you pour and through which you can deliver the enriched uranium cocktail—is merely the glass."

HEZBOLLAH DONORS, AGENTS OPERATING IN U.S.

by Alana Goodman

 Alana Goodman makes a chilling but compelling observation that pierces the unstated belief of many an antisemite that Iran might take over the Middle East, even blast Israel, but they won't attack America. Based on the fact that Hezbollah agents — tools of Iran — are in the USA and have a sufficient network of donors to be effective, she asks, "the argument from the appease-Iran crowd is so counter-intuitive. If there's broad concern about the threat of Hezbollah operatives in the U.S. now, why would we expect them to be less of a threat if they were backed by mullahs with nukes? Or are we just supposed to that pray Israel and our other allies don't do anything that might offend the regime once it obtains nuclear weapons, lest its Hezbollah allies retaliate against us domestically?"

CUT AND RUN REDUX

by Karen Mckay

 Karen McKay reminds us that we are repeating the cut and run tactics we used in Vietnam, instead of staying the course and fighting effectively the war that radical Islam is waging against us. We need also to understand that the Iraq War and the Afghanistan War are not separate wars; they are components of the global war Islam is waging around the world. As McKay writes, "We are at war with an implacable enemy who intends to cleanse the world of Jews and destroy Western civilization. Mealy-mouthed speeches, attempts to excuse or "understand" those who are dedicated to destroying us, and limp-wristed responses to threats—such as negotiations and feel-good sanctions--will doom us. Our enemies respect only strength, decisiveness and fearlessness."

LICENSE TO MURDER: THE ENDURING THREAT OF THE PROTOCOLS OF THE ELDERS OF ZION

by Alex Grobman

 Responding to a number of people have asked if they can use the introduction of his book License to Murder: The Enduring Threat of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, Dr. Alex Grobman had made it available. Here below is a copy. As Kenneth Bialkin, Chairman of the America-Israel Friendship League, puts it, "Dr. Alex Grobman seeks to explore how and why a vicious lie, a warrant for genocide, first written in the early 1900s, aided endemic antisemitism and then morphed into anti-Zionism.

WASH. POST'S PALESTINIAN PROPAGANDA FALSIFIES HISTORY AND THE BIBLE

by Leo Rennert

 One would think that the naming a square in memory of Dr. Dajani. "an Arab physician who treated both Arabs and Jews" before Israel became a state would be a heartwarming story. The Washington Post used it to vilify Israel, distort recent history and revise the Bible to suit Arab propaganda. As Leo Rennert writes, the Post's reporter, Joel Greenberg, "inject[ed] his piece with anti-Israel poison pills in an attempt to undermine the very legitimacy of Israel's nationhood." The Arab invasion of the new-born state is ignored and Israel is made to seem responsible for the Doctor's family leaving. "With Greenberg, the sad tale of the Dajani family is turned into Palestinian victimhood rather than the outcome of massive self-inflicted wounds by Arab leaders. The 1948 debacle was caused entirely by Arab rejectionism, not by Israel's creation." Rennert rightly concludes that its "journalistic selectivity ... tells worlds about the paper's anti-Israel, pro-Palestinian bias in its news columns."

EXPOSED: UN MEDIA OFFICIAL RESPONSIBLE FOR FALSE PHOTO TWEET

by Simon Plosker

 We are familiar with lone wolf terrorists, imbued with the peaceful messages of Islam, massacring non-Muslims with no visible instruction from a central planning group. Now we hear of lone-wolf propagandists, who, apparently independently, set up a well-structured hoax, when, usually, a successful hoax requires coordination, planning, money and authority. The al-Dura construction, for example, required one group of Arabs to distract the IDF while another crew faked the death of a 12-year old boy, Muhamad al-Dura. The cameraman, standing near the Arab snipers, reassured the network that the posed shot was of a 12-year old boy hiding behind his father, caught in the crossfire between the IDF and Palestinians. The boy's father told lies that were later discovered. The French network and its anchorman broadcast that the Jews had shot an innocent Arab child. This brilliant hoax fueled a global hatred of Israel, which was immediately condemned as the killer of innocent Arab children. Only later did it become known the Palestinians had shot at al-Dura, and, even now, few know the real story. Simon Plosker writes of this new twist on how to libel Jews.

LATHER, RINSE, AND REPEAT

by Mark Steyn

  There is one type of occasion that brings out a show of kindness and understanding in the media. When a Muslim slaughters an innocent, the press has a well-practiced, ritualistic procedure to wheedle us into believing the Muslim isn't a monster, just a good guy gone wrong because of social factors. He is another victim of society. If they had their druthers, they would keep it secret that the murderer was a Muslim. A man's religion is considered unimportant if he's a Muslim. Mark Steyn describes the steps in the procedure.

THE PLACE WHERE IT ALL BEGAN

by Dror Eydar

 On Mount Ebal, where the Jews entered the Land of Canaan some three thousand years, Adam Zertal, an archaeologist, has been excavating what likely is Joshua's Altar, the first altar built in the Promised Land for service to HaShem, in accordance with the instructions recorded in the Bible. Dror Eydar tells an exciting story on two levels. There is the awesome story the excavation is disclosing. The specific objects found, the evidence provided by the debris, the topology of the area — all these say that the rules for sacrifice and kashruth were in place at the beginning of Nationhood. The architecture of the altar, itself, amazingly enough, mirrors the structure of the altar of the Second Temple but precedes it by a thousand years. And there is the less salutory story — this is yet another example where new data are denigrated because they don't support the belief system of the establishment, the established religion in this case being the belief by establishment archaeologists that the Bible isn't history.

THE IRAQI JEWS — THE OLDEST DIASPORA, NOW SAFE IN ISRAEL

by Norman Berdichevsky

 Norman Berdichevsky writes of the history of the Iraqi Jews — the Babylonian Jews of ancient times — "Like the overwhelming majority of the large Jewish population of approximately 800,000 Jews living in the Middle East in 1948 outside of Palestine," they were "the casualties of modern Arab nationalism and religious extremism." "They are unequivocally the oldest diaspora community going back to the Babylonian captivity after the destruction of the Temple in 586 BCE. They can also claim to be the original Zionists, following the call of Ezra the Scribe to return to the land of their fathers in Judea." Berdichevsky describes their modern flight to Israel from persecution in Iraq and the period of adjustment in an Ashkenazi-dominated society. "It was particularly galling to the older generation that they "had been for many centuries the center of the Jewish world" and "in the course of just a few years [their dominance] was completely liquidated." But integration was helped by shared army experience and today Jews from the Arab countries are prominent in Israeli culture, in politics and in the military, while retaining their ancient traditions. As Berdichevsky observes, "Israelis have learned to live together and to rely less and less on simply being tagged with a label whether ethnic, racial or cultural." A fascinating story.

