THINK-ISRAEL features essays and commentaries that provide context for current events in Israel. The war Islam is waging against Israel and the West is top priority. We report on global anti-Semitism, Islamism and creeping Sharia.We aim to make sense of what's going on.
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We are told that there is a difference between extremist Islam and
peaceloving normal Islam.
Judging by their behavior, Muslims are anti-West, anti-Democracy, anti-Christian, anti-Jewish, anti-Buddhist, and anti-Hindu. Muslims are involved in 25 of some 30 conflicts going on in the world: in Afghanistan, Algeria, Bangladesh, Bosnia, Congo, Cote d'Ivoire, Cyprus, East Timor, India, Indonesia (2 provinces), Kashmir, Kazakastan, Kosovo, Kurdistan, Macedonia, the Middle East, Nigeria, Pakistan, Philippines, Somalia, Sudan, Russia-Chechnya, Tajikistan, Thailand, Uganda and Uzbekistan. Doesn't this mean that extremist Islam is the norm and normal Islam is extremely rare? |
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"The Palestinian people does not
exist. The creation of a Palestinian state is only a means for
continuing our struggle against the state of Israel for our Arab
unity. In reality today there is no difference between Jordanians,
Palestinians, Syrians and Lebanese. Only for political and tactical
reasons do we speak today about the existence of a Palestinian people,
since Arab national interests demand that we posit the existence of a
distinct 'Palestinian people' to oppose Zionism.
"For tactical reasons, Jordan, which is a sovereign state with defined borders, cannot raise claims to Haifa and Jaffa. While as a Palestinian, I can undoubtedly demand Haifa, Jaffa, Beer-Sheva and Jerusalem. However, the moment we reclaim our right to all of Palestine, we will not wait even a minute to unite Palestine and Jordan." (PLO executive committee member Zahir Muhsein, March 31, 1977, interview with the Dutch newspaper Trouw.) The Palestinian leadership, including Ahmed Shukar and Yasir Arafat, has openly admitted Palestinian "peoplehood" is a fraud; Read This |
| "It should be remembered that in 1918, with the fall of the Ottoman Empire, Britain and France were handed more than 5,000,000 square miles to divvy up and 99+% was given to the Arabs to create countries that did not exist previously. Less than 1% was given as a Mandate for the re-establishment of a state for the Jews on both banks of the Jordan River. In 1921, to appease the Arabs once again, another three quarters of that less than 1% was given to a fictitious state called Trans-Jordan." (Jack Berger, May 31, 2004.) |
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The total for all the 22 Arab League
countries is 6,145,389 square miles (SM). By comparison, all 50 states of
the United States have a total of 3,787,318 SM. Israel has
8,463 SM, about one-sixth of that of the State of Michigan.
Iran, Turkey, Pakistan and Afghanistan are Muslim but not Arab and are
not included.
World Arab population: 300 million; World Jewish population: 13.6 million; Israel's Jewish population: 5.4 million. |
| "... during the late 1940s, more than 40 million refuges around the world were resettled, except for one people. They [Palestinian arabs] remain defined as refugees, wallowing 60 years later in 59 UNRWA refugee camps, financed by $400 million contributed annually by nations of the world to nurture the promise of the "right of return" to Arab neighborhoods and Arab villages from 1948 that no longer exist." |
| Some 900,000 Jews left behind $300 billion in assets when they were forced to flee for their lives from the Arab countries in the 1940s. They hold deeds for five times Israel's size. |
| Re Israel's irrevocable ownership of Israel, Golan, Samaria, Judea and Gaza: "Nothing that Israel's legal system says can change the facts that: (1) the legal binding document is the Mandate of the League of Nations and (2) the obligations of the Mandate are valid in perpetuity." (Professor Julius Stone) |
| "By 1920 the Ottoman Empire had exercised undisputed sovereignty over Palestine for 400 years. In Article 95 of the treaty of Sevres, that sovereignty was transferred to England in trust for a national homeland for the jews. The local Arabs had never exercised sovereignty over Palestine and so they lost nothing. Their rights were fully protected by a provisio in the grant: '...it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine...' The proviso has been fully observed by the Israelis. Since 1950 the Arabs have built some 261 new settlements in Judea and Samaria — more than twice as many as the Jews, but you never hear of them. They fill them with Arabs from Lebanon, Egypt and Jordan and by the grace of God they become Palestinians. Allahu Akbar! The Arabs call Judea "the West Bank' because they would look silly claiming that Jews are illegally living in Judea." |
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MARCH-APRIL, 2012
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TRUTH BE TOLD
WHAT'S THAT ABOUT DAUGHTERS?
HOLOCAUST SPEAKER TOO CONTROVERSIAL FOR PURDUE CALUMET?
THIS PASSOVER, FREE US FROM A FAILED JEWISH LEADERSHIP
JIHADIST INFILTRATION -- THEY ARE WINNING
THE SPIRIT OF GEERT WILDERS
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
MAINSTREAM AMERICAN MUSLIM JURISTS' BLUEPRINT FOR UNDERMINING
AMERICA'S LEGAL SYSTEM
THE HISTORICAL REALITY OF THE MUSLIM CONQUESTS
ONLY WORDS
I'M BACK!
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
THE PALESTINIAN HUMAN RIGHTS NIGHTMARE
PALESTINIAN SENTENCED TO DEATH FOR SELLING A HOME TO JEWS
WHO MAKES THE LAW?
SEX AND SHARIA: MUSLIM WOMEN PUNISHED FOR FAILED MARRIAGES
ACID ATTACKS: JUST A CULTURE THING OR JUST ISLAMIC?
FORCING WOMEN TO MARRY THEIR RAPISTS
WIFE BEATERS AND THEATER CRITICS IN BANGLADESH
WHO ARE THE PALESTINIAN-ARABS?
HOW MANY PALESTINIANS ARE THERE?
THE DEATH OF OSLO AND THE REBIRTH OF JORDAN-IS-PALESTINE
A VIABLE ALTERNATIVE FOR THE FUTURE OF ISRAEL
A FAULTY INTELLIGENCE REPORT LIVES ON
THE IRANIAN DECISION ON THE PRODUCTION OF NUCLEAR WEAPONS
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." READ MORE
HEZBOLLAH DONORS, AGENTS OPERATING IN U.S.
CUT AND RUN REDUX
LICENSE TO MURDER: THE ENDURING THREAT OF THE PROTOCOLS OF THE ELDERS OF ZION
WASH. POST'S PALESTINIAN PROPAGANDA FALSIFIES HISTORY AND THE BIBLE
EXPOSED: UN MEDIA OFFICIAL RESPONSIBLE FOR FALSE PHOTO TWEET
READ MORE
LATHER, RINSE, AND REPEAT
THE PLACE WHERE IT ALL BEGAN
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
HEROES AND UNSUNG HEROES - THOSE WHO MOVED THE WORLD
THE FIRST DAY
VIETNAMESE BOAT PEOPLE IN THE PROMISED LAND
March-April 2012 BLOG-EDS 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. March 2012 BLOG-EDS READ MOREApril 2012 BLOG-EDS |
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JANUARY-FEBRUARY, 2012
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OF COURSE, THE PALESTINIANS ARE AN "INVENTED PEOPLE"
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."
NEWT GINGRICH, THE MEDIA TAILORS AND THE PALESTINIAN PEOPLE
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?
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
THE RETURN OF THE PRODIGAL SON
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
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
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
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? READ MORE
WHY IS THE SAN REMO CONFERENCE SO IMPORTANT?
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. READ MORE
ANNEXATION WINS HANDS DOWN OVER A TWO-STATE SOLUTION
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. READ MORE
READY FOR STATEHOOD?
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
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
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
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
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:
TAWRIYA: NEW ISLAMIC DOCTRINE PERMITS 'CREATIVE LYING'
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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."
THE CASE FOR MILITARY ACTION AGAINST IRAN
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
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
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
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"
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
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 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.
THE BLEAK PROSPECTS OF OUR SEARCH FOR PALESTINIAN MODERATES
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 (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
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
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'
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 Center at Harvard. The Center 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
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
Jew-hate lectures, some paid for by Arabs, some stemming from present-day Marxist theory, some the residual of centuries of hate preached by the Church, have been reported. At the Friends Seminary in New York, a day school established by the peace-seeking Quakers, the invited speaker to celebrate Martin Luther King day this year was Gilad Atzmon. Atzmon's reputation as a Jewish Jew-hater is so solid that when John Mearsheimer wrote an endorsement for Atzmon's new book, it was irrefutable evidence that John Mearscheimer is just another run of the mill anti-Semite. He's not the sincere seeker of the truth about the Jew's influence on American Policy he's claimed to be. Allen Dershowitz apparently doesn't know the Quakers have always favored those they see as underdogs -- from the Indians who collected scalps when raiding white-man villages to bomb-carrying Arabs, knifing Jewish babies. He was surprised that when he made the headmaster, Robert Lauder, aware of how unsavory Atzmon is, Lauder chose to do absolutely nothing. (January 18, 2012, http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/2756/friends-seminary-anti-semitism). Dershowitz doesn't say if the student body or their parents complained. Local Muslims often give free talks in schools about Islam. They paint a glowing picture of Islam, that owes little to history or to actual practices. They teach children to pray Muslim-style. They usually focus on promoting Islam, rather than making a inter-religious tolerance speil. [video jewish boy] Often parents are unaware that their children are being inculcated. When parents learned the speaker at a public school in Tampa
Florida was a man from CAIR, they were much annoyed and let the
School Board know it. CAIR is an Islamic Association of
Palestine (IAP) spinoff. The IAP is an arm of the Muslim
Brotherhood and a fundraiser for Hamas, as is CAIR.
The Board in its superior wisdom ignored the parents. But
they aren't giving up or giving in. (See Jack Minor,
"Parents won't quit fight over CAIR indoctrination,"
February 16, 2012
Students can be exposed to distorted views of the Arab-Israeli conflict by their regular teachers in school. History teachers who use the Arab World Notebook as source material quickly begin to sound like Arab propagandists, praising women terrorists and blaming Israel for everything. In this essay Janet Tassel reports such a situation in a Newton Mass high school. When a student's father confronted the teacher, she was surprised at his attitude. "After all, the head of the history department had gotten this material at an outreach workshop of the Center for Middle Eastern Studies at Harvard!" It came from Harvard. How could it not be reliable? 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
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
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:
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?
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.
WEIRDEST CORRECTION OF THE DAY
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 when the Gray Lady speaketh false and/or ignores truth.
HANNAH ARENDT AND THE ORIGINS OF ISRAELOPHOBIA
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
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?
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
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?
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:
THE PERSIAN CONQUEST OF JERUSALEM
A Forgotten Chapter Of Jewish History
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
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
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 irony 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.'
SYRIAN RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE SABRA AND CHATILA MASSACRES
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."
JANUARY-FEBRUARY 2012 BLOG-EDS 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
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AN INVENTED PEOPLE
David Meir-Levi recounts some of the history of the region called
Palestine, emphasizing a fact often overlooked: in Ottoman times, the
area was part of the Syrian Province; there was no Syrian state. And
even after the British began calling the area Palestine, the local
Arabs considered themselves inhabitants of Syria; they were not Palestinian. After
the Six-Day War, Yasir Arafat declared that the Arabs in Samaria and
Judea (aka the West Bank) as well as the Arabs who lived in Israel -- or who had
lived in Israel --
were a
people, and the machinery for creating a history for this "people"
went into action. Now, some 40 years later, they have come to believe
their own lies. And they've done an brilliant job selling this fiction to the world.
A BADLY INVENTED PEOPLE
When Newt Gingrich said out loud what every political leader knows,
namely, "Palestians are an invented people," there was immediate damage
control by the dhimmi media. Has v halila the elaborate
structure of lies
supporting the Palestinian People Hoax should crack! Suppose people
learned that most of the so-called Palestinians
are ordinary Arabs, who didn't start coming into
"Palestine" until the 20th Century? What would happen to the belief that
Palestine belongs to an ancient people, the Palestinians -- the best
weapon the Arabs have to attack Israel? Daniel Greenfield disposes of
some of the myth of the Po' Palestinians.
GINGRICH'S FRESH HOPE
Caroline Glick writes of the current types of damage control by those who have
been using the claims of the pretended
people as an excuse to kill off Israel or for their own purposes. Their doubletalk doesn't make for very compelling
arguments, so I wonder:
Will more politicians and opinion makers now come out of
the woodwork and indicate that they knew all along the Palestinians
were just a bunch of Arabs, much less entitled to their own state than
an actual people such as the Kurds. If the trend continues, soon
everyone will acknowledge that the Jews are occupying their own
land, not someone else's; leaving only the brainwashed Arabs and a
hardcore of Jew-haters to continue to believe nonsense.
PALESTINIAN IDENTITY THEFT
With the connivance of the United Nations, the Palestinian Arabs have had
free reign to attempt "to rob Israel of its history, heritage, and homeland." As
Jerold S. Auerbach points out, "Plundering Jewish history and claiming
Israeli land is, of course, the raison d'être of
Palestinian existence." They have claimed Abraham was a Muslim, as was
Jesus and presumably all the Jews living in Israel at the time of the
Second Temple. They have claimed they have been in Palestine for eons,
ignoring that most of the "Palestinians" came to what is now Israel
and the Territories after 1900. The latest outrage is claiming "the
Dead Sea as Palestine's own 'heritage site.'" While attempting to steal
Israel's identity and history, they go well beyond the usual identity
theft. They also claim Israelis have no
history; Jews never had a Temple; they never had sovereignty in Israel.
DID ISLAM SAVE THE KNOWLEDGE OF THE CLASSICAL WORLD?
This article is a joining of two essays by
Fjordman that reject the myth
that the Muslims preserved Greek-Roman culture and that is what
kindled the development of European science and technology. As he points out,
"Muslims have spent 1400 years trying to eradicate Greek societies all
over the Eastern Mediterranean. Now they want to take the credit for
saving the Greek cultural heritage." As an interesting sideline, note
that the first essay was refused publication by Norway's
largest newspaper, VG. It is dangerous in Norway to be critical
of Islam -- outraged Muslims will try to kill you and/or firebomb your offices. Norway, however, is
a strong contender for being the most antisemitic country in the West.
Norwegian newspapers are as fearless in publishing antisemitic
cartoons and stories as they are fearful of publishing anything
negative about Islam. Rather like our own New York Times.
SILENCED: HOW APOSTASY AND BLASPHEMY LAWS ARE CHOKING FREEDOM WORLDWIDE
Alyssa A. Lappen reviews a book called Silenced. As she points out,
had the authors written of the origins of the apostasy and blasphemy
laws and how the requirement for punishment by death is permanently
anchored in the immutable Koran, it could have been a "landmark
study". Instead they leave the job to three Islamic clerics, who do a
deft job of whitewashing the subject. But the book does serve to
"catalog myriad effects of current legal codes for eight Muslim
nations and regions, mostly penalties for allegedly criticizing or
rejecting Islam." And it presents dozens of actual cases and the
atrocious punishments that were imposed. Part 3 is important because
it indicates how Islamic law could potentially affect non-Islamic
countries. There have been "... efforts at the United Nations to
globally bar 'defamation of religion,' a thinly veiled attempt to
shield Islam alone from criticism." That gets close to home. It won't
be just the FBI and Homeland Security that are barred from using
negative descriptors when talking about the Religion of Peace.
THE NARRATIVE OF PERPETUAL PALESTINIAN VICTIMHOOD
ARABS NEED A REVOLUTION IN THOUGHT, NOT POLITICS
NON-MUSLIM MUSLIMS AND THE JIHAD AGAINST THE WEST
WINNING PEACE BY WINNING THE WAR
A POST PALESTINIAN STATE SIMULATION
To understand matter, computer
modeling and simulation depend on what data we have on quarks and
hadrons and such. In
politics, predictions depend on a deep understanding
of the character of the players. Despite the fact that Iran used its
own children to find bombs in a field by stepping on them, it is
difficult, perhaps impossible, for a westerner to believe that any
human society would be willing to sacrifice a large part of its
population to kill off another society, hence its predictions of
Iran's future actions will suffer. Aaron Lerner asks whether the
Palestinian Arabs want a state that incorporates Israel or one that
exists next to it. We don't need sophisticated techniques to know the answer. The
Arab street and the Arab leaders have always said they wish to
eliminate the present Jewish state and there is nothing in their
actions that alters their voiced intent.
Lerner lays out the
social engineering the Palestinian Arabs -- or their handlers --
might practice to destroy Israel after they have a state.
Lerner incorporates into his
analysis an assessment of the future activity of some other Arab countries, which -- in the
face of reality -- were presumed stable.
In sum, Lerner suggests that after acquiring a state neighboring
Israel, the continuing plans to destroy Israel are likely
to be brilliant and definitely not based on the
comforting notions that everyone is civilized and everyone wants only
to see their children have a good life.
NOTE TO NEWT: RETHINKING PALESTINE
It follows that if the notion of an authentic Palestinian people is fallacious,
then they are not the owners of "Palestine" and
the thrust to deprive Israel of its rightfully-owned land becomes
nonsensical, if not downright hostile.
Nevertheless, there are
the so-called Arab refugees,
individuals from different clans and their descendants, who have been kept in a state of suspended
animation for some 60 years. There are also
the local Arabs, most of whom immigrated into the Territories in the
20th century. Martin Sherman does a masterful
job in laying out a comprehensive plan to
relocate these people to a suitable milieu
in an Arab country or Arab countries, where they could live as
citizens and be responsible for their own lives. The plan would also benefit
the economy of the countries that would play host.
PALESTINE STATE IN SAUDI ARABIA
There is no way that Israel can allow the return of the 1948 Arab refugees
and their multiple descendents and camp followers and remain a viable
state. Gennadiy Baruch Faybyshenko suggests an alternative way of giving the
Palestinian Arabs their own place and at the same time letting Saudi
Arabia
express its concern for the Palestinian Arabs in a practical way. Saudi
Arabia is wealthy, very large and sparsely populated. It is an ideal
place to put a Palestinian state, a state that would be located in an
environment that is
Arab in religion,
culture and lifestyle, a state where other countries, concerned with the
welfare of the Palestinians, can come help develop. Concerned Jews
could help by lobbying their congressmen to help implement a
Palestinian state in Saudi Arabia.
NORWAY EMBRACES ISLAMIST TYRANNY
From the point of view of self-interest, the surge in anti-semitism in
Europe seems illogical. The Muslims are pushing forward to impose
their culture over the native mores. Instead of resisting and making
common cause with Jews, who are under Islamic attack worldwide,
Europeans are allowing Muslims to encroach, while throwing their Jewish citizens to
these present-day marauders.
Bruce Bawer describes the situation in Norway; but he could be
describing the prevailing conditions over much of Europe.
BIGOTRY, REVISIONISM AND BARONESS WARSI
Melanie Phillips clearly and factually rejects some assertions by
Muslims about antisemitism; namely, that Muslims are
not anti-Jewish, that factual criticism of Islam (Islamophobia)
is the same as inventive fabrications against Judaism and that Jews
and Muslim should be fighting Islamophobia together. She speaks
specifically of these notions coming from Baroness Warsi, but many
Muslim leaders say the same. The chutzpa of Muslims -- major
distributors of antisemitic literature -- encouraging Jews to help
Muslims demolish Israel and demote Jews to dhimmi status!
WHO IS RESPONSIBLE FOR MUSLIM VIOLENCE?
Daniel Greenfield notes that were Muslims told they were responsible for
Muslim terrorism, "world opinion" would be in an uproar. Yet
Jews are
told they are responsible for the Muslim violence against them and the expectation is
they will accept the rebuke -- they might even take it to heart.
Greenfield points out that in one sense Israel is to blame for Muslim
violence because Israel tolerates it. It threatens meaningless threats of
retaliation. It eventually shoots up empty Arab houses. It is
understanding of
Arab justifications. Israelis act like
saps so they're treated that way.
TRAVERSING HISTORY -- A PRELUDE TO CONSIDERING THE ONLY ALTERNATIVE PEACE PLAN
Governments are often portrayed as acting coolly and sensibly, backed
by objective appraisals and in accordance with the country's best
interests. But in this essay, Alex Rose demonstrates that Obsessional
Anti-Semitism disproportionately governed the activities of Nazi
Germany and its soulmates, the Arab countries, who should have been
worrying how to escape out of medievalism into modern times. The Arabs
were aided and abetted and in some cases incited by the the British,
who had undertaken to help the Jews develop their homeland into a State, but
who found undermining the eventual and then the newly-born Jewish
state irresistible. From the 1930s on,
England illegally declared Jewish immigration to Palestine illegal. The
Brits then devoted much of their time and effort to make sure the Jews
didn't escape from the Nazis.
Rose shows us how often frank antisemitism, however
irrational, is the real determinant of what nations do.
PSYCHOLOGICAL EXPLANATIONS OF POLITICAL CORRECTNESS
The Muslims are trying on the UN and European Union level and on the
Federal level in individual countries, to make it a crime to criticize
Islam, where criticism is a crime whether the information is factual
or not. In this essay, Nicolai Sennels elucidates some likely reasons
why people deny the reality of Islamic infiltration into the West in
order to remain politically correct. To his list, may I add one: for
far too many "educated" people, a "heretical" opinion -- or even a
conclusion easily derived from known facts -- is not accepted in
polite society until it has been blessed by spilled coffee on the pages of the New York Times. This article is important in understanding how the Political Correctness Muzzle Effect can override reality. And why historians wonder years later, why people didn't see the obvious.
A STUDY IN SELF-CANNIBALIZATION
In this essay, Martin Sherman makes the point
that political liberalism, a major achievement
of the West, is destroying itself by attempting to apply its values
and expectations to societies that do not have the environment in which it
can thrive. As a major inconsistency, one can not praise
diversity and then act as if diverse cultures all have the
same set of values. It would be more
intelligent, when dealing with a totalitarian society
based on Islamic teachings, if we factored in the belief system and
acceptable practices of that alien society instead of assuming we are all
reading from the same page in a book written in American English.
YOU SAY YOU WANT A REVOLUTION?
This essay by Waller Newell gives a different twist to the examination
of why people act against their own self-interest: different selves
have different interests. He explores what
happens when people make a extraordinary attempt at bettering their
lives, increasing their choices and their freedom to make choices.
Using the recent uprising in Egypt and the hopes by many for an 'Arab
spring', he throws cold water on the belief that their revolution will
lead to democratic reform. He also counters the bland assertions of
the American administration that the Muslim Brotherhood -- which will
eventually gain power -- is moderate. Revolutions for
the most part follow a script: "The initial reformist phase ...
focusing on individual rights and opportunity is swept aside by
radicals who want an egalitarian and collectivist political order."
Hope turns to dust; bright beginnings rust. And the objectives of the
dictatorship that finally takes over
negate the good intentions of the original "good guys".
CHRISTIAN ZIONISM 101
MAJOR UK CHURCHES ADOPT CHRISTIAN AID'S ANTI-ISRAEL BDS AGENDA
"PALESTINIAN THEOLOGIAN" TRASHES "PALESTINIAN THEOLOGY"
AFTER SATURDAY COMES SUNDAY
U. OF CALIFORNIA NEGLIGENCE: IT DOESN'T PROTECT ITS JEWISH STUDENTS
Antisemitism is on the increase. Some 70% of the anti-religion hate crimes in America are against Jews. And what are the Biggie Jewish organizations doing? They are busy, busy, busy. Abe Foxman of the ADL is defending the penetration of Muslim Sharia law into our academic and financial institutions and law courts. He is attacking Jews for worrying. Silly us, we must be suffering from Islamophobia. He suggests, as corrective action, we should help pay to build Mosques In America. MIA. An acryonym that also describes where his brain is -- it's Missing In Action. Hillel? Hillel at Penn State is helping the Muslims denounce Israelis who are defending themselves against Muslim rockets. AJC? It's encouraging the political parties to keep Israel out of their political agendas. We wouldn't want Jews to find out what Obama has in store for Israel -- that would be awful. They might not vote for him again. AIPAC? AIPAC is still out there with lighted lantern looking for an Arab who will accept a big chunk of Israel. The sign on the lantern reads: "Wanted: an Arab who can play peace partner for a limited engagement." Private
individuals have taken on themselves the jobs the Biggies have abdicated.
Bill Narvey has compiled information on the situation at University of
California. The Amcha Initiative
has been doing the work the major Jewish organizations should be
doing: attempting to get the U. of California to stop the Muslim
harassment of Jewish students.
The major item is a letter to
Mark Yudof, President, University of California, from Tammi
Rossman-Benjamin and Leila Beckwith of the Amcha Initiative.
TIME FOR A RETREADED MEARSHEIMER TO RETIRE
John Mearsheimer has done damage to Jews by putting a veneer of
scholarship on the gutter lie that Jews
control America's foreign policy. While not everyone saw this as
evidence of anti-Semitism, he proved it was by endorsing a frank
anti-semitic book.
He has done damage to his profession by
his sloppy scholarship. And most of all
he has helped enable suppressed anti-Semitism to be voiced openly as it was
prior to World War 2.
Students at the U of Chicago, in a well-written and well-stated brief,
call for his retirement.
MISBEHAVING SCIENCES?
Seth Frantzman examines the issue of
academics who
publically insult the ethnicity, politics or religion of others --
especially when the "others" may be students who can't answer back -- yet
they enjoy "the presumption that their work with students remains unbiased
and uninformed by their sometimes radical views." Should academics enjoy a special type of free speech that no other
occupation enjoys? How do inappropriate remarks by
faculty members impact the environment at
their universities? Should they should be
allowed to behave and to speak in a manner considered unacceptable in
the general society? Considering the number of academics who preach
rather than teach,
these questions are seriously in need of resolution.
ARABESQUE LINGUISTICS AND POETRY FOR THE WESTERNER
That noted linguist, Dr Yasser DasMaBebi, has graciously offered to help us understand the meaning of words and phrases used in stories and news coming from the Middle East. He makes the meaning so clear he has inspired others to add to our understanding. He also provides us with memorable examples of exquisite Arab poetry.
VERACITY, MENDACITY — AND ISLAM
Using a recent book of essays on Islam as a political religion as
anchor, Bruce Bawer notes that
"while Islamic Studies professors have continued to whitewash the
religion of peace, responsible-minded men and women outside of the
Islamic Studies racket have taken up the job of truth-telling,
publishing a number of substantial, and in some cases encyclopedic,
volumes about Islam." Nevertheless,
"ignorance and outright duplicity about the basic facts of Islam still
reign supreme throughout the West." And too many of the next
generation of leaders, now at college, are being inculcated with an
inaccurate picture of Islam.
THE SHIP OF FOOLS AND ADMIRAL HAYREDDIN BARBAROSSA
As Alex Maistrovoy writes, "Political commentaries about the events in
the Middle East resemble mythological plots written by an experienced
censor." One is the narrative that it was all Israel's fault that she
lost Turkey's support because she was too rigid, she was unaccepting of Arab
demands for dignity, etc., etc., etc. Maistrovoy points out that Recep
Erdogan began
hostilities against Israel well before any incident that could be claimed
to have contributed to a change of relations.
In looking for the culprit that created friction between Turkey and
Israel, it would be better to look at Erdogan's goals: "the creation
of the Islamic state, rejection of Kemal Atatürk's secular heritage
and revival of the Ottoman Empire." With the press fixating on what
Israel did wrong, it will a
big surprise to them
when Erdogen's hostility toward Greece and Cyprus as well as to Israel
become more obvious.
WHY MUSLIMS HATE JEWS TO THE BONE
Syed Kamran Mirza explains the particular hatred Muslims have toward
Jews. At the beginning of the establishment of Islam, Mohammad praised
the Jews, hoping they would certify him as
a legitimate Biblical prophet but the
Jews rejected his claims. Hell hath no fury like a self-proclaimed
prophet scorned. As his megalomania grew, he demonized the Jews and
then massacred them. His hate of Judaism is accurately reflected in
the later verses of the Koran and hadith. And that is what Muslim
children are taught.
A MATTER OF HONOR
David Isaac writes of two errors that should be rectified.
Field Marshal Edmund Allenby has been honored by having a major
thoroughfare named after him in Tel-Aviv. As Isaac points out,
Allenby's hostility to Jews "set the precedent and the tone for all
subsequent administrations..." Contrariwise, Israel's debt to
Col. John Henry Patterson has not been acknowledged.
Perhaps reversing the commission and the omission will help teach
Israelis who their friends are and who are
not their friends.
HOW ITALY SOLD ITS JEWS
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. November 2011 BLOG-EDS
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SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER, 2011
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See also: Pat Condell, "American Islamophobia,"
here.
POLITICS OF "ISLAMOPHOBIA"
This article provides us with some of the history of the invention of
the term Islamophobia and its usefulness as a club for
frightening ordinary people as well as the news media into downplaying
or ignoring Islamic
terrorism.
As the old joke goes, "who are you going to believe? Me or your lying
eyes." If fear of being labeled an Islamophobe succeeds, Islamic
terrorism won't be a crime; saying unkind things about
Islam will.
I'VE GOT...ISLAMOPHOBIA!
Muslims pressuring the U.N. to declare criticism of religion (i.e.,
Islam) a hate crime have a peculiar definition of what constitutes a
hate crime: any slur on Islam made publicly. Since Islam is perfect and
without flaw, then clearly any criticism is a slur and is completely
unwarranted. To use a recent neologism that betrays an ignorance of root
words, the critic is considered islamophobic, (irrationally
afraid of Islam) though his actual emotions are anger and disgust at --
and loathing of -- Muslim behavior and these feelings are entirely
rational and reality-based. P. David Hornik makes the point subtly and
humorously in this essay.
THE WAR AMERICA FIGHTS
An important strategy in war is to keep the enemy off balance and defensive and timid about reacting strongly. Islam is waging war against the USA and Israel and is using psychological tools effectively. This isn't a good time for us to be politically correct. When you are fighting a war, knowing the identity of the enemy
usually is not a problem. But, as Caroline Glick writes, we have identified the enemy
only timidly and peripherally, not smack on. And even when, as in the case of Major
Hasan, who murdered fourteen of his fellow soldiers, it was obvious
he was
a jihadist or a jihad-groupie, yet the army ignored the problem.
It is a most unusual, and in many ways, ineffective war in that the American
administration encourages friendly contact with the Muslim
Brotherhood, a motherlode of terrorist activities, takes timid measures
against Iran and ignores the
terrorism emanating from much of the Muslim world, notably from the
Arab sector of that world.
SHARIAH LOBBY'S PLAY ACTION FAKE - "DANGER, DANGER, DANGER!"
James Zumwalt points out that Muslim organizations, "by playing the
Islamophobia card" seek to shift the focus away from where it should
be: on dangers to our freedoms. Instead they claim bias when concerns
are raised about such
dangers. Sharia law, which is already being cited to a sizable degree
in ordinary courts and on the appellate level, reinforces practices that are alien
to the West and unacceptable under our law system.
In child custody cases Sharia law automatically favors the father. Multiple wives are allowed. Sex with minors
is allowed. Judging from experience in other countries: as
Sharia law becomes institutionalized, individual freedoms
suffer,
religions other than Islam suffer, groups such as homosexuals and all
women end up
with restricted rights or no rights.
Countries that encourage the application of Islamic law to show they are tolerant, end up
being intolerant to their own people and institutions.
YALE'S STERN AND ADL'S FOXMAN: ARE THEY IGNORANT ABOUT JEWISH LAW VERSUS SHARIA ISLAMIC LAW
Jerry Gordon writes about the differences between Sharia Law and
Halacha.
Superficially, Sharia Law sounds much like Halacha, Jewish Law. Both
are prescriptive for how the individual is to behave in all aspects of
his life. In practice they differ widely. A person is both himself
and a member of his group. The Torah is ground and
guide for shaping and sharpening
a reasonable adjustment between the individual and the
group,
allowing the individual free will and the space in which to grow
in morality and intellect, while ensuring group survival and functionality. This
can take many forms and variations, subject to changing conditions and
environments. Jewish Law will reformulate expressions of its way of
life in accordance with the laws of the host country; it strives to
maintain halachic integrity within the scope of the larger society.
Muslim Law is
static by design, being modeled on the behavior and commands of Muhammad; it sees
no reason to adjust to any one else's set of laws, which by definition are
inferior to its own. Strictures alien to the Muslim include the USA's Constitution and the laws
that are given life by it.
AMERICAN MUSLIMS CLAIM A RIGHT TO ISLAMIC LAW
Richard Shulman analyzes point by point an essay by Professor Aziz Huq, who argued against a law that would prohibit courts from using foreign laws, including Sharia. The case for using Sharia law in American courts and as an alternative to American law is presented as a courtesy to and a sign of tolerance of the Muslim community. It is claimed there would be little impact on American society. Shulman suggests the proper context is this: Islam declared war on us. We need to ask how does the establishment of Sharia courts aid them in their war effort? There would be little point in letting Sharia law have legal power and then not allow its decisions to be carried out. Thus, adherence to Sharia would contribute to the subjugation of Muslim women. Would we be forced to allow everything from wife beatings to honor killer? Or would Sharia-determined decisions require review -- creating a large burden on our courts. If Sharia were given status, the next push would be to make criticism of Islam a hate crime, even if the specific allegation was accurate and objective. Were that to happen, the impact would be huge. It would in practice deprive us of the freedom to voice any criticism of Islam. Besides minimizing
the importance of the request and acting as victim, there is the
implied threat. The Professor warns that rejecting the installing of
Sharia would chill Muslim cooperation against terrorism. It would be
difficult to see how they could cooperate less than they do. Is he
threatening overt terrorism if they don't get their way?
INTO THE FRAY: ET TU, BILL...
As I start to write the intro to this article by Martin Sherman on Bill
Clinton's Judeophobic attitude, the ticker tape reads: "3 rockets
explode in Gan Yavne; morter shells fired from Gaza land in Ashdod, Gan
Yavne; Egyptian Brotherhood makes first visit to Hamas-led Gaza; Islamic
Jihad takes responsibility for grad rocket fire; female suicide bomber
kills 3 wounds 20 in S.E. Turkey."<29oct11.> The Muslims of the Arab World
continue to work at destroying Israel, when they are not killing their own
countrymen. But according to our affable ex-prez, it's Netanyahu and the
Jooz who are withholding peace from the world. Clinton's made a boodle speaking in
the Democratic-party climate of many synagogues, but apparently the Saudis pay better.
DID WESTERN LEFTISTS INVENT 'ISRAELI APARTHEID'?
Israel is accused of apartheid because that
worked so well to demonize South Africa. Never mind that the Arabs in
Israel are a minority, not a majority. Never mind that Israeli Arabs
have more freedom of expression than in any Arab state. Similarly
Marxist Leftists call Israel 'racist' not because it's true but because it's been an
effective way to shut up someone for a very long time. The need to
destroy Israel is so strong, facts don't
seem to matter. Paul Murphy uses a novel tactic to make this point -- he
provides us with Leftist conspiracy-style retorts to actual facts,
facts the Marxist Left has no problem ignoring.
HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH DURING THE 2006 LEBANON WAR AND NOW
For HRW the more things change ... doesn't apply. They don't even
seem to change. This article deals with HRW fixed focus on Israel in the
Lebanon War in 2006 and, now, in 2011, when Syrian abuses against human
rights are rightly labeled as atrocities, HRW's coverage is scanty. One
reader suggested HRW change its name. "Maybe a name like Deny Jewish
Human Rights would be more appropriate."
THE MUHAMMAD AL-DURA HOAX AND OTHER MYTHS REVIVED
Nidra Poller writes on one of the most successful hoaxes ever perpetrated -- it's right up there with the fabricated bayoneting of Belgian babies in World War 1. At the start of the second Intifada, a 12-year old was supposedly killed by Israeli soldiers. The image of the boy, Muhammad al-Dura, cowering behind his father went around the world, creating sympathy for the Palestinian cause. It was later determined that the bullet that killed the boy couldn't have come from where the IDF was positioned. The boy was in direct line with an Arab sharpshooter, who was standing near the Arab cameraman who was paid by France 2, which refused to release the 44-minutes of film that was omitted from the film distributed to the public. We now know that even the supposed IDF attack was staged in that a distraction crew of Arabs "attacked the Israeli outpost with rocks, firebombs, and burning tires, [while] fake battle scenes were filmed in another part of the junction, out of range of the Israel Defence Forces outpost." It's not even certain that the boy was killed. The dramatic description of the scene by the French commentator, Charles Enderlin, was not eye-witness; it was dubbed in later. Enderlin has stonewalled, he has sued critics, he's written endless self-justifications; he's done everything but own up to having perpetrated a hoax, and not a very well-constructed hoax at that. Poller then
asks and answers a more significant question: what were the factors
that made Al-Dura a
media "success", while a
real massacre of a Jewish family by Arabs -- where an infant was almost completely
decapitated and the murderers readily confessed and were proud of
what they did
- is soft-pedaled by the media as just another news
item. Why indeed are news people sometimes intelligently
sceptical of planted stories and at other times why do they act like lobotomized
sheep? Her answer has relevance to so much that we are fed by a
supposedly neutral
Mainstream Media.
THE TROUBLE WITH MUSLIM DEMOCRACY
Westerners often mistakenly believe that democracy is democracy is
democracy, so if the Arabs proclaim themselves democratic, they must be
our kind of people. But, as Daniel Greenfield points out, "[t]he Muslim
world is so enthusiastic about democracy because it allows the majority
to slap around the minority -- at least more so than it's already doing."
The people haven't changed. They haven't become kinder or more mature;
they just have more freedom to be nasty. In consequence,
minorities such as Egypt's Christian Copts are safer under a tyrannical
dictator. "In the final analysis," Greenfield points out, "the
trouble with Muslim democracy is the Muslims."
IS DEMOCRACY THE CURE FOR ISLAMIC TERRORISM?
Samuel Helfont reviews a book by
Katerina Dalacoura that casts doubt
on the belief that "democracy is an 'antidote' to terrorism.
From her studies, Dalacoura concluded that
"there is no necessary causal link between authoritarianism in
the Middle East and Islamist terrorism." This means that a
democratized Egypt, should that ever occur, would no more stamp out
terrorism than giving terrorists their own country to govern will
dissolve their impulse towards waging jihad.
THE MARCH TOWARD A NUCLEAR IRAN
President Obama's way of playing Nero playing the fiddle while Rome
burned is to focus our military might on Libya and our political ire on
Israel for building homes in the Territories or even in Jerusalem. As Ray Takeyh points out,
the real problem is Iran and it needs to be dealt with. Sanctions have not and will not work
and we can't afford to just let things happen. "Neither the turbulent order of the Middle East nor the
partisan politics of Washington can afford an Islamic Republic armed
with nuclear weapons." If this reality doesn't make the politicians
understand what actions are urgently needed, try this: "An Iranian bomb
is likely to unleash the most divisive partisan discord in this country
since the 1949 debate about who lost China."
INSTABILITY SPREADING SOUTH FROM LIBYA THROUGH NIGERIA
Since President Obama and NATO picked Libya's Gaddafi as the Muslim
dictator most urgently in need of downfall, there have been several
disquieting and unintended results -- at least I hope they were
unintended. As Aymenn Jawad Al-Tamimi writes, there has been an
increase of instability that is spreading south. Several Libyan arms
depots that we didn't strike were looted and arms and missiles are
missing -- they could end up with an al Qaeda group, AQIM. The
disgruntled Touareg "might forge ties with AQIM." Nigeria is
already appeasing the Boko Haram, which wants Nigeria to become an
Islamic state. And of course the new rulers of Libya are in favor of
creating an Islamic state. Had we known that the Libyan caper would
result in more hard line Islamic theocracies, we might have left bad
enough alone.
NEEDED: A LEADER IN THE WHITE HOUSE
A few short years ago, President Obama spoke of a new American
policy in the Middle East based on diplomacy and cooperation with moderate regimes.
Eytan Gilboa writes about the collapse of the two anchors of
this policy.
"Turkey, once an exemplar moderate Islamic democracy, and Egypt, once
an exemplar stable and moderate Arab power, have become increasingly
unreliable allies." "With all the whisperings over America's weakness,
it is unsurprising that players like Iran and Turkey are looking to
fill the vacuum left in its place — to become regional powers with
global influence." Obama didn't understand the region then, and he
doesn't know what to do now. Except to
blame Israel, of course.
A SCARLET LETTER - FOR JEWS
Giulio Meotti explores the issue of the proposed Arab state that would
be carved out from much of Biblical Israel (Samaria and Judea --
AKA the West Bank). Some of the land is held by
Jews, dedicated, productive Jews, civilized people who have taken the
brunt of the Arab attacks on Israeli civilians. Perhaps because they
represent a key element in maintaining a country that is both strong
and civilized, they have been demonized by the media, pro-Palestinian
NGOs and groups such as Peace Now that are Jewish in name only. In
striking contrast to their actual character, they are "portrayed by
the media, by entertainment icons, by governmental advisers as blood-crazed zealots, 'parasites', as the single largest danger to Israel's
well-being." These present-day Jewish settlers as well as every other
Jew in the world would not be permitted to live in the
projected Palestinian State. They would not be allowed on land
where the Jewish people became a nation; where they shaped the moral
code that is the foundation of Western morality; where the first
Jewish settlers of Israel were able to practice their religion according to Torah.
PALESTINIAN ARAB "REFUGEES" WOULDN'T BE CITIZENS OF "PALESTINE" - EVEN IF THEY LIVE THERE!
This is an amazing report by Elder of Ziyon. The State that the
Palestinians Arabs are asking the U.N. to grant them -- the State that
is to be carved out of the land that is Biblical Israel and which they
claim is the Palestinian Homeland -- will not be granting citizenship
to the Palestinian refugees, even those living right now in Gaza,
Samaria and Judea. Yes, the very same refugees
that roused the sympathy of the world to help them regain land they
had left voluntarily at the behest of the Arab invaders of Israel in 1948.
In effect, the Palestinian Authority will continue to collect millions
of dollars from the USA and the European Union, but the UN will
continue to feed, clothe, medicate and education the "refugees" and
Israel will continue to supply them with electricity and water.
The only difference will be that Jews will not be allowed to live in
Biblical Israel. What a deal!
THE FAMOUS STATE OF PALESTINE
We know that yet another Arab state will not allow Jews to live in it.
We've learned that Palestinian Arab refugees -- the root reason the
"world" is anxious to set up the new state -- will not be allowed to
become citizens of this state, not even if they are already living
there. Giulio Meotti suggests what the new state will be like -- it
will be just like what the old one was. We might add that if it moves
steadily towards what a good Muslim state strives for, it will be a
Sharia-driven theocracy that prides itself on family purity (but
practices homosexuality quietly); a male-oriented society where women
are chattel and slavery exists; a death-cult society that has the mentality of the 7th century culture of Mohammed and uses 21st century weaponry to ensure the world bows down to Islam and practices Sharia law.
THE DURBAN PERVERSION
This essay says volumes about the character of the U.N. Where else would an invented people announce it wanted someone else's land and know it has a good chance of getting it? Joseph Klein
recounts the history of a disgraceful series of conference sponsored
by the United Nations. The first of
these in 2001, Durban 1,
supposedly designed to examine racism worldwide,
turned into a racist hatefest
against the Jewish state, ignoring all actual racist states. "It was
marked by vitriolic displays of anti-Semitism." Durban 2 didn't have
the shock value of Durban 1, but again, UN members showed an
unusually high degree of cooperation in ambushing and attacking Israel.