HEROES AND UNSUNG HEROES - THOSE WHO MOVED THE WORLD

by Victor Sharpe

 Victor Sharpe writes of two British men, both of whom loomed large in the days preceding the birth of Israel. T.E. Lawrence, better known as Lawrence of Arabia, helped defeat the Turkish army fighting the twilight battles of the Ottoman Empire. He was a proponent of Arab Revolt against the Ottoman, although, given the Arab performance — as in the taking of Beersheva — it would seem the Arabs were after loot not nationalism. Richard Meinertzhagen was not flamboyant, but he was an excellent tactician and "an avowed Christian supporter of Jewish and Zionist aspirations working for the reconstitution of a Jewish state within the ancient, ancestral and biblical homeland." Intertwined with the activities of these men to destroy Ottoman rule was the NILI, a group of young Jews who operated in Turkish territory and acted as dedicated spies for the English. Sharpe writes, "The conquest of El Arish, Gaza, Beersheba and finally Jerusalem would have been almost impossible without the massive amount of information provided by the NILI Jewish underground."

THE FIRST DAY

by Sarah Honig

 Sarah Honig writes of the events of the first full day after the modern state of Israel was declared at 4p.m., May the 14th, 1948, before the Sabbath began. The police, who just the day before were the Mandatory Police, charged their first thief — he had stolen a book. A ship from Europe docked, filled with Jews who just the day before were considered illegal, and the passengers, were now declared legal immigrants. But the new state did not even have that single day to be at peace as it began meeting the demands of sovereignty. Contrary to the myth that Israel was born because of Holocaust guilt, as Honig writes, "The 'Great Arab Revolt' of 1936-39 — fomented by the still-revered Haj Amin al-Husseini and financed by Nazi Germany — merely delayed Jewish independence." Now, the Arab League, "avidly pro-Nazi", declared war, and the armies of seven Arab states invaded Israel, determined to destroy the newborn, which had, thanks to England's collusion with the Arabs, only a meager amount of military armament and a population that was combat-unready. The Jews survived the onslaught and went on to build up an impressive country. The Arabs remain mired in misery, fixated on destroying the Jewish State.

VIETNAMESE BOAT PEOPLE IN THE PROMISED LAND

by Menucha Chana Levin

 When the U.S.A. abandoned Vietnam, for many of her Vietnamese allies "...hoping to escape Communist persecution and torture — there was no choice but to perilously attempt escape by sea." Many perished. Some came within sight of ships from different countries, which ignored their distress signals. One boat was lucky. The passengers were rescued by an Israeli vessel and eventually brought to Israel. 25 years have past. Menucha Chana Levin tells the story of the rescue and the aftermath.

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OF COURSE, THE PALESTINIANS ARE AN "INVENTED PEOPLE"

by Jerome S. Kaufman

 In this article, Jerry Kaufman sums up what Newt Gringrich said. In actuality, the Palestinians are a fake people. They had not developed into a people over the centuries. Those we called Palestinians have no identity distinct from the general Arab population. The 1911 edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica lists half a hundred groups living in Mandated Palestine — Beduins, Circassians, Jews, Christians, Arabs, etc. There was no group called Palestinian or one that called itself Palestinian. Michael Curtis of the BESA Center puts it this way:

"...no independent Palestinian state has ever existed, let alone one that manifested a "Palestinian identity."

"A few examples can illustrate this. The first Congress of Muslim-Christian Associations in the area met in February 1919 to consider the future of the territory formerly ruled by the Ottoman Empire, which dissolved after World War I. The Congress declared: "We consider Palestine as part of Arab Syria as it has never been separated from it at any time. We are connected with it by national, religious, linguistic, moral, economic, and geographical bonds." The celebrated scholar Philip Hitti, testifying before the Anglo-American Committee in 1946, stated there was no such thing as Palestine in history, "absolutely not." The United Nations Special Committee on Palestine (UNSCOP), in its September 3, 1947 report, remarked that Palestinian nationalism, as distinct from Arab nationalism, was a relatively new phenomenon. It concluded that Palestinian identity was part of a rich tapestry of identities, mostly predicated on Arab and Islamic solidarity.

"The Palestinians themselves reached the same conclusion. Palestinian spokesperson Ahmad Shuqeiri told the UN Security Council in 1956 that Palestine was nothing more than southern Syria. The head of the Military Operations Department of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), Zuheir Muhsein, declared on March 31, 1977, "Only for political reasons do we carefully underline our Palestinian identity. ...the existence of a separate Palestinian identity is there for tactical reasons." The PLO, in its own Charter or amended Basic Law (article 1), states that Palestine is part of the Arab nation. That "Arab nation" never included a state known as "Palestine." Indeed, the inhabitants of the general Palestinian area were not subjects of an Arab nation but of the Ottoman Empire, which ruled the area from 1516-1918. This was the last recognized sovereign power in the area. The area of Palestine was a district of the Empire, officially a vilayet (province), not a political entity. No independent Palestinian state has ever been established, nor was there a single administrative or cultural unit of Palestinians. Arabs in the area were not different in any way from other Arabs in the Middle East. Nor was Israel established on the ashes of any state other than the Ottoman Empire.

"On the other hand, a sovereign Jewish state existed prior to the rise of the Roman Empire. While the Romans destroyed the Second Temple, changed the name of the land to Syria Palestina, and banished the Jews from Jerusalem, this did not eradicate all Jewish presence in the area. Moreover, the Jews in the Diaspora maintained a strong consciousness of the historical connection of the Jewish people to Palestine — a connection that was acknowledged in the League of Nations mandate."

NEWT GINGRICH, THE MEDIA TAILORS AND THE PALESTINIAN PEOPLE

by Bernice Lipkin

Newt Gingrich said forthrightly that there was no such thing as a Palestinian people and they had never owned the land. Bernice Lipkin examines one aspect of the aftermath: the response of the media. In that most of the media have been more or less pro-Palestinian, one would expect they would be shocked and ask for proof. Instead the general response could be summed up as: we know but so what. Let's get on with the peace process. Now why is that?

WHY "INVENT" THE PALESTINIANS?

by Robert R. Reilly

Robert Reilly asks a critical question: why were the Palestinian people invented? The short answer is they serve as a political ploy, as visual aids to keep us focused on the unfairness of a nascent Israel surviving invasion by her neighbors. Their suffering becomes justification for the Arab doing any loathsome deed to drive the Jews out. The assertions that the Arabs Palestinians own the land, that they were driven from their homes, that they are Cinderella and Israel is cruel step-mother are latter-day accretions. The basic issue is that by the rules of Islamic theology, Jews have lost their right to the Holy Land, therefore they should not be a sovereign power. They should not.

THE RETURN OF THE PRODIGAL SON

by David Solway

  How do you return to what you hardly knew? David Solway recounts his all-of-a-sudden start of a journey to the religion of his birth, Judaism, when 9/11 shocked him out of the accretion of anti-Zionist hate propaganda that had coated him and cocooned him. He realized he had "acted out of mere rote behavior and fortuitous conjecture, out of an unexamined desire to think in accordance with the inferences and presuppositions of my friends and colleagues,..." He realized he'd made the Jew the repository of all he disliked; reacting against himself, he had expelled "himself from his own community." As he travels forward in time, he has shaken off opinions and attitudes he now sees as puerile and/or malignant. A fascinating odyssey.