Durban 3, this September, saw the same inversion of morality, where
dictators and terrorists and wholesale murderers accused Israel of
being evil. Klein also tells us about a
counter-Durban 3 Conference, which showed real concern for human
rights. One speakers had been a slave.
"[He is] a living demonstration of the 'emerging forms of slavery such as human trafficking,' perpetrated within Sudan by the racist Arab government and population, which Sudan's undersecretary so piously condemned at the Durban III conference."
LET'S VOTE FOR INDEPENDENCE!
In his own inimitable way, Steven Plaut points out that there are many
separatist groups with better credentials for having a state of
their own. The Kurds, for example, are a legitimate people yet they are split among
several Arab countries, none of whom is willing to give them their own
place. What makes the Palestinians so special? Plaut suggests that,
should the UN Security Council vote for a Palestinian State, Israel
should recognize the particular separatist groups plaguing the
particular countries that voted for a Palestinian Arab state.
WAS THERE A PALESTINIAN ARAB NATIONAL MOVEMENT AT THE END OF THE OTTOMAN PERIOD?
During the 400 years in which the Ottomans ruled what later was known as Mandated Palestine, there was no Palestinian state, no Palestinian people and no Palestinian Arab nationalist movement
among the local Arabs and other Muslims and non-Muslims. Yet some 40 years later, Yasir Arafat
proclaimed there was a Palestinian people and Palestine had always
been their
land. Wallace Edward Brand examines whether there is evidence of a nationalist
movement in the period between the end of Ottoman rule after World War 1 and the
artificial creation of Palestinian peoplehood, during the time that
the Jews were building the infrastructure of a State and redeeming
their ancient homeland.
REASSESSING 'ROOT CAUSES' FROM 'RED HERRINGS'
Martin Sherman provides evidence out of the mouths and writings of Arab
leaders that their intent has always been to destroy Israel itself.
Complaining about settlements and Israel's 'occupation' of the West
Bank are red herrings -- diversionary tactics -- that should be
ignored. For them 'Palestine' extends "from the Jordan River to the
Mediterranean Sea," mapping right on and over Israel. Israel needs to realize that the root cause
of Arab enmity is "not about borders but about existence" and
respond appropriately.
JERUSALEM: OUR REDEEMABLE RIGHT: JEWS HOLD LEGAL SOVEREIGNTY OVER ISRAEL'S ENTIRE CAPITAL CITY
Michael Duke writes about the legal foundation stone of Israel's right
to Israel and the Territories -- including all of Jerusalem -- and about a lawyer who
spent a quarter of a century determining precisely that the Jews are
the legal owners of all of Jerusalem. The document is the San Remo
Resolution of 1920; the lawyer is Jacques Gauthier, an expert in
international law. San Remo did not just set the future for Mandated
Palestine -- which the Jews have redeemed and partially reconstituted
-- but it also mandated the future Arab states of Iraq, Lebanon and
Syria. Later, other modern Arab states were carved out of the vast expanse
of the Middle East by the same authority. That trust passed to the U.N. when the League
of Nations was dissolved. The U.N. has not gained respect for its
embarrassing embrace of the Arab attempt to delegitimize Israel but
even the U.N. must realize it can not break an irrevocable trust with
Israel as beneficiary by giving away Biblical Israel to the
Palestinian Arabs without simultaneously destroying the basis for
the Arab Middle East.
ANNEXATION WINS HANDS DOWN OVER A TWO-STATE SOLUTION
This is an excellent reference article. Matthew M. Hausman lays out
the reasons why another Arab state in Israel's heartland would be a very bad
idea. As he points out, "No amount of subterfuge can change the fact
that Palestinian nationalism is an artificial construct or that Judea
and Samaria were never lawfully part of any sovereign Arab nation."
Were Israel to annex Samaria and Judea, she would be reclaiming land that is hers
"historically, geographically and legally" by international law.
"Israel can rely only on herself to craft a solution that makes legal, historical and moral sense, and which assures her security and continuity as a democratic, Jewish state."
PEQUOTS, PEKI'IN AND PALESTINIANISM
This essay points out that after the Jews were defeated by the Romans and through the thousands of years of the diaspora, there was always a Jewish presence in Israel. William Rabinowitz seems to specialize in humor-coated history,
wrapping little-known historic facts in whimsy. In this essay, he
writes about the Jews of Pek'in, Israel, a community where Jews have
been in continual residence for the last 2 and 1/2 millenia. It is a
fact that has been obscured as attention is usually focused on the
immigration of Jews starting in the 19th century to redeem their
ancient homeland. He also paints an searing
picture of a not-too-bright
current-day Jewish college student, who has absorbed a pro-Palestinian
attitude from his teachers, the local Muslim students and the TV and
newspapers. Rabinowitz responds with very different answers to someone who
had been indoctrinated to believe that the Palestinians are indigenous
to Israel and own the land.
ON A MOUNTAIN, WITH A TRUMPET
Rabbi Meir Kahane was dismissed by many as a radical, a racist, a
bigot, an ultranationalist.
When the fashion was to believe in the similarity and basic goodness of everyone's goals
and aspirations, his diagnosis of an implacable enemy utterly at odds
with Judaism was unsettling.
We were angered by his message; so we threw stones at the
messenger and ignored the message.
Now, twenty-one years after his murder, as events catch up to
his analyses and predictions, we are beginning to appreciate the
clarity of his thoughts and are beginning to agree with his solutions.
Yom Kippur is a good time to reflect on his essay on the
consequences of ignoring the danger we are in.
SPARING AGAG: HARD TRUTHS ABOUT ISRAEL'S INHIBITED WAR VS. TERROR
As in the previous article, Brandon Marlon warns that Israeli's weak reactive
responses to Arab aggression
may be politically palatable, but eventually they will damage Israel.
To make the point, he recounts the story of
King Saul who was merciful to the Amalek when the situation dictated
that he destroy them.
Eventually this "almost resulted in the eradication of his own people."
The bottom line is: "in dealing with an implacable, fanatical enemy -
say, terrorists - the alternatives are neatly narrowed down to four:
offer surrender, accept surrender, strike or be struck ...
Harsh as it may seem, war is no time for mildness. One must be in it to win it."
ISRAEL'S PATH TO VICTORY
Caroline Glick asks why the Israeli Government doesn't change its
course of action - hoary with age and covered with disappointments -- in dealing
with the Palestinian Arabs, who promise to abide by
mutually-agreed-upon rules and then do whatever they damn well please, secure
in the knowledge that no matter what they do, they will suffer no
permanent injury and will, almost certainly, gain new support and
material benefits. A major overhaul would include redefining
their connection to the Land of Israel.
As Glick puts it, "[w]hile Israel has been defending its right to security, the Palestinians have been on the offensive arguing that all the land that Israel took control over from Jordan in 1967 belongs to them by ancestral right."
Israel's emphasis on security needs is
real and necessary but emotionally unappealing.
Stupidly, her spokespeople neutrally refer to Samaria and Judea -- Biblical
Israel -- as 'disputed territory.'
The Arabs
weep dramatically about their lost land -- that's much more appealing
to an outsider. It's time Israel spoke out and told the truth: the land is hers
and belongs only to her.
THE WAR AGAINST ISLAM
David Ramati's essay is on perspective. We tend to think that our
present problems with specific groups of Arab terrorists began on 9/11.
Ramati points out that in actuality Islam as an ideology has been at war
with Western civilization since Mohammad invented it; Muslims often
complaining they are the victims of attack. In an amazingly
short amount of time, Islam attacked and conquered the neighboring lands,
attacked and conquered Christian Spain and immediately began a campaign
against Europe. Meantime, they created various ways to denigrate
Christians and Jews and other non-Muslims, so that they would always be
conscious of the fact that they were dhimmi, beings inferior to Muslims.
Dhimmis paid a poll tax; they were pressured to convert to Islam; they
wore identification badges, a yellow badge for Jews, an image of a pig
for Christians. Then as now, there were no limits to Muslim ruthlessness
and deception in aid of Islam becoming the dominant religion in the
world. It was in Europe that their conquest was stopped. But, again
characteristic of Islam, they tried again, successfully, some 700 years
later. Again they went into a decline. Or should we say hibernation.
Now, they are at war with us again, strengthened by oil money, a strong belief in
the value of their ideology and a blood-thirsty desire for revenge for defeats.
SAFED: THE FORGOTTEN POGROM OF 1834
Jerrold Sobel writes about one of the pogroms against the Jews of
Safad, Israel, then part of the Ottoman Empire. In 1834 the local Arabs revolted
against Egyptian domination and were ruthlessly savaged. The
rebels then scapegoated the Jews, and for 33 days devastated the Jewish
community, dismembering children, raping men and women, beating them,
plundering their money and slaughtering them.
As Sobel writes,
"...the fact that this pogrom occurred at all flies in the face of
modern Arab propagandists and their sympathizers which claim, if not
for Zionism and the re-creation of the state of Israel, native Jews
and Palestinians existed in harmony for hundreds of years; a
prevarication proven to be without merit." The Jews lived as dhimmis,
"stateless in their own homeland ... easy prey to the whims of local populaces and their leaders."
THE FAILURE OF THE LIBERAL JEWISH ESTABLISHMENT, THEN AND NOW
This article at FresnoZionism reviews how differently the establishment Jewish organizations and the
newly-formed innovative Bergson group worked to save the
lives of European Jews during the Holocaust. The established organizations headed by Rabbi
Stephen S. Wise ignored that Roosevelt was part of the problem
blocking rescue operations and were concerned about protecting
Roosevelt's reputation. Even the news of the ongoing concentration camp
extermination of Jews did not make them change their traditional ways of
dealing with a crisis. FresnoZionism makes the point that these days
too many Jews -- those who support J Street and/or New Israel Fund are an egregious example
-- are more protective of their standing as good liberals than of
Israel's urgent need for all-out support, not lip-service and not
J-Street-style sabotage.
LUBA TRYSZYNSKAS: "THE ANGEL OF BERGEN-BELSEN"
Jerrold Sobel writes about an inmate of the Bergen-Belsen
concentration camp, who took upon herself the responsibility of
keeping alive half a hundred children tossed outside the barracks into
the freezing cold, their parents dead in the gas chamber. She kept
them alive, scraping together food for them and stealing medicine
until the war ended and rescue came.
THE MUNICH MASSACRE - SEPTEMBER 5TH, 1972
This is Mitchell Bard's account of the massacre of Israeli athletes at
the Munich Olympics of 1972 by the PLO "Black September" terrorists
sent on their mission by Yasir Arafat. My own recollection was driving
the car while listening to Peter Jennings and some other newsmen
reporting. The negotiations were finally over and the terrorists and
their Israeli hostages were on their way to the airfield. Things had
calmed down. The reporters could start treating Israel as they usually
did. When talking about Israel and/or the Israeli team, Jennings' tone was supercilious,
pseudo-analytic. In contrast, the terrorists were treated as human
beings; in warmer tones, he absolved them, implying 'the debbil (Israel)
made them do it.' Then came the news that when the German
sharpshooters attacked, the terrorists killed the Jewish athletes. That silenced
Peter Jennings. For a while.
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. September 2011 BLOG-EDS
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JULY-AUGUST, 2011
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WOMEN UNDER SHARIA LAW: THE DILEMMA OF "THE WIFE BEATING PROTOCOL"
This essay discusses a subject ignored when Islam is declared a peaceful
religion: the appalling way the ordinary Muslim -- even a Muslim living
in modern countries -- is conditioned to treat women by the tenets of
Islam. Declaring the man as the supreme arbiter of his household with
unquestioned power to compel obedience may sound something between
quaint and ludicrous, but it isn't funny when we finally understand this
is how the Koran constructed and authorized fundamental relationships in
the Muslim home. Muslim clerics continue to reinforce the idea
that in a well-regulated household men are all-powerful and women
totally subservient. Given that it is an integral part of Islam,
"the position of women is fixed, and rulings, such as the beating of a
wife, must remain in place as specified by the Quran", without hope of
change within the confines of the religion.
RATIONALIZING PEDOPHILIA IN ISLAM
Thanks to Mohammad's example, child marriages to older, even elderly,
men is not unusual in Moslem countries.
More than half the girls in Afghanistan are married by 16, many of them
as young as 9 or 10 and their husbands are old enough to be their
grandfathers. In Nepal, 40% are married by age 15.
Raymond Ibrahim provides us with an excellent example of how to try to
turn a lemon into lemonade Muslim-style: rationalizing
Muhammad's rape of a 9-year old child. The story still leaves a heavily
sour taste. As Ibrahim writes,
"... here we have a cleric straining to finding a positive aspect to
Muhammad's pedophilia — that he was patient and indulgent of his
child-bride — while ignoring the heart of it: that the man Islam
is built around desired to have sex with a child in the first place."
The more we learn, the less do we understand why modern-day Muslim
clerics -- and we aren't talking fringe but respected authoritative mullahs and
politicians -- would insist Muhammad was a perfect man and should be
emulated in all respects.
ISLAM DEMANDS UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER
What's in a name? This essay by Amil Imani makes it clear that in this
war that Islam is waging globally, words count very much and we need to
know their meaning precisely. To start with, Islam does NOT mean
peace; it means surrender. "When radical Muslims behave in
violent barbaric ways, they are only doing so in obedience to the
dictates of their creed. They are surrendering and sacrificing anything
and everything in service to the will and pleasure of Allah..."
Most are imperfect in their dedication most of the time, but the ideology is that
"[i]f only the masses of Muslims arise and carry out the orders of
Allah, then we would have the promised paradise of Islam on earth as
exemplified by such rules as that of the Taliban, Saudi Arabia, the
Sudan, and of course the Shiite nirvana of the Islamic Republic of
Iran."
It's not a mission the rest of us should want to encourage.
STEALTH JIHAD
Andrew McCarthy reminds us that the Islamic takeover of Europe has usually
not been dramatic -- it has come on little cat feet, slowly but
steadily. And when it has dug itself into a place, in what then seems
but an instant it announces that the place is a Muslim enclave, even though it
is in the middle of a European city. As we saw in Israel where Palestinian
Arabs took pot shots at electrical workers come to fix the grid so they
could have electricity, in Europe, police, fire and ambulance workers who
come to rescue people aren't allowed into Muslim-controlled areas. McCarthy tracks for us the
psychotic reasoning engaged in by European politicos and media that
allows them to ignore what is happening to their countries by conjuring
up a fantasy woven around the notion that Islam is peaceful, therefore
the Muslim violence that they are actually seeing must be unreal. And
so the Muslims continue to seal off areas that are, as Sheikh
Yusuf Qaradawi put it, "enclaves that will grow and spread and connect,"
cancerous enclaves that ignore the law of the land and live by sharia.
HOW UNCLEAN WAS MY VALLEY
Lest you think the previous article by Andrew McCarthy applies only to
Europe and a dominating Islam can't possibly skip across the Atlantic,
read this essay by Mark Steyn on what goes on in a public school in
Toronto Canada, a public school where Muslims hold prayer
services during the school day and menstruating girls are segregated
from the other students. The write-up could just as easily come from a
scattering of public schools across the country in the U.S.A. More to
the point, the article is a snapshot at a time after Muslims became
a majority at a school and before they start dictating the
curriculum without interference.
THE FIVE STAGES OF ISLAM
Over the years several studies have correlated the growth of the number
of Muslims in a foreign country and "the transition from conciliatory
Islam to fascist Islam." See e.g. "Crossroads" in the January-February
issue of Think-Israel; and it is a major theme of R.K. Ohri's book "The
Long March of Islam" that we serialized from September-October 2009 to
March-April 2011. This essay by Richard Butrick describes the changes in
the behavior of Muslims as their numbers increase relative to the rest
of the population in a non-Muslim country. While varying
in some
details, the general picture is the same: the Muslims don't want to 'fit
in' or assimilate or just live quietly in their own way. They want to
run the show and won't stop until they do.
HOW ISLAM FASCINATES THE WEST
The previous articles in this set chronicled how Muslims restructure
alien environments to conform to a life style imposed on them by Islam.
This article asks if the reaction of the host culture helps the process,
and, if so, how. This is a fascinating article. I have often wondered
why immigrant groups who are polite and conforming and benefit their new
country find acceptance difficult while immigrant Muslims who are
demanding and unreasonable and tarnished by the brutal terrorism
practiced by their co-religionists have no trouble gaining a foothold.
They may encounter some mumbling resentment but they soon acquire a
multitude of friends in various places who help them gain control of their
environment. Babs Barron suggests the Westerner no longer has a strong
anchor in religion to guide him in making rational judgments. Moreover,
the Westerner is conflicted because his conditioned belief that all life
styles are good forces him to ignore the actuality of the Muslim's blatantly bad
behavior. Extremist Muslim spokesmen are shamelessly insistent,
repeating over and over again that Islam is a peaceful religion -- and
this is said with an intimidating undercurrent: people must concede this
point, or else... the Westerner feel guilty that he can't fully agree,
yet his political philosophy won't let him disagree. Many deal with the
conflict by disabling their knowledge of what is actually happening and
like the members of any cult end up unconditionally accepting Muslim's
dominant voice -- and values.
IRAN: FROM ESCHATOLOGY TO 21ST-CENTURY FOREIGN POLICY
Clare Lopez provides us with a clear-eyed understanding of the medieval
theological underpinnings of Iran's view of its mission in this world.
Its objective is nothing less than "the establishment of an Islamic
state worldwide and subjugation of all people on earth to Sharia, or
Islamic law." She points out that Iran's alliances, her short-term goals
and her foreign policy are derived from and guided by this mission,
making Iran "a serious adversary that poses a grave threat to the
democratic way of life everywhere." In consequence, "U.S. policy
decisions about how to deal with this Iranian regime will be among the
most crucial American leadership must make in the coming months."
Unfortunately, the present Administration shows little appreciation of
what's at stake.
AMERICA'S INTELLIGENCE DENIAL ON IRAN
Observing that the Intelligence Community has never corrected its 2007 estimate that Iran had no nuclear program, Fred Fleitz writes, "One can't underestimate the dangers posed to our country by a U.S. intelligence community that is unable to provide timely and objective analysis of such major threats to U.S. national security — or to make appropriate adjustments when it is proven wrong." Two images come to mind. One, the original Manchurian Candidate movie, which posited that a man likely to become President of the United States could be a Communist mole. As daring as this was, it was beyond imagining that the FBI would have an outreach program to the enemy or that the CIA would buy the enemy time to develop a deadly weapon. The second image is the Iraqi foreign minister, nicknamed Baghdad Bob, denying that Saddam Hussein was in trouble, even though the American troops were at the palace gate.
WILL IRAN'S MULLAHS USE THE BOMB?
The need to deal with Iran's working on a nuclear bomb
has been enmeshed in denials by USA intelligence
agencies, assertions that just another sanction will do the trick,
trivialization, beating down straw men and blasting non-arguments.
Amil Imani warns us that it is a "deadly miscalculation" to ignore what
Iran continues to do in a steady and dedicated manner.
As he says, "What sane person would want to take a chance to wait and
see if the mad Mullahs, once they have the bomb, would use it or not?"
In fact, can we be sure that only Israel is in danger? The rulers of
Iran aren't exactly fond of the USA, either.
UNMASKING THE 'INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY'
When some daft situation arose, people would say, "The loonies are
running the insane asylum." Today, things are much worse as the
undisciplined and corrupt U.N.,
aided and abetted by the European Union and the Obama administration, is moving to run the
world. Last year, when Eye on the UN reported
the new members of various humanitarian and
human rights U.N. committees
(click here), it sounded like a bad joke. Now, as
Caroline Glick informs us, "... UN members elected Qatar President of
the General Assembly and Iran one of the body's vice presidents," and
Iran hosted its first "World Without Terrorism Conference."
Dan Friedman who sent in this article notes that
"no amount of 'reason' can excise the cancer of Jew-hatred
from the body politic once it is allowed to spread. Jew-haters, too,
always have powerful 'reasons' of their own. Today, with a big boost
from Obama, we have passed the point of no return. The onslaught against
the Jews will continue and intensify. That's why it's a privilege to be
the first generation in history to live when the Jewish Nation has the
military prowess to make the insanity of anti-Semitism an unproductive
enterprise. We need to thank our Creator for that. But the drama in the
coming years will be about whether or not Israel has the will to unleash
its deterrence without obtaining anyone else's permission, save G-d's."
ISRAEL, PALESTINE, AND THE PEACE PIETIES
Barbara Lerner summarizes the outrageous demands made of Israel in the
name of peace and in full knowledge that should Israel consent to them,
she would not long survive as a state. Anyone who knows the history and
geography of the region understands that the projected "peace" borders
would be impossible to defend; that allowing others to share control of
Judaism's holy city of Jerusalem is as absurd as demanding that other
religions have partial control of Islam's holy city of Mecca; and that
allowing the putative descendents of the 1948 Arab refugees into Israel
would make the Jews a minority in their own country
overnight. In similar fashion, amputating parts of Israel to create a
Palestinian state would not lead to peace but to a weakened Israel,
while her "peace partners" would -- as they have in Gaza -- acquire more
space and less supervision so that they can more easily train terrorists
and manufacture missiles and explosives.
MAYHEM IN NORWAY
Nidra
Poller asks why Norwegians seem to have been mentally unprepared for a
terrorist attack. The terrorist, Anders Breivik, managed to stalk and
shoot victims for well over an hour before the police finally came.
True, police were busy with the aftermath of his morning attack in the
heart of Oslo. But distraction and confusion is what the terrorists we
know most about -- Arab terrorists -- do. Shouldn't those responsible
for public safety know that? None of the victims, engrossed in play
acting that Israelis are terrorists and the Palestinian Arabs are
innocent lambs, took the initiative in stopping him. Nor did they have
security guards, who need to be prepared for a terrorist attack. Even
though the Norwegians are embroiled in Middle East politics and favor
unfettered Muslim immigration domestically, they acted as if they
themselves were immune to attack from those unhappy with their policies.
In this case, the irritant was Norway's policy of catering to Muslim
immigrants, allowing them to take over neighborhoods and increasingly
demanding their convenience be given consideration over the needs of
Norway's native population. Breivek used the tools and techniques most
used by Muslim terrorists. Will Norway be shocked into understanding
they have been reassigned their role in a world-wide drama -- they have
gone from the serene role of high level decision maker to that of
ordinary victim -- and they can't opt out.
THE "OSLO SYNDROME" AND THE TERROR ATTACK IN NORWAY
With the aid of European admirers, Arab terrorism had the best of all
possible worlds. At the small cost of a few of their children, they
inflicted monstrous and long-lasting physical and psychological damage
on Israelis while their Western admirers rationalized their acts with
the query, "How else can these defenseless people defend themselves?
It's Israel that has the strong military. It's Israel that's in a
position to do the right thing and make concessions." And best of all,
the intellectual "neutrals" such as Norwegian politicos would sprout
legalese, asserting that Israel's response must be proportional, thus
neutralizing Israel's military strengths, while secure in the knowledge
that Israel would never fight Arab-style - slitting throating and
targeting Arab babies isn't their way. What they didn't forsee was that
terrorism was made to seem a most attractive weapon, a weapon whose use
was not restricted to Arabs. As Barry Rubin in this essay
points out that "... terrorism is not an ideology or a movement but
merely a strategy: to murder noncombatants systematically and
deliberately for political ends in order to get your enemy to give up
and your own side to cheer and join up." Monkey see, monkey do. The
Norwegians are now in the unenviable position of seeing one of their own
turn the terror weapon inward.
A REPLY TO AMBASSADOR SEVJE
The Norwegians seem to have no concept of the world-class proxy war
taking place in the Middle East: the Palestinian Arabs, both those
controlled by the Fatah Terror Group and those in Gaza under the
thumb of the less polished Hamas, are the foot soldiers of resurgent
Islam. The terrorist activities they practice in Israel are eventually
emulated and exported. On the other side, Israel, not by its own choice, has been
thrown into the front lines and given the role of defending Western
values of fair play and 'live and let live.' Ironically, some of those
who should be most grateful haven't a clue. One such is
Norway's Ambassador to Israel, Svein Sevje, who condemns
Norwegian terrorism against Norwegians but
condones Arab terrorism against Jews. This
is based, he claims, on Israel's occupation of Arab land.
Wallace Brand responds in this essay with the actual facts about the so-called
Israeli occupation.
GETTING BIRTHRIGHT WRONG
Philip Getz responds to an article called "The Romance of Birthright Israel", in which a young participant trashes the Birthright Israel program, suggesting all sorts of sinister motivations. Getz gets the response just right. He provides us with insight into the narrowed perspectives of pro-palestinian Jews and the preposterous conclusions their adopted ideology can impose. As Getz says, "the only interesting aspect of Feldman's article is how keenly it encapsulates, at its extreme, the syndrome that Birthright was created to combat." One can only hope that someday she will come out of her trance and start using her "Yiddishe kopf."
PEACE AT LAST -- A HARBINGER OF THE IMMEDIATE FUTURE?
Steven Plaut brilliantly describes how Israel can be diplomatically
hounded to its own death by the combined actions of UN diplomats, the
U.S. State Department, and the
tutored and continued riotous demands of the Arabs, whose ranks are
enlarged by useful idiots volunteering to help the Palestinians gain
their rights.
Their clamor is backed by support from "world"
leaders and meets little resistance from
the appeasement mentality of Israeli politicians.
The essay is called satire. In point of fact, it is so close to how the Arabs
under Arafat and Abbas have bargained -- accepting a final agreement one day, using it as
starting point the next -- that the only thing Steven Plaut may have
gotten wrong -- should the Israelis let themselves be snookered into
giving up land -- is the date. He places it in 2013. It could happen in 2012.
'PALESTINE' IN THE LAND OF ISRAEL?
Jerold Auerbach does what shouldn't be necessary -- he reminds the
politicos of the U.N. that its creating a Palestinian State in what was
Mandated Palestine would be illegal. It would violate the U.N.'s own
role as guarantor that what was Mandated Palestine is held in an
irrevocable trust for the Jewish people. Auerbach also explores why
Israel has not made this information generally known. He writes,
contrasting a secular government and more or less religious settlers:
"At best ambivalent - and usually hostile - toward Jews in Judea and
Samaria, government officials have resolutely maintained silence about
the international guarantees for the 'close settlement' of Jews west of
the Jordan River." But that doesn't do away with reality: Israeli
settlements are legitimate because Samaria and Judea belong to Israel.
They are legally Israel's by the same authority that gave the rest of
the Ottoman Middle East to the Arabs. "The Palestinian claim, by
contrast, is a contrived recent invention. ... Devised by Arabs who only
recently identified themselves as 'Palestinians,' it is built on the
foundation of perpetual victimization claims, the international
determination to delegitimize Israel, and - perhaps most revealing - the
pillaging of Jewish and Zionist history." Annexation by Israel of at
least pieces of Samaria and Judea is a low-keyed but necessary solution.
THE TWO-STATE "SOLUTION": AROUND THE WORLD AND IN HISTORY
Steven Kruger puts into perspective the bizarre notion that Jewish land
can and should accommodate another state. Of interest is the emphasis
given in the article to God's promise to the Jewish people, and how it
is ignored by Israel's secular government. "Instead of declaring and
enforcing the rights of Jews, the government of Israel continues the
touchy-feely policy toward Arabs put in place by left-wing Jews in
Mandatory Palestine after World War I." Conversely, Kruger puts little
faith in promises made by secular organizations or in the integrity or
fairness of what is euphemistically called 'the international
community'. He points out that
"[i]f implemented, the two-state 'solution' would find a vulnerable Land of Israel, hemmed by an irrational border, and surrounded by a post-Mubarak Egypt, a Hamas-controlled Aza, a post-Abbas 'Palestine,' an Assad-controlled Syria, and a Hezbollah-controlled Lebanon."
He rejects this suicidal solution in favor of a 22-state
solution, one Jewish, the others Arab.
ARABS IN ISRAEL
If you visit Israel convinced that it keeps its Arabs fearful and
oppressed, it will come as a shock to see Arabs walking with ease in all
the parks and gardens and malls all over the country. The converse is not true. It is the Jews who are
bullied. It is the Jews who are fearful of going into places they will
be surrounded by an Arab crowd. Driving a car on a highway when
'prankish' Arab teenagers gather to pelt cars with rocks has become an
unsolicited adventure. Jews have learned to stay out of Arab villages,
where the inhabitants can suddenly become violent. Jews routinely have
their cars stolen, their herds stolen, their orchards burned, their
olive trees uprooted. When Israel reclaimed eastern Jerusalem in 1968
after Jordan and Egypt failed their second try at destroying Israel,
Israel foolishly did not eject the Arabs who were squatting in the homes
of Jews that Jordan had evicted in 1948. It now requires protracted legal
battles to reclaim the Jewish houses one at a time, while the Arabs
illegally take State land wholesale and built illegally without official
protest. To add to the injury: the probability is that the police and
the judiciary will ignore or minimize the damage that the Arabs do. Zvi
November paints an accurate picture of Arabs in Israel, not forgetting
to write about those -- number unknown -- who genuinely appreciate
living in Israel. In general, however, the Arabs enjoy both the medical,
educational and psychological benefits of living in Israel and the
pleasure of playing victim to convince easily-gulled Westerners they are
the suffering victims of Israeli inhumanity.
THE JEWISH WAY IN WAR
For many years now, the IDF has not emphasized that its primary mission is to defend Israel. It has fought wars as if a major objective was to avoid raising the ire of hostile politicians and media. In Jenin when they hunted for terrorists, they were scrupulous about not injuring Arab women and children, at the cost of 23 soldiers dying, most of them lured into booby traps by the same children they were protecting from harm. In the Gaza campaign, they avoided wholesale shooting at groups that were shielding the terrorists. They have gone to absurd lengths, including announcing they were coming, so that the most that could be accomplished was the destruction of an empty building. Given the anti-Israel feeling the Arabs have successfully generated, their scruples have bought them nothing, not even a pat on the back from a hostile press. And isn't it immoral for the IDF to have valued the lives of an enemy that started the war and will not stop warring above the lives of its own people? Elliot Jager examines the question of morality when the enemy has no scruples. This is a thoughtful examination of the Jewish concepts of fighting a war. Jager cites the political philosopher Asa Kasher who "believes that Israel has a front-line role in helping the enlightened world develop the legal and moral tools to confront the scourge of terrorism." READ MORE
BUILDING THE LAND OF ISRAEL ONE TREE AT A TIME
The previous essay described how well Israeli Arabs are treated in
Israel and how they have responded. This essay looks at Arab behavior
from the point of view of the Israeli, who sees the Arabs grabbing land
and creating enclaves that keep out Jews. Josh Hasten's
writes of an interview with Nadia Matar, a remarkable woman who heads
Women in Green (WIG), a group that understands that if Israel is to be
Jewish, Jews must be able to go anywheres in their own land, without
fear and without restriction. Specifically, WIG works to keep a presence
on land that is stealthily being taken over by Arabs (who of course instantly
claim they've been in that place since ancient times). As a personal
anecdote, on a trip to Samaria and Judea with the AFSI group, we drove
to an army base that had been evacuated without notice and without
concern that letting it be taken over by the local Arabs would put the
surrounding Jewish villages in jeopardy. The army's advice to the Jews
was: stay out of the way of the Arabs. Avoid trouble. WIG was there,
saying by their actions: this is our country and we won't give up an
inch. If Israel survives its current appeasement mentality, it will
in large measure be due to patriots like Nadia and the Women in Green.
HOW TO HANDLE THE PALESTINIAN ARAB PROBLEM
In this essay, Yoram Ettinger first lays out the problem. The problem is that the
problem has been misstated as one of Arab concern for the Palestinian
Arab, when in point of fact the Arab states make use the Palestinian
Arabs as supposed victims, but care nothing about them. Were Israel to
disappear tomorrow and the Palestinian Arabs take all the land they
claim as theirs, it wouldn't make a dent in the disarray and potential
disasters in the Middle East. That being said, Ettinger suggests how
Israel should be reacting, specifically with subduing Palestinian Arab
terrorism, and, more generally, how to do the necessary and not be
inhibited by fear of foreign repercussions.
JERUSALEM DAY: TODAY AND 1948
The Hadar-Israel Organization reminds us of the last time that Israel
was divided. It happened just after Israel became a state in 1948. Her
neighbors invaded the new-born state intent on destroying it. They
didn't succeed but Jordan took over the eastern section of Jerusalem,
kicked out or killed all the Jews, destroyed the synagogues and
installed Arabs in the Jewish houses. It wasn't until 1967 that Israel
reclaimed that part of Jerusalem the Arabs had started calling East
Jerusalem and claiming they had lived there since time immemorial.
The photographs speak for themselves.
OBAMA'S EAST JERUSALEM STANCE REWARDS 1948 ETHNIC CLEANSING
The previous article recorded that the Jews were forced out of their homes in
the Eastern part of Jerusalem in 1948. This article by Omri
Ceren follows up on a major consequence. As he writes:
"But because they [the Jordanians] succeeded in doing that [occupying
Jerusalem] for almost 20 whole years
— in
contrast to 1,000 years of continuous Jewish life — the Obama
administration insists that the Jewish State needs to cede portions of
East Jerusalem to a future Palestinian entity on demographic grounds.
Very even-handed!"
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. |
|
MAY-JUNE, 2011
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AL-QAEDA: THE NEXT GENERATION
Osama bin Ladin was often portrayed as the linch pin of terrorism. Knock
him out and his terror organization and his affiliates would crumble. So
there was much joy when the Navy Seals assassinated him, as if all would
soon be well.
Unfortunately, Arab terrorism won't just disappear. Praveen Swami writes
realistically about the next generation of jihadists ready and eager to
perform acts of terror in Pakistan and Iraq and endanger other
countries in the region.
AL QAEDA'S NEXT WAVE OF TERROR
Daniel Greenfield projects what we can expect next of al-Qaeda's in the
U.S.A. He points out that "[w]hile Americans are still thinking in terms
of 9/11, the terrorists themselves have already moved on to the next
phase of terror." It might be another Twin-Tower size spectacular
disaster but it is more likely to be "lone wolf" operations performed by
insurgents bred locally. It is also likely that the strategy will be
more subtle: "the 'Muslim extremists' carry out the violence, while the
'moderate Muslims'" encourage us to try harder to appease the terrorists.
INTIMIDATION
Intimidation as a planned prelude to war, is not unique to Islam. But,
as Michael Anbar points out, it is "an integral part of Islam" and an
important technique in the continuing jihad against the infidel, no
matter which political Muslim group, no matter how the groups differ in
ideological nuances. In the USA, "while Muslims constitute about 1% of
the American population, they contribute 80% of the Home Grown
Terrorism." Anbar traces the de facto alliances between Islamic
aggressors and Western appeasers that cut Kosovo out of Serbia and now
threatens to amputate Israel and weaken America.
AN UNHOLY MARRIAGE
David Solway examines why young Westerns of the liberal persuasion dote
on the Palestinian Arabs. He suggests that in addition "to ancestral
hostility to Jews," it is "an explosive mixture of immaturity,
ignorance, and surrender of the will, leavened by the illusion of noble
self-sacrifice to a higher cause." Dedicated to the Palestinian cause,
they blame Israel for all the ills that beset the Arabs. It says
something that they are undeterred in their ardor even though Arabs frequently rape and
kill their dedicated admirers, use them as shields in dangerous
situations and have radically different ideas on how to treat
homosexuals and women.
HOW SUPPORTERS OF PALESTINIAN TERRORISM ARE MURDERED AND RAPED BY THEIR PALESTINIAN SPONSORS
The previous essay examined the Leftist-Muslim bonding. asking why the
Leftists accept Muslim ideology, which negates their
own belief system in many important ways. In this essay, Steven Plaut discusses the hazards of
the relationship that the western participants willfully ignore when
entering the blood-lust Arab culture, thus endangering themselves. How long
can they keep blaming Israel to avoid viewing their Arab friends
realistically? How long will it be before they understand they are
being duped by the western Marxists such as the International Solidarity
Movement (ISM), who are using them unscrupulously?
WERE CONQUERED CHRISTIANS REALLY LIBERATED MUSLIMS?
Raymond Ibrahim writes about Fadel Soliman, an expert who lectures
non-Muslims -- churches, universities, the U.S. Dept of Defense -- about Islam.
It is historical fact that the Egyptian Copts are descendents of the original Egyptians, but
Soliman inverts the historical record and claims they are actually
Muslims that Islam
is now liberating. Soliman's reasoning is as
fictitious as the Muslim claim that Jesus was a Palestinian because
he was born in Judea, which the British -- centuries later, and
imitating the Romans -- labeled
'Palestine' in pre-World War 1. A while later, the Arab immigrants
began calling themselves Palestinian. We should heed
Ibrahim's conclusion:
"whether Muslims consciously deceive infidels or unconsciously deceive themselves, the goal has long been one: empowering Islam and its adherents — reality be damned."
COMPASSION - ISLAMIC REPUBLIC STYLE
Amil Imani tells us about an Iranian woman, whose crime was that she was
of the Baha'i religion and an agent of the Big Satan and Small Satan,
the USA and Israel. Despite the seriousness of these charges, the
Iranian government was compassionate. They "...didn't hang the
severely-beaten incapacitated woman who was unable to walk to the
gallows to be hanged. They simply dumped her in the streets to suffer a
painful slow death for every day of her remaining life."
PALESTINIANS SHOW CONCERN FOR THEIR LAND BY POLLUTING THE WATER SUPPLY
Ari Bussel writes about how the Palestinian arabs and their foreign
friends continue to contrast Israel's water usage (as shown by their
gorgeous produce) and the Arab's water deprivation. The pro-arab
propagandists willfully ignore that the Jews conserve, reuse and
innovate to get the most of each drop of water. They ignore that the
Arabs pollute the water supply, dig illegal wells, sell the water and
steal the cement used to reinforce the dams and wells.
Relying on the typical reader's ignorance, they contrast the lush banana
plantations and the pitiful village arabs, sluggish, dirty, and deprived of
water.
THE KEYSTONE OF THE ISLAMIC MILIEU: INBREEDING
I first heard of the high degree of inbreeding among Arabs from an Israeli
nurse who mentioned that most of her hospital's child-care budget went on treatment for
the Arab children. They required expensive treatment such as
kidney dialysis. When I asked why, she said, "they marry cousins. We beg
them not to, but they do anyways." But until the article by Anne
Barnhardt, the societal costs hadn't occurred to me. Especially when
religion, family and tribal custom encourage a high degree of sustained inbreeding
over many generations. It also raises the question: why should Israel
take on the costly burden of care for the hostile group of Arab immigrants
who are now called "Palestinians",
when the Arab countries have the money and the kinship, and bear the guilt
of creating the refugee status of so many of the Palestinian Arabs.
NAKBACIDE
When it's the end of another Nakba day of mass mourning over fictitious
pasts, when the posing is over and the screamed-out throats are hoarse
and the scorched tires are cooling, what's been accomplished? Daniel
Greenfield says that what "these Arabs really want is to rehash
grievances and sullenly plot another genocide, instead of coming to
terms with the consequences of their own actions." And so they continue
to respond "with obstinate treachery and violence at every turn."
Labile, malleable, enjoying a good slaughter, they are type-cast to riot
when told and play victim to perfection. But these aren't the qualities
that make good citizens in a democratic state.
THE STORY OF ARAB APARTHEID
The official version of the relationship between the Arab countries and
the local arabs that became refugees when the Arab countries invaded the
new-born State of Israel is that the Arabs grieve so for their
"Palestinian" cousins, they can't make peace with Israel until the
Palestinian Arabs are settled. It is rarely mentioned that these
self-same Arab countries have refused to assimilate the Arab refugees
but, like picking on an infected sore, they keep the sore from healing.
As one example, remember the Gaza Flotilla wanted to bring in cement
that could be used to build bunkers but Israel only allows the import
into Gaza of cement that is non-military. Some Arab countries don't
allow the refugees to have any cement! Of course, all these restrictions
by the Arab countries are intended to keep the refugees looking pathetic
and oppressed. How do they do this? It's called apartheid -- you know,
what they accuse Israel of doing. Israel, which gave the local Arabs
their first schools of higher education, Israel, which keeps alive Arab
children that would have previously died. Israel which gives jobs and
hope to the Arabs, who are so appreciative, they celebrate whenever a
Jew is massacred.
THE NAKBA CONCENTRATES ISRAELI MINDS
The dead-serious theatrics of Nakba has one virtue. As does the
announcement that Hamas and Fatah have patched up their differences and
are loving brothers again, the twisted logic of blaming Israel for Arab
homelessness and the increased audacity of Arab attacks on Nakba day are
forcing Israelis to shed their illusion that they can buy peace if they
just pay enough in land and keep pumping up the Arab economy in Samaria
and Judea. The local arabs have been conditioned to believe the fiction
that they are 'Palestinians' and that Israel is occupying 'Palestine',
their land. So it is not surprising that their solution -- typically Arab --
is to destroy Israel.
THE HUNGER TO COME IN EGYPT
While most discussions of Egypt's future revolve around the question:
will she or won't she be taken over by ..... (fill in the blank),
Spengler asks: given that half of Egypt's million people live on less
that $2 a day and given that half of her wheat is imported and given
that prices will likely go up markedly, will Egypt be able to feed her
populace and rein in discontent, whichever party is in power?
As Spengler notes, famine kills. Big time.
THE HASHEMITES IN PALESTINE: A ROYAL
SCAM THAT KEEPS ON SCAMMING
Despite the
ancient-sounding name, the Hashamite kingdom didn't come into being
until 1922, when Great Britain pulled one of its own scams and gave most
of the land that was to be held for a Jewish state to their Hashamite
allies 'to administrate'. As time went on, the
virtual government was accepted as real. When Jordan invaded Israel in
1948, "...east Jerusalem was restored to rubble. Jewish shrines and
cemeteries were sacked, torched, and defiled." Jordan kicked out the
Jews and gave their houses to Arabs, most of whom (or their descendants)
still live in these house as "squatters", paying no rent, because the
Israeli government made no attempt to reclaim Jewish property when it
defeated Jordan yet again in 1967, when Jordan yet again invaded Israel.
Whenever Jews try to reclaim their property, the sobsisterhood writes
sadly how Jews are invading East Jerusalem and attempting to take
over Arab property. Ruth King chronicles the fantasy history of
(trans)Jordan, which ignores that "Jordan is a Palestinian Arab state,
occupied and ruled by a Hashemite minority." There is no reason that the
local Arabs need to steal Biblical Israel to have a state of their own.
They already have one -- Jordan As for the current Jordanian King, the
future doesn't look rosy.
THE UN VOTE ON A PALESTINIAN STATE
As Herbert London points out, the upcoming vote in the U.N. "to create a
Palestinian state through political mandate" has little to do with
concern about the Palestinian Arabs. It has much to do with Islam's
ambition to conquer the West. Tiny Israel is rightly perceived as "the
bulwark in the war with jihadists." Weakening Israel weakens the West.
The Palestinian issue is best perceived as a "tactical instrument" in
the long-range, long-term plan to spread Sharia law throughout the
world.
A CONSPIRACY OF SILENCE IN ISRAEL
With the collapse of the Soviet Union, the conventional wisdom
was that Israel was no longer of use to the United States. Given that
the USA needed Arab oil and given the propensity of the US State Dept to
favor Arabs anyway, the future looked gloomy. How wrong the prediction
was. Putting aside that Israel is America's only reliable friend and
ally in the entire Middle East and ignoring the contributions Israel
makes in general to the betterment of humanity, Israel's intelligence
gathering and technological brilliance are priceless assets for the
U.S.A. Professor Paul Eidelberg summarizes some of them.
THE IDF, BRITAIN AND AFGHANISTAN
Many remember Colonel Richard Kemp's courageous defense of Israel's
fighting force during the Cast Lead operation, when they entered Gaza to
weed out the terrorists that were shelling Israel's civilians. At
the time, primed by the Goldstone Committee's vicious attack on the
IDF, it seemed the entire media was vociferously accusing Israel of war crimes,
while ignoring the real war criminals: the Arab terrorists and their
state sponsors. Since then, Goldstone has admitted his assessment of the
IDF was dead wrong, and Colonel Kemp's judgment is shown to be accurate.
This is an amplification of his take on the IDF as a model on how to
fight Islamic terrorism.
THE BÖRNE IDENTIFICATION
Sarah Honig writes about the pervasive self-deception of too many
Israelis -- that they could buy peace with their implacable enemies by giving
them Jewish land. The final blow came when the terrorist Arab groups
inhabiting Samaria-Judea and Gaza stopped playing good terrorists and bad
terrorists and made it clear that they are cut from the same
cloth. They have the same objective -- to wipe out Israel. They differ
only in the thickness of the decorous veneer that covers their violence.
THE IMPERATIVE OF JEWISH SOVEREIGNTY
Moshe Dann points out that "Sovereignty, the ability of a government to act independently and in its own interests, is the essence of statehood."
As he says,
"Declaring JEWISH sovereignty clearly and unequivocally will correct
the distortion and misunderstanding of those who ignore or deny Jewish
history and international law grounded in the League of Nations and in
its Mandate for Palestine." "It is a statement of affirmation, not apology — of commitment, not appeasement."
TIME TO ANNEX JUDEA AND SAMARIA?
John Hinderaker points out that annexing Judea and Samaria would
"entirely moot the idea of an independent Palestinian state, not just
deter the U.N. from supporting one for the moment." An excellent reason
for openly claiming land that actually belongs to Israel by
international law. [google for "howard grief", "yoram shifftan,"
"wallace brand" and "san remo" on Think-Israel for the relevant
information.] It is a propitious moment because the "Palestinians" are
asking the U.N. to magically give them a state out of land that isn't
theirs. In doing so, they acknowledge that Oslo is dead -- another
experiment based on the wrong assumptions and propelled by hope rather
than logic is over.
RULES AND GUIDELINES FOR WESTERNERS REPORTING ON THE MIDDLE EAST
This article should be required reading by anyone and everyone exposed
to the Main Stream Media (MSM). Using the guise of instructing the MSM
how to write a story about the Jews and Arabs in the Middle East (ME), Edgar Davidson
brilliantly alerts us to almost every ratty trick the MSM uses in
distorting events in the ME and attempting to engender sympathy for the Arabs, no matter how obscene their behavior.
IS THE HISTORY OF JIHAD A MATTER OF INTERPRETATION?
Using the history of Jihad as the particular area of inquiry. Richard
Shulman writes about a general issue: how factual is history? Data are
often missing when most needed. Drawing conclusions from the
available data is not a routine procedure; it is, to a degree, an art
influenced by personal and institutional attitudes. The growing belief
in the moral equivalence of all cultures does not counter the bias
introduced by personal values. When the reality of evil is denied,
implications that would stem from acknowledging that a particular
society is fundamentally evil are also ignored. Historic Islamic Jihad,
with its current emphasis on destroying Israel, is a rich lode, where we
can mine material on how Islam imbues its followers with a insatiable
desire to conquer the peoples of the world -- "by arms, diplomacy,
deception, enslavement, rape, castration, propaganda, infiltration,
intimidation, civil disobedience, abuse of Western law and tolerance,
and elections." It is also a case study in how historians sympathizing
with the Arab cause have dishonored their profession by distorting the
facts, and, in some instances, inventing them. The Western notion that
basically we're all fair-minded and tolerant is not only not true
but shields the Westerner from clearly perceiving the horrors
perpetrated by the Arab invaders, directly guided by the tenets of their
religion. This is an important essay, both for it general applicability
and its specific analysis of jihad.
CHANGING THE LANGUAGE OF PUBLIC DISCOURSE
Professor Paul Eidelberg boldly starts this essay this way:
"Israel is trapped in the defeatist and self-effacing rhetoric of
contemporary public discourse." He goes on to prove his point, and
suggests some ways and means for improving Israel's Hasbara. He
beautifully sums up what Israel really needs:
"The one thing lacking in Israel is a goal that systematically invigorates the nation's collective memory and political creativity, that enhances her identity as the world's one and only Jewish commonwealth — the nation that gave mankind the Book of Books, the Torah. Yes, it was the Torah that liberated men and nations from idolatry and paganism. It was the Torah, by its lapidary sentence in Genesis that man is created in the Image of God that elevated humanity and proclaimed the moral unity of the human race denied by Islam. This should be Israel's message, conveyed quietly, as on cat's paws."
SWEET REVENGE; OHR'S BAT MITZVAH
What the previous essay by Professor Eidelberg proposes for public
information and education, many Israelis are already practicing in their
own lives: they are proudly living as Torah-observant Jews in their own
Land, and have no intention of voluntarily giving up an inch of it. Some
of them have weathered the trauma of being kicked out by their own
government from their homes and businesses in Neve Dekalim, Gaza, and
receiving inadequate support from their own government to rebuild
their lives. But
their Faith sustains them and many are rebuilding their lives now in
Samaria and Judea mainly by their own efforts. Rachel Saperstein and her
husband Moshe are two of these remarkable people. As she says,
"we become stronger as we produce children who are clever, decent,
happy and kind. What sweet revenge!"
ADL AND NJDC: OBAMA'S ANTI-ISRAEL GARBAGE DOESN'T STINK
We're beginning to be able to spot a Jewish anti-Jew -- the one who uses
his Jewish identity to help his real friends -- anyone who hates Israel.
Professor Steven Plaut has been tracking the spoor of this creature for
years, particularly in his academic lairs. In this essay, Bill Levinson
describes a more subtle version of the species -- the polite member of
an authentic Jewish organization, who -- were we to follow his
mealy-mouth advice -- would lead us into catastrophe as quickly and
thoroughly as if we followed the advice of the International Solidarity Movement.
While we're at it, why does AIPAC work for yet another Arab state, this
one inside/next to/around/splitting Israel? Doesn't it understand such a state, either controlled
by Fatah or Hamas or directly by Iran, would be sitting on Israel's main
supply of water?
Shooting planes landing at Ben Gurion would be duck soup. And
they wouldn't need long-range missiles to damage Israel's compact
population centers. Whatever is AIPAC thinking?
FARHUD: A SLAUGHTER IN IRAQ
Lyn Julius writes frequently of the violent expulsion in the 1940s-50s of Jews from Arab
countries, where in many cases, the Jews had lived there long before the
Arab invasion. In this essay, she writes of the farhud (violent dispossession), the
pogrom against the Jews in Baghdad, Iraq, on June 1-2, 1941.
The Farhad may have been for Sephardic Jews what Kristallnacht was for
German and Europeans Jews -- a clear sign that Jews would be increasing
targeted for expulsion and/or extinction. Both were the creation of Nazi
anti-semitism. As Julius remarks, "The Farhud cemented a wartime
Arab-Nazi alliance designed to rid Palestine, and the world, of the
Jews." The aftermath in both cases was similar --
a Nazi pattern of victimisation - dismantlement, dispossession and
expulsion. Nuremberg-style laws criminalised Zionism, freezing Jewish
bank accounts, instituting quotas and restrictions on jobs and
movement."
Aside from the Jews killed during the years of unrest, nearly a million
Jews were forced to flee from the Arab countries. Unlike the Arabs who
fled Israel in 1948 and became permanent refugees, most of the Jews who fled the
Arab countries were absorbed by Israel as full-fledged citizens.
PRESIDENT TRUMAN'S DECISION TO RECOGNIZE ISRAEL
In 1948, when Israel became a State, the then American President, Harry Truman,
recognized it despite the opposition of the U.S. State Dep't and the
Secretary of State, George Marshall. Truman was helped in coming to this
decision and holding steadfast
by Clark Clifford, who has written this memoir of the events at the time.
WE HAVE RETURNED TO THE TEMPLE MOUNT
Professor F.M. Loewenberg provides us with a survey of the Jewish
presence on the Jerusalem Temple Mount from the destruction of the
Second Temple (70 CE) until the Six Day War (1967), when on June 7,
1967, Israel took possession as owner of this, its Holiest Site.
It is widely believed that the Jews were driven from Jerusalem by
Hadrian and didn't return until modern times. As Loewenberg shows, there
was a Jewish presence throughout the centuries, no matter how
brutally they were treated by whoever possessed the city at the time.
It is ironic that, when in June 1967, the Jews reclaimed their
inheritance, Moshe Dayan put the Arabs in charge of the Temple Mount,
hence Jews still do not have free access to pray ON the Mount,
as well as at the Western Wall.
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. |
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MARCH-APRIL, 2011
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BETWEEN CAESAR, GOD AND ALLAH
Unlike Judaism, both Christianity and Islam theologically "denigrate
life on earth as a mere transient form of existence on the way to an
ethereal existence." Edward Cline observes that Christianity evolved
over the centuries and life on earth became significant in its own
right, allowing a concern for individual rights and earthly benefits
to develop. In contrast, except in small heresies, Islam believes a
complete and irrevocable system for living and a perfect model --
Mohammad -- for practicing the perfect system were concurrently
revealed. Sharia law can not be reinterpreted. So it has no way to
crack the shell or to evolve. This is too alien for the Westerner with
his mental separation of Church and State for him fully to understand
and therefore adequately rebut Islam's belief in its right to reign supreme.
THE PRINCIPLE OF ABROGATION IN THE QURAN
This essay by Michael Mannheimer provides us with an excellent
explanation why -- despite the systematic preaching of violence by
scholarly imams who back up their harangues with deep and precise
nowledge of the Koran -- many Westerners have been taught to believe
Islam is a religion of peace. As a reader of the original article
noted, "Islam is a form of Machiavellian schizophrenia that provides
the maximum range of advantages for empowering its believers to
dominate and rule the world in the name of their deity." Another
reader summed it this way, "Islam is a rigged game that has no
compunction about being immoral, unethical or entirely arbitrary just
so long as it confers maximum advantage upon Muslims who perpetuate
jihad."
SLAVERY IN ISLAM
As Amil Imani points out, "Islam incorporated slavery and much of the
ethos of the culture of its birthplace," "the Arabian peninsula of the
seventh century AD, known for its primitive beliefs and savage
practices." Slavery was not unique to Islam when the Quran was
written, but because each word of the Quran is considered immutable,
Islam can not reform itself as other societies that once allowed
slavery have done. Actual slavery exists. And lesser degrees of lack
of freedom are institutionalized. As example, "[f]reedom of assembly,
expression, and worship is either denied or severely restricted in
every Islamic country." Jews and Christians are more or less tolerated
as dhimmis, with sporadic pogroms and institutionalized humiliation;
members of other religions are treated with a complete lack of respect
for their human rights aand ordinary needs. Similarly, in keeping with
the Quran, women can only be considered chattel. The dismal truth is
there is no hope in expecting Islam to treat other religions and
cultures with respect because Muslims who genuinely practice tolerance
are violating the Quran.
MUSLIM JIHAD IN CHRISTIAN ETHIOPIA: LESSONS FOR THE WEST
The recent attacks by the Muslims in Ethiopia against the indigenous
Christians has implications even --- or perhaps especially -- for
secular countries where Islam is still a minority. Raymond Ibrahim
writes that the rampage that destroyed Christian churches and homes
started because the Koran was supposedly desecrated. Yet the continued
desecration of the Bible that is sanctioned by Muslim clerics is
ignored by the media and Western politicians. Ibrahim points out that
Muslim violence increases when the Muslim population in the host
country becomes significant, a point stressed by R.K. Ohri in his
book, The Long March of Islam, which we have been serializing.
The latest and last chapter is
here. We might also note that Muslim rage doesn't just bring
grief to the local Christians. It helps condition the leaders of the
West to accept that the best way to get along with immigrant Muslims
is to appease them and cater to their ever-growing list of whims, even
at the cost of reducing the freedom of expression and speech
guaranteed to Westerners in their own countries.
THE MUSLIM TERRORIST WAR AGAINST ISRAELI FAMILIES
It gave Daniel Greenfield no pleasure to describe enough cases of dead
Jews so that we would begin to have a glimmer of the extent of the
Arab indulgence in brutality, the Arab joy in slaughtering Jewish
families, the Arab love of their death cult and the Arab cowardice
that makes them prefer stabbing Jewish woman and smashing in the heads
of Jewish children to facing a soldier with a gun. Until recently,
there have been few pictures showing the scene of a bomb explosion or
the aftermath of snipers shooting at cars traveling on the highway. It
wasn't respectful of the dead. It isn't. But we owe it to ourselves to
begin to understand that Muslims steeped in the Koran and its
teachings are not like us. They don't want what we want. They never
will.
TERRY JONES, HIS CRITICS, AND ISLAM
So many people are angry at Terry Jones. The
prevailing attitude is: had he not burned a Koran, the people who
were killed by Muslims on a rampage would be alive today.
Unfortunately, this ignores that desecrating a Bible leads to no
retribution even though Muslim clerics encourage their flocks to use
it as toilet paper. Why should we excuse Muslim violence because a
Koran is burned? Isn't the burning just another pretext to increase
the stranglehold of sharia law on non-Muslims? Almost certainly,
Western apologists will suggest we try harder to be good neighbors,
practice self-censorship, and curtail our own freedom of speech and
expression so as not to rile up the Muslims. The problem with always
worrying you might offend the Muslims is you become a virtual dhimmi
and the Muslims are controlling your life as effectively as if you
lived in a Muslim country under threat of losing a hand or your head
for wrong thinking and non-Sharia-conforming behavior. Jack Kerwick
explains the nuances ignored in the bald tale of an act by someone
that caused death and destruction thousands of miles away. Additional
material by Bill Warner and Richard Swier is also presented.
THE SHARIAH THREAT
Kathy Jessup provides us with various examples of how sharia law
operates. What is nervous-making is that these incidences happened
here in the States, not in a Muslim country. Yet our mental set that
we could never be enveloped by an alien culture continues to impede
our ability to take Sharia infiltration as seriously as we should. We
think it too impossible. Perhaps Jessup's explanation of what
sharia is and does will help dispel the illusion that we are safe from
it. Perhaps we will finally acknowledge that like hungry termites, it
is nibbling away at our institutions and infrastructure.
AMERICA: BEWARE GIVING IN TO THE FALSE CONCEPT OF ISLAMOPHOBIA
A half century ago, if you had no real facts, you could always stop
your opponent cold by calling him a Communist. Later you could effect
the same result by calling your opponent a racist. Over the years it's
become apparent that racism isn't restricted to the white redneck; it
can come angry and vicious from any group. That is starting to take
the magic out of the 'you're a racist' mantra. Islamophobia
seems to be in the running for the new magic weapon -- utter it and
your opponent turns to stone and is left without a suitable retort.
Phyllis Chesler explains that it works this way: the assertion by the
newly-created people, the Palestinians, that they own the ancient land
of Israel "has morphed into a belief that all Muslims — who are,
themselves, the largest practitioners of religious apartheid in the
world, and who persecute all non-Muslims — are, as Muslims, being
persecuted in the West." Given the fact that Jews are subjected to
hate crimes 8 times as often as Muslims -- and often it is the Muslim
committing the hate crime against the Jew -- the Muslims are not the
ones that should realistically be fearing violence against them. But
they do play victim well. They act the role so well that any
interpretation except theirs is automatically discredited as further
evidence of a phobia directed against Muslims.
A LETTER TO G-D
There are many facets to the Jewish view of God.
He is Master, we are his Servants. We don't eat pig or shellfish not
because they are risky disease-wise but because He said 'Don't'. In
this essay Ted Roberts writes of another important relationship: we
don't just have the ability to make requests of God. We find it just
fine to talk to Him, even to argue with Him, and lecture Him on what
He could have done better. So next time someone starts talking
Theology, where all matters are reduced to the same multisyllabic
sameness that concludes that all monotheistic religions are the same,
tell them about this essay. What religion except Judaism makes it a
virtue to argue with God? In fact, there's one Midrash where the Sages
were arguing a point among themselves and God wanted to join in. The
Rabbis told Him to butt out.
SHALHEVET - 10 YEARS LATER: AN INTERVIEW WITH YITZHAK PASS
That most cowardly of acts -- putting a 10-month old infant in the
crosshairs of a sniper's gun and deliberately pulling the trigger. An
appalling yet routine act of Arab terrorism. Did the Jews of Hebron
take up arms and avenge this ugly act? Maybe they should have. But
they didn't. They made Shalhavet a living presence by writing a Torah
scroll in memory of her life and opening a Torah study hall. She
became part of their dedication to redeem Jewish Land. Shalhavet's
parents picked themselves up and reconstructed a warm and loving
family, one that is haunted by bittersweet memories. The family is
clear-eyed about Arab hatred of Jews but not consumed by hate
themselves. David Wilder interviews Shalhavet's father ten years
later.
RECAPTURING ROOTS; FLASHBACKS AND AFTER SHOCKS
Rachel Saperstein and her husband Moshe lived in Neve Dekalim, Gaza,
until 2005, when they, together with thousands of other Jews were
kicked out of their Paradise by Israeli politicos, who saw this
destruction of an unique group of patriotic and productive citizens
as a sure-fire way to realize peace with the Arabs. So it was that
these talented Jews of Gaza, who created hothouses and grew organic
vegetables that were eagerly bought in foreign markets and who
invented ways to grow crops on land that had been dead for hundreds of
years suddenly found themselves refugees in their own country. Many
of them were traumatized, but many, like Rachel and Moshe,
even though they lived in trashy trailers and suffered from the
incompetence of the Government bureaucrats that were supposed to help
them resettle, have taken charge of their lives and are rebuilding in
the Terroritories. They may be bitter that the Government's folly has predictably
brought sustained violence rather than peace, but they continue to
condition their environment to make it again possible to live ordinary
Jewish lives under continued wartime conditions.
THE PALESTINIAN UN GAMBLE - IRRESPONSIBLE AND ILL-ADVISED
This is a succinct presentation of some consequences, should the
Palestinian Arabs ask the U.N. to declare (some, much, all) of Samaria
and Judea and possibly Gaza an Arab state, thus abrogating the Oslo
Accords. Alan Baker notes that this action would void the Palestinian
Authority's legal existence. (Does that matter if they shift to being
the government of a state?) It would simultaneously release Israel of
its contractual agreements. (But would Israel suddenly have the will
and the resources to stand up to the global community in the person of
the U.N.?) Baker is also concerned that this unilateral bid for
statehood would do harm to the credibility of the U.N. (I wasn't aware
it had any.) What makes this essay of particular interest is that
Baker helped draft the contract agreements of the Oslo Accords, which
was the start of the steep gradient on which Israel slid down into the
mess it is in.
THE U.N. CHARTER DOES NOT SUPPORT GENERAL ASSEMBLY RESOLUTIONS
In keeping with its way of never getting together in a timely fashion
information that will be needed to prove or contest some point likely
to be raised by its enemies, Israel seems to have just discovered
General Assembly (GA) Resolution 377. #377 might be the magic mantra
the GA needs to bypass the Security Council (SC) and give the
Palestinian Authority a State. Currently, the international community
is obliged to support SC rulings and carry out SC sanctions;
resolutions passed by the GA have no legal standing. Member states not on
the Security Council would like to change that. They would like the
status of GA resolutions to change so that they are not
recommendations but enforceable commands. Eli Hertz provides us with
an understanding of how U.N. members hope to make the SC subject to
the GA by using the purported power and "interpretations" of the
International Court of Justice, and why this is not within their
authority. Of course, it hasn't been too hard in the past for the U.N.
to ignore justice, fairness, decency and legal limits when it comes to
dealing with Israel. They put rogue states on the Human Rights
Council and spend much of their political capital demonizing Israel.
THE PROGRESSIVE WEST SUPPORTS A JUDENREIN STATE OF PALESTINE
The repudiation by the Obama Administration and the European Union of
the "Jews' right to self-determination in their ancient homeland" is
disguised as concern for the rights of the indigenous people of
Palestine. Matthew Hausman suggests that were they really concerned
with protecting indigenous rights, they would support the Jews, whose
"rights as an indigenous people were recognized historically and under
international law long before the term "Palestinian" was ever used to
refer to an Arab population that accreted largely through immigration
during the sunset years of the Ottoman Empire." Read this article for
facts. Read it for clear-headed reasoning. Read it to dissipate the
fumes of irrationality through which we have been encouraged to
sympathize with squatters who believe they have the right to
expropriate Jewish property contrary to legitimate Jewish claims.
Hausman suggests some alternative solutions.
ARMING THE ENEMY IN LIBYA
Are we in the U.S.A. totally daft? We ignore the Iranian monomaniac
pushing the development of a nuclear bomb -- an accomplishment that
will totally destabilize the region and do damage to the steady flow
of oil that we need for a long time to come. Moreover, in Libya we
will be comrades in arms of terrorist rebels, including Al-Qaeda. We
have come a full Orwellian circle since 9/11; we will now be
fighting together with Al-Qaeda, not against Al-Qaeda.
As a reader, James F. Davis, notes: "There were more Eastern Libyans per
capita that went to Iraq to kill US forces than any other country. We
should not be helping these terrorists. Gaddafi has been neutralized
and as such presents a lesser threat to US national security that
these jihadists terrorists." Wise words. As additions, we include
Ghaddafi's letter to Obama -- a PR masterpiece and an analysis of the
letter by Stephen Brown.
THE GATHERING STORM: REDUX or DÉJÀ VU?
Are we at a time similar to the 1930s when a fanatic dictator had two
ambitions: to make his country top dog and to kill the Jews. Are we at
a time when the major powers won't come to grips with the problem but invent
ineffective delaying actions? Are there major differences that nullify
the similarity? Or maybe these differences make matters
worse? In this initial essay, Alex Rose examines some of the parameters of the
pre-World War 2 Gathering Storm that we will need for comparison to
conditions today.
PALESTINIAN STATEHOOD IS INCREASINGLY MORE LIKELY. THE LESSONS THAT CAN
-- AND MUST -- BE LEARNED FROM THE GOLDSTONE AFFAIR
Caroline Glick draws some important lessons from Goldstone's blood
libel of Israel and Israel's refusal to be intimidated or cowed by his
lies. Her summation is important: "If the government remains faithful
to the truth and to our rights, it will empower our supporters
throughout the world to rally to our side. If we are good to our
friends and bad to our enemies, we will know how to reward our friends
and punish our enemies. And if we boldly assert our rights even in the
face of international condemnation, we will see that in the fullness
of time, the rightness of our position will carry the day."
PALESTINE IS GENOCIDE
Daniel Greenfield lays out the Arab strategy so plainly that maybe
this time the high-IQ, low-comprehension community will understand:
the Arabs don't want peace; they want Jews dead. Greenfield writes:
"The call to peace is the call to death. To promote the creation of a
Palestinian state is a violent act. The peacemakers are collaborators
in genocide. Their charges are the murderers. Palestine is genocide.
It is the cultivated work of an ideology that has successfully turned
millions of people into born serial killers or their accomplices."
This is obviously obvious but apparently not obvious to the media,
politicos and presidents of major Jewish organizations. Like Goldstone
doing damage control, will they bleat after the fact, "We didn't
know."
JEWISH RIGHTS ON THE TEMPLE MOUNT: THE ACID TEST
Moshe Feiglin writes, "The Temple Mount is the quintessence of the
Land of Israel.... Without it, our presence in Israel loses its
meaning." And with it, Israel's legitimacy. When Israel captured it in
1967, the Arabs hoped, but didn't expect, to be allowed to pray in the
mosques they had built on the site of the Second Temple. Instead, in a
stupendously stupid move, Moshe Dayan gave them control, which they
used to destroy artifacts of the Temple period and to stop Jews from
praying in their own land at this most holy of sites.
It's time for Jews to
redeem the Temple Mount and take a firm grip on the Land.
ENOUGH ALREADY: ARE ISRAELI SETTLEMENTS ACTUALLY 'ILLEGAL'?
Moshe Dann review some of the facts that make
Israel and the Territories -- Samaria and Judea (aka the West Bank),
Golan and Gaza legally Jewish by international law. How can Jewish settlements that are on
land that is legally Jewish be illegal? We also include several
Readers' comments that discuss the critical point: Israel holds
Mandated Palestine in irrevocable trust for the Jewish people by
international law. The same authority that set aside a tiny piece of
land for an eventual Jewish state from land previously ruled by the
Ottomans (NOT by the Arabs and certainly not by the non-existent
Palestinians) also carved out many of the present-day Arab countries
from the remaining 99.99% of the area. Nullifying the existence of Israel will by
the same stroke nullify each and every Arab state created after World
War 2, will it not?
ISRAEL'S LEFT NEEDS TO WISE UP TO MIDDLE EAST REALITY
As one reader said of this article: "A jewel of an article... lucid,
transcendental... Something to save and reflect on." Avi Shavit writes
of Juliano Mer-Khamis, a well-known actor, who was recently murdered.
Mer-Khamis, a Jew, was profoundly involved in the Arab cause; he even
lived in Jenin. Shavit contrasts how the Left would have made him into
a saint if he'd been killed by Jews; they would have insisted
religious Jews are ultimately to blame. They would have demanded
revenge on the Orthodox community. But Mer-Khanis was killed by an
Arab. And the Left has no way to cope with such a happening -- it
doesn't fit the concepts through which they understand the world. In
fact, the Left saw nothing to write about. Shavit concludes that
"Western enlightenment and the Israeli left cannot continue to ignore
the dark side of Middle Eastern reality."
ISRAEL THE WINNER IN THE ARAB REVOLTS
The newest Peace Process -- brought to life by Obama as the
most urgent of priorities -- seems to be dying yet again, thanks to
the turbulence in the Arab countries. In this essay, Spengler argues
that the large number of civilian casualties occasioned by the
multiple revolts has reduced the precious status of the individual
Arab, so that it becomes more difficult to excoriate Israel for
killing a few Arabs to stop missile attacks, when Arab governments and
Arab rebels continue to kill thousands of their own people. Spengler
suggests "Israel's best course of action is to dig in its heels
through the November 2012 US presidential elections while its
prospective adversaries descend into chaos, and await the right
opportunity to settle accounts with Hamas and Hezbollah." Let us hope
Netanyahu doesn't snatch defeat out of the jaws of a genuine
diplomatic victory in the interim.
SYRIAN UNREST THREATENS MYTHICAL PEACE PROCESS
In the political and military roilings in the Middle East, Syrian is
almost unique in apparently being able to keep the waters calm at
least on the surface. Still, many Syrians took to the streets to
protest. Instead of this invoking elation in U.S. State Department
breasts, it brought distress. The State Department is fixated on the
notion that Bashar Assad is necessary for a Middle East peace.
Syria is a very clever dissimulator but as Jonathan Tobin observes:
"[t]he belief that a Syria run by one of the Assads would ever make
peace with Israel was always a myth." The Assads need Israel as
something to hate, not as a friend. Nevertheless, the notion that
Syria can and should be involved in the peace process -- as full of
holes as it is -- continues to be a much-loved comfort blanket for the
Obama administration. And Assad remains attached -- to Iran.
THE LONG MARCH OF ISLAM: CHAPTER 10
This is the last chapter of R.K. Ohri's book The Long March of
Islam. Chapter 1 was in the September-October 2009 issue;
subsequent chapters were posted one per issue. Ohri has pointed out
that while initially a small immigrant community of Muslims was
amiable and cooperative, it inevitably changed to a relentlessly
demanding, unsatisfiable group as it grew in numbers. Although
focusing on the conflict between Hindu and Muslim in India and
Pakistan, he has emphasized that appeasement by host countries has not
stopped the jihadists' announced ambition to be dominant everywhere in
the world. As he puts it, "They have a highly bloated ego and a vain
belief in the invincibility of radical Islam." In this final chapter,
he concludes that civilized countries have no alternative but to fight
back, especially now that there is a real possibility of Islamic
terrorists obtaining nuclear weapons. With regard to India and Israel,
who "have been on the 'hit list' of jihadi terror groups now for
several decades," "[t]here is no other option available to India and
Israel, except coming together for defending their people."
THE POWER OF THE WRITTEN WORD
Ari Bussel examines three recent op-ed pieces, each by a Jewish
writer, two found libelous after-the-fact, the third -- by David
Horowitz -- discovering data that Israeli should already have dealt
with in depth. The first by Neve Gordon, a marxist academic at Ben
Gurion University (BGU) was actually old-hat. He has been encouraging
colleagues in the West to cold-shoulder Israelis for years. While the
text was the same-old, publishing it in the La.Times got the
attention of some donors to BGU, who were appalled -- by definition,
donors tend to like the institutions they fund -- but BGU is yet to
examine the roots of its unwarranted disdain of Israel. The other
op-ed is the latest episode in the bizarre and unending flaying of
Israel by the U.N. and its various agencies and NGOs. Judge Goldstone
and his committee issued a well-advertised report condemning Israel's
conduct in Gaza when it attempted to stop Hamas from lobbing missiles
at Israeli civilians. The report has bolstered any and every
misrepresentation and misinterpretation of Israel since then -- the
U.N. seal of approval and Goldstone's self-identification as a Jew are
sufficient to guarantee acceptance of anything derogatory. This op-ed
by the Judge is as close to an admission as we're going to get that
his committee was rigged, the report tendentious and the conclusions a
malicious lie. Again, Bussel asks: why did Israel react only after the
damage was done.
NATIONAL PUBLIC RADIO ON A BAD DAY
National Public Radio suggests it is the outlet for programs of taste
and subtlety and refinement -- and that's why it isn't supported by
the redneckery who prefer low-life radio. What is closer to the truth
is this comment by a reader, SteveinTampa: "I cringe when I listen to
NPR,and only do so to hear what they are "reporting" as news. The
smarmy, condescending, yet semi hypnotic delivery is more theatre than
information distribution. It is truly a biased delivery with herding
the mentally lazy to the left as its intent." It is indeed time the public
understood that presenting a mealy-mouth version of the truth and
clearly-stated bald lies isn't "balanced" programming. Try this image:
Abbas lauding PA as a democracy to counter a guest telling the truth
about PA brutality. Lest the listener is not be certain who to believe,
the interviewer will coo at Abbas.
ISSUE V OF INSPIRE, THE ENGLISH-LANGUAGE MAGAZINE OF AL-QAEDA IN THE ARABIAN PENINSULA — A GENERAL REVIEW
Ah, the versatility of Al-Qaeda. Not only did it show itself capable
of destroying the World Trade Center, but now it's gone into
publishing. And in both -- while it didn't mind spending the millions
needed to set up big operations -- it has the common touch. The lowly
box ripper on the planes. Now it's into publishing at minimal expense.
Steven Stalinsky summarizes the fifth issue of Inspire,
designed to inspire the young terrorist dedicated to the goal of
making Islam supreme, and to teach him some useful tricks of the
trade. Potentially, the magazine has a large audience, even if the
percent of Muslim literates is small -- just so long as they stick to
pictures and limited text. Will they soon have advertising? Nekkid
women in burqas to spice up boring material? Tee shirts reading 'I'm
just mad about Al-Qaeda' you can buy in toddler size on up? We should
soon hear from the Arab-lovers that now the organization has to
wrestle with the hard problems in publishing, they will soon reform
and stop being the bad guys -- that's the political theory that
insists terrorists should be given States to govern to cure them of
their murderous tendencies.
IS THIS THE FACE OF A TERRORIST?
This essay by Bernice Lipkin examines several items of propaganda
centered around the attention given a Pro-Palestinian propaganda film
called Miral, A Palestinian Girl. Part 1 examines the construction of a fairly typical
hackneyed article sympathetic to the film and its makers. The one
striking piece of propaganda is a poster that asks: Is this the
face of a Terrorist? Part 2 is a complete essay from Elder of
Ziyon that contains excellent pictorial rebuttal material. It says
effectively: yes an innocent-looking Palestinian girl can be -- and
has been -- a terrorist. Part 3 compares the counter-Miral posters to
those used to counter the accusation that Israel is an apartheid
state.
THE JEWISH CONSPIRACY: A STRATEGIC WEAPON TO DEMONIZE JEWS AND DELEGITIMIZE ISRAEL
Hadassa Ben Itto writes about the history of the fraudulent
Protocols of Zion, from its start as a fictional plan suggested by
Machiavelli to Montesquieu on how to take over France to its current
revised version purporting to be a plan by Jewish leaders to take over
the world. The supposed conspiracy of the Jews may be a lie, but it is
being used effectively by Islam to delegitimize the Jewish people --
an early component of its mission to take over the world.
THE OCCUPIED TERRITORIES REVISITED:
THE DOCTRINE OF DEFENSIBLE BORDERS
The current ahistoric decree by the American administration that Israel
must return to its 1967 borders makes information on the
1967 period and the cease fire lines (NOT borders) a
necessity. Harry Kanigel
points out, "The probability of a negotiated peace is
vanishingly small given the philosophical moorings of Israel's
neighbors; they will only temporize as they maneuver to eliminate the
stain, the 'error which must be rectified.'" as "they advance Islam
geopolitically." Given Kanigel's obvious knowledge of
Islam's master plan and its encouragement of lying to gain a point,
his is an excellent analysis of a minimalist plan for Israel's survival -- one
that has become more impractical as time goes on. Perhaps, we should
instead be promulgating the essential fact: that the
area know as Mandated Palestine was given to the Jews in an
irrevocable trust by the League of Nations (an obligation incurred by
its successor organization, the U.N.) -- the same authority that
gave the other 99.99% of the Ottoman Middle East to the Arabs, thus
creating many of the Arab states now in existence.
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. A Blog-Ed page has a quick list of the articles from which you can access any of the articles immediately. To go to the list, click the "Blog-Eds List" box in the Blue Strip on the top of the Blog-Ed page. |
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INDEX FOR THE JANUARY-FEBRUARY 2011 ISSUE We apologize that due to circumstances beyond our control, we were not able to notify some of our readers when the January-February issue of Think-Israel was complete. This is the email that went out:
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THINK-ISRAEL features essays, analyses and commentaries that provide context for current events in Israel. We try to make sense of what's going on. The war Islamists are waging against Israel and the West is a top priority. This is what's in the January-February 2011 issue of the Think Israel website . You can access any article from the home page of http://www.Think-Israel.org by scrolling down to its introduction. This has the advantage of providing context for the article. Or you can go directly to the article by clicking its highlighted area in this email. "Editorial: The Middle East in Revolt" by Editor, Think-Israel.org Islam + Democracy = Islam by Edward Cline How Revolution Is Played Out In Different Countries The New Middle East At A Glance — Country By Country by Hillel Fendel These Essays Investigate The Muslim Brotherhood The Muslim Brotherhood Is The Enemy by Frank J. Gaffney, Jr. Loner Terrorists And Small-Boat Pirates How Do We Deal With Terrorists That Have No Fixed Identification? by Bernice Lipkin
Wishing For Islamic Moderation And Reform Inside The Mind Of An Islamist by Phyllis Chesler
Is Israel Going To Change Policy And Grow Or Grovel And Die? In Memory Of Herbert Zweibon by Helen Freedman
Hasbara, The War Front Where Israel Is Losing Why Israel Loses PR War by Moshe Dann The Wartime Diary Of Edmund Kessler reviewed by Omer Bartov The Reader' Blog-Eds page. The monthly Blog-Ed page is updated every few days. If you are on a Blog-Ed page, you can click on the Blog-Eds List (middle item, top Blue Banner), find any author/title posted, click and go directly to that blog-ed. January Blog-Eds And we provide direct links to websites that supply accurate background information and news relating to Israel. Do look at the web site. And please, if you have a blog-ed piece or a comment or commentary, contact us. Write to comments@think-israel.org or to editor@think-israel.org Pieces for THINK-ISRAEL should be informative and accurate. Fortunately, those of us who are pro-Israel can show our love of Israel without distorting the truth. We don't need to play by the rules laid down by the Arab-favoring media, which distort the news and omit important items of information. Bernice Lipkin |
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JANUARY-FEBRUARY, 2011
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ISLAM + DEMOCRACY = ISLAM
Edward Cline points out that democracy has a dark side even in the West.
We rightly appreciate the freedom our political system gives us for
exercising our individuality, and we ignore that democracy run wild has
produced mob rule and the ghastly images of the French Revolution.
Actually, the U.S.A. is a republic, with built-in checks against mob
rule. When used to assess the political structures of the Arab states,
the occasional "free election" is overrated as an indicator of freedom
for the individual. The people of most Arab countries actually want
Sharia law. So democratic elections mean the majority will not be
thwarted in their wish to make their state sharia-abiding. They can then
begin their inherently undemocratic mission of forcing others to accept
the blessings of Sharia law, whether they want it or not.
THE GREAT MIDDLE EASTERN DEMOCRACY SHOW HITS A BUMP
For those who believe that most Arabs ache for democracy, Nidra Poller
points out that "we have, in Europe, a living laboratory of Arab-Muslim
citizens living in a democratic system." Some avail themselves of the
privileges of citizenship to lead productive lives. Others
"despise the educational system, belittle alternate job training programs, blame their failures on the host country, perpetuate tribal attitudes and retrograde cultural practices like excision (FGM), polygamy, forced marriage. They wrap women in niqab, hate infidels, attack Jews, defy law and order... and express their discontent by looting, torching, smashing, shouting hysterically..."
And that's how they behave
"where democratic institutions are solidly established."
BE CAREFUL WHAT WE WISH FOR
Seth Frantzman wonders if people believe that the degree of Sturm und
Drang is indicative of the degree Egyptians want democracy. He
points out that "[j]ust because people riot or protest for something
doesn't mean they are democracy-loving moderates." And even if they
were, chaotic rebellion often leads to tyranny, not democracy.
IS AN EGYPTIAN "DEMOCRACY" A GOOD THING?
Raymond Ibrahim makes the point that the end point of turmoil and
revolution ought not to be democracy but what democracy can
produce: "freedom and universal rights." In this way of thinking, the
question should be: how do we achieve the desired end?
Consequently, "[t]he U.S. should
support whoever and whatever form of government is best positioned to
provide for the overall good of a people," not necessarily the one that
labels itself democratic.
THE NEW MIDDLE EAST AT A GLANCE-COUNTRY BY COUNTRY
As Hillel Fendel writes:
"Arab countries throughout the Middle East and North Africa are
experiencing unrest."
Fendel briefly reviews "what's happening with the Arabs — and the Jews — in the various states."
ANTI-SEMITISM: THE NEW NECESSITY FOR ARAB REGIMES
Mudar Zahran asks why the traditional Jew-hatred in Jordan that was
called anti-Zionism for the 60 years of Israel's existence is now openly
anti-Jewish. The Jordanian government uses anti-Semitism and
anti-Americanism to distract the Palestinian Arabs who are the majority
of the population. More generally, Arab regimes find ranting
against an American-Jewish alliance useful as a way to redirect the
people's anger. "It also helps them convince their Western allies that
there is a serious trend of fundamentalism" so they should support the
current Arab government. I would guess that what is happening
in the Middle East is that the masses have retained their traditional
hatred of non-Muslims while disengaging from their current rulers and
becoming enamored of Islamic supremicists such as bin Ladin and the
Muslim Brotherhood.
YOUTH UPRISING 2011 -- A PLANETARY
1968 Andrew MacKillop provides us with an economic rather
than political understanding of the current unrest in the Middle East.
He points out there may be similarities in political idealism between
today's youth-led protests in Arab countries and the 1968 student
revolts in Europe and the USA. But today's world is very different, what
with its integrated communications, its huge additional population, and
its much increased demand for oil. In 1968, the green revolution
could solve famine, at least temporarily. It wouldn't work today. "The
world had an average of nearly 1 hectare of arable land per person in
1968, but today has less than 0.25 hectares per person." Connect this
with the fact that "Egypt, Algeria, Saudi Arabia and Morocco ... import
more than 45 percent of world total wheat export supply," you don't need
political conspiracy theories to predict regional instability. In
today's world, economics and food and job shortages will power
anti-regime revolutions. But I suspect that political groups in the
Islamic supremacist movement can be counted on to take advantage of the
tumult.
A FIRSTHAND ACCOUNT OF THE PROTESTS IN EGYPT
Joshua Goodman was in Cairo when the protests/demonstrations/riots broke
out this January. Early on, university-educated young men and women in
western clothes were prominent as were the police that kept them
contained. As tension grew, the dynamics changed -- the crowd became
more turbulent, the police switched to hosing the crowd with water to
disperse them. Both were uncoordinated. He records the arrival of the
Muslim Brotherhood (according to other sources, they are identifiable by
their trim beards), but doesn't credit them with organizing the
activities. Nor did he hear the anti-Semitic chanting by the crowds
others have reported. Over the next days, unrest spreads, Mubarak's
promises aren't believed, the crowds become more determined, more
unruly. Curfews are ignored, tires are burned, shops are looted, people
are shot by the police. Gradually, things simmer down, at least on the
surface; the universal panacea is applied -- as Goodman puts it,
"[e]veryone is finding ways to blame Israel." His take on the happenings
is his own, and it's an interesting one.
DO THE PROTESTERS WANT DEMOCRACY?
Counter to all the hype that street demonstrations mean the people are
pushing to gain freedom, Andrew C. McCarthy asks the simple question: do
the protesters want democracy? Or are they after something else. Or many
something elses. McCarthy deals with the complexity of diverse groups of
Egyptians with major differences in life style and attitude toward
Mubarak. He also discusses the probability of the Muslim Brotherhood
taking control. He sees them taking over by stealth, revealing their
real agenda slowly -- much as the AKP did as it gained control in
Turkey.
EVIDENCE OF ANTI-SEMITISM AT THE EGYPT PROTESTS
John Rosenthal focuses on the large amount of visual and verbal
anti-semitism expressed by Egyptian protesters. He notes wryly that
"[s]uch images are to be found in video and photographic material from
virtually every major Western news organization present in Egypt. This
fact is all the more significant when one considers that the reports
published or broadcast by these very same news organizations have as a
rule outright ignored any anti-Semitic or anti-Israeli sentiment among
the protesters." We include some additional information on the Latest
Pew Poll on Egyptian attitudes on democracy, sharia law and terrorist
groups.
SUNNI WAHHABISM AND SHIISM IN SAUDI ARABIA
As Joshua Teitelbaum writes, in Saudi Arabia, differences in religious
practices between the minority Shiite Muslim population and the majority
Sunni Muslims translate into chronic tension that occasionally breaks out
into violence. As Teitelbaum points out, "[t]he Shiites are not numerous
enough to constitute a threat to the regime, but they do constitute an
actual and potential arm of Iranian influence." The problem is
exacerbated by Iran's increased prestige in the region and its
challenging the Saudis' position as leader of world Islam.
TUNISIA MELTDOWN
Marion Dreyfus recalls visiting Tunisia last year when Tunisia's
longtime president, Ben Ali, seemed very popular with enlightened ideas
about work for women and industrial privatization. "I was impressed in
Tunisia by the level of education for even the middle class, and I was
unaware of the apparent high rate of unemployment," Dreyfus writes. Now in the wake of
the "Jasmine Revolution" Ben Ali has fled to Saudi Arabia, schools are
closed and the tourists don't come. Modern trappings aside, Tunisia
" is still just...an Arab country."