LETS REFRAME THE ISRAEL DEBATE

by Lyn Julius

Lyn Julius writes that Israel's pointing out its significant contributions to the advancement of humanity "in technology, science, agriculture, ecology, immigrant absorption" doesn't rebut the negative opinion of Israel held by "grassroots" Europeans. To achieve that, Israel needs to "explode the misconception, commonly held on the Left, that Israel is an outpost of western colonialism and imperialism. Jews were indigenous to the region 1,000 years before the Islamic conquest" in the 7th Century. They lived everywhere in the Middle East without interruption for over two millenia world until the Arabs "ethnically cleansed" the Jews from their ancestral homes in 1948. More Jews than Arabs were made refugees when the Arabs invaded Israel in their attempt to nullify Israel's rebirth. "Jews 'stealing Arab land' is an offensive inversion of reality." Ironically, the Liberal's disregard of Jewish rights while supporting Muslim rights will have the effect of reinstating the Muslims as dominant and the Jews and Christians as inferior dhimmi — which was the relationship of the religious groups imposed by the Muslims when they conquered the Middle East.

THE HIGH PRICE OF TELLING THE TRUTH ABOUT ISLAM

by Eric Allen Bell

When this article appeared on Frontpage Magazine, the editor, Jamie Glazov, wrote that he'd invited the author, Eric Allen Bell, to tell his story. "Bell [is] a filmmaker who was recently banned from blogging at the Daily Kos because he wrote three articles that ran afoul of the mindset there, specifically naming 'Loonwatch.com' as a 'terrorist spin control network.'" It started innocently enough when Bell heard that the local folk in Murfreesboro Tennessee — where he was living — were attempting to deny Muslims the right to build a mosque. Anyone even vaguely aware of stealth jihad would know immediately that giving the few local Muslims a place to pray wasn't why the Muslims wanted to put up a huge mosque plonk in the heart of the Bible Belt. It was, in fact, a typical Muslim in-your-face challenge. It is putting up a command center. It is announcing that from now on the Muslims will be pushing for special privileges, intimidating the natives, restructuring the environment for their own convenience and expanding their control of the region. Bell had to find it out the hard way, from first seeing the drama simply as bigotry on the part of the Christians and then slowly discovering there was more to the story. Islam really does pose real life threats to our way of life. Their Koran-based attitude towards women, homosexuals, Jews and infidels — actually, to the entire non-Muslim world — simply can not be aligned with ours, no matter how glib the Muslim presentation, no matter how untrue the accusation that all critics are Islamophobic. Bell's simplistic view has crumpled. As he says, "I support human rights and oppose anything which I perceive to be in violation of human rights." It's been a painful journey, refusing the pablum and opting for strong meat. Discombobulating. And I doubt it is over.

THE RIGHTS OF THE JEWISH PEOPLE OVER THE LAND OF ISRAEL UNDER INTERNATIONAL LAW

by Howard Grief

Howard Grief sets forth the firm legal foundation of Israel being the exclusive owner of the land designated as Jewish by the League of Nations. The Land of Israel — current Israel, Samaria and Judea (aka West Bank), the Golan and Gaza — was given to the Jewish people as a perpetual trust and handed in that condition to the successor to the League of the Nations, the United Nations. This is a clear presentation of the documents that preceded the document of ownership and some of the history of the time. Any whittling away of this trust is illegal, whether it is attempted by a foreign country, the Israeli government or the U.N. itself. The question that remains is why have successive Israeli governments not asserted their claim. For that matter, why would a Jewish government allow control of the Temple Mount, its most holy site, by the Arabs?

WHY IS THE SAN REMO CONFERENCE SO IMPORTANT?

by Canadians for Israel's Legal Rights

This a sister paper to Howard Grief's article on the San Remo conference. It was produced by the Canadians for Israel's Legal Rights (CILF) and summarizes the pertinents points.

ANNEXATION WINS HANDS DOWN OVER A TWO-STATE SOLUTION

by Matthew H. Hausman

The case for annexing Samaria and Judea — the parts of the Land of Israel that Jordan grabbed as soon as Modern Israel was born — is brilliantly presented by Matthew Hausman. We have reached the point that Israel has this choice: "Either she can continue participating in a farcical 'peace process' that is heavily weighted against her national interests, or she can proactively seize the day and craft a solution that makes sense historically, geographically and legally." I can only add that in reading Hausman's essay I had this thought: when Israel regained control in 1967, she didn't annex Samaria and Judea, fearing the large number of resident Arabs that would be incorporated into Israel. Solving the problem by annexing the land and relocating the Arabs was rejected — it wouldn't be a nice thing to do. Consequently, Israel is now confronted with pressure to give the land to the Arabs, the Arabs they call Palestinian. And should that happen, Jews will not be allowed to live there. Jews will not be allowed in Biblical Israel or in parts of Jerusalem! The Jews living there now will be forced out and will become refugees in what is left of Israel. As they say, be kind to the cruel and you'll end up being cruel to the kind. Your own kind.

READY FOR STATEHOOD?

by David M. Weinberg

Are the Palestinian Arabs ready for statehood? David Weinberg points out they are on the dole and have almost no self-generated income. "Over the past 10 years, the Palestinians have received more than $25 billion in international assistance, and the PA itself pulled in more than $4 billion per year in 2009 and 2010." Yet "the PA has a billion dollar budget deficit." They squander water given them by Israel as if they were living in a rain forest and are polluting the common water supply by dumping their untreated waste. They have few organizational, administrative or governmental skills, nor are they eager to acquire them. They think in terms of death and destruction, not building and living in peace. Quel resumé!

A TALE OF PALESTINIAN NONSENSE

by Barry Shaw

Barry Shaw paints a picture of the Palestinians that is right on the mark: their illogic, their viciousness, their skill at becoming the world's pet victims. As Shaw writes: "They are trapped in their negative stew of victimhood and brutality. It finds expression in the nonsensical statements of people like Zahar, or those who accuse Israel of being an Apartheid state. Their nonsense, to them, makes sense. Sad tales have their impact. The emotional tale of victimhood is their power."

THE U.S. AND BIBLICAL ISRAEL

By Barbara Lerner

Barbara Lerner writes about the Muslim ambition to become top dog globally, with Islam the supreme religion and all other religions treated as inferior. Destroying Israel seems to be a necessary step. When invading Israel didn't work, Israel's Arab neighbors began waging a stealth war. Their weapons were oil money, taqqiya (creative lying, approved by the Koran, whereby a Muslim could do and say anything and not feel honor-bound to keep his word) and the newly-invented Palestinians would invert reality and become the quintessential victim. They are succeeding in discrediting Israel — which was out of its league at playing their propaganda game — and winning the overwhelming support of the Europeans. Lerner points out that our acceptance of Muslim's assertions and our denigration of our own Jewish and Christian Biblical values earn the West contempt and make the Muslims more confident they will win. "To change their minds, and our future, we need to reject the Palestinian Taqqiya and embrace Biblical Israel."