JORDAN'S FUTURE CHALLENGES
This is a neutrally-worded examination by José Stemmann of the
state of the state of Jordan,
an Arab state created by Britain illegally from 78% of the land destined
to be the Jewish state. Renamed the Hashemite Kingdom of (Trans)jordan,
Jordan is a monarchy with a placebo parliament; a growing economy still
dependent on handouts and services from U.S, the Gulf monarchies and
Israel; high unemployment and unrest when subsidies are reduced; and
restrictions on political openness. The Palestinian Arabs, many of who
live in refugee camps, are officially some 30% of the population
(50-60%, possibly even 70%, is the more likely figure). They are considered
unreliable and have been excluded "from sensitive posts in the army and
administration," but a younger group of Palestinians is beginning to be
more active in the economy and politics. "... [T]he Islamist movement
has played a key role in political life almost since independence," with
Jordan's Muslim Brotherhood (IAF) having much influence and Al-Qaida
associates becoming more and more active attempting to promote a
radical uprising, often using food shortage and price as the issue.
QATAR'S GAME
Elliot Jager describes Qatar's survival policy. On the one hand, she
throws Israel a bone or two, which Israel politicians inflate all out of
proportion as meaning that Qatar is becoming democratic in its outlook.
On the other, she plays footsies with what are politely called
extremists. She mobilized support for Hamas, when Israel finally went
into Gaza to stop Hamas lobbing missiles at Israeli civilians. She
helped Hizballah take over Lebanon. She has reportedly pays protection
money to al-Qaeda. She reportedly has funneled money to protest leaders
in Egypt.
Most analysis of what is happening in Egypt predict that sooner or
later control of the country will be in the hands of the Muslim
Brotherhood (MB).
This set of essays look at the Muslim Brotherhood and one of its most
prominent leaders, Qarawadi. When the MB is compared to Al-Qaeda, the
Brotherhood is usually viewed as moderate and reasonable. But as Frank
Gaffney says in the essay below, "Al Qaeda and the MB have the same objectives. They differ only in the timing and tactics involved in realizing them."
THE MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD IS THE ENEMY
Frank Gaffney, Jr. tells us why the Muslim Brotherhood, an organization
actively promoting sharia law in countries around the globe, is our
enemy. Their tactics differ according to the situation and prevailing
issues, but their aim is unswerving: to establish Sharia law globally.
They first develop a solid infrastructure and then they become more and
more public, while establishing networks with important elements of the
local society. When they feel strong enough, they become
confrontational, and go all out to seize power.
EGYPT'S MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD: IN THEIR OWN WORDS
The Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood (MB) is likely to be part of the
transitional government. Jonathan Halevi notes that the MB does "defend
the democratic process." It hasn't "accepted the principles of Western
democracy," but it can exploit the process "to establish an Islamic
regime which will then render democracy unnecessary." For the
Brotherhood, sharia is the only true democracy. Their platform states
that "the rule in [Egypt] must be republican, parliamentary,
constitutional and democratic in accordance with the Islamic Sharia,"
and that "the Sharia ensures liberty for all." The organization does not
accept the principle of the separation of church and state, and the
Islamic rule they aspire to is, for them, a realization of democracy.
QARADAWI AND THE TREASON OF THE
INTELLECTUALS
Andrew G. Bostom writes of the return to
Cairo of Yusuf al-Qaradawi, the prestigious spiritual leader of the Muslim
Brotherhood (MB). "Images and actions during his appearance ...
should have shattered the delusive view that the turmoil leading to
President Mubarak's resignation augured the emergence of a modern,
democratic Egyptian society devoted to Western conceptions of individual
liberty and equality before the law." The opposite is true. If the MB
has anything to say about it -- and they likely will in Egypt -- Egypt
will regress to a state where women are chattel and
everyone follows sharia law. Bostom asks why the media ignores what the
MB itself says and why so many Western intellectuals have abandoned objective
truth and won't
"acknowledge the heinous consequences of the living, corollary Islamic institutions of jihad war, and Jew/infidel hatred."
How do we deal with the terrorists who have no fixed identification? The
lack of rules of engagement between the lone terrorist and a regular
army often make it possible for a few irregulars to win over a large and
disciplined fighting force. It is even harder for an individual -- the
potential victim -- who has to deal with hit-and-run guerillas on his own.
These essays discuss the issue of self-help, which isn't classic
vigilantism but which might in the future become more frequent if states
don't or can't or choose not to protect their citizens.
HOW DO WE DEAL WITH TERRORISTS THAT HAVE NO FIXED IDENTIFICATION?
Bernice Lipkin explores circumstances -- Somali piracy on the high seas
and Arab terrorism in Israel -- where the potential victims are often
forced to fend for themselves because the State can not, for one reason
or another, fulfill its obligation to defend its citizens. This doesn't
prevent the State from discouraging the potential victims from defending
themselves effectively.
SOMALI PIRACY HITS AMERICA: SOME QUESTIONS IN NEED OF ANSWERS
Peter Pham writes that the Somali pirates "have become increasingly
emboldened as they operate ever farther from their native littorals for
longer periods, scoring greater successes and winning record ransoms."
Just recently they murdered four Americans after hijacking their yacht.
The countries that patrol the area are not able to do much to prevent
this piracy and most of them prefer to pay large ransoms rather than
become aggressive. At the same time, ship crews from many countries are
restricted by various national and international laws from defending
themselves properly.
A CRUISE TO THE COAST OF PIRATE-INFESTED SOMALIA
This article is satire -- it isn't a brochure for a real cruise. In the
real world, we are still talking about allowing ships to 'fight
back' and defend themselves from pirates on the high seas. We talk
about allowing the crew to store adequate firepower but at the same time
there is the urge to limit the use of the firepower by forcing the crew
to observe all sorts of rules and regulations. This article is an
exaggeration of a possibly effective method of wiping out piracy. We
might call it "fight forward." in that it takes the fight to the
pirates rather than waiting until attacked.
This section deals with Muslim sustained determination to acclimatize
their host society to fit their needs and desires. They must
occasionally delay showing their true colors. Chesler's essay on Muzzammil Hassa, who
beheaded his wife, reminds us he was the model moderate up-to-date Muslim
until then. Ohri writes of the way the Muslims in India and Pakistan
talk peace but continue to bomb and terrorize Hindus to back up their demands
for Indian land. Fjordman's article is a superb summary of what
moderate and reform actually mean. Is it wishful thinking
on my part that it might wake up an ecumenically-minded rabbi and
minister or two?
INSIDE THE MIND OF AN ISLAMIST
Two years ago, Muzzammil Hassan, an immigrant from Pakistan and a
prominent businessman who was often touted as a model of the moderate,
adaptable Muslim, protested his wife's demand for a divorce by
murdering her and decapitating her. From the first, savvy observers of
the Muslim community such as Dr. M. Zjudi Jasser (see
here) noted that the media ignored what was an incredibly dramatic
story, allowing apologists to whitewash the role Islam played in
conditioning Hassan's behavior. In this essay, Phyllis Chesler also
sees Hassan as a model -- of the distorted view that Islamic societies
instill: that men should dominate women and women must have no will of
their own. Hassan views himself not as a chronic wife-beater turned
murderer, but as the victim of his wife's provocation. Similarly,
suicide-murderers are only doing what they do because Israel won't give
up what Arabs are sure is their property. Hassan has carried over the
predominant view in his native land that a man's honor is defiled if
his women don't behave properly, so she must be punished for "bringing
food late, for talking back or for undertaking forbidden trips." Yet,
thanks to Sharia law, the same man can have sex with women he marries
by the hour as well as with his multiple wives. Hassan's behavior and
his views are not acceptable in our society, no matter how much the
media would like to excuse them by placing the blame on environmental factors.
THE LONG MARCH OF ISLAM: CHAPTER 9
After examining the general economic and social consequences of rapid
increase in the size of the Muslim community in host countries, in
Chapter 8, R.K. Ohri explored the consequences of the Muslim attitude
that the only acceptable laws are those conforming to the Koran and
Sharia, which are themselves considered immutable. In Chapter 9, Ohri
discusses the large number of terrorist attacks in India by Muslims --
many of them Indian Muslims; many trained in Pakistan. Peace talks
between India and Pakistan occur but -- in a deal breaker reminiscent of
the Arab unwillingness to accept that Israel exists and is a Jewish
state -- they will continue to break down unless "Pakistan accepts the
Line of Actual Control (the LOC) as the international border between the
Indian Kashmir and the Pakistan-occupied Kashmir." As another point of
similarity, just as the Arabs are obsessed with destroying Israel,
"[t]he Pakistani establishment has a single point agenda: to
destabilize, debilitate and balkanize India at any cost."
DOES MUSLIM MODERATION EXIST; IS ISLAMIC REFORM LIKELY?
Westerners involved in ecumenism or true believers in multiculturalism
will occasionally admit that when a Muslim community feels strong enough
-- which often translates into having enough of them in one place --
they come on a bit strong and uncompromising. As example, they decided
to pray on the streets. They didn't back down because the traffic is
awful enough in NYC and Paris as it is. The streets were closed.
Ecumenists suggest that doesn't mean Muslims are fanatics. it's a
question of life style. It's the way they are accustomed to interacting
in dictatorial regime. Just give them time. In this essay, Fjordman
examines two articles of faith held by Western friends, colleagues,
aiders, abetters, enablers and paid flunkies of Islam: (1) there are
moderate Muslims and (2) reform of Islam is possible and will solve all
the problems of blending a belligerent community into Western civilized
ways. The first is yet to be experienced, despite all the opportunities
"moderate" Muslims have had to speak up. And as a reader said about
reform, "Islamic reformation is already underway -- and it's called
things like 'Hamas', 'Islamic Jihad', 'Jamaat Islamiya', 'al Qaida',
'Hezbollah', or Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and Iran for short."
We'd dedicate this section to the memory of Herb Zweibon,
President of Americans for a Secure Israel (AFSI). He was always
clear-eyed but willing to try to reason with Israeli officials, whose
compass for steering the ship of Israel was the wishful conviction that
the Arabs would respond to benevolence. This section urges corrective
action to prevent the Ship of State from sinking.
The more Israel tries to appease the world by declaring she is
willing to share her small land, the more the world believes the Arabs
who assert forcefully they are the rightful owners of the Land of
Israel. Because she is willing to compromise, she is harassed by the
U.N., Western politicians and much of the global media. She is being
encircled by extreme Islam and terrorists. Iran is building a bomb to
destroy her. Too many Israeli Arab citizens have thrown in their lot
with the Palestinian Arabs. How is the Israeli government handling it?
It offers to amputate some of her land and it has redefined the enemy --
it is the patriotic Jewish pioneers, the Jewish citizens who live in
Biblical Israel -- Samaria and Judea. (This area is called the West Bank
by the ignorant or by those with a pro-Palestinian bias.)
Israel's real enemies are gathering but with the Middle East in flux,
her local enemies will likely have their hands full with more personal
matters tomorrow. This is certainly not the time for preemptive moves to
surrender parts of Israel. If anything, now is the time to assert
Israel's legitimate claim to Mandated Palestine and annex Samaria and
Judea, the Golan and Gaza.
IN MEMORY OF HERBERT ZWEIBON
Herb Zweibon was unique. He didn't cut his words to fit prevailing
opinions or the op-eds in the New York Times. He didn't worry
that he didn't fit the mold of most Presidents of American Jewish
organizations. Thank God! He was polite and friendly but rock solid in
his intuitions and his arguments. It is discouraging that he has been
proven correct in rejecting the notion that tiny Israel would find peace
by allowing parts of her to be cut away, and yet his is still not the
attitude of the majority of American Jews, who feel uneasy if they stray
too far from the teachings of what passes as liberalism in America.
Helen Freedman provides us with a personal portrait of Herb.
PREEMPTIVE SURRENDER
David Isaac describes precisely how Israel's Prime Minister, Benjamin
Netanyahu, is handling the corrosive attacks on Israel." "Netanyahu's
answer to the difficult situation? Preemptive surrender." Reacting as
a coward against Israel's enemies, as Isaac points out, "Perhaps
because Netanyahu is not willing to fight against the erosion of
Jewish sovereignty in Judea and Samaria he becomes cruel towards those
who do."
PLAYING ISRAEL'S GOOD HAND
Thanks to the American administration's ineptitude in the Middle East,
we've recently seen a humiliation hierarchy among some of the major
players, wherein the Palestinian Authority humiliates the Obama
administration, which, in turn -- while ignoring the real problems of
the region -- makes Israel cower. Caroline Glick suggests a simple way
to relieve Israel's distress. Israel doesn't need American's yearly
contribution. It's costing her too much politically and is inhibiting
the development of some industries. I should think Israel would gain
more respect and make much more money charging the USA for her intel
and technological contributions to America's safety.
The articles in this section point out some major problems with
Israel's ability to make her case, even though she does have truth and
the facts on her side. Recent events have underscored her right to her
land. They have also shown that Israel is not the core problem in the
Middle East. Arab countries are concerned about Iran's bomb building,
not Jewish home building.
WHY ISRAEL LOSES PR WAR
This is an important article that describes Israel's flapdoodling attitude
towards Judea and Samaria, flipping from encouraging Jewish development
of their land, then flopping and encouraging the Arabs to create another
Arab state in Biblical Israel. As Moshe Dann asks rhetorically -- in
full knowledge that the Territories are Jewish legally by international
law, by conquest, by history, by Bible, and by unswerving devotion over
the centuries -- "If the areas of settlement in Judea and Samaria don't
belong to us, what are we doing there?" Ironically, many of the readers'
comments prove that Israel has not told the world in a forthright manner
that the Land is hers. They accept without hesitation that only the
nouveau people -- the Palestinian Arabs -- have claim to the
land. They have no quarrel with a bald misstatement of the Balfour
declaration.
EXPOSING ARAB FALSEHOODS
The previous essay focused on negating Arab false claims on owning
Samaria and Judea. This essay by Martin Sherman addresses the larger
issue: the Arabs have the ear of the majority of the press, which
uncritically broadcasts the Arab lies and distortions. Moreover, they
are protected by an egocentric use of political correctness -- it
isn't polite to rebut the stories told by the Po' Palestinians, even if
they are either total lies or just distortions and/or half-truths.
Sherman rebuts a typical Hanan Ashrawi fantasy, and suggests that --
because Israel has historic and legal truth on its side -- it make
the received wisdom authentic by rewriting it "on the basis of historical realities, not
political distortions; on the basis of prevailing realities rather than
fabricated fantasies; on the basis of events as they actually occurred,
not as they are deceitfully contrived. "
WHO IS URI AVNERY, AND WHY DOES HE MATTER?
Anchored in information in Amnon Lord's books, Aryeh Tepper has
written a thoughtful essay about Uri Avnery, one of the
leading lights of the extreme leftist Israeli Marxists, who are
still influential in the media and in academia. Avnery helped convince
Israelis to accept the Oslo Accords, because in doing so, they were
supporting human rights. He is of course revered by Israel's enemies and
is called a peace activist and humanitarian. In his case, as is common
when Marxist praise other Marxists, being called a peace activist and
humanitarian translates to being someone who tries with all his being to
bring death to Israel, not peace.
NARRATIVE ISN'T EVERYTHING
Jonathan Rosenblum writes that the Wikileaks State Dept emails and
al-Jeezeera's release of alleged P.A. documents "have done much to
buttress Israel's narrative of the Middle East." They are a windfall for
Israel. They confirm that while Western leftists and the American
Administration may be obsessed with the Palestinian-Israeli conflict,
the Middle East states are concerned about Iran and her increasing
nuclear capability. What a wonderful opportunity to use this information
to maybe make a dent in the Arab narrative --- i.e., that Israel is the
core problem in the Middle East. And if she'd make peace -- on Arab
terms, of course -- the Middle East would magically become stable and
have no civil wars and no fights between neighbors. Israel didn't utilize
this information.
A DOZEN BAD IDEAS FOR THE 21ST CENTURY
Mark Durie presents some beliefs and conditioned ways of thinking that
make it difficult for us to analyze Islam's structure and objectives
clearly. So many of them were designed to make us more tolerant, which
is fine when we are trying to gain acceptance for groups that want to
participate in our culture but haven't been allowed entry. They become
dangerous when they prevent us from recognizing that Islam doesn't want
in; it wants to take over.
THE WARTIME DIARY OF EDMUND KESSLER
Omer Bartov reviews the published diary maintained by Edmund Kessler, a
Polish Jewish attorney who survived the Holocaust. A lesson for our
time is how little effort it took for the Nazi conquerors and the local
clergy to encourage people to manifest barbaric behavior toward the
Jews -- perhaps in part because the populace was already inculcated
with a strong prejudice against the Jews. A few of the local gentiles
behaved nobly. For the majority, as Bartov writes, "ugly and brutish
behavior was triggered by the overwhelming presence of the German
occupation and the growing realization that the new rulers were
determined to use, abuse, and ultimately murder the Jews. ... the
specifics of how, and how quickly, this awareness translates in mob
violence are described succinctly and insightfully in Kessler's
terrifying text."
THE MOST HEINOUS KILLERS OF THE HOLOCAUST: THE MUSLIM-CATHOLIC USTASHA
We usually think of European anti-Semitism and Islamic anti-Semitism as
independent of each other. In recent years, the details of the close
coordination between the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem Hajj Amin al-Husseini
and Hitler, who had the mutual desire to kill Jews, have become known.
In this article Edwin Black traces the background and history of one of their creations: the
Ustasha was a partnership of Bosnian Muslims and Catholic Croatians, who
terrorized and murdered Jews and Gypsies in Yugoslavia. They became
notorious for their brutality even among the Nazis.
OPENING PALESTINE'S DOORS
Rafael Medoff writes the recollections of three people now living in
Jerusalem, who as students in the United States at the beginning of
World War 2, participated in trying to fight Britain's disgraceful and
illegal attempts to block Jewish refugees from entering Mandated
Palestine. They were part of a larger effort by the Bergson group to
make America aware of the Holocaust happening in Europe. Just as the
media today soft pedals the extent of Islamic destructive infiltration
into the U.S.A., Europe, the Middle East and India, so then they barely
mentioned the growing number of reports of large scale Nazi murder of
Jews. And many American Jews - just as today -- were silent. They
reserved their anger for those sounding the alarm.
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.
A Blog-Ed page has a quick list of the articles from which you can
access any of the articles immediately.
To go to the list, click the
"Blog-Eds List" box in the Blue Strip on the top of the Blog-Ed page.
January 2011 BLOG-EDS
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NOVEMBER-DECEMBER, 2010
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WHEN ISRAELI LEFTISTS TURN AGAINST THEIR COUNTRY WITH HORRENDOUS LIES, THE WORLD MEDIA IS HAPPY TO DISSEMINATE THEM
In this essay, Caroline Glick describes three recent events where
Arabs set up situations that libel Israeli Jews, and Israel's
military. By actions such as stoning cars as they drive by, they trap
Jews into needing to fight for their lives. Then they photograph just
the moment the Jews fight back. Without context, it looks like the
Jews are behaving with gratuitous nastiness. In Bil'im, they blamed
the death of an on-looker, Jawaher abu Rahmeh, on the tear gas the IDF
used on the rioters. It was later discovered the woman was not in the
riot. According to her mother, she was some distance away
HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH IS BADLY DISTORTING THE ISSUES
Established as a monitor for human rights around the planet, in the
last few years Human Rights Watch (HRW) has focused almost exclusively
on Israel, using subjective standards, making unsubstantiated
assertions and depending on unreliable sources. Its change in mission
became very clear when two facts became known: (1) much of the
distorted material that Judge Goldstone used to libel Israel's conduct
during the Gaza campaign came from Israeli NGOs such as HRW; and (2)
its funding was now coming from foreign governments and the
anti-Israel New Israel Fund. This article is an edited version of the
lecture, Robert Bernstein, the founder of HRW, delivered as the
University of Nebraska November 10, 2010. The Jerusalem Post
wrote that Bernstein lacerated "... the organization he had
established for moral failures in its treatment of Israel" while
simultaneously ignoring virulent and continued violation of human
rights by the Arab countries. We include excerpts from an article by
Gerald Steinberg on HRW's history.
THE SYMBOLISM OF THE OLIVE TREE
Practically speaking, the olive is a food, and its oil is
used for cooking. But its value as symbol is so very much more. The
olive. With the grape, the pomegranate, milk and honey. it constitutes
part of the ancient image of Israel. The foods -- one almost
needs to express the idea in the archaic form that lends dignity --
that restoreth our souls. The olive has these days become
another sort of symbol. The Marxists of the Political Left have
contrived to associate it with Arabs, as if only Arabs had olive
trees. It helps to give them a historic identity they don't actually
have. They claim Jews are stripping and destroying their olive
trees -- thereby imparting an extra degree of evil to the Jew, who
obviously doesn't have an ounce of sensitivity if he is so
disrespectful of the olive tree. Because of its symbolism, the olive
tree is a most popular prop in the Arab repetoire of hoaxes.
Israel is definitely Jewish. Even the non-Jewish Jews, when they
rebel, they rebel against rabbis, not priests or mullahs. So the
normal would be that the majority Jew would be favored over the
minority Arab. It ain't so. Not in the courts. Not in the police
stations. Not in most of the media. I know it's hard to believe.
Ordinary intelligent people assume it is the other way round. They
act almost as instinctively as the illiterate neo-Nazi who has never
read the New York Times but is sure it is pro-Jewish because
its owners are nominally Jewish.
Thanks to the unbridled Israeli court system and its police
flunkies, the Arabs can literally get away with murder. And they do.
They also exploit the olive tree. They hide behind Jewish olive trees
to case out the Jewish town, so later they can sniper-slaughter Jewish
women and children. They steal livestock from Jewish farmers, burn
Jewish orchards, destroy Jewish crops. They hack olive trees and blame
it on the Jews. And they get away with it. The courts, riddled with
Marxist idiots, have ruled in their favor.
The pro-Palestinian media -- and this includes most of the media
-- takes the word immediately and instinctively of any Arab to
anything they assert. And these wily Arabs project their activities on
the Jews. They destroy olive trees and claim the
Jews have destroyed the trees. Wouldn't you think that when, after the
fact, we find 99.9999% of the time that the Jews spoke truthfully and
the Arabs lied, just once the outside NGOs and media would hesitate
before believing the Arab yet again? Nope. Never happens.
I remember an AFSI trip some years back to Samaria and Judea and
Gaza. Our gun-slinging guide said you can always tell the difference
between a Jewish olive tree and an Arab one. The Jews coddle their
trees and they flourish. The Arab don't succor theirs. They let them
fend for themselves. They simply lift the olives from the sturdy but
wizened tree, a tree that often doesn't belong to them, when the
olives are ripe.
I remember on that same trip, we stopped to watch some arabs
picking olives in a grove of trees. They felt no fear. We were Jews,
after all. They were confident we wouldn't harm them or insult them or
chase them away or demand they prove the trees were theirs to pick.
Truthfully, I don't think I'd have the restraint of the Israeli Jews
living in Samaria and Judea and the Negev and the Galilee, who are
treated as second-class citizens in their own country. If --
and I'm not sure it is -- if it is the case that occasionally they
lose their cool and attack their persecutors, I can only wonder: what
took them so long.
IT'S THE OLIVE TREES, STUPID!
Moshe Dann writes about the politics of planting olive trees in Israel
to assert legal claim to land. He points out that Arabs "plant olive
trees in disputed areas near Jewish communities, often with help from
Peace Now and pro-Palestinian NGOs, to check the growth of settlements
and provide cover for terrorists who seek to infiltrate and murder."
Arab land take overs in the Territories may not be legal but they are
upheld by the U.N., which is alway there to condemn any proprietary
act by Israel it fears might strengthen Israel's sovereignty over its
land. The placement of olive tree is a weapon they yield effectively.
OLIVES OF WRATH
Long age, the psalmist wrote of the relationship of Israel and God: "I
[am] like a green olive tree in the house of God; I trust in the mercy
of God forever and ever." Noah knew the flood was over, when the dove
returned bearing an olive branch in its mouth. Much more recently, the
pro-Arab non-governmental organizations have attempted to hitch the
imagery of the olive tree -- deeply significant to Jews and Christians
-- to the Palestinian cause. Aided by some creative grove theatre,
they would have us believe that the true owners of the olive trees in
Israel and the Territories are the Arabs and that the heartless Jews
spend their time harassing the Arabs, who want only to tend to their crops in
peace. David Ha'ivri exposes one of the cynical ways the NGOs contribute to
the Arab grab of Jewish land.
LIES, DAMNED LIES, AND ERAKAT Palestinian Authority chief negotiator Saeb Erakat
became a celebrity back in 2002 when, almost singlehandedly, he
convinced an admittedly gullible media that the Joos had killed --
maybe 250, maybe 500, possibly thousands of people -- in Jenin. They
had buried them in a mass grave so their evil act would remain
unknown. The hoax was sloppily created -- no graves were found, nobody
was missing -- and the story soon collapsed, although it has became an
article of faith with pro-Palestinians that the Jenin population was
massacred by the Joos. Some good would have come from Erakat's lies if
the Israeli leaders had understood that they needlessly sacrificed
over 20 of their soldiers -- who were cautioned not to aim at a
terrorist if there was a woman or child in the vicinity. But they
seemed not to have learned that kindness to Arab terrorists isn't
reciprocated. Victor Sharpe summarizes some of the stories this
Sherazade of the Arab Union of Liars has concocted. Amazingly, each of
his lies is amplified by the press and then quietly forgotten as facts
become available, but he is never ignored. Most recently, a women from
the village of Bi'lin is said to have been asphyxiated by tear gas
hurled at the Friday afternoon rioters. Though the circumstances are
yet to be determined, he was right there to indict Israel for war
crimes. Would you negotiate an agreement with this man? The Israelis
did -- the infamous Oslo Accords.
This section has three snapshots on the road to accepting Islam at
its own assessment: from Warner's article where access to some actual
and honest facts will dispel the fog onto an intermediate stage where,
as Nirenstein writes, people behave as ostriches. The implications of
facts are ignored or taken as amusing trivia -- like the fact that
Muhammad is now the most popular name for a boy in many European
countries. It's much less disturbing than examining what is happening
to them. Melanie Phillips describes the terminal stage, where people
in all walks of life have become resistant to reality because they are
bonded to the Arab narrative, which portrays the Palestinian Arabs as
the victims of the people they murder. And all events are interpreted
through a rigid filter that justifies anything the Arabs do because
the Jews are demons and their hold on the land of Israel is
illegitimate.
OBJECTIVE ISLAM, SUBJECTIVE ISLAM
Bill Warner cautions us against believing the expert who has been
corrupted -- and the Saudis are spending billions to make just such
friends. "Such apologists tend to quote a Muslim friend or
establishment expert and attack those who criticize Islam." Not
useful. Warner suggests going to the sources: to the Koran and Hadith,
themselves. Use an translation that doesn't airbrush the original.
THE INVENTION OF "PEACE" IN THE MIDDLE EAST
Somewhere in the middle of the road between the ability to handle the
claims of Islam as we do any other investigation to the end of the
road, when people are afflicted with a condition where normal
investigation is not possible because it is filtered out by the
adopted ideology of Islam. there is a middle area when reality is
denied or minimized. The facts are there. Their implications are
ignored. We minimize the significance of Iran's push for nuclear arms;
we obscure the significance of Mohammed being the most popular name
for a boy in many countries in Europe. We keep waiting for Syria to do
the sensible thing and leave Iran; meantime Syria extends its role as
happy little gofer for Iran. Reality is too frightening to deal with.
But it can be done; but we need to .look for "new ways to peace, as
the old ways are blocked. "
THE CHALLENGE OF PUBLIC DIPLOMACY VIS-A-VIS THE DELEGITIMISATION OF ISRAEL
Melanie Phillips writes that when it comes to public diplomacy --
hasbara -- "Israel and its defenders have been outclassed and
outmanoeuvred in a war of the mind being waged on a battleground it
never even acknowledged it was on." By now, the belief that the
Palestinians have a just cause --- they are the natives and Israel is
illegally occupying their land -- is accepted on all the social,
political, religious and economic levels of British society. Islam has been
successful in trivializing Israel's concerns and, at the same time,
adopting as their own, any parts of the Jewish experience that can be
twisted into helping their case; e.g., the Jews didn't suffer a
Holocaust, but they are causing one in Gaza. "... history is turned on
its head; logic is suspended; and an entirely false narrative of the
conflict is now widely accepted as unchallengeable fact, from which
fundamental error has been spun a global web of potentially
catastrophic false conclusions." As Phillips puts it, "we are dealing
with a pathology — to which we nevertheless respond as if it were
rational behaviour." Israel continues to appease, when she needs
strategies against the various types of Israel bashers and haters --
and the courage to use them.
This section discusses influential bodies that labor hard on behalf
of the Arabs. It's long been known Archbishop Tutu is a rabid and
vocal anti-Semite, reinforcing the Arab hostility to Israel and to
Jews in general. Judging by its behavior, the permanent staff at the
State Department is also strongly pro-Arab -- catering to Saudi Arabia
and ignoring its support of jihad. This opinion has been bolstered by
papers recently declassified. Given that Muslim immigration to Europe
threatens to overwhelm the native populations, it is surprising that
the European Union (EU) does not see Israel as a strong ally in
attempting to keep the Muslims at bay. Instead, the EU is one of the
strongest supporters of the Arabs' war on Israel. They provide the
Palestinian Arabs with large amounts of money and construct towns for
them; they run interference for them in the U.N. and echo their
propaganda themes; and they lobby for them in Washington. They
criticize every way Israel has sought to counter terrorism, no matter
how finely targeted and limited to known terrorists. The EU has become
a collegium of Judge Goldstones, whose opinions don't merit respect.
ARCHBISHOP TUTU, OBAMA'S OTHER ANTI-SEMITIC GURU
Israel holds an singular place in Archibishop Tutu's thinking: it sins
against the Palestinian arab as once it sinned by helping apartheid in
South Africa. In his mind, though not in reality, it was the
country that helped the white minority oppress the black majority.
Given his drive to boycott Israel, Edward Alexander's essay on Tutu's
spiteful rants about Israel is worth pondering. It is clear Tutu is as
intent on destroying Israel's economy as he is in showing his hatred
of Jews. It is a fact that Israel doesn't practice apartheid but
there definitely is a real problem -- the Arabs are trying hard to
destroy the Jewish state. I suspect the Archbishop knows the facts but
in his Marxist view they don't signify.
THE ARAB LOBBY: THE AMERICAN COMPONENT
We've become accustomed to hearing that the mighty USA is at the mercy
of the Israel Lobby, but a more realistic assessment is that it is the
Arab Lobby that influences governmental policy. It predates the Israel
Lobby. It's not grass roots; its members are people of position and
clout; they include oil company executives, career diplomats at the
State Department, Christian missionaries and educators who from the
beginning wanted to "build ties with the Arab world and, following
the discovery of oil in the region, to secure access to that
resource." [italics added] Their sympathies are a carryover from
the days when Britain controlled "Palestine" and aided and abetted the
Arabs while disarming the Jews. It will likely continue to be pro-Arab
when the power of Arab oil wanes. Mitchell Bard points out that no
matter what the views of the elected administration, the United States
State Department has traditionally been in tune with the views of the
Arabs, particular with the wishes of Saudi Arabia, which has a strong
antipathy to a Jewish state in the Middle East. The U.S.A. may have a
ideological commitment to promote democracy, but in practice, the
State Department runs interference for the Saudis, and this is not
necessarily in the best interests of the USA. Saudi Arabia, in
addition to its dismal record on human rights is "one of the principal
sponsors of jihadists." And the jihadists see the USA as their enemy
-- and act on that perception.
THE EUROPEAN UNION: NO INNOCENT BYSTANDER, NO HONEST BROKER
Eli E. Hertz demolishes the fancy that the European Union (EU) has
taken the high road in the Middle East conflict. As he puts it,
"Europe's claim that it can be an even-handed mediator does not hold
water. Besides a poor record in solving problems as colonial powers,
member states of the EU would make poor facilitators in the Middle
East for several reasons, including their dependence on Arab trade and
Arab oil." They also seem to believe that by sacrificing Israel, they
will save Europe from Arab terrorism and the Arab demographic takeover
of Europe. Their strategy is about as likely to work as Chamberlain's
sellout of Czechoslovakia saved Europe from Hitler and World War 2.
For many of us, what started as amusing stories of how piggy banks
were banned in an English town because Muslims don't eat pork or how
Muslim taxi drivers have refused to transport passengers carrying
liquor have become less and less amusing. Demanding that woman wear
burqas when their pictures are taken for a driver's license was not
funny. Muslims have progressed from getting time off every couple of
hours for prayers to where they take over streets in major cities for
prayers. In small matters and in large matters, there seems to be no
stopping point, no time when they are content with the concessions
won. And never any sense of shame -- can you image a Jew or a Hindu
insisting on building a house of worship at the site demolished by
their fellow religionists? They don't seem to get along even with each
other. This set of essays ask whether the Islamic drive for supremacy
is compatible with Western democracy.
THE LONG MARCH OF ISLAM: CHAPTER 8
In the previous two chapters, R.K. Ohri examined the socio-economic
and cultural consequences of the rapid increase in the size of the
Muslim community in host countries around the world. The immigrant
Muslims invariably rapidly outbreed the natives and invariably demand
changes that suit themselves, even if it damages or marginalizes the
native population. In Chapter 8, he discourses on the unfortunate fact
that unlike other religions, Islam has -- and wants -- no mechanisms
to encourage better ways to govern and restructure society or to
develop human rights for previously-deprived social groups. The only
acceptable laws and social mores are those conforming to the Koran and
Sharia, which are themselves considered immutable. Every aspect of a
woman's life is controlled by the Koranic view that the male should
dominate society and his household. Madrassas teach hatred of
non-Muslims and encourages their students to wage war to promote the
supremacy of Islam. Islam's goal is "converting every Muslim country
into a rigid 'Sharia-based Islamic state'" and converting every
non-Muslim country to Islam. And thanks to their oil-wealth, countries
like Saudi Arabia have the resources as well as the commitment to
carry out these aims.
WHY ISLAM MUST BE EXPELLED FROM THE WEST
Recently, a suicide bomber, an Iraqi-born Muslim, struck at a shopping
mall in downtown Stockholm. Fjordman points out that this contradicts
all the reasons we've been given to explain what motivates these
murderous acts. Sweden can hardly be accused of favoring Israel. And
at home, Sweden favors the Muslim immigrant above its native stock.
The best the bomber could come up with was that Sweden, as part of
NATO, was in Afghanistan and that some cartoonist had mocked Muhammad
-- hardly an explosive matter to a non-Muslim.. Fjordman concludes
that Islamists may blame their violence on any handy excuse, but their
real intent is to replace democracy with their totalitarian ideology,
which preaches Islam uber alles. and believes the personal
habits of a crude, ignorant, vicious, egotistical pedophile are the
best guide to how we should conduct ourselves. Once we arrive at this
summation: "As long as they remain in our countries, they will work to
subvert and destroy us. It is quite literally a religious duty for
them to do so," the solution becomes obvious.
THE ART OF PROJECTING ONE'S VICES, MUSLIM-STYLE
Muslim have made it an art form attributing their grotesque ways to
those they persecute. As Raymond Ibrahim writes, they project their
evil behavior on the Christian Copts of Egypt. He provides us with
instructive examples. They are at their vituperative best claiming
Israel is occupying Palestinians land, when, truth be known, it
occupies land legally and morally and historically belonging to Israel.
Inverting the truth, Muslims accuse minority groups in the Middle
East of practicing what is well-known as basic Radical Islam.
ISLAM WAS BORN OUT OF CHILD ABUSE AND RAPE
The title of this article is not hyperbole. As Daniel Greenfield
points out it was the marriage of the child Aishe to Mohammed that
gave him his first real power base. "In Islam, [child abuse] is an
organic part of the religion itself." Given that Mohammed and his
activities and behavior are considered the perfect model to be
imitated, there doesn't seem to be any way to conform to Islam but
disallow child marriage. Similarly, the suicide bombers and snipers
who shoot children held in the arms of their parents are in conformity
to Mohammed's instructions to his followers. As Greenfield puts it,
"Mohammed had a vastly inflated ego completely out of proportion to
his actual abilities. And like them, he knew that cunning and
ruthlessness would take him further, than righteousness and hard work
ever would. He saw his opponents as weak because they were unwilling
to do what he did. And that made them easy prey." Our current
unwillingness to fight back effectively continues to make the West easy
prey.
THE "PALESTINIAN" ARABS AND THE FORGOTTEN IRANIAN ARABS
When Persia, now known as Iran, was conquered by Muhammed's Arab
hoard, many of these Arabs and some already in Persia settled in large
part in the Iranian province of Khuzistan. Despite the fact that these
Ahwazi Arabs are Arabs and certainly Muslim, they suffer the
indignities and massacres inflicted on other Middle Eastern minorities
such as the Copts. As Steven Simpson points out, the suffering of
these minorities is ignored, while the world squanders its sympathy
and good deeds on the "Palestinian" Arabs, who, compared to the poor
of the Arab world, live well. The Arabs In Israel and the
Territories are not subjected to massacres and terror; in point of
fact, it is these Arabs that do the massacring and terrorizing. Why
does the world scream when a Palestinian Arab is stopped at a
checkpoint, but says nothing when an Ahwazi Arab or a Christian Copt
has his throat slit?
It can be said in two words: get real. Stop pretending we can sweet
talk into normal, peaceful behavior a bunch of people taught by their
holy books and their holy men and scholars that they are destined to
reign over the planet; and they must never stop working towards that
goal. To change the odds, we first need to change ourselves. We need
education, knowledge, new attitudes and firmness of purpose. And we
need to figure out how to give up the intruders, not our land. Doesn't
seem too much to do when the alternative is oblivion at the hands of a
determined group of death cultists aided by Western friends with other
reasons for eliminating the Jew.
THE JEWISH PRESENCE IN PALESTINE
This essay -- a chapter from Shmuel Katz' Battleground: Fact and
Fantasy in Palestine -- makes the point that the Jews didn't
create a homeland in recent times. Israel has been their homeland for
thousands of years. They needed to regain it and redeem it. And that
too took thousands of years, though during that time, no matter how
hard the local conditions and how oppressive the rulers, there were
always some Jews living in the Jewish homeland. By the mid-1800s while
still under Ottoman rule, the entire region that was to become
Mandated Palestine after World War 1 was Darfur-poor, economically a
derelict and practically empty of people. The total population -- Jews
and non-Jews -- is reasonably estimated at 100,000 people. The millions
of Arabs currently in Israel and the territories are mostly 20th
century immigrants and their descendents. Katz makes it clear that the
"historic ownership [of Palestine] by the Arab people or by a
'Palestinian entity' is a fiction fabricated in our own day." It is
about time the Arab propaganda that claims the Palestinians/Arabs are
the natives and/or a "Palestinian/Arab nation" who have been dispossessed by the invasion of the Jews is
recognized to be the fantasy that it is.
JEWISH MALWARE
Charles Jacobs examines the Jewish reaction to an accusation. Perhaps
it's the thousands of years of conditioning in the diaspora where the
follow-up to being accused of something, rightly or wrongly, was
almost always death or torture, expulsion or heavy taxation. It didn't
matter how absurd the accusation. Jews who routinely soaked and salted
meat to rid it of blood before they ate it were accused of killing
Christian children to use their blood in matzo. And they were killed
for it. Whatever the reason, it seems the more outrageous and libelous
the accusation, the greater the Jewish need to explain, to justify, to
become acutely defensive. As Jacobs reminds us, "Jabotinsky had it
perfectly right. 'Every accusation causes among us such a commotion
that people unwittingly think, 'why are they so afraid of everything?
Apparently their conscience is not clear.'" I think Jacobs is on to
something significant. What but our acute concern for being targeted
by an accusation -- in this case dual loyalty -- has made most of us
timid about insisting Jonathan Pollard is long overdue for release
from an abnormally long jailing? Against all precedent, why do our
enemies feel they could keep Pollard jailed for an eternity? Why do we
always go on the defensive, not the offensive? Why don't we firmly
point out that the Land of Israel is ours. Period. Why, instead, do
our spokesmen pretend we can't wait for a bunch of murderers to set up
house in Biblical Israel. Why don't we understand, as Melanie Phillips
has put it, "the animus against Israel can only be understood if it is
set in a far wider context. It is part of a wholesale denigration of
and onslaught upon the West and its values by the media, progressive
intelligentsia and political class." Why do we let a bunch of Marxists
and Muslims with hate in their hearts deter us from defending our turf
and the culture we share with the West? Why oh why don't we answer the
Thomas Friedman-style fools with sarcasm as Prowisor does
here. or with some great satire as Caroline Glick does
here? Why, when UNESCO decides that the tomb of our ancestor
Rachel, wife of Abraham, is really a Arab mosque, why doesn't we send
UNESCO a bunch of bananas as we'd do for any ape, instead of
attempting to reason with the knowingly unreasonable?
THE "TWO-STATE DELUSION": WHO WANTS A "TWO-STATE SOLUTION"?
Dr Alan Soloway uses the controversery surrounding the Ground Zero
mosque to provide insight into what's wrong with a 2-state solution
that would carve a Palestinian state out of Biblical Israel. The
Mosque must be build only at Ground Zero so that it will
serve as a sign that the bombing of the World Trade Center was an
important step on the road to Islam Triumphant. The same "Jihadist
religious political mindset ... will not allow Israel to exist and is
resolved to restore Arab Muslim influence, prestige, control and power
to their glory of ages past." Dr. Soloway argues from history,
international law and "Arab Muslim political theology" that a 2-state
solution is not the way to peace but to the destruction of Israel, the
destabilization of the Middle East and a weakening of the power of the
USA to protect itself from Islamic Jihad.
THE SETTLEMENTS AND THE MONSTROUS CHARGE OF ILLEGALITY
Jewish settlements in Samaria and Judea (aka the West Bank) are
legal by international law. How could they not be, when that entire
area is Jewish by an irrevocable trust created by the same International
Authority that created many of the Arab states? Yet, as David Isaac writes, a
great deal of the anti-Israel propaganda by the European Union and the
American administration inter alia has been focused on claiming
that Jewish settlers are fanatics, their settlements illegal. On
the other hand, Arab settlements, built on private land not their own
-- or even on public land -- are never considered illegal. What's going on
is that propagandists want to turn over the land to the Palestinian
Arabs, without the problem of having to expel a lot of Jews.
And why would the Jews have to leave, when, after all, Arabs
are 20% of Israel's population? Well, except for the remnants of
ancient Jewish communities, Jews aren't allowed to live in Arab
countries. But that's another story.
THE PALESTINIAN REFUGEES ON THE DAY AFTER "INDEPENDENCE"
Hard statistics are hard to come by. But In 1948, what would become
the new State of Israel (and not including Gaza, Judea and Samaria)
had somewhat less or much less (depending on the estimate) than
690,000 to 736,000 permanent Arab residents. (See MidEastWeb.) After the
Arab invasion of the new-born State of Israel in May 1948, subtracting
the couple of hundred thousand Arabs that remained, and ignoring the
artificial inflation due to double ration cards, not reporting the
dead, registration of Arabs who'd never been in Israel, and poor Arabs
in the Arab host countries -- there were at the very most --
595,000 refugees, well below the number of Jews who were forced to
flee the Arab lands. In August 1948, the U.N. estimated the number of
Arab refugees needing help at 330,000. The U.N. now supports around 5
million people, the original refugees and their putative descendants.