ENDING UNRWA AND ADVANCING PEACE

by Elliott Abrams

UNHCR, an agency of the United Nations, has helped millions of refugees since WW2 to find new homes in a timely fashion. Refugeehood isn't transferrable to the next generation. UNHRCR handles all refugees except the Arabs refugees, who have an agency, UNRWA, dedicated to them and their children and (great)grandchildren, with no termination point in sight. Unlike all other refugee groups, they have been preserved as refugees until they can return to their homes in Israel. UNRWA feeds them and provides them with education and medical services. It also allows them to be inculcated with hate toward Israel and trained as terrorists. Elliott Abrams makes the case that "Palestinian refugees should be handled by UNHCR with the intention of resettling them. That process should begin with a redefinition of who is a refugee entitled to benefits, so that benefits are based on need rather than on status." It would improve life for them. It might even improve the chances of peace in the Middle East. (For additional material on UNWRA and how it keeps the refugee problem from being resolved, see this.)

PALESTINE: WHAT SHERLOCK HOLMES WOULD SAY

By Martin Sherman

Martin Sherman has long suggested (See his article here.) that the best way to eliminate the Arab refugee problem is to eliminate UNRWA as an intermediary between the refugees and the outside world. He would provide "doweries" directly to individual Arab families to give them the means to find new homes in Arab countries or elsewhere. His latest articles on this are:
"Note to Newt I: Univenting Palestinians"
and "Note to Newt II: Rethinking"
The present essay answers concerns that have been raised and put the features of the plan in sharper relief.

TAWRIYA: NEW ISLAMIC DOCTRINE PERMITS 'CREATIVE LYING'

by Raymond Ibrahim

Raymond Ibrahim has previously written classic papers on taqiyya, the lying to the infidel that is permitted by Koranic law (e.g., see here). In this essay, he writes about tawriya, a Muslim "doctrine that allows lying in virtually all circumstances — including to fellow Muslims and by swearing to Allah — provided the liar is creative enough to articulate his deceit in a way that is true to him." It needs also to be differentiated from concept words that mean one thing in Arabic and another in English. For example, as Andrew McCarthy writes in his essay on the Moderate Muslim, "hurriya, Arabic for 'freedom,' connotes "perfect slavery" or absolute submission to Allah, very nearly the opposite of the Western concept."

THREE FUNDAMENTAL MISTAKES IN DEALING WITH ISLAM

by Daniel Greenfield

The Salafists are less well known than the Muslim Brotherhood,(MB) but share with them a mission to put Islam in control of the world. Roughly, the Salafists are more fundamentalist than the MB and less willing to cloak their ideology in a modern style in the political arena. They are more likely to speak openly of suppporting violent jihad. In this essay, Raymond Ibrahim writes about Sheikh al-Burhami, a Salafist leader who says clearly "that all notions of peace with non-Muslims are based on circumstance. When Muslims are weak, they should be peaceful; when strong, they should go on the offensive." The model for dealing with infidels is how Mohammad dealt with the Jews of Medina. Initially, when he was weak he spoke peace. When he was strong, he attacked them. Similarly, "Muslims may be tolerant of Egypt's Copts now, and not collect jizya and place them in dhimmitude, until they are more capable — just like Palestinians may make peace with Israel now, till they are more capable of waging an offensive." The Supremist goal in Islam doesn't change.

PREACH PEACE WHEN WEAK, WAGE WAR WHEN STRONG

by Raymond Ibrahim

The Salafists are less well known than the Muslim Brotherhood,(MB) but share with them a mission to put Islam in control of the world. Roughly, the Salafists are more fundamentalist than the MB and less willing to cloak their ideology in a modern style in the political arena. They are more likely to speak openly of suppporting violent jihad. In this essay, Raymond Ibrahim writes about Sheikh al-Burhami, a Salafist leader who says clearly "that all notions of peace with non-Muslims are based on circumstance. When Muslims are weak, they should be peaceful; when strong, they should go on the offensive." The model for dealing with infidels is how Mohammad dealt with the Jews of Medina. Initially, when he was weak he spoke peace. When he was strong, he attacked them. Similarly, "Muslims may be tolerant of Egypt's Copts now, and not collect jizya and place them in dhimmitude, until they are more capable — just like Palestinians may make peace with Israel now, till they are more capable of waging an offensive." The Supremist goal in Islam doesn't change.

INTRAMUSLIM CONFLICTS

by Ambassador (ret.) Yoram Ettinger

Gail Winston wrote about this article, "If the Western world could mentally and emotionally absorb the historical facts well catalogued by Yoram Ettinger, we might be able to understand why the Muslim world hates us in the West. Then, therefore, we might be able to live and thrive in our own countries by being strong enough to thwart the Muslim world's main goal and desire in their lives to create a Global Caliphate for and of Islam.

"They would require that we all follow their Shariah Law (strict Islam) or they would simply kill us. It says so very precisely in their Koran. Without this understanding of this basic bestial mode of death cult which they have literally "cultivated", we have little chance of surviving the storms caused by their conflicts which they intend to spread in order to conquer the Western way of life."

HAMAS AND THE WASHINGTON ESTABLISHMENT

by Caroline Glick

Speaking about the "Peace Process", Caroline Glick notes that in recent speeches by Gingrich and Perry, "the Republicans have generated ... useful contributions to America's collective understanding of current events in the Middle East." The Democratic Admistration, however, continues policies that are not responsive to the turbulent restructurings in that region. Iran continues to be run by an extremely repressive set of strict interpreters of Islam. And under P.M. Erdogan, Turkey is rapidly regressing to fundamentalist Islam, and the anti-Americanism typical of strongly-Muslim countries. Yet Obama's administration continues to support Turkey, which has an indirect alliance with Iran in mutual sponsorship of Hamas. In effect, Washington is acting as Hamas's protector. So Hamas is reinforced in its determination to destroy the Jewish state. The Administration also continues to maintain its support of Fatah, which more and more openly refuses to accept Israel's right to exist as a Jewish state. "Fatah has no reason to compromise since the US will blame Israel no matter what. And Israel has no reason to make concessions since the US will deem them insufficient." Glick concludes that "[f]or the US to secure its interests in the Middle East, it requires leaders who are willing to reassess what passes for common wisdom on both sides of the aisle."

THE SALAFIST TENDENCY

by J. Millard Burr

In January 2012, the Muslim Brotherhood won two fifth of the seat in the Egypt Parliamentary election. This surprised the believers in the advent of an Arab springtime of democracy. This also surprised the pessimists who knew the MB would eventually take over, but expected it to take longer. The biggest surprise was the strong showing by the Salafists, who are as — if not more — devoted to implementing Sharia in all aspects of civil and political life as the MB. Together, the MB and the Salafists now control the Lower House of Parliament, making the notion of a democratic Egypt an impossibility, while they will see to it that Egypt joins the number of Muslim countries hostile to the West and Israel. We've been fairly well-educated about the Muslim Brotherhood and how it intends to overturn the West and establish a Caliphate. The Salafists groups are less known. J. Millard Burr brings us up to snuff on the Salafist groups: who they are and what we can expect.

THE TERRORISTS IN EUROPE'S BACKYARD

By Avi Jorisch

Avi Jorisch writes about one of the smaller groups of loosely-affiliated terrorists that infest the Middle East and north Africa. The Salafist al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) is an affiliate of al Qaeda, and is primarily to be found in Algeria and Mauritania. Its particular goal is to overthrow the Algerian government, but it is expanding its aims as well as the territory it covers.

SUNNI VERSUS SHIA: THE MIDDLE EAST'S NEW STRATEGIC CONFLICT

By Barry Rubin

Barry Rubin lays the broad outlines of the Sunni and Shia conflict as it plays out in the various Arab states. As Rubin points out, the tension had been between religious states and more or less secular states. "Once there are Islamist regimes, theology becomes central again, as it was centuries ago." He points out the negative impact on the Palestinian Authority and predicts a possible alliance of Sunni states, independent of both Iran and Turkey.

What is to become of the Arab Spring towards democracy and a 'tolerate your neighbor' attitude? Rubin suspects "the hope for moderation is minimal. In a region when regimes and movements are competing to prove their militancy and loyalty to a radical interpretation of Islam, nobody is going to want to make peace with Israel." So what else is new?

THE POINT OF NO RETURN

by Mark Silverberg

With regard to Iran, "the only question is when can Iran produce a nuclear weapon, and the reality is, it is in a position to do so whenever it chooses." As Mark Silverberg notes, "... the policy of the Obama Administration continues to be based on the carrot and stick approach — diplomatic engagement with the mullahs coupled with international sanctions and the build-up of a large military and naval presence in and around the Persian Gulf all aimed at compelling the Iranians to abstain from building a nuclear weapon. ... "Israeli military strategists are concerned that the U.S. may be unwilling to undertake ... a [military] strike regardless of how many 'red lines' are crossed by Iran." Iran says it wants to destroy Israel. If Iran is bluffing, the bluff is not about using its bombs but what it targets first: the little Satan, Israel, or the Big Satan, the U.S.A. Even if Iran holds off on its genocidal intentions, it will have the means to control the Middle East. We may dismiss them as a bunch of religious fanatics, but Iran's leaders have a mission that they intend to fulfill, regardless of the cost in human lives, including the lives of a sizable part of Iran's citizenry. As Silverberg says, "We are confronted with a fanatical theological Islamist movement that will accept nothing less than the submission of Western civilization to Sharia law."

What is to become of the Arab Spring towards democracy and a 'tolerate your neighbor' attitude? Rubin suspects "the hope for moderation is minimal. In a region when regimes and movements are competing to prove their militancy and loyalty to a radical interpretation of Islam, nobody is going to want to make peace with Israel." So what else is new?

THE CASE FOR MILITARY ACTION AGAINST IRAN

by Bruce Thornton

Bruce Thornton notes that "Iran has been killing Americans for 30 years with impunity, from the 241 military personnel killed in Beirut by a suicide bomber, to the hundreds more soldiers murdered in Iraq and Afghanistan by Iranian proxy terrorist outfits trained and armed by Tehran." The American President's weak responses to her growing nuclear capability doesn't signal a change in American's policy of appeasement and weak or empty threats. Moreover, Iran is led by fanatical believers so that ordinary deterrence techniques are not effective. Like it or not, we need to accept that military "force is the 'strong magic' that compels fanatical believers to abandon their murderous ideologies or keep them within their own borders."

OBAMA MAKES THE CASE FOR AN ISRAELI STRIKE ON IRAN

by Caroline Glick

American spokespeople seem to believe it's a comfort for Israel to know that if Iran strikes, America will then strike Iran. Thatcartoon where the children are gathering sticks for a bonfire and reassure the girl that she can play Joan of Arc. American pyrotechnics after the fact of first strike would only add to the horror. In this essay, Caroline Glick makes clear that President Obama is unwilling to jeopardize his reelection whatever the future costs to Israel and to America. He has intimidated Israel, threatened her and spoken false reassurances to the assembled Jews and Christians at AIPAC. Israel with less resources must strike before Iran makes much more progress. Or sit and wait for whatever happens. America can afford to wait longer before acting. "When one recognizes Israel's short timeline for attacking, one realizes that when Obama demands that Israel give several more months for sanctions to work, what he is actually demanding is for Israel to place its survival in his hands." "Israel will be completely at h Brotherhood, Iran's proxy takeover of Lebanon and Iran's most effective gofer, the Syrian government, Obama "...has adopted policies and taken actions that have endangered Israel militarily on all fronts and in fundamental ways." Naturally, he'd expect Israel to take him on faith.

THE AMERICAN ADMINISTRATION'S RESPONSE TO IRAN'S NUCLEAR THREAT

by Bernice Lipkin

Let's suppose that America really does have a workable plan to stop Iran from becoming a nuclear power before it's too late. Suppose we muff the timing. Or suppose — as is more likely — we have no such plan but are hoping for the best. Bernice Lipkin pursues some of the possible scenarios that could be the consequences of ignoring the problem. And other implications.

ISRAEL'S OPTIONS AS MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD GAINS POWER

By Barry Rubin

The strife that was to usher in a flowering of democracy brought the Muslim Brotherhood (MB) into power "in Egypt, the Gaza Strip, Tunisia, and very probably Libya, where its branches will control the governments. In Jordan, the brotherhood leads the opposition; in Syria, it plays an important role in the revolutionary upheaval." The region is "now overwhelmingly controlled by radical Islamists." Despite the American President certifying to its moderation, the support of its members for violence, its open anti-Semitism and the speeches of this members say otherwise. Barry Rubin offers sensible suggestions on how Israel can best "respond to the brotherhood's new power and threat."

THE ISLAMIST PLAN FOR VICTORY: "GRADUALISM"

By Ryan Mauro

Ryan Mauro makes clear how misleading it is to assume that the Muslim Brotherhood (MB) is moderate because it is cautious, does long-term planning and constant re-assessment. Its single-minded mission is to reestablish Muslim dominance. If we don't understand this, it is not because the MB has kept it secret. It is us who are deaf, dumb and blind. They keep telling us. They call it gradualism. Of course, they also describe it as their form of "democracy" and "freedom," which, even their spokesmen admit, is a tad different than our concepts. In the West, to those who listen, it's better known as 'stealth jihad.' The basic MB strategy, called The Project, was discovered back in 1982 (See Poole, "The Muslim Brotherhood Project" here for a complete description of The Project.) The MB now has the White House reassuring us that the MB is moderate, but all objective signs suggest it would be injurious to our health to believe in the MB's good will.