Jonathan D. Halevi points out the Arabs have locked themselves into a
refusal to accept anything but an uncompromised right of return. The
creation of a Palestinian state is envisioned as a way station in
which to collect Palestinians -- including the refugees
residing in the different Arab states -- and get them ready to go back
to their old homes in Israel. For those that understand that letting
in some or all of this hostile population is a way to destroy Israel
-- and think this is a good thing -- give this a thought: After World
War Two there were millions and millions of refugees [see above
and
Yemini, "Addendum."] and most of them were resettled in new
places. What if these refugees and their children and their
grandchildren and their great grandchildren began retroactively to
demand the right of return?
PALESTINIAN PROLETARIAT
Michael Bernstam describes Gaza, with its eight UNRWA refugee camps as
"a totalitarian paramilitary camp at war with its neighbors and other
Palestinians." Typically, refugees are helped over an immediate
crises and encouraged to resettle somewhere or other in a timely fashion.
In contrast, UNRWA, the agency established in 1949 exclusively for
the Arab refugees, has continued to provide generous handouts,
medical care, education and social services to the children and
grandchildren and great grandchildren of the original refugees.
UNRWA, with its complete welfare program for an ever-expanding
clientele living in 59 refugee camps scattered over several Arab
countries and in the Territories, has thwarted economic development,
destroyed opportunities for peace in the Middle East, and created,
along the way — both metaphorically and literally — a
breeding ground for international terrorism." Keeping these
professional refugees on the dole has prevented them from developing
a nation-state. It follows that the best way to improve their lot
would be to abolish UNRWA.
RACHEL'S TOMB, A JEWISH HOLY PLACE, WAS NEVER A MOSQUE
Rachel, our Matriarch, died on the 11th of Heshvan 3,564 years ago and
to commemorate her yahrzeit, Jews travel to her grave every
year. Nadav Shragai recounts the history of the Kever. Over the
centuries. Muslims recognized the tomb was Jewish -- which didn't
prevent them from extorting money to allow Jews to visit the tomb and
robbing the visitors. Jordan prevented Jewish access during the 19
years it was in control of eastern Jerusalem, Samaria and Judea. But
it wasn't until 1996 that the Arabs began to claim the site wasn't
Jewish but was a mosque named after a Muslim, Bilal ibn Rabah, who is
buried in Damascus. And now they have the jokers at UNESCO agreeing
with them.
A TALE OF TWO GALLOWAYS: Notes on the Early History of UNRWA and Zionist Historiography
Structured as a biohistory of the career of a British military colonel
during WW2, this essay by Alexander H. Joffe and Asaf Romirowsky is an
insightful examination of the early days of UNRWA. This was well
before the time that the local arabs who fled Israel when the Arab
states invaded were transmogrified into the "Palestinian" people. The
authors document the politics and interactions between UNRWA and its
wards, during the time the Arab countries openly rejected the care and
feeding of the refugees and before the Muslim gained sufficient power
to corrupt the mission of the U.N., while creating such monstrosities
as the UN Civil Rights Council. The article is particularly pertinent
in that Galloway's remarks that UNRWA wasn't helping the Arab refugees
was reiterated recently by Andrew Whitely, Director of the UNRWA New
York office. He too suffered from an angry bureaucracy.
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.
A Blog-Ed page has a quick list of the articles from which you can
access any of the articles immediately.
To go to the list, click the
"Blog-Eds List" box in the Blue Strip on the top of the Blog-Ed page.
November 2010 BLOG-EDS
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SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER, 2010
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AN ALTERNATIVE 2-STATE SOLUTION
It would be suicidal for Israel to allow a Palestinian state to be
carved out of Biblical Israel, particularly one that would control a
major component of her water supply and is capable of shooting
missiles everywhere in Israel. But there remains the festering problem
of a growing Palestinian refugee population living on cradle-to-coffin
debilitating welfare, taught to hate Israel and the West and used as
pawns to make claim to Jewish land. The Editors of Think-Israel
propose that the Palestinian Arabs -- those from the refugee camps and
those residing in the Territories -- be helped to establish a viable
state within the land given to the Arabs by the League of Nations when
the Ottoman Empire was dissolved. The state would be physically
well-separted from Arab population centers and legally independent of
the Arab country that previously owned the land. Within their state,
the Palestinian Arabs would have complete control of their politics,
education, culture and living style. Given recent political
developments in the Middle East where Israel's military and
technological strength is a major asset, the strengthening of Israel's
appreciation of its own religious roots and a growing disbelief in the
reliability of supposedly impartial external organizations, this is a
propitious time to create such a state.
A NEW PLAN FOR RESOLVING THE ARAB-ISRAELI CONFLICT
Richard Shulman's plan for resolving the Arab-Israeli conflict takes
into consideration Israeli Arabs as well as the Arabs living in the
Territories. The plan lays down a sequence of feasible steps that are
primarily Israel's responsibility: beginning with changing Israel's
attitude and policy of doing anything and everything for a peace that
can't come about under prevailing conditions. Israelis need to start
thinking with their heads and start basing their actions on their own
interests and their actual experience with the Arabs, not on the
wishful thinking or the frank anti-Zionism of ignorant foreign
diplomats, politicians and media. Some changes are obvious: favoring
the Arabs no matter what the merits of their case in police actions
and in the judiciary needs to stop; Arab sedition in Israel and in the
Territories is no longer to be tolerated; the Oslo Accords are to be
nullified and Jewish areas in the Territories are to be annexed. It is
much less clear whether eventually expulsion will be required.
Discussions before hand should consider that it would violate Israel's
concept of civil rights as well as creating much opposition. On the
other hand, "[e]xperience shows that a large Muslim minority is not
compatible with majority survival."
(See e.g.
here and
here.)
It does not help resolve the conflict for the U.S.A. to pressure
Israel to make peace while ignoring islam's goal of destroying Israel.
In fact, America herself needs to make changes in how she reacts
internally to Muslim demands and infiltration. She needs to recognize
that the fight against global Islamic jihad must be fought globally.
THE PALESTINIAN PROBLEM: A REAL SOLUTION
For political reasons, UNRWA has provided the Arab refugees of 1948
and their descendants with life-time welfare when the goal -- as it is
for all other refugees -- should have been (re)settling them
permanently as soon as possible. To rehabilitate the Arab refugees,
Martin Sherman advocates (1) eliminating UNRWA and (2) removing the
anti-refugee discrimination in citizenship, employment and housing
practiced by the Arab states that currently host the refugee camps.
For those Palestinian Arabs living in the Israeli Territories --
Samaria and Judea (the West Bank) and Gaza -- he recommends that
Israel and such international donors that wish to participate give
them generous financial help to relocate to Muslim countries as
individuals, not under the control of their leaders. A 2004 poll
indicated over 70% would take such a deal. It would also financially
benefit the countries that accept them. It would be cheaper than the
enormous military costs to Israel to defend itself from a neighboring
Palestinian state and for the international community to relocate a
large "refugee" population to this Palestinian state.
ANNEXATION NOW!
Yoel Meltzer writes that most Israeli Jews understand that allowing
"another Arab State west of the Jordan river is nothing short of
national suicide." Transferring the Arabs would eliminate the effort
expended in trying to cope with the security issues and the
demographics of the current situation. But if that's not possible,
Meltzer urges Israel at least "to take the bold and long-overdue step
of formally annexing Judea and Samaria," thus acknowledging that "the
land of Israel is a gift given by God to the Jewish people."
Annexation will present Israel with a host of problems. Such problems
are difficult but solvable. Allowing an Arab state to intrude into
Israel is certain death.
THE CASE FOR POPULATION EXCHANGE
This is a reprint of Lewis Lipkin's 2002 article. The introduction
read: "Population exchange is not a new idea. Sometimes a complete
separation is the only way that two groups unable to live together can
get on with their lives. It might be time to complete the separation
of the Jews and the Arabs. The Jews were evacuated from Arab countries
when Israel was born. Maybe it's time to do the second half of the
transfer: move the Palestinian Arabs to Arab countries"
LEGAL RIGHTS AND TITLE OF SOVEREIGNTY OF THE JEWISH PEOPLE TO THE LAND OF ISRAEL AND PALESTINE UNDER INTERNATIONAL LAW
We are reprinting the article from the July-August 2005 Issue.
The introduction read:
"In this essay, Howard Grief brilliantly fulfills his objective 'to set
down in a brief, yet clear and precise manner the legal rights and
title of sovereignty of the Jewish people to the Land of Israel and
Palestine under international law.' This paper should be part of your
armamentarium for the next time you are told that Resolution XXX of
the U.N. guarantees the rights of the Palestinian Arabs to YYY."
You can read more about Israel's right to all of Jerusalem and
Biblical Israel (AKA West Bank) by reading Howard Grief's articles
such as
this one. For other essays on international law that state that
biblical Israel is a trust in perpetuity for the Jewish people and can
not be given away, read Part I of
Yoram Shifftan's "A Legal Challenge." and his essay on
Gifting. Read Wallace Brand on Israeli Sovereignty over
Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria here.
Use the Google box at the top of this page to search on keywords such as
Howard Grief, Yoram Shifftan, Ted Belman, legal, mandate and population
transfer.
ISRAEL AS THE NATION-STATE OF THE JEWISH PEOPLE:
FROM SAN REMO TO THE NETANYAHU-ABBAS TALKS
Joshua Teitelbaum describes the San Remo Conference of 1920 and its
importance in the legal infrastructure underlying the eventual
international confirmation of the modern state of Israel as a Jewish
state, as a state for the Jewish people. In assigning the area -- some
1% of the Middle East -- that had been part of the Syrian province for
some 400 years during the Ottoman rule to the Jews, the participants
of the Conference recognized the unbreakable bond between the Jewish
people and its ancient roots in the land of Israel. Ironically,
considering the present-day ill-considered slandering of Israel by
calling it a colonial power, "Jewish self-determination was part of a
process that ended up decolonizing the Middle East in an effort
that led to Arab as well as Jewish independence.' [emphasis added]
SETTLEMENTS, AGREEMENTS, LEGITIMACY
Michael Zebulon provides us with a lively exposition of a serious
topic: the legality of the Jewish settlements in Samaria and Judea. It
is written in the form of a rebuttal to Pres. Obama who has questioned
their legitimacy. Zebulon delves deeply into the concept of
legitimacy and why the term is not twin to legality This
essay provides a well-rounded description of the commitment in
international law to the all-member ruling by the League of Nation
that what was called Mandated Palestine is in an irrevocable trust for
the Jewish people for all time. The trust was given over with no
changes or exceptions to the U.N. Read this. It will sharpen your
understanding of why settlements are legal. And legitimate.
DO JEWS HAVE CIVIL RIGHTS?
The emphasis on stopping Israel from building in Samaria and Judea --
while igoring the large amount of illegal building by the Palestinian
arabs -- is motivated by the desire to make Biblical Israel so
strongly arab, there will be no problem giving it over to the Arabs.
This assumes ahead of time that Israel has no claim to the land.
Israel has a strong, indeed indisputable, claim, but this apparently
weighs nothing against the current politics dominating the E.U., the
U.N., the U.S. Administration -- and the Israeli administration. That
the Israeli government has allowed a moratorium on Jewish building is
indicative of a general and frightening development. As Caroline Glick
tells us, the Jews of Israel are losing their civil rights, not just
in Samaria and Judea, but in the Negev, the Galilee, the Golan Heights
and Jerusalem -- in any place in Israel that the Arabs assert a flimsy
claim. The passive, non-punitive attitude to Arab marauders and
arsonists by Israeli politicians, police and courts doesn't encourage
the Arabs to adopt a peaceful attitude. It encourages them -- and this
includes the Israeli Arabs -- to continue destroying Jewish property,
crops, livestock and lives.
THE OSTRICH ACCORDS
As if the dreadful consequences of the Oslo Accords weren't enough,
David Isaac makes us aware of a little-known fact: that the
instigators gave no thought to final outcomes or where such a
momentous step would lead. It would seem that little has changed;
worrying about ultimates isn't Israel's leadership's forte. Israel
prefers to tread water, while its enemy grows stronger. Meantimes, the
Arabs are selling the idea of the peace-less creation of a Palestinian
arab state, with Jewish stooges such as Yossi Beilin assuring
"Israelis that the Arabs, despite all evidence to the contrary, really
want peace." David Isaac's website is called ShmuelKatz.com because,
in each essay, he seamlessly stitches together a current concern with a
telling analysis by the prescient Shmuel Katz, who lived through much
of the early history of Modern Israel.
THEATER OF THE ABSURD
Put together an Israeli Prime Minister who sings about his "commitment
to implement a policy that he has [rightly] repeatedly repudiated and
ridiculed," a grumpy Palestinian Arab Prime Minister whose term of
office has expired but who continues to reject the
internationally-authorized Jewish state, a chorus of Hamas terrorists
doing their war thing, and an inexperienced, floundering American
president who proclaims that things couldn't be sweller and who
desperately needs something that can be portrayed as a successful
achievement; and you have, as Martin Sherman calls it, theater of the
absurd. To add to the humor noire, Abbas, the man with no
authority or power, has been stage center, dictating the future
characteristics of both the unborn Palestinian state and the
flourishing Jewish state, neither one of which does he control. I
can't wait for the world's critics to pontificate that it's a
wonderful play, but the Israeli ruined it.
WHOSE IS THE LAND?
Victor Sharpe devotes this essay to pointing out that Israel is both
the ancient and the modern owner of Israel. It is time to assert
herself instead of helping her enemies. He points out that labels
count. Their clever choice of terms accounts for some of the success
the Arabs and their friends have had swaying the opinion of the world
that -- despite, what the Bible, history, geography, morality and
international law say -- they have title to Jewish land. The Jewish
settlers are cast as the evil embodiment of the rapacious Jews,
who have taken so much of the land, leaving the poor victimized Arabs
only 99.99% of the Middle East. We Include the text of an article by
Stan Goodenough, that reinforces the take-home message: stop using
labels that distort reality in favor of Arab claims.
O, PALESTINE!
Moshe Dann describes why the Palestinians -- a very recent people --
were invented. From the beginning, the Arab refugee was useful in
putting a sympathy-grabbing face on the Arab grab of Jewish land and
their intent to destroy the Jewish state. It was later realized that
the refugees could do more. Arafat decreed the "Palestinian People"
into instant existence in 1964. And it was in the refugee camps that
the concept of Palestinian nationalism was developed. Thanks to the
cooperation of the U.N. and much of the western media, the lack of a
factual history and geography has not been a hindrance as the
Palestinians evolved a "narrative" and inculcated their
children that Jerusalem was theirs and the Jews were occupying
their land. Now they have not only a cause but a
political-military identity that Israel and the Arab countries have
to deal with.
JUSTICE FOR PALESTINE
Professor Efraim Karsh points out that the majority of the
Palestinian arabs are indifferent to the "Peace Process" and the
majority of the Arabs are indifferent to the welfare of the
"Palestinians". This runs counter to the assertion of Arab
propagandists that Palestinian Arabs, all other Arabs and Muslims in
general are passionately concerned about the "Israeli-Palestinian
stalemate [so it] feeds regional anger and despair." Resolving the
Arab-Israeli conflict, they claim, is the key to peace and stability
in the Middle East, perhaps even for the entire planet. In this essay,
Karsh again counters fantasy with fact. He provides us with an
excellent summary of the modern history of internecine conflict in
Middle East, pointing out that the rejection of Israel by the
Arabs/Muslims has not been out of concern for the Palestinian arabs.
NEGOTIATING IN THE MIDDLE EAST: HOW THE OTHER SIDE SEES IT
With all their enthusiasm for promoting a peace accord by negotiations
based on fair play and fairmindedness, few of the West's politicians
have asked themselves whether their simplistic notions are helpful,
given the mindset of the Arabs and other Muslims. A honor and shame
culture understands murdering a virgin who is raped; it doesn't
understand the Western notion of giving up land and power to gain
consensus agreement. Concessions we see as contributing to the cause
for peace, they view as a sign of weakness. This insightful essay by
Mark Silverberg makes clear that attempting to deal with the Muslim on
the basis of Judeo-Christian tenets won't work. We need to understand
they have a very different way of interpreting what we do. How do we
make them understand us? He suggests borrowing a working idea from our
history: it is only by inflicting complete defeat on them will we get
them to listen. Then we can introduce them to ideas of fairmindedness,
equality for woman and the nice idea of dialogue.
WHO SAYS ISLAM IS TOTALITARIAN?
A notion promoted by many is that Islam is peaceful and there's a few
extremists disconnected from their religion that cause all the
trouble. At its most simplistic: 911 was caused by just a handful of
bad Muslims -- as if it didn't take long-range planning, a huge
organization and lots of money to make it happen. That Muslims are not
trusted has somehow become our fault. They aren't the
intolerant racists. We are. Even respected members of the media peddle
this view. In this essay Andrew C. McCarthy rebuts this distortion
with some hard facts and analyses. That Islam is indeed totalitarian
and is the basis of Muslim violence is confirmed by none other than
the grand daddy of Islamic mischief -- the Muslim Brotherhood.
ON THE ILLUSION OF A MODERATE ISLAM
This is a tremendously signficant essay by Fjordman, driving home the
message that moderate Muslims and immoderate Muslims are not members
of two different species. They are more likely the different faces
that Muslims don under different conditions. We see the immoderate
face when they feel triumphant or at least on the ascendent; they act
more temperate when times are against them. Some moderate Muslims may
genuinely be decent, civilized and tolerant human beings, but to date
there is no moderate Islam. Until the moderate Muslim lobbies his
clerics to abrogate the commands to be violent in the Koran and
ancillary sacred books, his impact on the thrust of Islam will be nil.
THE NATURE OF THE BEAST
We don't often have impressionistic articles -- first-hand subjective
essays, carved out painstakingly and over time from personal
experiences -- rather than conclusions gained from broad knowledge,
quite often, from an examination of the primary sources of others.
Steven Goldberg's essay is very much his own thinking, constructed
from many personal experiences while working in Arab countries. He
emphasizes the lack of symmetry: "Israel may desire peace, Palestine
does not." He discusses the influence of Russia and China and the
treachery of the Palestinian arabs in Kuwait during the Gulf War. His
retort to Islamophobia -- which in practice refers even to the
most minimal and/or the most documented complaint against islam -- is:
"If Islam could stand on its own merit, it would not need
extraordinary protection in order to survive." He has come to see
Islam as the furthest thing from a religion of peace. What is most
depressing in his analysis is: "The silent majority while they may
disagree, because of their lack of objection, basically rubber stamp
Islam's bad behavior. "
THE RAMALLAH LYNCHING
As the Free Republic website recalls for us: October 12, 2010 marks
the 10th anniversary of the butchering in Ramallah of two Israeli
reservists who drove by mistake into Ramallah. Just as 9/11 —
which occurred just 11 months later — shocked Americans out of
their complacency and ignorance of what global jihad means, the
lynching shocked Israelis into a recognition that they were dealing
with a folk that had irreconciliable differences. Unfortunately, for
too many Israelis, the message didn't sink in. Had it been seen as
emblematic of the nature of the enemy, the Gaza expulsion might not
have happened; the progressive appeasement policy by Israeli
politicians might not have happened; and the minimalist response to
terror that strengthened the confidence of Israel's enemies might not
have happened. We recall this particular massacre, precisely because
it is emblematic of the nature of those who confront Israel by
violence.
WHAT IS ISLAM?
In a forthright and knowledgeable article from someone who has seen
Islam as an insider and finally objectively, Amil Imani tells us
precisely what Islam is: "Islam is a comprehensive totalitarian form
of slavery. It is the opposite of freedom. Its very name, Islam means
submission or surrender. True to its name, Islam strives for nothing
short of enslavement of the body of humanity as well as the bondage of
its mind. This non-negotiable surrender to Islam requires the
individual, as well as the society, to disenfranchise themselves of
many of the fundamental and deeply cherished human rights." Read this
whenever the sirens of today -- politicians and media -- sing that
"Islam is a religion of peace."
OFFENSIVE JIHAD: THE ONE INCONTROVERTIBLE PROBLEM WITH ISLAM
Raymond Ibrahim points out that in the interest of peace perhaps we
could accept that a culture may do what it will to its own people as
long as it doesn't inflict its ideas on other cultures. The problem
with this solution is that Islam, stripped of its many grievances that
create so much of the friction between Islam and the West,
nevertheless has a core issue that does not allow it to live in
harmony with a non-Muslim culture. As Osama bin Laden put it, with
reference to jihad: "Does Islam, or does it not, force people by the
power of the sword to submit to its authority corporeally if not
spiritually? Yes. There are only three choices in Islam ... . Either
submit, or live under the suzerainty of Islam, or die." Definitely a
deal breaker.
THE MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD: ISLAM'S GLOBAL CHALLENGE TO THE WEST
The Muslim Brotherhood, which was founded in Egypt in 1928 is noted
for long-term planning to inflict Sharia law globally. Using reliable
sources, Moshe Dann has written an excellent summary of the
machinations of the Muslim Brotherhood, particularly in the U.S.A. We
stress reliable because there is currently an active campaign
to paint the MB as a benign group of Muslims, just practicing their
religion. Come to think of it, that just might be the case: the MB is
carrying out the mission Muhammed imposed on his followers.
WASHINGTON'S SCHIZOPHRENIC APPROACH TOWARD THE MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD
The Muslim Brotherhood (MB) has been in business for some 90 years,
carefully developing various infrastructures for infiltrating
different countries with one goal: to spread sharia law around the
globe to make Islam dominant everywhere. As Steve Emerson points out,
it collaborated with Nazi German; it gave rise to Hamas; and it calls
for the destruction of Israel, America's ally. Given the information
available on its tactics and ambitions, isn't it more than peculiar
that the current administration in Washington has extended its
outreach-to-the-Muslims to MB affiliates, lending legitimacy to
organizations actively hostile to the U.S.A. Worse yet, our
intelligence agencies such as the FBI haven't sounded the alarm but
hide behind the "it's above my pay grade" excuse. Aren't they supposed
to root out organizations that plot to subvert our country?
MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD DECLARES WAR ON AMERICA; WILL AMERICA NOTICE?
Barry Rubin does not exaggerate the importance of a recent sermon by
the Muslim Brotherhood Supreme Guide, Muhammad Badi', in which he
endorses an anti-American and anti-Zionist Jihad. As Rubin notes,
this is a signal to the Muslim Brotherhood's hundreds of thousands of
followers that "the Muslim Brotherhood is ready to move from the era
of propaganda and base-building to one of revolutionary action."
Badi' chides the Muslim and Arab regimes "for disregarding Allah's
commandment to wage jihad." Because "America does not champion moral
and human values," it "cannot lead humanity, and its wealth will not
avail it once Allah has had His say." With Mohammad serving as role
model and the Koran as guide book, Badi is certain "Islam is capable
of confronting oppression and tyranny, and that the outcome of the
confrontation has been predetermined by Allah." The outcome may not
be predetermined but it does sound as if we can expect much bloody
action in the near future from troops directed by the Muslim
Brotherhood, an organization with excellent credentials in planning,
organizing and implementing projects that further the imposition of
sharia law everywhere.
THE ROAD TO SHARIA
Proponents of building the Ground Zero mosque tend to emphasize the
importance of the Second Amendment right of religious freedom. But
religious practices are but one aspect of Sharia law, which dictates
all aspects of a Muslim's life: his religion, his politics, his
friendships, his life style, his treatment of women. And, as William
Kilpatrick points out, "U.S.A. law already prohibits the free exercise
of Islam" -- in that much of Sharia law is in violation of USA law,
which doesn't allow polygamy, child marriage, wife beating, killing
people because they are homosexuals, amputating hands and other cruel
punishments, killing people for leaving their birth religion, or
favoring one group above all others. If, however, stealth jihad by
groups such as the Muslim Brotherhood is able to persuade businesses
and the educational institutions and the media and the law to make
exceptions to allow Sharia practices and/or not to enforce USA law,
Muslims could then freely observe their religion. But the rest of us
would soon not be able to practice ours.
FACING EXISTENTIAL HARM: RECOMMENDATIONS FOR ISRAEL'S STRATEGIC FUTURE
Louis Beres ranks Iranian nuclearization and the creation of a
Palestinian state as top "critical hazards on Israel's strategic
horizon." Israel has begun using the modeling methodology known as
"Correlation of forces" (COF) in non-traditional ways. But given the
complexity of the forces it must consider, Israel will need "much
higher levels of grand strategy," even sacrificing on occasion
precision for intuitive understanding of critical measures hard to
quantify; e.g., "the enemy's consuming dedication to certain presumed
religious expectations, his utterly uncompromising strength of will."
Israel's enemies may be psychologically stuck in the Seventh Century
but it wll take a high order of planning to develop effective
strategic solutions for dealing with them. As example, Israel will
need both to settle on the image(s) it wishes to project and to
develop methods for distinguishing "between authentic
enemy irrationality, and pretended enemy irrationality." Beres details
some features of a more holistic COF.
PRECLUSIONARY ENGAGEMENT
We've become all too familiar with asymmetrical warfare where a
conventional army is stymied by innocent "children" innocently
slinging stones and the concomitant outcry of the media. Jon Perdue
writes about other tactics used to trip a superior force, harassing
them and blocking them from their supplies but avoiding direct
confrontation. The trick is to maintain the annoyance at a level that
weakens and distracts the enemy without arousing him to military
reaction. Perdue calls this technique Preclusionary Engagement.
Working through its proxies -- Hamas, Hezbollah, Islamic Jihad et
al -- Iran has skillfully used "hit and run" tactics in Iraq,
Egypt, Afghanistan and Venezuela. Perdue includes advice on how to
subvert the subversives.
GOLDSTONE AND THE GUERILLA FLOTILLA: AN EMERGING PATTERN OF LAWFARE
This graceful essay by Trevor Norwitz is a brilliant description of
Lawfare as practiced by the Human Rights Council of the United
Nations, which recently determined to its own satisfaction that
Israel's blockade of Gaza was inflicting disproportionate harm to the
Gazan civilians. Hence it was illegal for Israel to stop the Gaza
Flotilla from entering blockaded waters. Norwitz writes that "[t]he
Flotilla Report is the 'Son of Goldstone.' Cut from the same cloth, it
is a political manifesto masquerading as a fact-finding report."
Personally, I think they have more chutzpah than did Goldstone -- they
were willing to produce their laughable report, knowing that people
would visualize the photos from the flotilla showing the Flotilla
humanitarians armed with knifes and metal clubs attacking the IDF
sailors, who came armed with paint guns. But what else can we could
expect from a human rights council, whose membership includes China,
Cuba, Iran, Libya, North Korea, Pakistan, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Uganda
and Zambia -- countries that are noted for their record of human
rights violations. As they say, crocadile courts produce a croc of it.
THE LONG MARCH OF ISLAM: CHAPTER 7
We are serializing R.K. Ohri's book entitled The Long March of Islam.
In Chapter 6, he examined the socio-economic and cultural consequences
of the rapid increase in the size of the Muslim community in host
countries around the world; the immigrant Muslims invariably rapidly
outbreed the natives and invariably demand changes that suit
themselves, even if it damages or marginalizes the native population.
In Chapter 7, he focusses on how these demographic changes play out in
India, where Muslims outbreed the other religious groups. Patterns
aren't obvious when individual countries are examined separately but
they become obvious when Ohri highlights common factors in the
civil-religious conflicts in Bosnia, Kosovo, Macedonia, Lebanon,
Nigeria and India. His descriptions of the back-breaking burden of
caring for the huge number of illegal aliens from Bangladesh is eerily
similar to the drain on the U.S.A providing welfare benefits, health
care and education for illegal aliens. Ohri should be read by anyone
who believes that giving Muslims more welfare, more space or
installing footbaths will satisfy their aggressive disruptions.
ISLAM AS POLITICS: EDWARD SAID'S ACCOUNT OF ISLAM
Edward Said proclaimed that the West had exploited the
Middle East (ME) and was responsible for its problems but only a
Middle Easterner could understand the ME. In doing so he set the tone
for the majority of Middle East Studies departments at universities
across the country. Paul Austin Murphy suggests Said was actually an
old-fashioned Marxist, whose Marxist and Muslim prejudices were thinly
based in reality and readily apparent. Nevertheless, he got away with
his easily-refutable decrees. He dismissed anti-semitism in Hamas and
Hezbollah, when they themselves said their mission was to detroy the
Jewish state. Despite the extraordinary hard work the early Zionists
themselves put into clearing the unused, dead and forsaken land of
Israel and making it live again, he called them colonialists. But
then, for Said, Jews could do little that was right. Muslims, who were
by definition 'oppressed' were not racist, because an oppressed people
can not be racist. Period. End of argument. Looking now at his ideas,
stripped of academic jargon and no longer shielded by his power, one
wonders how Said's wrong-headed views could be sustained as long as
they were.
THE NEW YORK TIMES AND BBC; JUST THE NEWS THEY SEE FIT TO PRINT
Norman Berdichevsky recounts his growing disillusion with the New
York Times and BBC, once regarded by many as "the final court of
opinion on any subject under the sun." He found they were guilty of
"callous omissions and violations of essential journalistic ethics."
Berdichevsky recalls some appalling examples of shoddy journalism in
Times' stories and attributes them to "the profound arrogance
and blind narcissism that has seriously infected both the New York
Times and the BBC." Then, too, the Times' fear of being
thought "biased in favor of Jewish causes" led to their minimizing the
Holocaust and other manifestations of anti-Semitism. (It is ironic
that many anti-semitic websites continue to assume the Times is
pro-Jewish because the Sulzberger family, its publishers, were
nominally Jewish -- clearly, they don't read the paper.) Conversely,
the Times argues for extreme tolerance for Muslims, "who may be
suspected of either being illegal immigrants or sympathetic to
terrorism and Muslim extremism." The BBC is, if anything, even more
outlandish and has helped perpetuate the myth that during WW2,
King Christian X of Denmark wore the Star of David in sympathy with
the Jews of his country.
VISITING RELATIVES
In 1924, 18-year old Chaim Kahanovich came to Israel from Poland. He
worked on settlements, married Sonia, raised children, lost a child
who was defending his country when Syria invaded Israel -- an ordinary
Israeli living through historic events. Many years later David Laskin,
the author of this essay, came to Israel, "tracking 25 years of
Chaim's life." Laskin also met Chaim's living legacy -- Chaims
children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren, "all of them living
in Israel, all of them living, because two starry-eyed halutzim had
left Poland some 80 years before to make a new life in the Holy Land."
BRITAIN BOMBED SHIPS THAT WERE TO TRANSPORT JEWS AFTER HOLOCAUST
Brett Dykes reviews a new book by Keith Jeffery that includes a
shameful episode in Britain's long history of abandonment of its legal
obligation to help the Jews create a state from Mandated Palestine.
This post-World War 2 plot was to rig bombs in five boats that were
getting ready to bring Holocaust survivors from Europe to Israel. As
Dykes writes, "One ship was destroyed, two damaged; the explosives
were discovered on the other two ships before they were detonated."
They also put effort into a campaign of lies, innuendo and
misinformation to smear the effort of the Jews to resettle the land of
Israel.
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. A Blog-Ed page has a quick list of the articles from which you can access any of the articles immediately. To go to the list, click the "Blog-Eds List" box in the Blue Strip on the top of the Blog-Ed page. September 2010 BLOG-EDS
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To download the monograph, click here.
IT'S ABOUT SHARIA: NEWT GINGRICH
RESETS OUR NATIONAL-SECURITY DEBATE
This morning
THE MUSLIM MOSQUE: A STATE WITHIN A STATE
When resistence to the Ground Zero Mosque became vocal, damage control
was instituted. The name of the mosque was changed. With no change in
architecture the mosque became a cultural center. And the word went
out that mosques were necessary for Muslims to practice their
religion, just as every other religious group has its type of
religious housing. That seems reasonable enough. But as Vijay Kumar
demonstrates, the mosque isn't primarily for religious practice. it has had
political significance ever since Mohammed, when he conquered Mecca,
took over an ancient temple, the Kabah, which had been used by many
faiths, and declared it exclusively Muslim. As Kumar points out, "A
mosque in the United States is a command and control center of a
foreign political and military state that seeks the overthrow of our
government, and an Imam in a mosque is a political and military
representative of a foreign state that calls for the overthrow of the
United States." Islam demands tolerance for itself in host countries
but will not tolerate other religions in countries it controls.
THE MOSQUES OF WAR
As Victor Sharpe notes in this essay, both of Judaism's theological
children have much to answer for in how, over the centuries, they
treated the mother religion. "When not slaughtering each other, they
both often turned upon the hapless and stateless Jews, who, for the
most part, had no allies and were unable to defend themselves." But
today there are two facts of major importance: (1) "... many
Christians — not all — have come to the realization that biblical
Jewish roots are inextricable from their own and that their faith is
fatefully incomplete without an acknowledgment of those roots." and
(2) Both daughter religions strive to convert the non-believer
but in Islam it is an integral part of the credo — the "Moslem is
required to subdue the infidel." To mark a triumphal takeover, Islam
inevitably converts what is significant to the infidel into a mosque.
There is only one way to read the projected building of the Cordoba
mosque. It is "a flagrant insult to the memory of the thousands of
innocents who died at the hands of Moslem fanatics and believers"
LOYALTY TO ISLAM IS PRIMARY. IT HAS NO BORDERS, NO EXCEPTIONS
The word Copt means Egyptian. The Copts are the "real"
Egyptians, the natives. They converted to Christianity sometime in the
first century A.D. They predate the Arab invasion, tracing their
ancestry back to the days of the pyramids. They are against
intermarriage but their numbers have been reduced because of forced
conversions to Islam. Today they constitute some 10% of the Egyptian
population. Ashraf Ramelah is a Copt. He uses his experience as a Copt
to make us understand the danger of allowing the erection of the
Ground Zero mosque that is intended by its builders to be a symbol of
Islamic triumph. It is not a symbol of shame or contrition; it is not
intended to honor the victims or 9/11 or to show ecumenical
brotherhood. In Egypt the Copts are subjected to active hostility and
fear-inducing brutality by the Muslim clergy and the Egyptian
government. Ramelah spells out some of the restrictions forced on the
Copts living in Egypt, a relatively secular country as Arab countries
go. To prevent Sharia tyranny in America, we should nip the initial
attacks — such as the erection of the Ground Zero mosque
— in the bud.
GAZA SNAPSHOTS
The pictures of Gazans living well have gone around the internet. The
counter attack is to admit there are a couple of expensive places in
Gaza but these say nothing about the acute starvation and wretched
poverty in Gaza. So here are some photos from where the ordinary
people of Gaza shop. These are notes and photos taken in Gaza this
summer. Tom Gross makes the point that there are rich and poor in
Gaza as there are everywhere -- but there is not Darfur-level
starvation. The ordinary Gazan has teeming markets stock full of
foods and the new shopping mall is filled with ordinary people
shopping. And for those dedicating their lives to bring cement to
Gaza, we hate to break it to you, but they already have a big supply.
Just take a look at some of their many buildings. For those who think
Gaza is starving, we include a pointer to an article on some
undisputed cases of starvation.
THE GAZA FLOTILLA CONFRONTATION: FACTS VERSUS THE ACADEMICIANS
David Meir-Levi provides us with an excellent summation of the facts
about the Mavi Marmara, the Gaza flotilla ship that was outfitted with
mercenaries and weaponry and prepped to do battle. In addition, as he
points out, Hamas refused to take the rather cruddy "humanitarian" aid
and out-of-date medication unless they had control of its distribution
and non-distribution. Curiously, it is a bunch of pro-Palestinian
academics who deny facts so obvious that even the U.N. has
acknowledged them. As Meir-Levi says, "... it is reasonable to ask:
why are these professors so obsessed with Israel even as they ignore
egregious crimes of other states and non-state actors? This is an
important question, because it seems clear that that obsession is what
has driven their misleading assessment of the Mavi Marmara
attack, and their consequent condemnation of Israel."
ISRAEL AND THE FLOTILLA: ON THE DANGERS OF A BINARY VIEW
Qanta Ahmed is a thoughtful Muslim who quietly contemplates moral
issues and doesn't exude hate. This may not mean much when weighed
against the number of Arabs who smash the skulls of Jewish babies or
the mullahs who preach bizarre sex and approve massacres. She may be
invisible among ordinary Muslims who applaud terrorism and hate
everyone. But it is good to know that a mind such as Qanta Ahmed's
exists. She describes a modern-day (im)morality play in which muslims
and media rage at "Israel as monolithic villain devoid of conscience".
This obsessive rage is misdirected; Muslims should be examining their
own actions and the depravity in the Arab world. But in today's skewed
visualization, a handful of deaths on the Gaza flotilla are reason
enough to label Israel's blockade a war crime, while the massacre of
Muslims by Muslims isn't worth newsprint. She suggests that the hate
propelling the Muslims will eventually harm them. But I fear that
before that happens, too many other people will suffer.
WOEFULLY IGNORANT OR WILLFULLY MISLEADING?
Martin Sherman examines Peter Beinart's assertion that "American Jews,
especially the younger generation, is turning their backs on Israel."
For Beinert, this is praiseworthy, for he sees Israel as "violent and
inhuman." Since so many of Beinert's statements are contrary to fact,
it is possible he is just ignorant and surprisingly shallow. As
example, he portrays the expulsion of the Arab squatters living in
Jewish houses and paying no rent as nasty — the Jews were kicked out
or killed when Jordan invaded eastern Jerusalem in 1948. He ignores
that the real victims — the Jews who want their houses back — have
been forced to go through expensive and prolonged lawsuits in Israeli
courts that — contrary to what you might assume — make a practice of
favoring the Arabs. This is hardly the way to further the reader's
understanding of what's going on. In the tradition of other
anti-Israel writers, Jew and non-Jew, a pimple on Israel's face is
viewed as much more ugly than a pus-filled carbuncle on the face of
any other country and the prescription for removing the pimple is to
slice off most of Israel's face. Perhaps, as Sherman suggests,
Beinart's real problem is not ignorance but malevolence. And if
American Jews accept evaluations of Israel such as Beinart's, it is no
wonder they become unsympathetic to the Jewish state.
FAILED ZIONISM — LIBERAL UTOPIANISM AND THE ABANDONMENT OF ISRAEL
Leftists Utopians condemn Israel's minimalist military responses while
they excuse sustained and ugly aggression by the Arabs, the putative
victims of the designated villain, the Jewish state. Topsy has become
turvy, and turvy topsy. In this essay, D.L. Adams asks why this is so.
Factual ignorance and emotional denial certainly play strong roles.
The idealogues of the Left have cast their lot with the 'Palestinian
underdog' and just don't hear what the jihadists plainly say, no
matter how loudly and how often the Muslims reassure us they plan on
destroying Israel as first stage in the conquest of the West in order
that the Caliphate be reestablished. Hence. as Adams points out,
"American liberalism in its present form is not compatible with
Zionism."
EXPOSING HOW POST-ZIONISTS MANIPULATE HISTORY
Ever read a book or a gang-up of books, proving something you know in
your bones is wrong? The arguments dazzle and seem too weighty to push
aside. It is only later that you have that 'hey-wait-a-minute'
moment, when you notice a gap, an inconsistency, a puzzling omission.
This is roughly what has happened to the history of newly-reborn
Israel and its 1948 war of survival, when it was attacked by its arab
neighbors, intent on destroying the non-Arab state. The story was told
accurately at first. Then the New Historians revised the
interpretation of these events and announced that the original version
was a myth. The issue was not, they declared, Israel's remarkable
accomplishment: redeeming Jewish land and constructing a free and
democratic Jewish state in a relatively short amount of time. The
issue was that through no fault of their own, the local Arabs suffered
severely in 1948 and it was all because of what Israel did
intentionally. Using the New Historian Benny Morris as both focus and
foil, Avi Becker recounts distortions, misinterpretations and
down-right lies told by the New Historians. What made these whoppers
so pernicious is that Israel was cast as a figure of evil, which
needed to atone for its sins. It was put on the defensive in political
negotiations. These accusations were eventually used to try to
delegitimize Israel. Benny Morris was a key figure in framing the
features of the New History; he fashioned a strong base on which
others constructed ever more-outlandish interpetations. It is ironic
that it would be Morris who later put a stop to this nonsense by
supplying the information the New Historians had omitted —
namely, the unswerving hatred of the Arab toward other religions and
that the Arabs saw the 1948 War as just another battle in their
religious Jihad over the centuries to become top dog. Ironic. And
tragic. For the truth is just beginning to crack the cement of lies
cast around the historic events. It doesn't help that many readers,
who were, for their own reasons, so eager to accept the New
Historians' lies, will be just as motivated to ignore the truth.
PRECISION-GUIDED OR INDISCRIMINATE? NGO REPORTING ON COMPLIANCE WITH THE LAWS OF ARMED CONFLICT
In this seminal investigation, Asher Fredman asks: how accurate are
Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) in their conclusions when judged
by objective standards?
DON'T TAKE HAMAS'S GOALS OUT OF THE EQUATION
Michelle Sieff discusses another double standard. She notes that Human
Rights groups and other pro-Palestinian groups focus solely on the
Laws of War when judging Israel during battle. (Even here, they ignore
Arab aggressive behavior or smear it over with pitiful stories of
innocent civilians caught in the crossfire.) But this is too narrow a
context. Israel's behavior is understandable when Hamas' announced
goals are "[v]iewed through the lens of the Genocide Convention." For
Human Rights groups to ignore Hamas's determined effort at genocide is
to endanger their own credibility.
HIZB UT TAHRIR IS NOT A GATEWAY TO TERRORISM, CLAIMS WHITEHALL REPORT
We knew England is half way into the crocodile's mouth. We knew that
Hizb-ut-tahrir is a well-organized and formidable organization
somewhere to the right of Hamas. It has a rapidly-growing membership
in some 40 countries. Its mission is to restore the Caliphate. It
advocates killing Jews (that's de rigueur) and any other infidels that
thwart its mission. We knew that like the Tablighi Jamaat (See
here). it is a start-into-terror organization -- inciting the
excitable to brave deeds for Islam, while not, itself, committing
terrorist acts. We didn't know that the British Government was pimping
for them. Andrew Gilligan reports on Whitehall's defense of
Hizb-ut-tahrir.
THE HIDDEN COSTS OF JEW-BAITING IN ENGLAND
As Muslims take over London, demanding special treatment, forcing the
local communities to conform to their requirements, expanding
territory that they alone control and where they determine "dress and
behavior codes", it is curious that the English — journalists,
academics, jurors — show little overt concern or protest.
Instead, they displace their anger on the Jews, perhaps because there
is no penalty for baiting Jews, no danger to themselves in demonizing
Israel. Conversely they are careful how they behave towards the
Muslims and rarely criticize them openly. There is both fear of
physical harm and fear of being called islamaphobic by their peers.
As Landes notes, "By failing to denounce toxic Muslim
communitarianism and instead adopting its shrill discourse of
demonization about Jews, Brits feed the monster that devours them."
The Jews may be the first victims of the Muslim takeover; they won't
be the last.
ASSESSING ISLAM'S REACH: AN INTERVIEW WITH DANIEL PIPES
In this interview, Daniel Pipes comments on several aspects of Muslim
global activity: the large and aggressive immigration of Muslims into
Europe; Iran's acquisition of nuclear weapons; and Arab harrassment
of Jews, Christians and non-conformist Muslims. A serious problem is
that there is no common ground in interpreting Muslim behavior.
Explanations range from the optimistic belief that terrorism is due a
few bad guys who are atypical of Islam to the assertion that "Islam
itself is the problem. ..., with jihad, honor killings, and the like.
Islam is itself evil and problematic." It certainly doesn't encourage
Muslims to conform to the mores of their host countries when
academics and even governments ignore radical Muslim behavior and,
instead, persecute those who fight for Western values.
ISLAMIC COGNITIVE DISSONANCE AND LIBERAL INCENTIVES
It's an odd couple. Islam with its dysfunctional belief system, its
severe punishment of any behavior it considers deviant and its rigid
control of all aspects of life has a political liason with Western
far-left liberalism, which finds excuses for whatever the Muslims do,
despite the fact that in theory liberal ideology espouses
non-judgmental acceptance of all sorts of life styles. Babu Suseelan
notes that to defend Islam, secular liberals ignore gruesome murders
by Muslims, Islamic terrorism and the Koranic basis of that terrorism,
even though they themselves would be at risk in an Islamic society.
It's the wrong strategy for ensuring our society stays democratic.
ALBERT THE ALLIGATOR AND THE BRITISH AMBASSADOR
Barry Rubin makes a strong case that "... nowadays, the most common
way of dealing with radicalism, repression, terrorism, and such things
in the Third World is to blame it on democratic states so often
victimized by such issues." Rubin points out this view ignores the
reality: no matter how conciliatory Israel and the West are,
"incitement and indoctrination will continue at the same level from
those who hate Israel because it exists." To blame the West is
actually to patronize the other side. It implies we believe the
Muslim world "is merely a blank screen or mirror, reflecting back what
we do." It implies that the other side is incapable of setting its own
goals. Muslims are often brutally and viciously evil because of their
culture and upbringing. They need to change their world view.
We don't need to accept responsibility for it.
HOLLOW MEN
Lee Smith inquires why so many Western intellectuals admire terrorist
organizations. The 'he loved his mother' defense is often used:
Hezbollah and Hamas provide social services; Mullah Fadlalah was sort
of pro-feminist, so let's forget he loved suicide-bombers and hated
Israel. What is worrisome is not just that they despise Israel but
that their ideas could go mainstream. As Smith notes, "all the massive
and popular evil of the last century started among a small ideological
elite." Their attitude is surprising given that intellectuals provided
much of the manpower of the early settlers. Hebrew owes its ability to
deal with the modern world because an intellectual created new labels
and definitions from it. The miracle of rebirth of the Jewish
nation-state has grandeur, even if it isn't the violent, gothic,
irrational, swashbuckling sort the intellectuals appear to crave. Lee
Smith suggests that what these Western intellectuals really hate isn't
Israel; it's themselves.
THE MEDIA'S ANTI-SEMITIC HATE MACHINE
Daniel Greenfield explains how the many
in the media justify anti-semitism, despite the fact that the Arabs
are the ones waging the war against Israel: "by linking Islamic
terrorism to some form of Israeli provocation, and from there to the
support for Israel by American Jews — the same media which would
commit seppuku rather than blame Muslims for Islamic terrorism,
instead blames Jews for Islamic terrorism." The amazing thing is that
this brain-dead logic works, as it has in previous periods of
anti-semitic media attack. We can't have the Arabs humiliated —
the poor dears were terribly frustrated when they wanted to kill off
the new-born state of Israel and couldn't hack it. Curious, the fact
that the Jews had a kingdom in the ME in ancient time — that's
too long ago. The fact that in the last 60 years, the Jews have fought
back the Arab invaders and taken back land that was theirs anyways by
international law is unacceptable because conquest in modern times is
unacceptable. The Arabs came and conquered the land in the 7th Century
A.D. — ah, that's just right. "The media's Anti-Semitic hate
machine does for the far left, what Der Sturmer once did for
the far right. It makes their hatred and bigotry mainstream."
WIKIPEDIA'S JEWISH PROBLEM
It's pointless urging the ignorant to get the facts when their
resources are tainted from the getgo. We've discovered MacMillan's
encyclopedia is er...er.. unreliable. Wikipedia is not actually
acceptable as a certified source, but it has the advantage of being
free, so it is popular. But, as the saying goes, there really aren't
any free lunches. The cost is that the unscrupulous can as easily
write the "facts" as the conscientous and unbiased. And civility isn't
a requirement. This is fertile ground for pro-palestinians with a
political agenda and little concern for accuracy. Karin McQuillan
shares with us her personal experience attempting to insert her very
accurate article recounting how the New York Times handled news
of the Holocaust during World War 2 so badly that one can only call it
willful negligance, if not outright cooperation with the Nazi killing
machine. They knew about the camps, the killings, the horrors. They
barely wrote of it as news or editorialized it. McQuillan discovered
her article was not considered worthy of inclusion in Wiki by some
very hostile editors. As one reader commented, "so basically Wikipedia
functions like the UN."
It is the announced policy of the American administration to downplay
independently promoting democracy and individualism by military
means. In fact, in matters that affect the world, we are to become
one among a group of equals, all involved in making global decisions.
It apparently has not occured to President Obama that we are not just
abdicating protecting democracy elsewhere, but that we are exposing
ourselves to increased aggression by triumphant Islam. Speaking kind
and peaceful words to a mentality that understands only a binary of
topdog and underdog doesn't encouraging them to leave
us alone. We encourage them to make us minor players in their
new world order.
THE SOFT POWER FALLACY
As Iran increases its power, reaping the rewards of years of physical
and verbal attack, the American president advocates reducing use of
military force and becoming one among many who in concert share power,
make decisions and maintain order. Undaunted by the inadequacies shown
whenever the U.N. has had political responsibilities such as
monitoring Iran's nuclear power, he has become a proponent of what Abe
Greenwald terms soft power, where we will fight brutal aggression with
polite debate and sluggish response. Iran's use of its own children to
explode mines in the Iraq-Iran war in the 1980s should give us some
idea of how determined Iran is to gain power and promulgate its
ideology, no matter what the cost. As Greenwald says: "The American
idea has allowed the American people to build a nation of unparalleled
military might and served as a beacon for those in far-off lands who
'want what we want.' For those who want something else, the idea is
anathema. They will not be converted by soft power. Instead, they will
take advantage of its softness for their own malignant ends."
IRAN'S GLOBAL TERRORIST REACH
Walid Phares presents us with a full and frightening picture of Iran's
expanding global reach, a process that has been going on for many
years by different means: weapons distribution, developing terrorist
groups such as Hezbollah, and weaving a network of new political
friendships. It's more deadly than al-Qaeda, yet the American
administration, while correctly treating al-Qaeda as an enemy,
is considering making friends with Iran. As Phares writes, "From a U.S.
counterterrorism perspective, the threats posed by Iran, Hezbollah,
and its global terrorist network are considerable. But the addition of
nuclear weapons into this global network of Khomeinists may well prove
as dangerous if not more so than nuclear weapons in the hands of
al-Qaeda."
LOSING TURKEY TO THE ISLAMISTS
Since the Turkish P.M.Recep Tayyip Erdogan took power in 2002, his AKP party
has been turning Turkey from a secular society into an anti-Western
Islamic state, whose ambition is to become the leader of the Islamic
world. Nevertheless, the EU and the American administration
have the fantasy that the Turkish military — Turkey's strongest
proponent of secularism — is the threat to the West, not the AKP.
Western leadership considers the new Turkey neo-Ottoman. Barbara
Lerner demolishes this notion, pointing out that the AKP has adopted
the standard Islamic cliches for showing animosity to the West and
Israel and is encouraging the Turks to adopt a more uniform Islamic
way of life, one more in conformity with the general hate-filled
Islamic ideology pervasive in the Middle East. In contrast, under the
Ottomans, providing the subject people — Muslim, Christian, Jew --
paid the required tribute, they pretty much governed their own
communities. This led to multiple patterns of governance, multiple
ways to express the various cultures, different living conditions and
some opportunity for upward mobility. Turkey was relatively
open under the Ottomans and in this way the Ottomans served as a
model for Atatürk, not Erdogan.
LEBANON: AYATOLLAH FADLALLAH'S DEATH AND THE EXPANSION OF IRANIAN HEGEMONY
Shimon Shapira provides us with an analytical perspective on the life
of the recently-deceased Shiite religious leader, Sayyed Muhammed
Hussein Fadlallah. He is praised in the West as a peaceful scholar,
moral and progressive. In actuality, "[h]e played a leading role in
the increasing Islamic radicalization of Lebanese Shiites and laid the
foundations for Hizbullah's ideology of violent struggle against the
West and Israel." True, he did speak out against wife-beating and
rejected the authority of Iran's Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on religious
grounds, but these hardly nullify his commitment to jihad against
Israel and the West and his condonning the murder of Jewish youngsters
massacred as they sat studying in their Yeshiva. He was both
dedicated and persuasive doing psych-ops among the Shi'ites in
Southern Lebanon on behalf of Iran-owned Hizbollah. Without irony, we
can say he was as peaceful as his religion; the word "peaceful" no
more fitted him than it fits his religion.
RETHINKING SECURITY IN THE NEW NUCLEAR AGE
There's little argument that it is important to find alternative
sources of energy to reduce dependency on fossil fuel, particularly
when the major suppliers are the unstable theocracies of the Middle
East -- an unstable part of the world. From that point of view,
nuclear energy has many advantages. And indeed non-military nuclear
reactors are beginning to proliferate. Andrew McKillop explores some
of the less pleasant possibilities that deserve serious thought
before we commit to an extreme makeover. What happens if a
reactor is attacked with conventional weapons during a convential war?
How are nuclear products maintained and stored? What about the
interdependence of civil and military nuclear installations? Given the
finite amount of initial material, the solution is usually to advocate
building Fast Breeder Reactors, which can create more fuel than is
consumed in the process of making the fuel. But this creates another
set of problems. As the waste plutonium accumulates, it becomes harder
to keep it safe and out of the hands of terrorists; and it is
increasingly susceptible to outside attack. How do we define national
security under these new conditions?
As the Arab Middle East grows increasingly divided by incompatible
ideologies and civil wars, the solution by the American administration
is to dredge up another peace conference on how to squeeze two
incompatible groups on the same tiny bit of land. If it succeeds at
all, it will be at the cost of compromising Israel's security,
weakening American's only ally in the Middle East. This set of
articles reminds us of some basic facts that are important for the
negotiations.
WHAT CAN ISRAEL-PALESTINIAN PEACE TALKS ACHIEVE?
Washington is again taking another shot at peace between Arabs and Jews.
The editor of Family Security Matters recalls previous attempts
at brokering a deal and reminds us that it is hard to find reasonable
solutions in a setting of religious or racial conflict. This is
particularly true this round, given that the split between the
more religious Hamas and the more secular Fatah has deepened, and
their life styles have grown increasingly different. They both,
however, continue to share the same objective: destroy Israel. The maps in the
article are of additional interest. They show how the land that was
allocated to a Jewish state has been nibbled away over the
years while Israel vainly pursues peace with her neighbors.
THE NAKBA OBSESSION: THE PALESTINIAN NATIONAL NARRATIVE IS THE BIGGEST OBSTACLE TO PEACE IN THE MIDDLE EAST
Why are the Arab refugees different from all other refugees? Why do
all refugees have one U.N. agency (UNHCR) to help them survive the
crisis and resettle them after a brief time — and these Arab
refugees have their own dedicated U.N. agency (UNRWA) that has fed,
educated and medicated them and their descendents and discouraged
resettlement? Why have all other refugees fled from countries that
include all the religions but Jewish — and the Arab refugees are
the only ones that ran from the Jewish state? Is the explanation that
these Arab refugees (now declared to be the Palestinian people) are
the only weapon Islam has to try to deny the Jews their homeland? Is
that why — compared to true refugees — they live high off
the hog (oops, make that lamb) not just in the refugee camps scattered
in the Arab countries but in Gaza and the West Bank, foot soldiers in
a campaign conducted by a wide number of disparate groups that can
not admit in their politically-correct milieu that they hate Jews. In
this essay, Sol Stern discusses the Nakba — the Ur-legend
that bolsters the fantasy that the innocent Palestinians were
forceably cast out from their garden of Eden into wretchedness by that
foreign force, (twirl the mustache, here) international Zionism.
DIRECT TALK ABOUT DIRECT TALKS
This essay by Paul Lademain could have been entitled: how to grow a
spine — advice for Israeli diplomats. In the next round of
that interminable game called 'Let's make peace' OR 'Chop another
piece out of Israel', he suggests putting Israel's interests first and
worrying about Israelis instead of wanting to show an indifferent
world how cooperative Israel can be. I find it hard to believe that
Israel, which by international law holds Samaria and Judea in trust
for all Jews, allows itself to be put into a position where it is
negotiating the future of Biblical Israel (Samaria and Judea). And to
make this a real farce, the term of office for their single peace
partner, Abbas, expired early in 2009; he isn't legally in office any
more. He doesn't speak for Hamas. He doesn't control Fatah, which runs
the P.A. So who does he represent? Why are his demands taken
seriously? Why are the demands of that phony people, the Palestinians,
taken seriously?
THE BLACKMAILER'S PARADOX: ARAB-ISRAEL NEGOTIATIONS ARE A GAME
Professor Yisrael Aumann applies game theory to how to negotiate with
Arabs. In the Blackmailer's Paradox, it is the side that doesn't
flinch, that makes unreasonable demands and doesn't compromise, that
walks home with the goodies. To date the Arabs have played the game
better, convincing Israel to be the one that must compromise. Aumann
suggests some necessary changes in Israel's negotiating stance. Of
course in real life, the problem is more complex. Negotiation implies
a willingness to compromise. Unfortunately, the Arabs aren't just
unreasonable — the goal of Islam's leaders is to destroy Israel, no matter
what the costs. But Aumann is certainly right that the Israelis need
some street smarts.
THE TRUTH ABOUT "PALESTINE"
Nowadays many a propagandist talks about Palestine as if such a
sovereign political entity exists anywhere except in the fancy-filled
illogic of Jew-haters. It doesn't exist. What's more — it never
did. The fallback position of these Jew-haters when forced to admit
the facts is: but the land belongs to the natives that were driven
out or marginalized when Israel became a state. Again, this is
wrong. Some 90-95% of these natives started coming into the
land after the Jews and the Brits started created economic
opportunities. Steven Simpson provides us with an excellent history of
the development of the "Palestine" myth, which has become one of the
more important ways to attack the legitimacy of the Jewish state.
Unlike Palestine, the legitimacy of Israel is warranted by history,
morality, international law and the rules of conquest.
THE TRUTH ABOUT THE OCCUPATION AND THE SETTLEMENTS
As Ted Belman writes, "The pro-Palestinian propaganda machine has
succeeded in stigmatizing the Israeli occupation and the settlements.
Time and again we hear about the 'brutal occupation' and the 'illegal
settlements'. We rarely hear the truth in opposition to these lies."
He provides us with a clear statement of the facts. (Additional
discussions can be found by googling for "Yoran Shifftan" "Howard Grief"
"Wallace Brand" in Think-Israel.) To the fact that the land is Jewish
by international law -- meaning that the U.N. is supposed to be
helping the Jewish settlements to expand -- add the fact that some 95%
of the supposed indigenous "Palestinians" came in after 1900, and it
becomes Ph.D. thesis-level puzzlement how the Arabs and Arab-aiders
have managed to make everyone believe lies that invert the
truth.
THE LEGAL CONSEQUENCES OF THE ISRAELI GOVERNMENT'S ABANDONMENT OF JUDEA AND SAMARIA
Howard Grief asks "what would happen if, instead of incorporation or
annexation, the Israeli Government decides to abandon or cede Judea,
Samaria to the Arabs as indicated by the Road Map Peace Plan and the
Two-State Solution." He concludes the Jewish residents would be well
within their rights "to take the necessary steps to govern themselves
in an independent State of Judea and Samaria."
Each issue we explore ways and means of counterattacking Islam on
some of the many fronts on which it is advancing. In this issue, we
collected some more information that is fundamental to understanding
what we are up against.
SHARIA LAW FOR NON-MUSLIMS: CHAPTERS 4 AND 5
In the May-June 2010 issue, we presented the first three chapters of
Bill Warner's Sharia Law for Non-Muslims. The books is short,
understandable, well-organized and clarifies important issues. It is
good to have available to counter the incomplete information
promulgated by many Islamic sources and sources that have accepted
Arab money. For example, when you are told that sharia banking is fine
because some of its profits go to charity, check with Warner's book.
You will find that the statement is true, but a Muslim is
forbidden to spend any of it on a Kafir. A Kafir is anyone who
is not a Muslim. When the text speaks well of Jews or Christians,
check whether it is a earlier verse or a later verse. Later verses
nullify earlier verses. The entire book is now available.
TERRORISM FOR DUMMIES -- A BEGINNERS' GUIDE
The reduction of the traditional authority of the Church and the
scientist, the attraction of western academia fo Marxism and
environmentalism, the catering to the public's desire for simple and
comforting slogans to understand a society that was increasingly
complex, "the unintended consequences of well-meaning democratic
policy" and Russia's continued desire even after the collapse of the
Soviet Union for a place at the table of power — these all lay
the groundwork in which Islamic fundamentalist terrorism could thrive.
John Miller describes some early history — the fighting, the rise
of the Taliban, the adherence to strict Sharia law and the changing
loyalties in Afghanistan and Pakistan — which shaped the
development of the current global jihad against the west. The 1980's
war in Afghanistan helped mold the charismatic Osama Bin-Ladin and by
the 1990s, "Al Qaeda had declared war on the US and Israel and by
extension, Western society." The first bombing of the World Trade
Center was in 1993. And there's no end in sight.
WHO RULES IN PALESTINE?
As Joe Settler asks. "With the exception of Iran (established 1935,
but was previously Persia) and Egypt, what Arab state even existed as
an identifiably unique entity 100 years ago? None. Saudi Arabia, Iraq,
Lebanon, Jordan, Kuwait, Syria, were all part of the Ottoman Empire,
with local names but they were not sovereign entities. They were made
states by the same authority -- the League of Nations -- that
authorized the State of Israel. "Until then, they were just a bunch of
different clans and tribes under the fist of ever-changing rulers,
often external ones, with no real individually unique national
identity beyond Islam and Arabia." Hamas and Fatah have the same
desire to replace Israel by an Arab state. The battles between them
are as battles have been in the Middle East for hundreds of years --
clan wars for control and loot.
A TERRORIST'S GUIDE TO IMPROVING ISRAEL'S MEDIA COVERAGE
Daniel Greenfield's essay advises Israel on improving its relations
with a currently-hostile media. He suggests copying Arab terrorist
tactics, such as banning all reporters who refuse to write favorably
about them -- the reporters will figure out rationalizations when
their own jobs are on the line. Currently, Israel suffers because it
kills only when it can no longer avoid killing -- and damage is
minimized. It forgets that man bites dog is news, dog bites man isn't.
So if Israel were to make killing as commonplace as the Arabs do,
their press would improve. Israel's publicity also suffers because
Israelis don't look like victims should. They should take a lesson
from the Arabs, who may have fancy houses and cars, but they wear
smattahs, have picturesque garbage and lots of flies. Even worse,
Israelis aren't inclined to blame the world for whatever goes wrong.
How do they expect the press to like them? Come to think of it, when
the Government mismanaged the resettlement of the Jews expelled from
their homes in Gaza, why didn't they apply to the U.N. for refugee
status and lots of cash? Greenfield calls this essay satire; I call it
insightful.
THE LONG MARCH OF ISLAM: CHAPTER 6
We are serializing R.K. Ohri's book entitled The Long March of
Islam. In Chapter 6, he examines the importance of demography in
promoting Islamic and jihadi ideology. The large growth of the Muslim
population -- natural and by conversion -- has given Islam the power
to force a high rate of population displacement, instability in many
countries and marginalization of the native population, as in Lebanon.
The Muslim birthrate is increasing while European, Russian and even
Asian rates decrease. The decline of the indigenous populations has
economic and defense consequences -- lowered production of goods and
services; less defence preparedness; and mass migration of foreign
groups into the sparely populated areas. The social consequences
of the rapid change in the size of a Muslim community from minority to
majority status by legal/illegal entry and natural growth are
tremendous, with the indigenous population losing its ability to
practice its own cultural values and life style, while sharia law is
enforced. Eventually, "...a sizeable increase in the proportion of
Muslims in any country or region leads to a loud clamour, often
culminating in a violent struggle, for a separate homeland by dividing
that nation, even before Muslims attain the near majority status."
These essays begin with Israel's current demographic structure. In
terms of ideology, the left and far left, though reduced in size,
still control the administration, news media, academia and the army.
The other essays look at cracks in the power structure in the
government and in academia.
ISRAELI DEMOGRAPHICS 101. E PLURIBUS UNUM
This seemingly simple essay condenses a large amount of information on
the demographic characteristics of Israeli society. Norman
Berdichevsky provides a framework for the interactions and history of
some of the major components of Israeli society. He tracks the ongoing
integration of the groups — the "Zionist ideal of Kibbutz uMizug
haGaluyot (Ingathering and Mixing of the Exiles)" He points out
that much of the bad-mouthing of Israel comes from Marxists, "at a
loss to explain the survival of the Jewish people and their
reconstitution as a nation." According to Marxist doctrine, this
wasn't supposed to happen. More generally, national differences
everywhere were supposed to disappear, and a working class with
solidly working-class concerns emerge. Israel's non-conformity to
theory apparently is particularly galling.
ISRAEL'S RULING CLASS
In a recent article
ACADEMIC BRAINWASHING
Several Israeli universities -- Ben Gurion U. is a particularly
egregious example -- have been notorious for years for having a large
number of professors who enforced Marxist ideology, allowed no
dissenting opinions and encouraged no reading in alternative points of
view. There was an obvious pattern that conforming to Marxist ideology
was necessary for career advancement. Some of what was taught goes
beyond even extremist criticism of the state into sedition, denying
Israel's right to exist. Information they provided their classes was
incomplete and designed to appear to confirm the professor's ideology
--- advocating the elimination of Israel as a Jewish, democratic
state. Recently, the matter came to a head. Conservative students
revolted against this intimidation and enforced uniformity; they
demanded intellectual pluralism and freedom of expression.
Organizations that monitored dictatorial anti-Zionism in the
universities were given a hearing. The upshot of course was that the
professors that had muzzled criticism of their opinions started
shouting that they were entitled to complete freedom of expression and
were not to be criticized. Ben Dror Yemini provides a picture of the
situation that still exists, particularly in the soft sciences.
The summer of 2005 was a disaster, when Israel shot itself in the
head. It expelled the Jewish pioneers from Gaza. It left behind
greenhouses, which the Arabs vandalized; it left behind buildings
which the Arabs destroyed or used to train others in the art of
terror. It left a group of Arabs who had made a living working for the
Jews to the mercies of a thugocracy. It exposed more of Israel to more
attacks by the arabs. It made the arabs more confident that they would
prevail. It demoralized a productive group of Jews that had made
innovations in growing organic crops and was turning a wasteland into
a garden. It turned Israeli citizens into refugees in their own land.
GIven the Government's incompetence and lack of resources for
resettling these 10,000 citizens, one wonders at its blind optimism in
even considering the insane idea of kicking out another 250,000 to
500,000 Jews from their established homes and businesses, schools and
synagogues, in Samaria and Judea. How can they even consider giving
control of Israel's drinking water to the Arabs, who have already
mucked up the Gaza aquifer? The only bright spot is that the Gaza
expulsion was so clearly stupid, it did convince some Israelis that
parting with Jewish land is not the way to peace.
FIVE YEARS AFTER THE EXPULSION; RESPONSE TO A LEFTIST JEW
These two essays by Rachel Saperstein could have been entitled A
Tragedy In Two Simultaneous Acts. Five years after the Government
unilaterally took it upon itself to kick the Jews out of their homes
in Gush Katif, Gaza, many of these once productive Israelis have been
reduced to poverty. They have been traumatized. They are emotionally
scarred; they have health problems and are depressed. But some,
slowly, and with little help from a government that is more interested
in the impression it makes "on the world", they are starting to
rebuild permanent communities. The other essay points out the effect
of the "Disengagement" on the Gazan arabs, once employed productively
in the Jewish greenhouses and metal works, in the building trades and
in factories. They are under Hamas' rule, used as human shields and
deprived of human dignity.
THE PRICE ISRAEL PAID FOR THE DISENGAGEMENT
August 15, 2010 marks 5 years since the expulsion. In this article,
Hillel Fendel presents us with an brief summary of the history of Gush
Katif and the fate of the Jews of Gush Katif who were expelled from
their homes and farms. The Government's stated reasons for the
withdrawal were to pave the way to peace, to inprove the PA's economy,
to not be responsible for the Gaza arab population and to gain
international appreciation. Instead, Gaza has become a terrorist
state. It does have an enormous budget, but most of this comes from
outside charitable sources such as the EU and the American
Administration. Israel is still saddled with supplying Gaza. It has
demoralized some of its most patriotic and energetic citizens, lost
the substantial income that came from the export of Gazan vegetables
and flowers, spent a huge amount of money to uproot the Jews and done
very little to resettle them permanently. In sum, this enterprise has
been a disaster. Or as the recent Commission of Inquiry into the
rehabilitation of the evacuees put it: "The state failed, and its
failure was absolute and abysmal."
5 YEARS AFTER DISENGAGEMENT AND ITS RESULTS
This is the more detailed and original analysis of the consequences of
the Gaza expulsion on the Jews who were expelled, and the impact the
disengagement had on Israel itself.
WHY GUSH KATIF STILL MATTERS
In this essay, Moshe Dann expresses the emotions that the expulsion
from Gaza aroused and still arouses. As Dann writes, "It caused
enormous physical, psychological, social, cultural, military and
strategic damage to the entire nation — and it still does. Like
an ecological disaster, its foulness still seeps through our
foundations, and continues to poison us." Perhaps the most awful fact
is that Israel did it to itself. As David Wilder of Hebron said of
this destruction of Gush Katif: "...we experienced a Churban,
a destruction, an expulsion. Not implemented by the Greeks or the
Romans or any foreign power; rather by our own people; an act voted
on in the Knesset, initiated by the Prime Minister of the State of
Israel, approved by the national Supreme Court and carried out by
Jewish soldiers and police."
Two stories from the First World War and one about an ancient
Jewish synagogue the Arabs covet.
THE LONE PALM TREE
Avshalom Feinberg and Sarah Aaronsohn and their families were early
settlers in the part of the Ottoman Empire that became the State of
Israel. In World War 1, they were spies for the British against the
Ottoman Turks. The work was important but dangerous. They died for
their dedication to the future state of Israel. Shalom Pollack helps
us visualize the times.
BLOOD ON THE TRACKS
This is a review by Matthew Price of a book by Sean McMeekin about the
relationship of the Ottoman Empire and Germany before and during World
War 1. The Ottomans were an ally of Germany in the first World War.
McMeekin hangs his account of the events of the time on the decision
by the German Kaiser, Wilhelm ii, to build a railway between Berlin,
Germany and Baghdad, Iraq to link Germany and the Persian Gulf
physically. He also hoped to use these Muslims as a weapon against the
British, harnessing their religious fervour as jihadists.
The British played a similar game, associating
themselves with Muslims who were also itching to restore Muslim
supremacy -- only they wooed the Saudis and Mecca. Then as now, a
little knowledge of Islam went a long way, but, then as now, not far
enough. As McMeekin explains, "Shia clerics were never going to fall
in behind a Sunni Caliphate, whose authority they would never
recognise. And, besides, the Caliphate was a nearly moribund
institution in 1914."
THE MOUNT OF OLIVES IN JERUSALEM: WHY CONTINUED ISRAELI CONTROL IS VITAL
This is a very sad article. It is sad because the Jews don't
automatically react with passion and fury at attempts to take away
parts of their inheritance. There is no dramatic surge of anger -- the
kind that politicians respond to -- when the Arabs demand control of
Jewish historic sites. It is sad that Jews have so quickly forgotten
how Arabs destroyed Joseph's Tomb right after they gained possession
-- while Arab policemen stood by.
It is sad because
someone has to point out what should be obvious, but isn't to the Jews
nurtured on globalism and secularism. It is sad that the Jewish owners
of the land need to beg for access to their own shrines and holy
places. It is sad that thanks to the laxness of the Jews -- and indeed
to the pro-Palestinian propanda creatively designed by some Marxist
Jews -- the Arabs has increased confidence to up their demands to lord
it over the Jewish inhabitants of the Jewish state. Nadav Shragai
writes the future consequences of Jewish ignorance and indifference in
a specific case: the Mount of Olives, Jerusalem's ancient and historic
burial ground. Have we forgotten that Jordan used
the gravestones as stepping stones to the latrines when they invaded
Jerusalem right after Israel was established?
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.
A Blog-Ed page has a quick list of the articles from which you can
access any of the articles immediately.
To go to the list, click the
"Blog-Eds List" box in the Blue Strip on the top of the Blog-Ed page.
July 2010 BLOG-EDS
READ MORE
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MAY-JUNE, 2010
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GET THE HELL OUT OF...MY FACE
As Naomi Ragen put it:
"If you've been thinking about a response to Helen Thomas
tell-the-Jews-to-get-the Hell-out-of Palestine-and-go-back to -Germany and
Poland-, think no more! The best rant on the subject can be found on
Jewlicious by Sara K Eisen, who signs herself Sarke." This is it.
ISRAEL PUBLISHES GAZA TRAVEL GUIDEBOOK FOR PRO-HAMAS FREEDOM FLOTILLA
Sheikh Mohammed al-Hazimi, a member of the Yemeni Parliament and of Al-Islah, aboard the Mavi Marmara. In this article Omri Ceren publishes a "Guide to Gaza" — the real
Gaza is very different than what's painted by our "reliable" news
sources. There was, as CNN noted, violence. They forgot to mention the
violence was coming from the humanitarians, who assaulted the Israelis
-- even throwing them overboard. The Israelis, of course, were
forbidden by their politicians from doing bodily harm, if at all
avoidable. The only questionable item in Ceren's article is the notion that
the people Israel hires to do its hasbara would be effective. And so
it is, because Israel's responses were weak and delayed and thanks to
the major TV and newspaper media stretching the truth till it broke,
the world now knows that the brutal Jews wouldn't allow some brave
humanitarians to bring in food to the starving Gazans. If they were
serious, why didn't they send the material by truck? That's how the
Gazans get their freebies week by week. Come to think of it, if they
were serious, why didn't they go to Darfur, where the people really
are starving?
NO ISRAELI GOOD DEED GOES UNPUNISHED
Did you know that just this week, in mid-June, Muslims from Kyrgzstan
killed a couple hundred Muslims from Uzbekistan? Tortured hundreds of
others? Caused some 200,000 resident Uzbeks to flee the country? Did
you know that Yemen was blockading South Yemen? It's a real blockade
— no supplies are let in — no water, no food, no medicine. Did you
know that Hamas won't let the "Humanitarian suppplies" in anyways
unless they take charge of the goodies? With regard to the Gaza
flotilla story, it is true that the Jews were in the right in
international law, showed saintly forbearance before they were forced
either to fight back intelligently or lose their lives. It is true
that this was a stunt cooked up by terror groups to show Israel as
either weak or heartless. But the main point is that when Jewish
Israel kills a Muslim that is news worthy — it will even be declared
a war crime when managed by a Goldstone-cur hired by the U.N. But when
a multitude of Muslims are killed by other muslims, it doesn't make
the news. Moral of the story: if Israel is to be castigated even for
minimal killings, she might as well do what needs doing. The decibel
level can't get any higher than it is. As Spengler points out in this
essay, "The Gaza flotilla affair should teach Jerusalem that no matter
how gingerly it approaches the threats on its borders, and how gently
it responds, it ends up holding the bag for the region's problems. It
might as well get down to the business of war."
STARTER GROUPS FOR ISLAMISM: THE TABLIGHI JAMAAT; ASMA'S IMAN RAUF AND THE MOSQUE AT GROUND ZERO
We have been forced to become frighteningly familiar with some
Islamic groups directly involved in terrorism. Starter groups that
introduce Islamic ideology into new territory appear less menacing.
Salah Choudhury writes of the jihadist organization,
Tablighi Jamaat (TJ), which works out of mosques in some 80
countries.
A REVEALING SKETCH OF IMAM RAUF: FOUNDED GROUND ZERO MOSQUE PROJECT
HELPED FUND THE GAZA FLOTILLA
Imam Rauf is truly a renaissance man. Unfortunately, his idea of
renaissance appears to be recreating the medieval Caliphate.
AllahPundit makes some connections the Main Stream Media has largely
chosen to ignore. Rauf is, for example,
a member of the Perdana Global Peace Organization. Perdana, which is
based in Malaysia, is the largest contributor to the Gaza Flotilla on
record. Rauf is a man that can win Westerns with his
charming manner and intellectual discourse. But as Walid Shoebat
inter alia has often pointed out, it's what they say to their
own people in their own language that counts. And Muslims don't hear
ecumenism and tolerance from him.
THE TWO FACES OF THE GROUND ZERO MOSQUE
Raymond Ibrahim starts this essay by informing us that justice
in western terms conveys a very different meaning than it does for a
Muslim. Muslims can often take advantage of this, knowing a western
audience will, for example, interpret "We seek Justice" in a benign
way, whereas the speaker is extolling conquest of the infidel West. As
another example, a Muslim group has bought land close to Ground Zero
and proposes to build a Mosque/Center there, claiming they wish to
honor the victims of 9/11. Their true intent may be gleamed from the
fact they are calling this the Cordoba Initiative. Raymond Ibrahim
explains why ecumenical tolerance and peace are not their intent.
Included are links to several videos about the mosque.
INTELLECTUAL DOUBLE STANDARDS ON ISLAMISTS
The Muslim Brotherhood is back in the spotlight. It is
implicated in the Ground Zero mosque grotesquerie. And the Gaza
Flotilla. In the usual news item, the Muslim Brotherhood (MB) is
whitewashed so effectively that people can be forgiven for thinking
it's somewhat like the Elks or the Lions Club — doing good deeds,
giving charity, just nice decent folk. The reality is that the
Brotherhood is in business to foster Sharia Law globally. Founded
almost a century ago, they are patient and plan well. Hamas is one of
their creations but they prefer to emphasize their "moderate"
intellectual side, downplaying that their chief intellectual, Yousef
Al-Qaradawi, was behind the riots and demonstrations that belatedly
THE MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD'S FLOTILLA
Thomas Joscelyn writes of the ubiquitous Muslim Brotherhood (MB),
which seems increasingly to be stripping off its mask of moderation and
showing its true face. Were the Flotilla structured like Facebook, the
MB could claim to have the mostest friends and relations both on board
the flagship Marmara and behind the scene among the workers that
ensured the flotilla's success. The show was a benefit performance for
Hamas, one of the MB's creations. The Turkish contingent was honchoed
by the IHH, which paid for the mercenaries, after it had generously
contributed ships. The IHH is part of a Saudi-sponsored group called
The Union of Good (UG), which has been designated a terror group.
Sheik Qaradawi, who triggered the Danish cartoon riots and is a top
man in the MB just happens to be a UG leader. These are just some of
the best-known linkages. More connections of the MB to top terror
players are likely to emerge.
Israel does get an inordinate amount of attention over minor
matters and necessary security matters, when major matters in other
countries with global implications are underreported. Aside from
routine terror attacks by Muslims on Christians, Jews and Hindus, more
than
100 muslims were murdered May 28th in Pakistan by Islamic terrorists
in two Achmedi mosques. In the same month, 82 Muslim Kurds were murdered in
Turkey and Iran. Russia continues to press Kyrgyzstan, an important
American ally in Central Asia, to close the American air base we keep
there in readiness. Unsurprisingly, in mid-June, Kyrzgyzstan
"civilians" "spontaneously" attacked Uzbek civilians living in
Kyrzgyzstan, leaving hundreds dead and hundreds of thousands fleeing
as refugees. Even these murders don't get much attention, because
it's only one muslim sectarian faction killing another — it's not as
horrible, has v' halila, as the Jewish IDF killing 9 blockade runners with their
terror-affiliated handlers on board, This section looks at some
important political happenings in some other countries. In the first
article of the set, Wallace Brand points out that the Islamists have
again begun a religious war around the world, aiming at world
dominance. "Terror in the West is not caused by US support for Israel;
terror all over the world is the result of Islamist imperialism."
THE THIRD WAVE
Muslim leaders have persuaded the current American administration
that their jihad against the West is America's fault because it
supports Israel. The Arab jihad against Israel is Israel's fault
because it inhibits Arab nationalism. Blaming Islamist violence in
Afghanistan and Iraq and the nuclear threat in Iran on Israel's
supposed occupation of Arab land conveniently forgets that the Arabs
were massacring Jews in the Holy Land well before Israel was a state
-- "Palestine" was never a state — during the time when Jew and Arab
lived equally in squalid conditions under the Ottoman rule. As Wallace
Brand makes clear in this essay, the Palestinian-Israeli conflict is
just another manifestation of the Third Wave of jihad by a resurgent
Islam. The Islamists have again begun a religious war around the
world, aiming at world dominance. "Terror in the West is not caused by
US support for Israel; terror all over the world is the result of
Islamist imperialism."
THE LONG MARCH OF ISLAM: CHAPTER 5
We are serializing R.K. Ohri's book entitled The Long March of Islam.
In Chapter 5, Ohri writes about the revival of militant Islam
in the first half of the 20th Century. It had a large jolt
forward in 1947 with the creation of Muslim Pakistan, which was
supposed to end religious conflict in India. Instead, almost
immediately, the Pakistani invaded Jammu and Kashmir. The matter was
taken to the U.N. This resulted — as it did when Israel fought back
Arab aggression around the same time — in making a relatively simple
situation almost unsolvable. Ohri also expands on the role a
government with strong resources and determined Muslims — in this
case, Pakistan — can have in promoting jihad, especially when Saudi
Arabia is willing to pay for the madrassas that "become factories for
producing terrorists and suicide bombers." The goal of the Muslim
jihadists — whether they be Arab or Pakistani — may be to pull the
world down into their medieval notions of
an ideal social structure, but they don't hesitate to make use of
Western communication technology and Western freedom of speech to
rouse the troops to slaughter.
HOW TO WIPE OUT ISLAMIC TERROR: THE
MOMENT OF TRUTH HAS ARRIVED
RK Ohri's article
(see above) was a general review, including how India split off
Muslim-majority Pakistan in an effort to create peaceful relations
between Hindus and Muslims. Instead, it led to renewed aggression,
with Pakistan claiming Kashmir. In this essay, Subramanian Swamy
writes out a specific plan to fight the terrorism emanating from
Pakistan. A major consideration is the potential 5th column of muslims
resident in India. Caroline Glick has written of similar
radicalization and treasonable activity among Israeli Arabs, with Arab
towns in Israel storing weaponry to be used in a future insurrection.
("Hizbullah on the homefront"
click here.) As does Glick, Swammy recommends a crackdown --
action, not words. It is eerie how similar terrorism is in both
countries and how pusillanimous the response of both Governments.
Swarmy recommends some specific measures to stop terrorism. It is a
recipe Israel should also consider.
RIDDING PAKISTAN OF ITS JIHADI TERRORISTS
Babu Suseelan's essay on Pakistan deals primarily with Pakistan's
global impact. Terrorists live there. Terrorists are conditioned
there. Terrorists train there. Terrorists travel from there to commit
acts of terror all over the world. They kill people indiscriminately,
because of the "collective guilt" of their victims or because of some
recent events of which they disapprove. This is done with active
outside financial support from Islamic governments. There is no world
institution acting to stop them. The U.N. doesn't condemn them — the
U.N. saves its condemnations for Israel engaged in a legitimate fight
against terrorism. America needs to monitor the huge amount of money
it gives Pakistan to ensure money is not diverted to the terrorists.
We need to act firmly with a strong will to remove a clear and present
evil from the world.
AFGHAN WAR BECOMING A BLOODY FARCE
As Tony Blankley writes, "President Obama has publicly doubted whether
Afghan President Hamid Karzai's corruption and incompetence make him
a fit partner for our policy goals in Afghanistan." Obama's public
condemnation has not improved relations with President Karzai, who,
on his part, has lost confidence in America's ability to make a
difference in Afghanistan. Blankley suggests that since we aren't
going to do anything effective in Afghanistan — and the present
American administration has no such intention — we might as well
leave. All we are doing is allowing the Afghan struggle to kill off
the soldiers of America and its allies needlessly. He might also have
said that Afghanistan is a distraction, when our resources would be
put to better use stabilizing the Middle East and dampening down the
nuclear arms race that Iran's nuclear ambitions has set off among the
Arab countries. Bowing to the Saudis, appeasing Iran and stomping on
Israel is on Jimmy Carter's level of ineptitude.
IRAN TARGETS AZERBAIJAN
Aside from pointing out that Israel is developing a strong
alliance with a Muslim country, this article is a case study in how
hidebound Islam infiltrates a relatively open state. As
Alexander Murinson writes, Azerbaijan was one of the Central Asian
states where Iran "launched a comprehensive program for the export of
its 'Islamic Revolution'." aimed at an "Islamic revival." To this end,
it attempted to staff mosques in Azerbaijan with
its own mullahs — a technique the Saudis practice in the U.S.A. It
is praiseworthy that they helped feed and house many of the poor. What
is less advertised is that they trained rioters and organized riots.
It is equally educational to read how Azerbaijan is rebuffing the Iranian
efforts at ideological takeover.
THE RETURN OF THE OTTOMANS
While we fritter away our diplomatic resources in the Middle East
counting how many houses Israel builds in eastern Jerusalem, alliances
between the neighboring states are being reconstructed, and seldom to
America's benefit. Lee Smith explains the changing dynamics of this
volatile region in response to Iran's bid for domination of the
region, followed by Turkey's apparent decision to challenge her.
Turkey has become cold, even hostile, to her one-time friend, Israel,
while she pleases the Arabs — as in the Gaza flotilla venture — by
dramatically taking up their purported cause: Palestinian nationalism.
This in itself is curious, because, as Smith notes, "Long before Arab
nationalism identified Israel and the United States (and before that
the European powers) as the enemy, it was the Ottomans who were called
to account for everything that was wrong in the Arabic-speaking
regions."
THE FANTASY OF HIZBULLAH MODERATION
John Brennan speaking for the Obama administration wants to strengthen
the "moderate element" within Hizbullah, Shimon Shapira in this essay
explains why this is most unrealistic. Hizbullah isn't a Lebanese
nationalist movement. It began as a way for Iran to export the Islamic
Revolution and it remains subservient to Iran, even though it has become
"the real ruler of Lebanon." Washington's hopes and wishes won't
change matters.
THE LOOSE ENDS OF MIDDLE EAST LINKAGE
It is conventional wisdom among our politicians, diplomats and many of
our military that, in Lee Smith's words, "the Arab-Israeli arena is
the region's defining issue." Were the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to
be settled and were the Arabs to see we weren't favoring Israel, the
Arabs would support us in Iraq and Afghanistan. The diplomat's corollary of
course is since we can't make the Arabs listen to reason, we should
pressure Israel. Like much conventional wisdom, the proposition that
the Palestinian-Israeli conflict is linked to the major problems in
the Middle East is dead wrong. The civil war between Hamas and Fatah,
Hezbollah's taking over Lebanon, the conflicts between the Sunni and
the Shi'ites, the proxy war in Yemen, Turkey's regression to Muslim
orthodoxy and the potential race to acquire nuclear devices won't go
away. In this fascinating article, Lee Smith explores where the idea
of linkage comes from, why the myth was invented and why it persists.
And why it will begin to work against the Arabs.