GROVELING TO THE BROTHERHOOD

by Isi Leibler

How much plainer can it be said than how Isi Leibler phrases it: "What those attempting to embrace the Muslim Brotherhood fail to comprehend is that this organization represents one of the most fanatical and dangerous of the radical Islamist groups in the region, with a dark record of violence and terrorism imbedded in its DNA. It is rabidly anti-Western, anti-Christian and anti-Semitic, is committed to imposing sharia law and a global caliphate — and willing to employ any means to further its objectives." If this exaggerates, explain the pressures exerted against the West to accept Sharia law since 9/11. Explain the MB fronts that the MB has started. Consider its alliances with terrorists around the world. Explain the Muslim fingerprints that are everywhere: in insulting us by wanting to build a mosque where they destroyed our financial center; in infiltrating the FBI and Homeland Security and the White House, itself; in instructing our Military; in co-opting banks to make Sharia banking acceptable. Do you really think that the MB has abandoned its mission to conquer the West? Do you really think appeasement will stop them?

ISLAM IS ISLAM, AND THAT'S IT

The Arab Spring was not hijacked

by Andrew C. McCarthy

Some months ago, Andrew McCarthy wrote that he wasn't sure that was such a thing as a moderate Muslim, but he gave them the benefit of the doubt and wrote as if there were such an animal. Many of us essayists were doing the same. In this essay, he is no longer ambiguous. Nor can we be. A pious Muslim can not be moderate. He can not follow the dictates of the Koran — especially when they are backed and reiterated by respected Mullahs and Muslim theologicians — and at the same time agree that everyone can peaceably practice whatever religion to which he adheres.

PALESTINIAN MODERATES

by William Jackson Sullivan II

In the Hunting Of The Snark, Lewis Carroll wrote of the travails of a sea captain and his crew who hunted that hard-to-imagine and harder-to-capture beast, the Snark. In similar fashion, so many who purport to know the crags and crannies of the Middle Easterner's temperment believe there exists a subgenre of devout believers in the Koran who are pious yet who are 'just like us' — involved in normal hopes and ambitions for themselves and their family. Unfortunately as the contours become clearer, we are beginning accurately to define the Moderate Muslim. He is simply an impious Muslim See Here OR he is hibernating, easily incited to rioting and ravaging when his sheikh and/or mullah so commands. The captain discovered his "snark was a boojum", capable of making anyone who meets up with it "softly and suddenly vanish away." In this article, William Sullivan writes of two cases of Palestinian moderates who turned out to be boojums. Me thinks we best start reshaping our beamish response to sharia infiltration, lest we, like the unwary crew member, disappear into the maws of Middle East Islam.

(ADDENDUM: When I finished this introduction, somewhat uneasy that I had drifted too far from a peshat exegesis of Carroll's boojum, I googled snark boojun and to my delight chanced upon "The Snark was a Boojum" at http://jostamon.blogspot.com/2008/05/snark-was-boojum.html. Read it and enjoy.)

ARAB LIKE ME

Maybe, just maybe, Arabs can break out of their self-destructive hatred and envy.

By Lee Habeeb

What can one say about this essay except maybe "Wow!" We've learned much about different genres of Arab in the U.S.A.: Arabs who are called moderate because they are indifferent to Islam; quiet-appearing Arabs who are easily made rabid by their leaders; lone-wolf Arab terrorists; organized Arab terrorists; Arabs with grievances; Arabs who push the envelop for special privileges; fanatic Arabs dedicated to destroying American culture and taking over our country; and moles who pretend to believe in democracy but who are actually Muhammad groupies. This essay is by a most unusual Arab. Lee Habeeb is unusual because he is a very ordinary American. He comes with his own baggage and a family history partially rooted in Arab mores but his identity is American. He's another amalgam in the American melting pot of diverse cultures. He suggests an simple test for determining where an Arab's basic loyalty lies: how does he feel about Jews — the regular run-of-the-mill Jew? It doesn't count that he accepts the New York Times Jews who can justify any bad deed done by a minority, unless it was committed by a Jew. It is no test that he is friendly with the traitor Jews who loathe Israel because its very existence makes them aware of their identity problems. How does he feel about the ordinary Jew? And Israeli?

HARVARD'S ACADEMIC POGROM

by Steven Plaut

As Steven Plaut writes, "... in a few days it [Harvard] will be restoring a great Harvard tradition dating back to the 1930s: the tradition of hosting Nazis and violent anti-Semites on campus seeking the mass murder of Jews." The show will feature academics whose poorly-substantiated assertions (lies and Quasimodo-like distortions to us common folk) have been deservedly discredited. Unhappily for Harvard's reputation, Jew-hate rain dances are less acceptable than in the 1930's — and this despite the huge sums of money the Muslims has spent to create a climate where Jew-Hate can thrive.

HARVARD PROMOTES THE PALESTINIANS' SLOW-MOTION 'FINAL SOLUTION'

by Bruce Thornton

Bruce Thornton examines a basic tactic used to delegitimize Israel: the world is called on to help the poor Palestinian deprived of his land by the evil Jews. This inverts reality but it gets a good response, usually from the ignorant. Surprisingly, this theme will serve to structure a conference held at the Kennedy School at Harvard. The School is a feeder at the well-filled Saudi trough and apparently it takes its commitment to its patron seriously, seriously enough to ignore academic standards and a truthful exploration of the facts. The conference is billed as a look at Israel, Palestine and the One State. The thrust is to promote the One-State solution, which — when the spin slows down — will be seen to be an Arab state, with the Jews in dhimmi status — if they are allowed to remain, at all. As Thornton concludes, "The Kennedy School conference, then, is a propaganda exercise the effect of which is to further the Palestinian Arab "phases" strategy for destroying Israel."

POISON IVY LEAGUE

by Richard Baehr

Richard Baehr makes the point that the insidious anti-Israel poison coming from Harvard isn't unique. Unfortunately, Jew-hate in the form of anti-Israelism is showing up at many of the elite schools, to a greater or lesser degree. When asked why they allow these exercises in hate, the administrators at these schools fall back on the "free speech" defense, That would be fair, if it were applied in the same manner to all hate confabs. But it is hardly likely that "free speech" would be the important issue if the Klu Klux Klan wanted to hold a Day At The Racists.Or if a group of minorities held in fear and servitude in Muslim countries asked to have a Down with the Slave Masters powwow to examine conditions in Saudi Arabia. A cursory examination of the academics invited to speak at Harvard makes clear the organizers aren't aiming at a high level of academic quality. They just need to have the conference, so that later they can cite its findings as authority for anything they want believed by the hoi polloi. Do we really need to let this obscene show of hate run its course?

TAQIYYA FOR KIDS

By Janet Tassel

If you thought suggesting that academics have become fancy foot soldiers for introducing Sharia law into this country was over-the-hill alarmist, consider this consequence of various divisions of Harvard University working to convince the country that it isn't the Muslims who are the enemy, it's the Jooz. Janet Tassel presents anecdotes that reveal the pernicious connection between groups at Harvard who are exploiting Harvard's prestigious reputation to promote their political ideology and the Islamic propaganda being mouthed by duped school marms. That they are even able to get away with this: "Muslims from Europe were the first to sail across the Atlantic and land in the New World, starting in 889... [and that]West African Muslims had not only spread throughout South and Central America, but had also reached Canada, intermarrying with the Iroquois and Algonquin nations so that, much later, early English explorers were to meet Iroquois and Algonquin chiefs with names like Abdul-Rahim and Abdallah Ibn Malik." says much of the level of education and gullibility of our teachers. It is also important to note that the Harvard Administration has done zilch to stop this tripe being distributed in their name. What will it take to make them start saying, "I'm shocked. Shocked, I tell you."