For an institution conceived as a safe haven in which squabbling
states could come together to patch up differences in a polite,
non-threatening way, the United Nations has suffered profound
deterioration. Its monolithic Arab-Muslim bloc — backed by
oil-needy countries — has turned the U.N. into an instrument to
amplify and implement Islam's hatred of Israel, even as the countries
that side with the Muslims recognize that after Israel, the Muslims
are intent on conquering the West. We also witness grotesque behavior
from the leaders of some major Protestant churches, who manifest moral
shallowness in chastizing Israel for inconveniencing Arabs living in
the Territories by delaying them at checkpoints while ignoring the
barbarous behavior of these same Palestinians, who venerate as
heroes Arabs who murder Jewish toddlers sleeping in their beds and
Jewish babies held in the arms of their parents. Church leaders have
so often asserted — with no valid evidence, usually just vague
generalities — that the Palestinians are suffering from Israel's
treatment of them, it has become an article of faith, mouthed even by
some pro-Israel Christians. The false notion that Israel is occupying
Arab land allows some churchmen to excuse anything the Palestinian
arabs do — shoot Jews, shoot rockets at Jews, knife Jews, run Jews
over with bulldozers, stone Jews, steal their animals, burn their orchards. All is excused.
THE MEMBERSHIP OF SEVERAL UNITED NATIONS COMMITTEES
This is not a hoax. This is not a spoof. The basic information comes
from official documents of the United Nations. So it is straight from
the horse's — well, from some part of the horse. Who wouldn't want
Iran on a committee devoted to the status of women? And sending its
own children out to the fields to identify hidden explosives by
stepping on them is Iran's unique qualification for UNICEF, one that few other
countries can better. Who knows more about economic
development than the Saudis, who happened to land on a pile of oil
and never had to do anything themselves to extract it and distribute it?
If anyone knows how to create refugees, certainly Sudan and Somalia are qualified
to be on the Commission for Refugees. And bully for China on the
Human Rights Council. It knows exactly how to handle a desire for
Human Rights. Yessir. And who is better for Social Development than
Egypt, which continues to treat its Copt minority to such fun
activities as
murder, torture and enforced conversions. Eye on the UN provides us
with additional information on the membership composition of several
of the U.N. committees.
THE U.N. IS TERMINALLY ILL
The previous article by Eye on the U.N. showed that the composition of
many U.N. committees is part of what has made the U.N. a sick joke.
Using the Human Rights Commission as example, this essay by Joshua
Muravchik provides context in how the U.N. has failed as an
institution. Bowing to pressure, the Commission changed its name but
not its practice of rigging the voting procedure for committee
membership so that those
nominated will be elected. When the various countries,
often en bloc, make their
complicated deals on who will be nominated, considerations of merit
and suitability are not allowed to muddy the process.
The end result is what we get. And should get rid of.
THE U.S. PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH'S RENEWED ATTACK ON ISRAEL
In this well-documented yet readable article, Dexter Van Zile reviews the sorry history of the
Presbyterian Church's efforts to divest itself and others from
investments in Israel, using attacks on Israel, partial withdrawal, and then
renewed attacks. The point of view of the activists who control
official reports is solidly in sympathy with the Palestinians, who are visualized as the suffering
victims of a harsh and illegal occupation by Israel. As VanZile
writes, "Leveling chimerical accusations at Israel in the name of
peace, these activists seek to enlist their fellow Presbyterians — and
the church's bureaucracy — into their efforts to banish the modern
state of Israel from the community of civilized nations and portray it
as uniquely worthy of criticism and condemnation." With each swing of
the pendulum, the Church — by backing these activists — makes more
obvious a more basic agenda: the delegimization of the State of
Israel. How long will it be before crude anti-Jewish statements --
not clothed in pseudo theology or in a view of Middle East
history that ignores most of the facts — become acceptable?
THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH HAS ATTITUDE TOWARDS ISRAEL
Anticipatory stories of the 2010 General Assembly of the Presbyterian
Church were filled with reports that there were to be motions for
divestiture/boycott of Israel that would position the Presbyterian
Church more strongly and intemperately in the ranks of the Palestinian
sympathizers. I had some specific questions. I asked Will Spotts for
clarification. We also include an addendum: Spotts's analysis after
the ball was over, the General Assembly ended.
FLOTILLA RALLIES TERROR CHEER SQUAD
In this account, David Burchell goes well beyond the facts of the gaza
flotilla into a more profound explanation of why the P and H
(Peaceniker and Humanitarian) squad has the compulsive need to
demonize Israel. Burchell suggests that the early Christian activists
couldn't get far with a turn-the-other-cheek approach. Their politics
did better chastizing the sinner. In the 1960s, the image of the
Palestinian as the innocent injured was in place but was somewhat
tarnished by the behavior of the more radical PLO terrorists.
"It followed that Israel's motivations had to be made even blacker, as if in moral compensation."
Viewing "Israel as a kind of devil-state, the spirit of evil made
incarnate in the world" excused any behavior by their Palestinian
'victims', no matter how outrageous.
What still needs explaining is why the PLO became the victim to be succoured in
the first place. Surely, it wasn't Arafat's blubbery lips, ugly face
and unattractive smile. Could it be that the Terror Cheer Leaders
deep down don't like Jews any more than the Arabs do?
Israel is beset on all sides by active terrorists and their
supporters in the media, and by emboldened hostile neighbors, the
U.N., mainline churches, and now the American administration. Her
appeasement policies have endangered her. To maintain the pretense
that there's an ongoing peace process, she has not asserted her
legal, moral and historic rights to her land, so that propagandists
are free to create fictions about the rights of the "Palestinians",
knowing these won't be challenged. In Caroline Glick's words, Israel
has a "daunting task" ahead of her. These next papers essentially
argue that appeasement must stop. Israel must apply effective
counterpressure to her enemy's actions. Israel must proclaim its
intent to remain and grow as a Jewish state. It must proclaim its
ownership of Jewish land and give up pointless and self-defeating
attempts to share with Muslims, who don't want the land — they want
Israel dead. The required changes are no longer 'wouldn't it be nice
if ..'. They are necessary if Israel is to survive the well-designed
machinations of her enemies.
THE NOOSE AROUND ISRAEL'S NECK
Daniel Greenfield makes the point that Israel's international enemies
are tightening the noose around Israel's neck, while Israel tries to
live up to the promises she made for the "peace process" called the
Oslo Agreement. The Arabs have felt no such compunction. They've never
gotten to step 1: to cease violence. Every one of Israel's concessions
has brought her closer to the gallows. Israel is now faced with stark
options: continue her suicidal course of accomodation to "world
opinion" or do what she must: resist the pressure to cave in piecewise
and start fighting to survive.
ISRAEL'S DAUNTING TASK
CALLING THE PA BLUFF
The Palestinians arabs are in the odd position of demanding a state — which they
never had and were never part of and never really wanted — and have
people like Prez Obama take them seriously. Their demand for Israeli
land was a ploy to further their mission of destroying Israel in
stages. To date, any land where they've gained control has been used
to develop military capability, store war material and train fighters and
terrorists. Would they be different in Judea and Samaria
than they are in Gaza? Boaz Haetzni points out that if Israel
withdraws and eliminates the Jewish settlement towns, Hamas would soon
take over Judea-Samaria — they have more popular support than Abu
Maazen — and they would settle down in expanded quarters to carry out
their mission of destruction, not to form a state. "They are a branch
of the Muslim Brotherhood, which is against individual Arab states."
They believe in what Arafat said, "our real nation is the Arab nation
which ranges from the Atlantic to the Red Sea and beyond..." This is
why "Hamas did not declare a state in Gaza although it is the only
force in charge there and could do so."
HAIRCUT AND HISTORY; BIRTHDAY AND THE BIBLE; IN THE BEGINNING
Rachel Saperstein writes three essays: her 3-year old
grandchild has his first haircut near the tomb of Samson; Her husband
celebrates a birthday, surrounded by family; she confers with the
other families — Ashkenazim, Sephardim, Yemenites, Ethiopians, Bnai
Menashe from India — who are founding a new town: Bnai Dekalim in
Lachish.
From these snapshots, would you guess she was one of the Jews
traumatized by being forced out of her home in Gaza by her own
government? Her husband Moshe and she survived the trauma and the
depression that followed and now they are again rebuilding their
lives.
MAKING ISRAEL'S CASE
A major reason for Israel's poor showing in the propaganda wars is
that the Arabs come across as passionate about their land, Israel and
the territories. Arab leaders. Arab clerics. Arab academics. And the
Arab schlub in the street. All of them are passionate as they claim
land that is not theirs. In contrast, Israeli spokesmen and consular
representatives are rightly perceived as lukewarm about Jewish
ownership — if not actively
delighted at the prospect of another Arab state in Biblical Israel,
with its capitol in Jerusalem. Caroline Glick insists "[t]he
government must stop trying to play both sides of the aisle. Instead
it should follow the lead of its extraordinary citizens and of Jews
throughout the world in asserting the rights of the Jewish people to
our capital and our country."
Media people are often content to use the dictionary translation
of a word and ignore its actual meaning. Use an English-arabic
dictionary, and you immediately have the word for justice
in arabic. The differing meanings of justice in the West
and in Muslim countries are harder to discover because language is
filtered through cultural concepts. Thus, as Raymond Ibrahim
writes in his essay on the Ground Zero mosque (see above or
click here) a speaker can use justice in English to
suggest one idea and the exact translation of the word in Arabic
to mean something very different. This section looks at other
examples of the effect the differences in Western versus Islamic
cultures have on understanding the meaning of some common
words. It also looks at how the media distorts the meaning of
events by how they present them.
THE UK'S THE NEW STATESMAN DEFENDS SHARIA LAW
Defending sharia law usually involves some variant of the civic value
of diversity, but it can be a hard sell, because some major
brutalities — chopping heads and hands for minor crimes and treating
women as chattel — are a non-negotiable part of sharia. In this
essay, Paul Murphy equips us with ways to read obfuscating pro-Islam
propaganda as he points out the fallacies in a recent defense of
Sharia. He also examines some ends-justify-the-means lies and
misdirection spun by Tariq Ramadan, grandson of the founder of the
Muslim Brotherhood. Murphy makes the major point that once Sharia
drives out civil law, all of it becomes law, not just its laws and
customs that seem to fit into modern practices.
WHAT DID YOU SAY ABOUT MUHAMMAD?!
Though it is contrary to commonsense, Raymond Ibrahim points out that
apparently Muslims found the South Park cartoons of Muhammad
more infuriating than very ugly statements about Muhammed broadcast to
millions of Muslims on Life T.V. Life T.V. stood its ground,
ignoring initial threats, continuing to discuss Muhammad in
unflattering terms — and doing so safely. The South Park
producers reacted by appeasement. Ibrahim suggests that it may well
have been this appeasement that acted as the stimulus to increase
Muslim ire. As he notes, "if you voluntarily act like a
dhimmi — a subjugated non-Muslim who must live in debased
humility — you will be treated like a dhimmi."
THE ART OF MISLEADING
Short, direct, informative. This essay by Yvette Alt Miller lays out
common ways the media avoid telling the truth.
Presenting it in such a way that is easily dismissed. Or telling it
partially. Her examples are actual instances of bias against Israel.
Miller suggests readers practice finding instances of these tricks, to
better understand what they are being fed by the media. My prime
example would be the New York Times, which managed to downplay
the ongoing Holocaust in World War 2. Most
newspapers may not be as clever hiding such a big story but the
omission and trivialization of Prez Obama's close
friendships with a slew of Marxists before he was nominated come
close. This is a very useful reference.
We have previously examined various areas where Sharia Law is being
accepted. Sharia banking, which is based on sharia law, is being
incorporated by banking groups. Government agencies teach Sharia law
procedures. Textbooks used in our schools tell our children how benign
Islam and its basic laws are. In this issue, we describe student shock
troops promoting hate of Jews on campuses and the invasion of Muslim
consultants into the higher eschelons of the military, We include the
first chapters of a forthcominhg book that defines Sharia Law for the
non-Muslim.
SHARIA LAW FOR NON-MUSLIMS
Bill Warner has written a book that compactly explains sharia law
to the non-muslim. It offers a compact summary of Sharia Law. It is
useful as a starting pointer for the ignorant, to start exploring. It
is a summarization for those who have acquired a good understanding of
Sharia law. Mark this in your reference directory.
FACING HATRED ON CAMPUS: YOU CAN'T FIGHT FIRE WITH FLOWERS
The campuses are infested by student hate groups, whose leaders make
their efforts at demonizing Israel their main job, one that takes
priority over classes and ordinary school activities. They are
dedicated, single-mindeded, possessed of religious fervor and will
stop at nothing. Their activities suggest their handlers have a big
budget, clever scenario writers and have spent considerable time and
effort making longterm plans before this attack was launched. Group
leaders have learned how to create dramatic props and creative events,
inveigle and indoctrinate other students, flummox the administration
and paralyze the Jewish groups on campus so they don't fight back. Roz
Rothstein and Roberta Seid have observed that these groups maintain
continuity, groom replacement leaders; develop networks with other
like-minded campus groups; and orchestrate demonstrations, cheering
crowds and disruptive hecklers. They don't miss opportunities to
promote their ideas and they are good at creating opportunities. Lucky
for them, the Jewish students, faculty and groups haven't adjusted to
the fact that they are under sustained attack and have to fight back.
The Jews are hamstrung by their belief that freedom of speech is
always a good thing and that everyone has built-in limits to
incivility.
SELF-INFLICTED DEFEAT
Some Muslim encroachment in America — such as the projected mosque at
Ground Zero — is high profile, but most of their activities are
not well known.
Nevertheless, they are successfully buying friends
and chairs at universities; buying some in the media and frightening others
into self-censorship; and subsidizing books friendly to Islam.
Now with a Commander-in-Chief who sees making friends with the
Muslims as a
noble undertaking, they have reached into high
levels of Homeland Security and the
military, where they have the clout to get hostile patriots fired.
Janet Levy and Nidra Poller describe how
different this is from the way we behaved in World War 2.
"Placing a Nazi in a high-level Pentagon position with access to
top-secret war data and giving him the ability to control military
strategists and censor vital information would have been punishable by death for treason."
I wonder what good our expensive war equipment will do us, if, as Levy
and Poller note,
"Our citizens at home and our troops on the battlefield are disarmed by a narrative that imposes respect for a political-religious system that seeks their subjugation and death."
There seems no end to the misinformation coming from
pro-Palestinian sources claiming that Jews have no history in
Jerusalem. One essay in this section makes a useful source for
rebuttal arguments. It presents a superb summary of references to Jews
in Jerusalem in ancient Greek and Roman sources. The other essay looks
at the 1920 San Remo Conference and the 1958 speech by Abba Eban from
the viewpoint of their consequences.
JERUSALEM, CAPITAL OF THE JEWS: THE JEWISH IDENTITY OF JERUSALEM IN GREEK AND ROMAN SOURCES
As Rivkah Fishman-Duker writes, by the early second century CE, when
Tacitus wrote his history, it is clear that the narrative of the
circumstances of Jerusalem's foundation had become standardized among
Greeks and Roman writers.
Descriptions of the Temple are always part of the accounts of Jerusalem and
Judaism. In addition to physical descriptions, Fishman-Duker describes
the religious aspect of the Temple, which differed radically from
Greek and Roman paganism.
Their accounts range from the factual to
the libelous and bizarre.
As Fishman-Duker writes, "The references to Jerusalem in these classical texts not only demonstrate the historical attachment of the Jewish people to Jerusalem, but also contribute to our knowledge of Jews and Judaism in the ancient world."
TWO NOTABLE EVENTS RECALLED THROUGH THE PRISM OF HISTORY
Alex Rose writes about two notable events of of historical importance.
The first was the San Remo Conference of 1920. "It recognized the
exclusive national Jewish rights to the Land of Israel under
international law, on the strength of the historical connection of the
Jewish people to the territory previously known as Palestine." The San
Remo Resolution "remains irrevocable, legally binding and valid to
this day." The second was Abba Eban's speech to the UN General
Assembly's Special Political Committee in 1958 suggesting transfer of
the Arab refugees to the states responsible for the problem — the
Arab states that had invaded Israel in 1948 and 1967. Actually, these
states were responsible for two sets of refugees: the Arabs from
Israel and the Jews from the different Arab countries. Israel, with
few resources, took in the Jews. The Arabs had huge resources but
have reneged. It's time they faced up to their responsibility.
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.
A Blog-Ed page has a quick list of the articles from which you can
access any of the articles immediately.
To go to the list, click the
"Blog-Eds List" box in the Blue Strip on the top of the Blog-Ed page.
May 2010 BLOG-EDS
READ MORE
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MARCH-APRIL, 2010
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ISRAELI SOVEREIGNTY OVER JERUSALEM, JUDEA AND SAMARIA.
Wallace Brand discusses the diplomatic foundation documents underlying
the creation of the modern state of Israel. It is also very readable.
Store this with your stack of reference material to use when Arab
propagandists assert that Israel is occupying Palestinian/Arab land.
The State of Israel was carved out with international approval from a
sliver of the Middle East holding of the Ottoman Empire. If it is not
legitimate, then what happens to the legality of the modern Arab
states of Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, Saudi
Arabia, Iraq, Oman, Yemen and United Arab Emirates? (Iran, Egypt and
modern Turkey were also part of the Ottoman Empire but Iran and Turkey
aren't Arab, and Egypt had been under de facto British rule for
many years by the time the Ottomans lost out.) These constructed states were given more
than 99% of the Middle East segment of the Ottoman Empire by the same
international authority that established Israel.
HISTORY OF JEWISH SOVEREIGNTY OVER ISRAEL OVER 3000 YEARS
This was written to counter the pernicious and widespread myth that
the Arabs pre-date the Jews in Israel. Depending on the gullibility of
the audience they claim to be the early Canaanites; or Philistines; or
they claim that in Temple times it was a Palestinian state filled with
Palestinians like Jesus and his mother Mary; or they claim they
intermarried with the natives when they conquered the land in
Mohammed's time, and this is the next best thing to being native
themselves. They ignore that 90-95% of them came after 1900 into what
is now Israel and the Territories. Roy Chweidan presents a short
summary of the actual history of Israel starting in the period of the
Judges. The appendices contain additional useful information.
PARDON ME, OBAMA ADMINISTRATION, BUT ISN'T YOUR POLICY ON FIRE?
We don't have to go the National Inquirer to find weird and unreal.
It's right there in the Oval Office in the Big White Building in the
District of Columbia. Barry Rubin writes how Obama is sticking like
velcro to the notion that au fond Iran is reasonable and can be
persuaded to be nice, no matter what it does and what it says and how
many of its own citizens it tortures because they don't agree with the
Mullahs. And Iran, filled with confidence by how well everyone is
treating her, is seeking a seat on the Human Rights Council.
DENYING REALITY BRINGS US CLOSER TO NUCLEAR MIDNIGHT
Like a child learning to play pick-up sticks, tangling them, ignoring
the good moves, fixated on poor choices, ignoring gravity, ignoring
his lack of coordination, President Obama deals with situations with a
child's knowledge of foreign policy. Frank Salvato recounts some of
his moves. Obama pulls together a bunch of nations to deal with the
problem of nuclear weapons falling into terrorist hands, and they flip
up with a non-binding "agreement." which is meaningless. He weaves and
waves his hand around Iran but, of course, nothing happens. He spends
times picking on Israel — and that's an easy move. But it won't
change the fact that to get at the terrorists means also, and
perhaps first, dealing with the clump of terror states that shield
them and support them. As Salvato points out: he needs to "accept the
truth that should Iran become a nuclear capable nation, so, too, would
terrorist organizations become nuclear capable."
U.S. ALLOWS IRAN ITS NUCLEAR VISION
Greg Sheridan has written a sensible article integrating the facts
including Obama's manufactured irritation with Israel and drawn the
obvious conclusion: that Obama is willing to live with an Iran that
has nuclear power. Maintaining a steady supply of oil has for long
controlled much of our foreign policy. Yet Obama seems indifferent to
Iran's obtaining nuclear power that, at best, will destabilize the
Middle East, making our oil supply uncertain. At worst, Iran could
destroy vital connections in the stream or make the area radioactive,
use the bomb to blackmail the region and/or share their supply with
peripatetic terrorists. What is nervous making, when dealing with
"world opinion," is how successful anti-Israeli propaganda has been.
History, geography and international law are disregarded and too many
are sure Israel is sitting on
TO WIN WE MUST KNOW OUR ENEMIES AND KNOW OURSELVES
Muslim leaders have bragged how Muslims love death and this gives them
the edge in fighting the "infidel" who is attached to life. Paul Eidelberg makes the
surprising suggestion that this love of death is rooted in a fear of
life that started in pre-Islamic times when inter-tribal warfare was
chronic and brutal. Survival depended on tribal loyalty, engendering a
herd mentality, rather than the development of the individual, as in
Western culture. Eidelberg credits Judaic monotheism for making
possible the Western trust in a meaningful universe. In Part I, he
develops implications of the idea that in the Arab culture, paganism
was "never fully transcended." In Part 2, he writes about Israel's
repetitive retreats from land that is hers, noting that Israel will
"continue to shrink so long as its government betrays the God of
Israel."
PAST THE SEVENTH STEP
The Ma'arat HaMachpela (the Machpela cave) in the city of Hebron is a
Jewish holy site; it is Judaism's second most holy site. It is where
the Patriachs and Matriachs are buried: Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and
Rebecca, Jacob and Leah. Nevertheless, for hundreds of years when the
site was under Muslim control, Jews were not allowed to enter the
cave. They were allowed to climb as far as the seventh step, while
Muslims were permitted to climb past and enter the caves. The Arabs
deny that the Machpela is a Jewish legacy. To do so would mean
acknowledging the profound relationship of the Jews of Israel to the
Land of Israel.
A FASCINATING STORY: 7 QUESTIONS FOR A NOACHIDE
There is a growing world-wide group called Noachides. They aren't
Christian; but they aren't Jewish either. As individuals they more or
less follow Torah law, but they are all follow the Seven Laws of
Noah. — Judaism considers that the basic civilizing ideas from the
Torah — the laws of Noah — are for everyone. This essay is Rabbi
Shraga Simmons interview with one of these Noachides. In the context
of our examining difference resulting from basic differences between
Judaism and Islam, it should be noted that Judaism doesn't feel
compelled to convert everyone to Judaism. Islam does. Unless, you'd
rather live as a dhimmi; or be beheaded.
JEWS IN THE HOLY LAND? WHAT JEWS?
Alex Maistrovoy puts in context the Arab strategy of denying that
Israel has any historic connection to the Land of Israel. Theirs is
"...simply the genocidal approach that is characteristic of Islam.
Power and possession are inherent parts of religious attitude in
Islam. This approach extends to all other religions, not only to
Judaism. The idea consists in depriving other cultures of their
spiritual base to achieve total physical domination over them." Given
that Islam is intrinsically hostile to all other religions. Judaism's
fight against Islam's brutal hostility may be unwilling but it has
become a major player in what eventually may be a global response to
Islam — if the world wakes up in time. Meantime, Israel needs to
protect its holy places from the Muslim ambition to eradicate a Jewish
presence in Israel.
THE LONG MARCH OF ISLAM: CHAPTER 4.
We are serializing R.K. Ohri's book entitled The Long March of Islam.
Previously, Ohri first laid out Islam's structure and its major
directive to wage jihad against the infidal. In Chapter
4, he reviews some of Islam's early history to explain how it is that
Islam acquired both its dedication to the Islamic ummah
(nation) and its appetite for conquering and looting non-Islamic
communities. Within a 100 year after Muhammad, the Arabs had
"destroyed almost all old civilizations of the [Middle East] region"
and invaded Christian Europe for booty, slaves and involuntary
converts and where they suffered their first defeat by a coalition
of Christian countries. But now again "the contagion of militant Islam
has already spread to scores of Muslim countries"; they are obsessed
with regaining Islam's lost grandeur.
RELATIONS OF MUTUAL LIABILITY
The obama administration appears to believe that the long arm of
Israel-Arab discord reaches Iran and Afghanistan, to the detriment of
American goals. In this bizarre view, if only Israel would make the
Arabs happy, the Muslim world would fall all over itself to be
friendly to us Americans. Israel, in a word, is a liability. Judging
from Muslim behavior over the centuries, this proposition is nonsense.
Rephrasing the sentence as America is a liability to Israel is,
on the other hand, a legitimate observation, based on evidence.
Avigdor Haselkorn makes the case that the America's presence limits
Israel's freedom of action. In brief, American enemies do what they
want and ignore overtures and shows of force.
"By threatening to target [American] regional bases, Iran is in effect keeping these contingents hostage and acting to dissuade any military undertaking against its nuclear facilities."
"...The U.S. deployment has become a handicap for Israel," denying it "the strategic initiative that is vital for preserving its national security."
OBAMA AND THE JEWS
E.W. Jackson Sr. wrote about the source of Obama's anti-Israel policy
ISRAEL IS THE HEART OF OUR CIVILIZATION, NOT THE APPENDIX
We are used to being told — and it is true — how important Jerusalem
is to the Jews. Nidra Poller points out another important truth
about the relationship of Jerusalem and the Jews: Jerusalem is
important to the West because of the Jews. There would be
little interest in the chief city of the Jews were it not that
Christianity is based in large part on Judaism and because Judaism
created the moral foundation of Western civilization. Because of that
and because Israel is a democracy — the only one in the Middle East
-- there is a closeness between America and Israel. It is ironic,
therefore, that Obama is taking advantage of that closeness to
pressure Israel to a peace that would not resolve the
Arab-Israeli conflict. Instead, if carried out, it would replace
Judaism with Islam in Judaism's birthplace.
ABDULLAH IN WONDERLAND
Israel needs to watch its back not just from the Arab countries
obviously out to destroy her, but even from Jordan, her peace partner,
which is kept secure by Israel, is given water by Israel and whose
economy has been helped to develop by Israel. Victor Sharpe writes
about Jordan's King Abdullah, who shows his gratitude by undermining
Israel whenever and whereever he can, with straight-faced disregard of
facts. His father killed off thousands of "Palestinians" for
threatening his throne; Abdullah is outraged by the IDF killing some
people who were acting as human shields for terrorists. Abdullah is
appalled that Israel has jurisdiction over Jerusalem and its Muslim
holy places. How easily he ignores that when Jordan conquered eastern
Jerusalem in 1948, it destroyed Jewish synagogues in Jerusalem and
wouldn't allow Jews access to their holy sites. The king of inversion.
Truly a Lewis Carroll character.
We commemorate Yom Hashoah and discuss the profound changes in the
social and political structure of Europe since World War 2. Despite
the wishes of a large part of its citizenry, Europe slides to an
accomodation with Islam and plays out the end game of multiculturalism
— a strong socialism that bankrupts the country and resurrects
feudalism — with the people in hock to the government that can
regulate them and tax them into powerlessness. Logically, one would
expect that a country under siege by a rising Muslim population would
side with Israel, one of the few countries effectively opposing
Islamic domination. Instead, as Islam gains control with the apparent
cooperation of a country's academic and business elites, anti-Semitism
rises. This set of essays contrasts the treatment of Muslims versus the
treatment of Jews in England, Holland and Germany.
TO COMMEMORATE YOM HASHOAH
Europe destroyed Jewish culture and six million Jews. The space has
been filling with muslim immigrants, impatient to inflict their laws
and customs over the subjugated natives. And ironically, while the
Jews tried so hard to fit in and were, for the most part, rejected,
the Muslims don't give a damn and ignore what resistance there is to
their take-over. Jacob Gur writes of a particular victim of the
Holocaust of the Jews: Pninah. She was twelve. She was murdered. He
asks that Israel not forget her and the other victims of the Shoah but
that it strengthen its Judaism and rebuild.
BRITANNIA WAIVES THE RULES. A HISTORY OF ANTISEMITISM IN ENGLAND
Edward Alexander reviews Anthony Julius' recent book that addresses
the literary roots of English antisemitism from Chaucer to Dickens,
connecting the historic blood libel against the Jews that is embedded
in English culture to the modern-day anti-semitic rants by academics
and dramatists, which also are not weighted down by facts. Julius
writes also of Jewish anti-semitism. As Jewish converts to
Christianity in the Middle Ages were glad to confirm Christian
theological allegations against Jews, no matter how false and/or
absurd, so modern-day Jewish anti-semites loathe Israel and can see
only evil in her every motive and action.
IN GERMANY IT IS BETTER TO BE A MUSLIM THAN A BAPTIST
Baptist immigrants to Germany from the Soviet Union, where they had
been persecuted for their religious beliefs, were subjected to vicious
attacks by the German authorities when they wished to homeschool their
children. Germany's Supreme Court ruled that German tradition trumped
Baptist desires. The State was in charge of children's education, not
their parents. In contrast, schools cater to Muslim eating and
clothing requirements, even when these infringe or nullify German
traditions and practices. As Thomas Landen writes, "While Christians
are prosecuted and fined, Muslims are appeased." There are other
differences that explain the behavior of the German establishment:
"Saying 'No' to Baptist demands is not a security risk for a school;
saying 'No' to Muslim demands is." Baptists don't become violent when
their requests aren't granted; Muslims do.
WHY SPINOZA WAS NOT MURDERED
Holland has such a reputation for liberal drug laws and a nonchalant
attitude for outre activity that it is puzzling that it has put Geert
Wilders on trial for producing a documentary that is scrupulously
factual — if not flattering — about Islam (see
below.)
In this essay, Artur Legger clears up the inconsistency.
Fearing reprisal, Government officials and the media
tried to block the documentary from being shown. Unable to censure
the film beforehand, they resorted to slandering Wilders and
withholding protection — despite the fact that there's a history in
Holland of Muslims killing off 'offenders'.
Holland's attitude is not new.
Throughout the centuries, the goal has been on preventing social
disruption and maintaining control by the governing elites by
whatever means were needed, not ensuring freedom — not even in the
time of Spinoza.
WHEN RHETORIC RULES THE ROOST
The initial hysterical reaction by European diplomats to the
assassination of the terrorist, Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, in Dubai, was to
blame Israel. This didn't abate until it was learned the assassins
went from Dubai to Iran, not exactly a Jew-friendly haven. Using this
as example, Caroline Glick points out that "blaming Israel has become
Europe's default foreign policy," dictated by the European Union (EU).
The Lisbon Treaty which gave power to the EU "...effectively bars EU
member states from adopting independent foreign policies..." so they
focus on rhetoric and don't act to safeguard their best interests. In
part to placate Europe — and the present American administration --
Israel has not been pursuing her own best interests either. At the
moment what is important is to disarm Iran and to exert its legitimate
claim to Samaria and Judea. Urgently.
EUROPE'S ANTI-ISRAEL STRATEGY WILL RESULT IN THE
DESTRUCTION OF EUROPE ITSELF
Robert Spencer presents some highlights from Bat Yeor's speech at the
recent Conference on Antisemitism, Multiculturalism and Ethnic
Identity at Hebrew University.
Bat Yeor coined the term Eurabia to describe the ideological
alliance since the 1970's of European leaders and Arabs. It promotes
anti-Americanism and anti-Zionism, while catering to Muslim concerns
under the guise of multiculturalism. To the Europeans, supporting Arab
politics and ideology seemed a clever way to ensure an uninterupted
supply of oil while avoiding Arab terrorism. "The countries of the
Arab League and the Islamic Conference saw in this alliance with
Europe the means to separate Europe from America; to divide and weaken
the Western camp; to destroy Israel; to achieve technological parity
with Europe; and, through the Mediterranean Partnership, to set up a
vast Euro-Arab demographic, political, economic and cultural zone. In
this way, with multiculturalism and immigration, Islam and Arab
culture could be introduced as a force toward the Islamization on the
European continent."
The first step, obviously, would be to remove the noose of the belief
that the Arabs and the Jews can somehow share the tiny space allocated
to Israel by international mandate — space that has already been
largely nibbled away. Discard the unworkable notion of sharing space
and more reasonable possibilities can be explored. A sensible one
would be to give the Arabs who go by the name "Palestinian" a portion
of the Ottoman Land gifted to the Arabs. This set of articles presents
some steps — some ideological, some practical — that can be taken in
preparation to that task.
IS ISRAEL A COLONIAL STATE? THE POLITICAL PSYCHOLOGY OF PALESTINIAN NOMENCLATURE
Irwin Mansdorf suggests that the negative and misleading and often
false language used to describe Israel's motives and activities be
abandoned and replaced by descriptions that conform to actual history
and applicable international law. He delves into the modern history of
Arab-Jewish relations, and points out the surprising fact --
surprising only because of the wide subcription to the
constantly-repeated myth that the Arabs had always ruled the Middle
East and the Jews are occupying some of this Arab land illegally --
that the Balfour Declaration, a foundation document in the
establishment of the Jewish State, was of great benefit in also
"advancing Arab independence and nationalist goals." During the first
part of the 20th century, while the land still belonged to the
Ottomans, before there was a modern state of Israel, or states called
Jordan or Syria or Yemen or Kuwait or Oman or the United Arab Emirates
—
before the time that the Arabs were gifted with 99.9% of the Middle
East — the Arab leader, Emir Feisel, recognized this fact. It was
later that Arab leaders and academics, in order to defend their
assertion that Israel was colonialist, began denying Jewish roots in
Mandated Palestine, forcing them into the ludicrous position of
denying Israel's ancient connection to its holy sites such as the
Machpela Cave and the Temple Mount and its holy cities of Hebron and
Jerusalem. In promoting this canard, they blithely ignored that
"[m]any of the Arab states, in contrast, were modern fabrications of
the British and the French," with no historic roots.
THE PREREQUISITE FOR PEACE IN THE MIDDLE EAST: ARAB RECOGNITION OF THE LEGITIMACY OF ISRAEL
THE 'peace process' — it seems always to apply only to the
Arab Israeli conflict — certainly hasn't lacked high-level
presidential involvement, from the Elder Bush to Obama, plus the
presence of the U.N., the E.U. and their cohort of diplomats and
politicians. Nevertheless, as Kenneth J. Bialkin puts it: "A peace
process which rests upon Israel's unilateral concessions is doomed to
fail — unless and until the world also demands that the Arab states
(including the Palestinians) recognize Israel's legitimacy and
sovereignty, explicitly and openly. ... This is the most important
prerequisite for peace."
NEXT YEAR IN WEST JERUSALEM
Victor Sharpe points out that the fatal flaw in the succession of
peace plans is that "[f]or Muslims, no non-Muslim state or nation that
is on land once conquered by Muslim armies in the name of Allah will
ever be tolerated."
This cuts down the number of intelligent options for Israel
to 1. "Unpalatable as it must be, the only solution for Israel is to
make not one additional concession but resolve to face the entire
world if need be rather than deny Jewish history, Jewish faith, and
the Zionist cause." It must ignore
"the siren calls of a fraudulent, beguiling and deceptive peace."
GUSH KATIFERS. THE FIFTH YEAR AND STILL NOT SETTLED
The Israeli government appears to be revving up to gift the
Palestinian Arabs land in Samaria and Judea. To diplomats, politicians
and sundry pro-Palestinians who have been nibbling away at Israeli
land, this is a good start to eating up all of Israel. It would of
course be a disaster, should Israel give up the land where the Jews
first took root and where they developed the way of life that
eventually became the basis of Western morality. It would also mean
making some half-million or more citizens homeless, jobless and
demoralized. In this essay, we examine how well the government did
resettling the 10 thousand Jews they expelled from their homes and
synagogues and orchards and businesses in Gaza in 2005 in a cockamamie
bid for "peace" with Arabs lusting after Jewish blood. The only good
that has come out of this stupid action is that many people are
reconsidering their attitudes and questioning whether giving up land
can bring peace. They really don't have that much more with which to
experiment.
THE REHABILITATION OF THE PALESTINIAN REFUGEES FIRST
The Arab refugees — hold-overs from the 1948 invasion of Israel by
the neighboring Arab countries — continue to be a festering sore, a
major factor guaranteeing there will not be a resolution of the
Arab-Israeli conflict. The Arab leaders of the countries where the
refugee camps are located never actually help their Arab Palestinian
cousins; in fact, they deny them citizenship. Nevertheless, they claim
they can't make peace with Israel until the refugee problem is
resolved by Israel letting in a group of Arabs that could be almost as
large as the number of Jews currently living in Israel to return to
what they claim as their homes. In this way, the Arab refugees act as
a piteous mask for the real intent of these Arab leaders — to wipe
out Israel, which has had the temerity to defeat Muslim countries and
won't accept dhimmi status. Shulmit Kogan examines why it would
be foolhardy to make concessions for peace until the Arab refugees are
rehabilitated and not allowed to become another ploy for land
concessions by Israel. She also suggests that it's time Israel talked
about the other group of refugees: the Jewish refugees from Arab
countries. Many of these families had lived in the Arab countries
longer than the Arabs. These Jewish refugees did not voluntarily
leave. They fled for their lives. Those who came to Israel were given
a new start as ordinary citizens. They were not left to fester in
refugee camps.
A DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVE REGARDING THE CURRENT CRISIS IN US-ISRAEL RELATIONS
Tzvi November's has a number of recommendations for improving Israel's
standing in world opinion. His essay reminds us once again that Israel
should not put its trust in princes — this time on American
administrations, Democrats or Republicans. What Israel should do is
proclaim its own stance, its own ideology, its rejection of an Arab
state in Israel's heartland. And stick to it. Calling Judea, Samaria
and Gaza "disputed territories" as Shimon Peres does is plain stupid.
The Arabs are savvy and "always refer to these areas as Arab land or
Palestinian land but never as disputed land." It makes a better claim
and is better PR. That it isn't Arab land doesn't bother them at all.
So they are more effective than Israel, which does own the
land, but is too timid to say so directly.
INSPIRED
Ari Bussel and Norma Zager write of activist projects in public
diplomacy developed by individuals, projects that should be done by
the Government but aren't. So people follow the injunction: where
there are no men, strive to be a man (pirkei-avos/chapter2-
6.html). The Muslims have long since recognized that America is a
battleground and have fought to win support with whatever weapons work
-- lectures, bribes, raucous demonstrations, breaking up meetings,
ecumenical sing-alongs with gullible Jews, convincing mainstream
Churches that the Muslim arabs that drove the Christian arabs out of
Bethleham are the good guys and it was all Israel's fault, working
with Marxists because they and the Muslims have a common hatred of
Judaism, rewriting K12 textbooks with puff pieces about the Religion
of Peace, persuading the government they must reach out to the
Muslims, introducing shari'a banking with only a few strings attached.
Israelis, on the other hand, are just beginning to recognize the
necessity of fighting the propaganda war effectively. For example, IDF
officers — authentic ones — have come to explain the IDF to
Americans. One of them bemoans the fact that "Muslims speak in one
voice, with one narrative, and are therefore more powerful. We, on the
other hand, are fragmented to the point where our position suffers."
The joke about the 3-Jew town that needed 2 synagogues isn't always
funny.
It became fashionable almost
immediately after 9/11 to blame America's attitude towards Islam for
the bombing. Fareed Zakaria, an early proponent of 'it's America's
fault' wrote a book reassuring us that terror and islam were not
intrinsically linked. As people examined the Quran more carefully
instead of citing a couple of nice-sounding suras and as we followed
the careers of known terrorists and would-be murderers who were
converts to Islam, that explanation grew thin. This set of articles
paints a more accurate picture of the linkage.
NEW DETAILS ABOUT OHIO MUSLIM'S ARREST
Erick Stakelbeck frequently reports on home-grown terrorists --
Americans who convert to Islam and then turn to terror activities
against America. Many are recruited where there is active and
sustained proselytizing: in prison or at a neighboring mosque. Now
that the Obama administration is removing such alarmist words as
Islamic terrorism and jihad from its vocabulary, it is
easier to ignore what might otherwise be an obvious connection:
someone goes off to Pakistan or another terrorist training area,
illegally keeps an extensive arsenal at home, and is a new recruit for
Islam. Given the present Administration's reluctance to see a pattern
-- and to use this knowledge to stop terrorists before they do harm --
it may be some time before the larger issue is addressed: do violent
people seek out Islam, or does converting to Islam encourage one to
become violent? And, in either case, isn't labeling Islam 'the
religion of peace' way off the mark?
TERRORISM WITHIN THE UNITED STATES:
THE MIDDLE EAST CONNECTION The previous article
was an instantiation of what is likely a wide-spread phenomenon.
Muslim terrorists operating in America are trained directly in the
Middle East or by dedicated Islamisists in the West. And the number of
attacks on American soil has begun to increase markedly — 2009 was a
banner year. Patrick S. Poole points out that even when the convert
terrorist appears to have been self-radicalized, he was usually
exposed to foreign recruitment videos and often was trained abroad. By
noting that the same Middle Eastern mechanisms are operative in
Africa, Canada and Britain as in the U.S.A., we can conclude that
there are active, well-funded, well-organized, wide-spread and
effective programs that convince new and born-again Muslim converts
that Allah wants them to commit obscene violence. It is not a case of,
as Daniel Pipes put it, 'sudden jihad syndrome.' Poole provides us
with convincing details about many plots that have been uncovered. Now
all we have to worry about are those that are still unidentified.
SEPARATING ISLAM FROM TERRORISM
The Obama administration has separated the
connection between Islam and terrorism — at least in National
Security documents, Robert Spencer provides us with examples from the
Qur'an, as well as quotes from Muslim leaders and scholars that
indicate that Islam and Islamic terrorism are justifiably linked. He
discusses the New Mardin Declaration, composed by Muslim scholars,
which superficially seems to promote peaceful behavior towards
non-Muslims; but it doesn't really warrant optimism. As Spencer points
out, "the conceptual apparatus establishing a peaceful Islam has never
been presented." Hence, "[t]he intersection of Islam and Terrorism is
not coincidental or the result of specific political moves made by
non-Muslim nations, as the conventional narrative claims. It is the
inevitable result of Islamic theology which is supremacist and
materialist, which when combined with the honor-shame code of a tribal
culture, drives it compulsively toward war and conquest."
THE GROWING THREAT OF FEMALE SUICIDE BOMBERS
Practice may not make perfect, but most tasks can be bettered, given
experience and practice. This apparently even holds for improvements
in delivering and aiming terrorist weapons. As Steve Emerson writes,
delivery has been made more reliable as terrorists have begun using
women. Women have carried their share of the burden, so to speak, for
years — most have good education and they can use loose, concealing
clothes as handy props. But only recently has it been recognized how
well they avoid detection, being a group that is not profiled as
terrorist. Which may acount for their popularity. Steve Emerson notes
they have been used by Shi'ite and Sunni, Al-Qaeda and the Muslim
Brotherhood, secular Fatah and religious Hamas. Now that they have hit
the big times — bombing the Moscow metro — they should get the
respect they deserve.
WHAT DRIVES ISLAM TO BE THE RELIGION OF WAR
In this essay, Daniel Greenfield points out that Islam is "constantly
a source of war, violence and discord" "[because]Islam is a religion
of physical supremacy, and anything that challenges that supremacy is
a direct attack on their beliefs." He concludes that "[t]he
intersection of Islam and Terrorism is not coincidental or the result
of specific political moves made by non-Muslim nations, as the
conventional narrative claims. It is the inevitable result of Islamic
theology which is supremacist and materialist, which when combined
with the honor-shame code of a tribal culture, drives it compulsively
toward war and conquest."
WILL AMERICA SURVIVE ISLAMOFASCISM?
Mohammed conquered Persia — modern-day Iran — some 1400 years ago.