ADOPTING PRO-SHARIA TEXTBOOKS: WHEN STATES SHOULD STEP IN.

by Alyssa Lappen

Alyssa Lappen provides us with a general survey of how Islam and sharia law are being taught in American schoolrooms. "In the last two decades, sanitized Islamic history and dogma [has] crept into broad use in U.S. public school books..." Fortunately, there has been some efforts at countering this misinformation. For example, a Texas Board of Education forced textbook publishers to rectify their half-truths and inaccurate portrayals of Islam. Lappen notes that "Islamic forces spent decades stealthily cultivating influence over our nation's public schools and curricula through 'minority' channels afforded by 'textbook adoption.' Other 'adoption state' authorities should perhaps now add teeth to their own Texas-like counter-efforts.'"

THE CHOSEN PEOPLE HAVE TO BE PERFECT: ANTI-SEMITISM IN THE PRESS IN HOLLAND

Yochanan Visser

This article was written by Yochanan Visser and discusses an article written by a Dutch reporter, Lisa van Heusden, who was living in Israel during her pregnancy. Laura, who sent in this article, is obviously indignant about a mother who complained because she received excellent pre-natal care in Israel. Laura writes:

"This is unbelievable. So Israel's committment to providing the best medical care possible is spun to be some nazi-like desire to produce a master race. What's wrong with these people? Instead of this woman being grateful for the high quality prenatal care she received in Israel and writing a positive article about it, this is the sick way she twists her experience. Whatever Israel does is spun by the media to be something sinister. If it helps earthquake victims in Haiti, Israel is accused of stealing organs. If it provides high quality prenatal care for its citizens, it is attacked for wanting perfection for the chosen people rather than being seen as an example of a modern, progressive society. And "critics" of Israel feign surprise when they are accused of antisemitism, yet we are constantly bombarded by hostile, ugly trash about Israel such as this."

It does seem incredible that a mother — especially one with a viral infection that can interfere with the development of a healthy baby — wouldn't be grateful her child was born healthy. Instead, she complained her baby was born perfect, when he could have had problems from the virus she carried. She was delighted that her son was born with a toe that was too small. As she put it "His personal revenge on the Israeli health system." The mother is a media person. So it must be hard for her to break old habits. She's learned how to make Israel look bad no matter what the circumstances.

Until Lisa came along, there was an iconic joke that best described Israel's always receiving bad press. The joke goes like this:

An Israeli is on vacation and is visiting a zoo in England when he sees a little girl leaning on the lion's cage. Suddenly, the lion grabs her by the cuff of her jacket and tries to pull her inside to slaughter her, under the eyes of her screaming parents.

The Israeli runs to the cage and hits the lion square on the nose with a powerful punch.

Whimpering from the pain the lion jumps back letting go of the girl, and the Israeli brings her to her terrified parents, who thank him endlessly.

A reporter has watched the whole event. The reporter says to the Israeli: 'Sir, this was the most gallant and brave thing I've seen a man do in my whole life.'

The Israeli replies, 'Why, it was nothing, really. The lion was behind bars.

I just saw this little kid in danger and acted as I felt right.'

The reporter says, 'Well, I'll make sure this won't go unnoticed. I'm a journalist, and tomorrow's paper will have this story on the front page. So, what do you do for a living and what political affiliation do you have?'

The Israeli replies, "I serve in the Israeli army and I vote for the Likud."

The journalist leaves.

The following morning the Israeli buys the paper to see news of his actions,and reads, on the front page:

RIGHT-WING ISRAELI ASSAULTS AFRICAN IMMIGRANT AND STEALS HIS LUNCH

I have to admit, Lisa's take on Israel wins by a mile.

IS THE NEW YORK TIMES'S AGENDA TO NORMALIZE ISLAM IN THE WEST?

by Phyllis Chesler

As Phyllis Chesler writes, "On a single day, the New York Times has been known to publish anywhere from two to six anti-Israel articles, editorials, op-ed pieces, and letters. Today, I see a new danger arising in their pages... After spending a year proclaiming the triumph of democracy and the miracle of the Arab Spring and, as PM Netanyahu has just noted, refusing to document the existential danger in which Israel finds herself, the Newspaper of Record has now begun the process of normalizing Islam in North America and Europe. Its pro-Muslim "multicultural" agenda is, paradoxically, another form of racism." What can account for their obsessive concern with the protecting rights for Muslim religion. Perhaps the answer is: cherchez la moneé.

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WEIRDEST CORRECTION OF THE DAY

by John Hinderaker

This essay by John Hinderker makes an astute observation about a New York Times practice. It also provides us with yet another indicator to alert us that the Gray Lady speaketh false and/or ignores truth.

HANNAH ARENDT AND THE ORIGINS OF ISRAELOPHOBIA

Sol Stern January 16, 2012

This is an impressive exploration by Sol Stern of the character and ideology of Hannah Arendt, perhaps best known for her exclaiming how banal evil was, when she saw the very ordinary looking Adolf Eichmann, who was responsible for the killing of thousands of Jews. She was raised as an assimilated German Jew and socialist. After the Nazis rose to power, she became a Zionist. Fleeing to the USA, she still considered herself a Zionist but was soon attacking outstanding heros such as Vladimir Jabotinsky, Peter Bergson and Ben Hecht, calling them fascists and charlatans. They saw clearly the coming Holocaust and were desperately trying to save the European Jews. She didn't help in the rescue effort. Stalin was her hero. She abhorred the idea of an independent Jewish state in Palestine and urged the Jews to establish a binational state controlled by the Arabs, ignoring that the Arabs wanted none of it. In sum, she behaved as a Marxist and a dhimmi, blaming the Jew for the Arab's recalcitrance. She became a confirmed anti-Zionist, supplying many of the criticisms that would become standard accusations for the next generations of Jewish haters of the Jewish state.

THE JEW FLU: THE STRANGE ILLNESS OF JEWISH ANTI-SEMITISM

By Uzi Silber

Uzi Silber describes Jewish self-hatred as Jewish flu, implying it is so varied and involves so many germ types, it is impossible to wipe out entirely. But it can be kept as a low level. Currently, "its modern symptoms are a rejection of Israel's identity as a Jewish state and a dismissal of its right to defend itself militarily, while embracing the goals of its nihilistic Arab enemies." Its adherents, both on the Left and on the Right, broadcast their anti-Jewish messages openly. Read a 'blame the Jews' article which ignores appalling behavior by Arabs, and you can be sure you'd nailed another victim of the Jew Flu.

BE YE THE ENEMY'S FOOL?

Paul Lademain, January 14, 2012.

Here be words of wisdom on how to designate areas, places and people, when labels are sensitized political statements. Paul Lademain provides us with simple rules that allow us to fight Israel's fight when we speak of events in the Middle East. Lademain's instructions have the added bonus that we will be speaking accurately and won't have adopted the meretricious language used by Israel's enemies. You will find ways to add to the list. I, for one, was alerted when a well-meaning supposed advocate for Israel said, "He is a Hamas activist." I corrected him, pointing out that the correct term is Hamas terrorist. As Lademain says, "Be ye not fools, O Israel." Master his examples. You'll be surprised how soon they become automatic, and other people repeat your language choices.

LOSING THE WAR OF IDEAS DUE TO INCOMPETENCE

by Isi Leibler

Isi Leibler presents another horror story about Israel's incompetence in presenting its case. What is there about the management of ideas that attracts those least able to produce information in a timely and understandable fashion? If only Israel's information officers could handle truthful information as adeptly as the Arabs and their buddies manipulate lies! When they eventually do get around to responding, it's We did not or We did, too. How about going on the offense? It's still the best defense. We understand that the brainy guys are busy elsewhere, but can't they filter the bottom layer a bit better? And oh yes, for the sake of accuracy, stones in this article should be changed to rocks or sharpened stones, depending on which was used — Arab children are well-versed in a variety of weapons.

HOW CAN WE HELP WIN THE INFORMATION WAR?

by David Ha'ivri

David Ha'ivri writes in particular about distributing information about the Jewish citizens who live in Biblical Israel. But his advise is of general value to improve Israel's ability to communicate. As he says, "The problem is mainly that Israel's advocates are not addressing the particular issues for which Israel is under attack. By avoiding and not responding to the accusatory claims, it appears that Israel doesn't have a good answer." The comments in the original Ynet article serendipitously illustrate how to provide right answers. Someone pushes the incorrect but frequently-used "Israel is violating international law in occupying the West Bank." Knowledgeable readers respond appropriately. New points are raised and answered. A reader, "Gee" from Zikron Yaakov, puts Israel's ownership of Samaria and Judea succinctly this way:

"First under international law for it to be 'occupied' it needs to meet two conditions. The 'occupier' has to not have a legal claim to the land. The second part is the people claim need to have said legal claim.

Gaza, Judea and Samaria meet neither condition. Our claim to the land is enshrined in the UN Charter and the Covenant of the League of Nations - so we do have legal claim to the land. Whoops that means that it ain't 'occupied' by us.

Then there is the little fact that the Arabs do not have any legal claim to the land. Nobody on this planet has managed to date to produce said legal claim. So the Arabs are the illegal 'occupiers' of our lands, not the other way around. So much for the claim of international law."

THE PERSIAN CONQUEST OF JERUSALEM

by Frank Meir Loewenberg

Frank Loewenberg writes of a little known story — the conquest of Jerusalem by the Persian King Khosrau II in 614 C.E., with thousands of Jewish soldiers as part of his army. At the time, Jerusalem was the capital of the province of Palaestina Prima of the Byzantine Roman Empire, and its Jewish and Christian subjects were "the victims of heavy taxes, confiscation of property and even forced conversions." When Persia began its rule in Jerusalem, sacrificial service on the Temple Mount was reestablished and Nehemiah ben Hushiel became Jewish governor of Jerusalem. But some three years later, Nehemiah was removed from office and Jews were banned from the city. By 628 C.E., the Byzantine Emperor had regained his lost provinces of Syria, Egypt and Palestine and the Jews of Jerusalem were massacred. A decade later, the Muslims invaded. And began another chapter in Jerusalem's history.

TOBRUK...THE STORY YOU DON'T KNOW

By Jerry Klinger

In the second World War, the German General Rommel was winning the War in the Middle East. He was stopped at Tobruk in Libya by a delaying action that gave the British Army time to revamp and re-equip, so that it was able later to win at El Alamein, which was "the beginning of the end for the Germans and their Italian allies in North Africa." As Jerry Klinger writes, a chief factor in holding the Germans from moving forward at Tobruk was the incredible fighting by the outnumbered soldiers of the Palestine Brigade, a group of some 400 Jews, "a battalion of mine layers, poorly armed and provisioned, without heavy weapons, or anti-aircraft equipment but with a grim, teeth clenched determination." They withstood the continous attacks by the Germans and in the end, battered and reduced to a quarter of their original number, they were victorious.

THE REHABILITATION OF AN UNDERGROUND REVOLUTIONARY

By Mitch Ginsburg

Avraham 'Ya'ir' Stern was a most unusual terrorist. He was a poet, knowledgeable in Torah and a student of classic Greek and Latin. In the 1930s, he had persuaded the Polish government to help train Jews to wrench Palestine from the control of the British colonial government, but this ended when Poland was invaded by the Germans. He was a man desperate to save European Jewry in spite of the English Government's refusal to let more than a few Jews immigrate to Palestine. (It is bitter ironic that the British were in Palestine because they had been entrusted by the League of Nations to help the Jews create a homeland.) On February 12, 1942, he was caught by the English and shot dead when found. During his life as commander of the Lehi, he was revered by a few and "widely detested by the majority of Jews in Palestine." As the years have passed, more and more people have come to his memorial service. Mitch Ginsburg describes Stern's 'rehabilitation.'

See also the video "Teaching the Legacy of Yair Stern" at
http://newsblaze.com/story/ 20120214084732nurg.nb/topstory.html

SYRIAN RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE SABRA AND CHATILA MASSACRES

by Dr. Franck Salameh

In September 1982, Arabs living in the Sabra and Shatila Palestinian Arab refugee camps in Lebanon were massacred. The Lebanese Forces (LF), a Christian militia, was said to have avenged the assassination by the Muslim Lebanese of the Christian Lebanese leader, Bashir Gemayel. The LF and Israel were allies. In the aftermath of the massacre, much of the blame was levied on Israel, which was accused of not having the foresight to realize that allowing the LF to enter the camp hunting for terrorists hiding there would lead to a massacre. The massacre put an end to the possibility of reconciliation between the Lebanese Muslims and Christians. Franck Salameh suggests that Syria had most to gain from the massacre. "[I]t scuttled the prospects of peace with Israel, it extended the Lebanese war for another decade, it maintained Syria's occupation of the country for another twenty-three years, it tightened its grip over the functioning of the Lebanese state, it continued using Lebanon as a launching pad for Syria's regional settling of scores, and it provided the Alawites with a bottomless private piggy-bank bankrolling their wars-by-proxy."

  This is where our readers get a chance to write opinions and editorials and share articles they find informative. The Blog-Eds page for the month is updated every few days.

There is a separate file that is the index for the articles on the Blog-Ed page. You can access an article immediately from this index by clicking on the item in the index.

To access the Index, click the "Blog-Eds List" box in the Blue Strip on the top of the Blog-Ed page.

January 2012 BLOG-EDS READ MORE
February 2012 BLOG-EDS    READ MORE