As usual, this was accompanied by looting, enslavement and enforced
conversion. In our time, by analogy, because of its Constitution,
America is tolerant as was ancient Persia, and the Islamists are still
the Islamists. Amil Imani points out that longstanding Islamic
practice is to be meek while weak and assume despotic intolerant power
as it gains strength." "Mild Islamism" is already in America --
special facilities and perks for Muslims only; appeasement by
American leaders, who ignore Iran's increased power to build a nuclear
weapon; and "for-purchase politicians who keep endlessly broadcasting
the false mantra that Islam is a religion of peace." "The barbarians
have made it inside our fortress." We need to fight them.
Islam's long arm reaches into our educational institutions and
our media. Muslims pay for some of the PR; but some propaganda is
generated by Marxist sources that recognize Sharia law will destroy
the American way of life. Some media self-censor thus distorting the
news to avoid Muslim retaliation. Some stories are intended to counter
the negative images of women as chattel and honor killings, endemic in
Islam. Much of both the visual and text propaganda is anti-Jewish. It
was initially phrased as anti-Zionism but, increasing, it has become
frank anti-Semitism.
"THE OCCUPATION MADE ME BEAT MY WIFE:" BIASED SCHOLARSHIP IN THE PROPAGANDA WAR AGAINST ISRAEL
The insistence that Israel is the evil witch of the West is acquiring
a coating of academic scholarship of poor quality but strong
conviction. Richard Cravatts writes about the findings of a Italian
group that the health of Gaza children was jeopardized by the Israeli
invasion last year — the group found high concentrations of metal in
the hair of the study's subjects. As indication of the quality of the
experimental design, Cravatts reports an earlier study by NIEHS that
also found high lead levels in Gazan children — they lived near a
battery factory. The wall Israel erected to keep out terrorists has of
course been blamed for a variety of psychological symptoms by various
'scientists.' Other pseudo-scientists attribute the abusive treatment
by Palestinian husbands of their wives to the emotional stress
engendered by the Israeli occupation. If we add the poor quality of
articles that once prestigious journals such as Lancet will
accept providing they tar Israel [see here and here.], these
degraded journals will soon need to sport a label: read with caution.
THE BUTLER DID IT!
It is common to see a Marxist take up the cause of Muslims, though
ideologically they don't have much in common, except in identifying
Israel and America as the enemy. Judith Butler of UC Berkeley is a
Jew, an anti-Zionist and a Marxist, involved in doing her bit to
destroy Israel, America and capitalism. She knows Israel is an
oppressor country, just as she is certain that Hamas and Hizbullah
don't deserve their bad reputation. To hear her talk, you'd think
homosexuals and women are much better off in Arab countries than in
Israel.We have Steven Plaut to thank for peeling away some of her
incomprehensible prose to expose her vacuous ideas.
HOW NY TIMES COVERAGE BURIES MIDDLE EAST REALITY; FIND THE FOUR GIGANTIC ERRORS
In examining a particular article in the New York Times, Barry
Rubin provides us with an excellent analysis of the distortions in an
article whose subject matter, one would think, was 'human interest'
rather than politics, hence more likely to be reported without major
distortions. It wasn't. In reporting on the restoration of a Cairo
synagogue — Jews were in Egypt much earlier and longer than Muslims,
as the Haggadah would attest — the Times whitewashes the
Egyptian government's hostility towards Jews and ignores the
hate-filled statements issued by Egyptian officials. As on any
hate-spewing anti-semitic website, the aura around the Times
article affirms that 'it's all the fault of the Jooz.'
SAUDI ARABIA'S 'REFORM' OFFENSIVE
Saudi Arabia (SA) can pay for the best. And when she sets out to show
how modern, how reformed, the country is becoming, she can afford the
best. Seth J. Frantzman writes how SA has recruited Westerns,
particularly western woman, to handle the campaign. Maureen Dowd of
the New York Times have made her mark in clobbering Israel. Now
she is using her talent for whole-cloth imagery to paint a picture of
the Saudi King as a "social revolutionary" and a kingdom hell-bent on
modernization. Other Times columnists have also celebrated each
micrometer of progress and ignored the continuation of slavery and
beheadings, crippling social customs and harsh punishments for
attempts to gain a modicum of independence. SA is betting that
rhetoric will top reality — it has, after all, worked in the Arab
world.
THE POWER OF MONEY
While the Saudi reform offense is aimed at Westerners (see above),
much of the Arab media for Muslims is "a venue for blatant
anti-Semitism." Reuven Erlich writes of the Al-Jazeera March 15 TV
show starring Muhammad Yussuf al-Qardawi, an influential and respected
scholar of Islam, spiritual leader of the Muslim Brotherhood (the
parent organization of Hamas and al Qaeda) and the man who ignited the
Muhammed cartoon riots — what he called "a day for worldwide Muslim
protests over the insulting campaigns against Allah and His Prophet
Mohammed." Erlich points out that al-Qardawi is "a dominant figure in
shaping the anti-Israeli worldview in the Muslim and Arab world."
Al-Jazeera broadcast his authoritative opinion to a receptive audience
of millions: "the war against the Jews was not only for the
Palestinians to fight, but rather a war of all the Muslims."
THE "PHONEY WAR" AND THE NEXT WAR
Dmeetry Raizman describes some cogent similarities between the Peace
Process just preceding World War 2 and the current Israeli appeasement
policy. In 1939, while the Germans were gaining strength and
confidence to attack and when France's army was one of the strongest in the
world, she disengaged from Saarland, "a location of strategic
importance, unilaterally, without a fight, without a shot, and then
for months the French forces sat in idleness..." on the front facing
Germany. French leadership had been persuaded by Marshal Pétain
that their objective should be defensive — 'to minimize losses', and
to strive for peace — a policy enthusiastically seconded by the French
Left and foreign peace groups. The consequences of this policy were
seen when World War 2 began in earnest.
RESTORING THE HURVA SYNAGOGUE
Considering how touchy Muslims are about anyone even drawing an image
of Mohammed, one wouldn't think they'd be so unfeeling about sites
important to other people. But they are. They have a dismal record for
not respecting other people's religions. In 1973, they attacked Israel
on Yom Kippur. Given control of Joseph's tomb, they vandelized it,
ripped up the Torah scrolls and defecated everywhere. They used the
Avraham Avinu Synagogue in Hebron as a goat sty. Constant sniper fire
forces visitors to Rachel's tomb to arrive in armored trucks that park
behind concrete road blocks. When Jordan invaded and conquered the
eastern part of Jerusalem, it destroyed the synagogues and used
headstones from the Mount of Olives cemetary as stepping stones to the
latrines. One of these was the Hurva Shul. Sara Yoheved Rigler recounts
the history of the Hurva Synagogue, which has just been rebuilt.
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.
A Blog-Ed page has a quick list of the articles from which you can
access any of the articles immediately.
To go to the list, click the
"Blog-Eds List" box in the Blue Strip on the top of the Blog-Ed page.
March 2010 BLOG-EDS
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JANUARY-FEBRUARY, 2010
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THE LONG MARCH OF ISLAM: CHAPTER 3
We are serializing R.K. Ohri's book entitled The Long March of Islam. Previously, Ohri first laid out Islam's grand ideas for its global future and then discussed Islam's foundation tenets. In Chapter 3, he examines in detail a directive that towers above all others: to wage jihad against the infidel until he accepts "Allah as his Lord, Islam as his religion and Muhammad as his Apostle." Jihad is not an occasional act. "It is a holy war to be waged throughout the ages till the Day of Judgment." Current apologists of Islam make jihad sound like a fuzzy finding oneself spiritually. In reality, jihad calls for slaughter in the land; i.e., putting infidels to the slaughter. Which may be why jihad — better described as terrorism — has become so soul-satisfying in recent years with the Muslim youth and clergy. It is interesting that in India, jihad is justified because the British supposedly abolished the Caliphate; in the Middle East, the reason given is that the Jews are "occupying" Arab land; Osama bin Ladin cited the insult that westerners were in Saudi Arabia as the reason to destroy the World Trade Center and try to knock out the White House and Pentagon. The reasons vary; jihad slaughter is a constant.
HOW TAQIYYA ALTERS ISLAM'S RULES OF WAR
Raymond Ibrahim has previously written about taqiyya (unabashed
lying to the infidel), a practice highly praised in Islam as a
superior way to win a battle or an argument. Feigning apostasy — and
not just under threat of death — is another aspect of taqiyya
that is encouraged. The Qu'ran may itself be
viewed as a study in taqiyya. Admonitions for peace in the
earlier verses — written when Islam was still weak and
outnumbered
—
are later replaced by calls for sustained jihad to convert the
infidels. It is the later verses that are to be obeyed. In another
context, a peace treaty can be made only for a fixed period of time,
ten years at most; open-ended truces are illegitimate. Lies that
further the spread of Islam are legitimate. "Yet", Ibrahim notes,
"most Westerners continue to think that Muslim mores, laws, and
ethical constraints are near identical to those of the Judeo-Christian
tradition." For us in the West to continue to believe the Muslim is
programmed in the same way as a Christian or Jew is dangerous folly.
RADICAL ISLAMISM: AN INTRODUCTORY PRIMER
Barry Rubin makes an important distinction. Jihadism and Terrorism
are not equivalent; "Revolutionary Islamism is the main strategic
problem in the world today. Terrorism is the main tactical problem."
This suggests we stop limiting ourselves to the notion that we are
fighting — or we were, pre-Obama — terrorism and acknowledge the
enemy is the jihadist who uses terror. The Jihadist is fighting to
inflict the rule of Islam everywhere in the world. As do many,
Rubin takes comfort in separating political-theological Islamism from
theological Islam. As he points out, "Islamism is an interpretation of
Islam and not the only one possible. Indeed, for centuries there have
been different interpretations." True, but from the start Islam
was political as well as theological; jihad spread the word more
efficiently than persuasion. We need to identify our
enemies before we see the whites of their eyes. It will be too late, then.
IS A NICE MUSLIM A GOOD MUSLIM?
Bill Warner starts with the proposition that it a binary situation:
one is either a muslim OR a kafir (a non-believer). There are no
religious gradations in degree of belief in the fundamental Muslim
credo. If an individual follows Muslim doctrine, he is a Muslim.
Otherwise he is a kafir. And the two are treated differently. As
Warner notes, "The Koran says that kafirs may be hated, plotted
against, deceived, murdered, raped, enslaved, mocked and tortured. All
of those actions are Islam and perfect doctrine."
"So how do you tell if a nice Muslim is good or bad? From the kafir
point-of-view, there is only the fact that a Muslim is following
Mohammed's example. And that is bad, very bad."
A GOD WHO HATES
One view of Islam asserts it is a warm religion of peace. Asked why
almost all terrorists are Muslims, the response is: Well, a few
marginal people — deprived, uneducated, frustrated — are
terrorists, but they aren't authentic Muslims. The other view of Islam
makes do with the facts: in practice, Islam is violent. Its
practitioners are taught that violence and dishonesty as well as
beheading and sneak attacks are acceptable weapons in fighting the
infidel. Considering that the Muslim global population is estimated at
1.6 to 1.8 billion, even if only 15% of Muslims are pro-terror in that
they will at least riot and burn tires to bolster suicide-bombers and
snipers, we are talking about more than 250 million people, (which is
getting mighty close to the population of the U.S.A.) Fern Sidman
reviews a book by Wafa Sultan, an ex-Muslim, who has seen the religion
from the inside and the outside and who has the training to assess it
analytically — an ability few of its propagandists have.
FALSE PROGRESSIVES IN THE MUSLIM WORLD
Seth Frantzman suggests a practical test of how advanced a Muslim
country is. Ignore what it says it is. Look at the way women are
treated in the country. Look specifically how the Muslim male treats
the women in his own family. Nothing dramatic. Just the ordinary
things. How much freedom of action does she have? How much control
does she have over choosing her friends? How is she allowed
to dress in public? Forget the official PR. It is a sad fact that most
Muslim countries, including the Arab ones, have become ever more
regressive.
THE ISLAMIC ROOTS OF ABDULMUTALLAB'S SUICIDAL ODYSSEY
The new morality is that jihadists aren't responsible for their crimes
for they are the victims of society, poverty, neglect and other social
causes. So the attempted destruction of a planeload of people by a
rich, nice, educated Muslim is puzzling to those who won't believe
"what Islamic terrorists like Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab themselves
insist motivated them: ... following Islam and reading the Koran."
Jamie Glazov argues that the causes of Umar's hate aren't to be found
in Marxist economics and politics but in the "life-hating teaching of
a religion that demonizes earthly happiness, joy, and pleasure." As
Ayatollah Khomeini said, "there is no fun in Islam." There is too much
hate — more than too many Muslims can cope with in a rational way.
MADE IN AMERICA MUSLIM TERRORISTS
Hostile activity by Arabs and other Muslims often takes the form of
maligning non-Muslims, writing poorly-spelled but brutally ugly
comments on the internet, disrupting public meetings organized by
non-Muslims, and randomly attacking Jews physically on the street.
There are also intra-Muslim hate crimes, such as the honor killings
by even "moderate" Arabs — Muzammil H. Hassan beheaded his wife
because she was uppity — and these are feebly reported by the press.
What is becoming more frequent, as Lori Averick reports, is the
western or westernized born-Muslim or convert, who wakes up one day
and takes it upon himself suddenly to shoot up a Jewish community
center, a group of fellow soldiers or — trying for the brass
ring —
to explode a planeful of people. An early example was Sayyid Nosair,
Rabbi Meir Kahane's murderer, who came from Egypt and became a member
of the notorious al-Farouq Mosque in Brooklyn.
DEFEATING JIHADI TERRORISM
Dr. Babu Suseelen writes about the impact of random terrorism on the
lives of the citizens where the attack occurred. Security officers and
political leaders warn against attack, but are silent about the jihad
ideology that motivates the jihadists. In time, "citizens have become
inoculated against the terrorists. And these habituated citizens who
are inoculated and who are hiding behind a thick wall of denial no
longer react." We need to fight back to preserve our future — for
example, to demand that "hatred from the Koran be expunged."
"Commonsense suggests that citizens have the right to identify people
trying to ferment violence, spread hatred and terror in our country."
A CONFLUENCE OF FOLLY
This comes as close as any article I know to articulating that we are
at a crossroads — "a crossroads where denial and ignorance meet
rationality and common sense." A reader, Christopher Ward, commented:
"D.L. Adams lays out for us the dangers of fundamentalist Islam and
the way we are reacting or rather not reacting."
We are currently militarily engaged in Iraq and Afghanistan. Both
these countries and both sides in both countries are ideologically
governed by Sharia law. Sharia law with its lack of tolerance to any
other religion and its refusal to allow woman freedom of action is
intrinsically "contrary to our concepts of justice and human rights."
As Adams points out, "We fight against jihad at the same time we
create states that will mandate it and support it — we will
always be its victims; this is folly." More recently, in Iran, we've
again sided with an ideological Islamic regime, not with those who
want lessened state control.
Adams asks, "What is our purpose in supporting the creation and
growth of societies and governments that are fundamentally opposed to
our existence." How do we define victory? Whatever the outcome, it can
hardly be called democracy?
Aside from the larger issues that need examination, we need to
rethink some of our prejudices. We have rejecting profiling in
airports, though profiling is a sensible way to pick out potential
terrorists. We fear giving offense to Islam to the point that we have
weakened our security. It is ludicrous but significant that the Dep't
of Homeland Security has eliminated the word terrorist from its
vocabulary. We need to understand that those who think of us as the
Great Satan will not love us, no matter what we do. "The adherents of
Islamic doctrine attack us because they hate us; they hate us simply
because we exist."
If democracy is defined as freedom for the individual within
a context of a single language and single sense of "countryhood", then
Great Britain — indeed most of Europe — continues to fritter away
its freedom under the seductive sway of multiculturalism.
The current trial of Geert Wilders, a member of the Dutch parliament,
is on. It is clearly emblematic of the struggle between democracy,
which provides freedom for all groups, and a form of multiculturalism
that favors Islam. It eventually leads to the most determined group
taking control.
Geert Wilders, a Dutch parlimentarian, made a documentary,
Fitna. He showed actual footage of Muslims behaving in their
own interpretation of "peaceful" with voice-overs reading relevent
portions of the Koran condoning this behavior. This infuriated Muslims
and the Muslims so frightened the usually 'anything-is-OK' Dutch
authorities, that Wilders was treated as a criminal. He was not even
allowed into England a year ago. He was put on trial by the Dutch in
early 2010, in the words of Pat Condell ( a must read. click
here. ) for the "crime of embarrassing them with the truth." The
judges have rejected all but 3 of Wilders' 18 witnesses — experts in
Islam, social cohesion, and practioners such as Mohammed Bouyen, the
Koran-believer who slaughtered Theo van Gogh in 2004, and Sheikh al-Qaradawi, enthusiast
of the healing power of camel urine. The trial has been postponed
until at least next summer. It's still a cliff-hanger.
GALILEO AND GEERT WILDERS
It is trite to say that many a time we don't recognize when our
civilization is at a major crossroad at the time when it happens.
Bringing that strong advocate of freedom for the individual, Member of
the Dutch Parliament Geert Wilders, to trial on January 20, 2010, for
insulting Islam, may be one of those epochal events. Fjordman makes us
understand this by comparing Wilders' persecution to that of Galileo,
who was forced to recant his conclusion that the earth traveled around
the sun, and not, as was commonly believed and enforced by the
Catholic Church, that the sun traveled around the earth.
AMERICA, THE LAST MAN STANDING
This was the Address given by Geert Wilders, Chairman of the Party for
Freedom (Netherlands), at the Four Seasons, New York City, September 25, 2008,
introducing an Alliance of Patriots and announcing the Facing Jihad
Conference in Jerusalem.
WESTERN CIVILIZATION ON TRIAL
NRO asks a group of experts about the start of Geert Wilders trial:
(1) Is there any legitimate reason he's in court? (2) What are the
implications of such a trial being held, nevermind its outcome? These
are the thoughtful and analytic responses by Bat Ye'or, a leading
authority on the islamization of Europe, Paul Marshall and Nina Shea
of the Hudson Institute Center for Religious Freedom, Robert Spencer,
Director of Jihad Watch, and Daniel Pipes, Director of the Middle East
Forum.
SALMA YAQOOB OF THE BRITISH RESPECT PARTY
As in America, the left ideologues and the Muslim fundamentalists in
Britain find common cause in anti-war and anti-zionism activities.
Paul Austin Murphy writes about Salma Yaqoob, a leader of the Respect
Party, whose membership comes from Socialists and Communists on the
left and Muslims on the right. Ideologic differences on gay and
women's rights have caused the Party problems, but there is one area
of perfect harmony among the members — they all hate Zionists
(pronounced: Jews) and are
for Palestinian rights. Murphy challenges some of Yaqoob's arguments,
including her downplaying terror in Britain and complaining that Muslims
are demonized. He also questions her claim to be of the "working
class". He points out that her type of defamation of Judaism is
responsible for much of the recent rise of anti-Semitism in England.
THE SECRET PLOT TO DESTROY BRITAIN'S IDENTITY
Christian churchmen, such as Lord Carey, former Archbishop of
Canterbury, are warning against uncontrolled Islamic immigration that
threatens Britain's "very ethos or DNA." As Muslim immigration has
increased, rather than leading to a multifaceted but integrated
community anchored in a single language and democratic goals, it has
led to increased outlay in welfare expenses, demands that England give
way to Muslim culture by adopting sharia law and a radicalization of
the younger generation of Muslims. In this article, Melanie Phillips
points out that Muslim immigration didn't just happen — it was
encouraged in the name of "multiculturalism." Ironically, Muslim
immigration is leading to a bizarre monolithic society where Islam is
topdog and the other groups subservient.
BRITAIN AS A FOCUS FOR HAMAS' POLITICAL, PROPAGANDA AND LEGAL ACTIVITIES IN EUROPE
Britain has shown great concern for Muslim sensitivities. It has been
extremely accomodating to what Muslims claim they need to perform
their religious duties — to the point of stamping on the religious
and social sensitivities of everyone else: not allowing non-Muslim
employees to eat in the lunch room during Ramadan; not allowing
Christian religious icons to be displayed publically, not allowing
mixed bathing in swimming pools, not teaching the Holocaust, etc. One
result has been that Muslims dedicated to violence have made London
the base of their political, propaganda and lawfare activities.
Hamas is on the European Union's list of terrorist organizations.
Yet, camouflaged as a supporter of the Palestinian cause, it has turned
"Britain into a center for extensive anti-Israeli activity." Hamas and
its ideology has infiltrated "British politics, media and
universities." Reuven Erlich provides us examples of their activities.
WHILE EUROPE SNEERED
When a believer in the basic goodness and fair-mindedness of mankind
come up against guys who seem to be maniacally driven to kill people,
something has to give. When the disparity is in the mind of a
politicized intellectual expert, he often will sneer away the hard
facts to preserve his political integrity. As Bruce Bawer describes so
vividly, using Justin Vaïsse, as a case in point, he will ignore
"the draining of European welfare systems by Muslim families, the
explosion in rapes and gay-bashings and Jew-baitings, the
proliferation of honor killings and forced marriages and no-go
zones..." Curiously, the supercilious know-it-all is often not even
concerned about fellow experts and professionals, who haven't denied
reality but forthrightly fight against the ugliness and brutality that
the entry of a large number of colonizing Muslims has brought to
Europe. Calling those who fight to preserve European culture
Islamophobes won't make the problems go away.
REVIEW OF CHRISTOPHER CALDWELL'S REFLECTIONS ON THE REVOLUTION IN EUROPE
Fjordman comments on a book by Christopher Caldwell emphasize that
while it is a lucid presentation of the major problem confronting
Europe — namely, that Europeis being inundated by colonizing
Muslims — the book does not come to grips with the likely
consequence that Europe may soon lose its identity and be absorbed
into the world of Islam. As example of the tenor of the book, Caldwell
states that "Europeans can only hope that newcomers, especially Muslim
newcomers, will assimilate peaceably." Fjordman points out that
"Muslims have never 'assimilated peaceably' anywhere." He is
justifiably annoyed that by downplaying the problem now, Caldwell
contributes to a bloody future when and if Europe wakes up.
Isaac Asimov, in writing his Foundation series talked about
a Seldon crisis, where problems that had perhaps been building for
years suddenly come to a boil and there is no escape from dealing with
them. Israel may be at that point.
Most urgent is Iran, which is run by Mullahs whose ambition is to
build a spectacular nuclear device to act as a silver bullet to kill
off Israel, a major obstacle in their pursuit of dominion over the
Middle East.
The real issue is: will the region — not just Israel — survive?
If Iran is allowed to carry out its nuclear program, an Iranian strike
would devastate the entire Middle East. Some of it will be demolished;
the rest will be too crippled to maintain delivery of the oil on which
much of our transportation and manufacturing industries depend.
The Obama administration's response to this possibility is to
ignore it. Instead, it treats Israel as a pesky dependent that needs
taming and downsizing. The Administration has finally found an enemy
it is prepared to fight. Israel. Not Iran. It seems to be doing all it
can to paralyze Israel (or at least distract it from concentrating on
how to handle Iran) without arousing the ire of the American people,
the majority of which favor Israel, not the Arabs. Other countries
treat Iran's threats as Israel's headache. The U.N. and the E.U. are
useless.
As a second component in the crisis, terrorist gangs that have
harassed Israel for years are consolidating. And the U.N. has declared
-- using the Goldstone Report as certification — that attempts by
Israel to fight the terrorists are war crimes. To prepare to face this
combined hostility, Israel must not only prepare militarily but it
must also become less lackadaisical about her internal enemies, the
Jewish Marxist ideologues who fight for the Palestinian cause. In addition, there is the long-standing factor that the Palestinian
arabs ignore history, geography and international law by claiming that
they are a people and that the Land of Israel belongs to them.
Appeasement by Israel has proven a failure, and the mistake continues
to paid for in Jewish dead bodies.
By not asserting her rights to her land, Israel has lost the
propaganda war by default. The American Administration acts as if the
way to peace in the Middle East — even with a belligerent Iran, an
aggressive assortment of terror groups controlled by resurgent Islam
and a regional war taking place by proxy in Yemen — is to give the
Palestinian arabs a good chunk of Israel. It refuses to allow normal
and quite legal growth of the Jewish towns in Samaria and Judea as
part of its irrational push for a Palestinian state. It is more
committed to this goal than are the Arabs who are to become the
citizens of this new state.
Israel might continue to give aways pieces of her tiny land, hoping
to appease the local Arabs and foreign powers who are intent on
destroying Israel. Or she will stiffen her spine and use her brain to
solve the Palestinian problem by (1) annexing Samaria and Judea and
Gaza, which are rightfully hers; and (2) urging regional and world
groups to grant the "Palestinians" — including the Arab refugees --
an area carved out of the enormous amount of the Middle East land the
League of Nations allocated to the Arabs. That will be the real
beginning of peace.
THREE CHANUKAH MIRACLES; MY STONES... WHICH WERE NEVER MINE
Moshe Saperstein relieves himself of his opinon of a Chanukah obscenity
-- inviting an enemy of Israel to light the Chanukah menorah in
Washington, D.C. But he also writes of three small miracles, all of
which happened at Chanukah time. Rachel posts an essay by Paula R.
Stern, a moving story of how she salvaged stones from the synagogues
that were left behind by the Jews forced out of Gaza. They were
desecrated by the new Arab inhabitants.
GUSH KATIF REMEMBERED THROUGH ART
As a reader commented, "just too bad that a tragedy such as this one
at Gush Katif was the spark that ignited their tremendous creative
spirits. Here's hoping that these talented women continue
to bring beauty in to the world. Theirs is a great example of tikun
olum."
A 'NATIONAL HEROES' LAW
Ugly punishments were meted out to teenagers who stood and protested
— without stones or guns or any weapons — that expelling the
Jews from Gush Katif was dreadfully wrong. They were treated much more
harshly than Arab prisoners in Israel who have been found guilty of
killing Israelis. The Arab prisoners even study for degrees while in
jail; the teenagers were locked up "pre-trial" for indefinite amounts
of time. That has now been judged by the courts to be excessive. The
expulsion from Gaza has also been judged wrong. David Wilder is perhaps
looking at a possible future when the Israeli leadership fearful of
'them' — America, the media, "world opinion" — might
commit the crime of expelling some 200,000 to 300,000 Jews from
Biblical Israel. This would be so outrageous as to make the suffering
and demoralization caused by the Gush Katif expulsion seem mild in
comparison. So he suggests that now that the Judiciary has come to its
senses, it pass a law recognizing all the expellees as national heroes
and making the leaders promise that this will Never Again Happen. It
follows, for the law to have teeth, that the leaders responsible of
the Gush Katif evil pay for their crime.
Undeniably, the best way to stop the development of Iran's
doomsday bomb would be to let the Iranian people handle it
themselves. Two of this set of articles discuss how angry the Iranian
populace is at the government and ways we could assist them to bring
about regime change. Unfortunately, as Timmerman's article shows, the
American administration is — looking at its actions and lack of
action — pro-Mullah. The U.N. is unworried — it's too busy
calling Israel's scrupulous military action in Gaza a year ago a war
crime and the EU doesn't seem to understand that any disruption of
the fragile stability of the Middle East will affect them in many
unpleasant ways. Given that none of the major groups that could
possibly rein in Iran are doing anything, it is unlikely that the
best way to stop bomb building in the Middle East will have time to
succeed. For those who are convinced Iran doesn't mean what it says
about nuclear-bombing Israel, we suggest you read Joshua Teitelbaum's
monograph, "What Iranian Leaders Really Say about Doing Away with
Israel,"
available from JCPA.
EMPOWERING IRANIANS TO DISLODGE THE MULLAHS
Amil Imani suggests that "all signs point to an early demise of the
Islamic Republic — and the establishment of a secular democracy." In
response to the public's unrest, the Iranian government has become
more repressive and brutal, and in doing so, it becomes yet more
unpopular. Imani estimates it has at best the support of some 10-15%
of the population. "[T]he opposition movement is massive and
determined, capable of exploiting any opportunity to disempower the
regime." It includes labor and teacher unions, student groups, religious
and ethnic minorities and journalists. They should be backed up by the
world's nations imposing immediate sanctions. Whether the revolution
or the bomb will come in first is still to be answered.
THE SOFT POWER SOLUTION IN IRAN
James K. Glassman and Michael Doran provide us with ABB — All But
the Bomb --- ideas on dealing with Iran's as yet unstopped program to
build nuclear bombs. They suggest ideas for a regime change in Iran,
following up on the obvious dissatisfaction among the Iranians due to
the fraudulent reelection of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad last summer. Should
Iran be allowed to continue her nuclear plans, even if she doesn't
immediately blast Israel, she becomes the more powerful state in the
Middle East, or, as more likely, starts a race among the group of
equally-unstable barely-civilized Arab states of the region to secure
their own nuclear weapons.
U.S. ACTING IN IRAN'S INTEREST, OPPOSITION LEADER SAYS
Kenneth Timmerman describes his interview with Rahman Haj Ahmadi,
leader of the outlawed Free Life Party of Iranian Kurdistan (PJAK) in
Europe. As Timmerman writes, "Far from being a terrorist group, PJAK
is dedicated to the overthrow of the Islamic Republic regime in Iran
and its replacement by a pro-Western, secular, united Iran that
recognizes the rights of all its citizens." Instead of encouraging
this dissident group, the American Administration has, under the media
radar, labeled the group as terrorist and frozen its assets, thus
ensuring that other groups would avoid working with it.
Let's first consider some bad political decisions Israel has made. It
has sacrificed its own needs and damaged its image and its
self-respect in the vain hope of gaining peaceful accomodation with
its Arab neighbors. As Evelyn Gordon points out below, "The Oslo
process [instituted in 1993] led Israel to sideline its own claim to
the West Bank and Gaza, which all Israeli governments (and
international Jewish leaders) had stressed to some extent before 1993.
The argument in favor of Israel's right to sovereignty there was
simple: these territories are the historic Jewish homeland, the heart
of the biblical Jewish kingdom. They were explicitly allotted to the
future Jewish state by the 1922 League of Nations Mandate, which was
never legally superseded." Instead of leading to peace, the
concessions made to the local arabs increased their appetites for
further encroachment and renewed terrorism, not for peace.
HISTORICAL ERRORS AND CONSEQUENCES
Alex Rose describes some bad decisions Israel has made in its short
lifetime, sometimes for noble reasons, sometimes from timidity and
fear of asserting its legitimate rights. These decisions have led to
some almost insolvable present-day problems. Moreover, her continued
concessionary attitude and preoccupation with peace and
peace partners and the peace process are giving her
enemies a better shot at her destruction. She has not, however, been
responsible for one of the most stupid decisions in the recent history
of the Middle East, namely, Jimmy Carter's undermining the Shah of
Iran. We can thank him for Iran's present-day rulers, the tyrannical
Mullahs.
THE DEADLY PRICE OF PURSUING PEACE
The conventional wisdom is that Israel's international standing
depends on its willingness to advance the "peace process." If so,
why, Evelyn Gordon asks, "has Israel's reputation fallen so low
despite its numerous concessions for peace since 1993?" She points
out that "among anti-Israel radicals, Israel's increasingly frantic
pursuit of peace has aroused not admiration but rather the instincts
of a predator scenting blood." To the terrorists, a concessionary
Israel signals that Israel is in panic, so it's a good time to step
up terror. Israel should attend to some truisms. First: Diplomats
pressure the pressurable. Second: Terrorists expand their
terror activities whenever possible. The Arabs in control of the
Territories are terrorists. As Gordon points out, "the desperate
pursuit of peace is not the solution but the problem."
CHARLIE MCCARTHYISM
The term McCarthyism — describing unfair accusations
reminiscent of the pronouncements of the late unlamented Senator
Joseph McCarthy — is a favorite retort of Marxist academics,
especially when they are accused of disloyalty. They proclaim loudly
and angrily that they are being deprived of their right to free
speech, no matter how sloppy or non-factual or treasonous their
speech. They never call it McCarthyism when they don't allow their
students or colleagues the same right to free speech. Lee Kaplan
explains the origin of the term McCarthyism, and suggests that
the spectacle of Israeli Marxists becoming offended when their
pseudo-scholarship, inaccuracies and political ideology are called
into question is more Charlie McCarthy than Joseph.
ISRAEL, STATE AND NATION
A particularly damaging action by the Israeli left has been to insert
"appeasement [touted as peace] into the culture and the
educational system of the State of Israel." This is while the
government knows Arab kiddies are inculcated from the time they can
crawl to celebrate murder of Jews. One consequence has been a fall in
IDF recruitment from the Israeli Left — when once almost all
Israelis aspired to join the army — while more Arab youth are
recruited as suicide-murderers. An unforeseen paradox has been that
Israel must rely on the religious Jew in the army, but the religious
soldiers are put into the position of being commanded to crush their
own religious Zionist communities at the behest of the Leftist
politicians. How long can Israel function while violating the deepest
patriotic values of the majority of its citizenry?
THE NEW ISRAEL FUND AND THE NEXT WAR
Caroline Glick points out that Israel is being hemmed in by
different groups of Muslim terrorists, which suggests that a regional
war is imminent. To prepare for it, Israel of course needs to examine
the potential military aspects. It also needs to neutralize the
political-social items that would prevent Israel from responding
effectively: the 5th column some Israeli arabs have shown
themselves to be; "the ideological dependence on the far left and its
central contention that it is Israel's presence in contested areas
rather than our enemies' commitment to Israel's destruction that
causes wars"; and the support given by a single source — the New
Israel Fund — to all of the 16 anti-Zionist NGOs which wrote the war
crimes charges made official by the Goldstone Committee in its attempt
to prevent the IDF from fighting effectively in future engagements.
NIF's motto might as well be: 'we'll do anything to undermine Israel:
we support riots, terrorize Israeli officials, and amplify the voices
of radicalized Islam.' Israel needs to make it clear that "the
political open season on Israel is over." Israel must never again sue
for peace after winning the war.
Why the Palestinian people was invented and the corruption of their handlers.
SOVIET RUSSIA, THE CREATORS OF THE PLO AND THE PALESTINIAN PEOPLE
If Yasser Arafat was the father of the Palestinian People,
Russia was its mother. Wallace Edward Brand writes about the role
Soviet Russia played in literally creating the Palestinian People in
1964 and in establishing Yassir Arafat as its leader. He bases much
of this on the revelations of Major General Ion Mihai Pacepa, who has been
vetted and certified as a credible source. Creating the
"Palestinian" people as a propaganda weapon to counter Israel's
ownership of Mandated Palestine has also been confirmed by many Arab
sources (cf. here.)
HISTORY LESSON FOR ARAB SPOKESMEN
This essay by Assaf Wohl is written as replies to assertions by
prominent Arabs who insist the Land of Israel belongs to them, past,
present and future. That they say so would ordinarily be their own
business — and error — but unfortunately, their words have incited
Arabs to riot. Would that Assaf Wohl's essay motivates them to
substitute Israel's real history for their fantasy version. As he
has pointed out, "in every Arab village where you dig a little, you
will find a synagogue."
THE TWO FACES AND ZERO AUTHORITY OF MAHMOUD ABBAS
Mahmoud Abbas is quite a guy. He has two faces — the smiley one
he turns toward Westerners when he asserts that he abjures violence
and the dedicated look of the good Muslim when he honors Arabs
terrorists. Two faces and no elected position — his term of
office as President expired January 9, 2009. So they just extended it
— with new elections sometime in 2010. Maybe. And yet, the
American administration spends more effort worrying about how to get
Israel to gift him with Samaria and Judea than it does worrying about
the Iran-Syria-Hezbollah-Hamas alliance. I'm guessing the USA
administration figures it would complicate things if Hamas wins in
Samaria and Judea in a new election before the U.S.A. can
"peace-process" Israel into giving its land away.
PALESTINIAN AUTHORITY: STILL STEALING "HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS." HAMAS TAKING OVER
Abbas may not be as colorful a murderer as Arafat, but his heart is in
the right place: he too believes in the Arab version of the work
ethic: take home whatever you can steal. The longer he stays in
office, the more likely it is that he and his buddies will live like
Arafat's widow does. Arafat died in 2004, but widowlady Sufa
still keeps dress boutiques and fancy food stores in business, all by
her little self. Wot a benefactress. Of course, Hamas also takes big chunks
of the money coming in to welfare the po' Palestinians in Gaza. No
difference.
WHEN IN ROME, DO AS THE VISIGOTHS DO
In writing this article about the U.N. Mark Steyn is as usually witty,
incisive and right on the mark. It is a bit depressing to ponder that this description
of the U.N.'s corruption is five years old. And it is still accurate.
HOW TO SOLVE THE ARAB REFUGEE PROBLEM
Yoav Sorek presents a brief synopsis of the Israeli Initiative for
solving the Palestinian refugee problem. He argues that "the
Palestinian refugee issue [is] the key to real change in the Middle
East. Contrary to popular understanding, this issue could be solved in
a relatively simple way: treating the Palestinian refugees like all
other refugees. A fair humanitarian solution to this problem is of
interest to all who seek stability and peace — Israel, the US,
moderate Arab regimes, and of course, the Palestinian refugees
themselves. The main obstacle for rehabilitation of the Palestinian
refugees has always been the Palestinian National Movement, which
takes advantage of the refugee issue, and the United Nations Relief
and Works Agency (UNRWA), the body responsible for the perpetuation of
the refugee situation over six decades. The fact that UNRWA is
financed by western countries with the US as its largest sole donor,
gives us an opportunity to make a change." Something needs to be done
soon. After the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, the U.N estimated the number of
Arab refugees at 472,000, of which 360,000 needed help. The number has
grown so that UNRWA, whose only clients are these Arab
refugees, feeds, houses, educates, provides health care and
propagandizes for more than 4.5 million people who claim to be the
original refugees and/or their descendants. And the number continues
to grow.
THE PALESTINIAN ARAB'S RIGHT OF RETURN — TO THEIR HOMELAND, ARABIA
Mark Delmar supplies references for facts that have been submerged by
the fraudulent claim of the "Palestinians" that they are the original
occupants of the Land of Israel and that the Jews invaded their land
and are occupying it. There never was a country or state called
Palestine. It is a fantasy that owes little to history and geography.
Quite the reverse is true. When the Jews returned in numbers to their
ancient land of Israel at the end of the 19th Century, the land was a
poverty-striken, unfertile, unsanitary part of the Ottoman Empire. The
Jews revitalized the land and the Arabs came in because of the renewed
economic opportunities. The truth has often been told. It is time it
was accepted.
The Obama administration, whether through design or ignorance, appears
to be operating consistently to aid the growth of Islam in America and
abroad. In this country, terrorist acts that can't be attributed to
al-Qaeda are seen as random and individual. Islam continues to
infiltrate our educational and political systems. A growing network
of mosques manufactures the manpower to promote sharia law by terror
and by persuasion — whichever works in the particular situation.
The Jewish community has unwillingly become a major target for Islamic
activism.
Many have forgotten that not that long ago American Jews were
subjected to restrictions and quotas, some crude, others more
low-keyed, but all hurtful and damaging. Too many American Jews are
too young to realize how important Israel is for them personally, if
only as an escape hatch, should the rising anti-semitism —
compliments of Arab money and influence working with Marxists and
religious anti-semites — reach the heights it has in Britain and
France. Unlike the old prejudice that seldom spoke loudly —
except for the neo-nazis and Father Coughlins — the new
anti-semitism announces itself openly.
On campuses, while Jewish students march and chant for peace and
ecumenism, arab students hang posters showing Jews dripping blood as
they eat arab babies. They boldly disrupt meetings they don't like.
College administrators may prefer that these vulgar demonstrations
didn't happen, but too often they do exactly nothing to stop them,
It is easy for Jews to take quiet pride in Israel's accomplishments
in medicine, in computers, in technology. But most Jews are not
equipped to handle bad press in the media and condemnations from their
fellow students and coworkers. The political manipulations in the U.N.
are way beyond them.
Jewish hasbara is poor. The U.N.-staged Goldstone report and
malicious blood-libel stories in the media have been countered
intelligently and decidedly by thoughtful and analytic articles. But
the defamation of Israel is not a topic the majority of Jews are
passionate about. It isn't something they bring up with coworkers at
lunch. The typical reaction to accusations against Israel is
embarrassment; Jews too often blame Israel for causing them distress.
They are light years away from even thinking of refuting the libel
effectively.
Things are not getting any better. Thanks to Saudi money and an
organized network of hate-spewing mosques, Arabs have cornered the
market on profiling the players in the Middle East: Islam is peaceful,
Israel is evil. Somali muslims have killed hundreds of thousands of
blacks who are their co-religionists in Darfur; Sunnis kill Shi'ites
and Shi'ites kill Sunnis; Iran crushes its election protesters; Fatah
shoots Hamas and Hamas throws Fatah off roof tops; Rwanda, Bosnia, Sri
Lanka have seen indiscriminate massacres. But the only 'crime' that
excites the media and the leftist humanitarian peacenikers is Israel's
tempered attempt to stop Arab terrorists from aiming missiles at
Israel.
Calls for academic boycotts of Israel began in 2002 and continue.
Jewish academics do rebuff such calls. Sadly, their response is often
a whine that there's lots of Israelis that care about human rights for
the arab. How pathetic. They haven't the guts to say that if the
punishment for inconveniencing Arabs at a checkpoint is an academic
boycott, the punishment for the same group of arabs killing Jews
should be death or, at the very least, a complete quarantine.
Why are defenders of Israel apologizing? Geert Wilders (see above)
has pointed out that "the war against Israel is not a war against
Israel. It is a war against the West. It is jihad. Israel is simply
receiving the blows that are meant for all of us." Why aren't we
educating European academics that it is daft to undermine Israel when
it is one of the few places not willing to commit suicide so that
Islam can take over the world? A cheery note. American Jews are beginning to ask: why aren't our
leaders out there in the front lines yelling at the Arab
propagandists? Why is Bnai Brith helping Muslims condemn Israel? Why
is JNF letting the Arabs take over Jewish land? Why is AIPAC promoting
an Arab state in Samaria and Judea (aka the West Bank), Judaism's
birthplace? Why are they so eager to give the Arabs the Biblical land
of Israel, with its many towns whose names are obviously from Biblical
times, including Seilun (Shiloh), where Joshua brought the Ark of the
Covenant, and Hebron, where Abraham and Sarah are buried and David was
crowned King? Most of the articles in this set examine our weak leadership and
ineffective hasbara. Even when Israel behaves magnificently, moving an
entire area — aid after a natural disaster — to a new and
higher standard of care, we can still expect people will decide Israel
is doing it for ugly motives. On the other hand, there's nothing
easier to sell than a story that Israel is doing something nefarious
— like cutting up Arabs for their bullet-shattered organs. With
the help of a cooperative media and a compliant educational system,
the Muslims are making great strides in getting their bizarre version
of reality out to the public. They are using our openness and respect
for other people's points of view to convince us to take on their
medieval ideas. Like it or not, Jews in America and Jews in Israel are bonded. We
need to support each other without equivocation. Israel has had to
take the brunt of Islamic hate for America as well as for the insult
she inflicted on Arab sensibilities by staying alive when her Arab
neighbors tried to kill off the brand new modern state. Jews
in America have to learn to defend Israel as if it is for themselves.
For it is.
CIVILIZATION VERSUS BARBARISM
Nonie Darwish describes yet another way that Islamic attitudes and
values are infiltrating our educational system and affecting the
values of young students. They send around speakers to schools, who,
under the guise of explaining Islam, mispresent Islam, excusing its
violence and spouting misinformation. These tactics are also designed
to create an attitude of hate against Israel and America in the next
generation. As Yuval Zaliouf has said of this essay, "Here is a clear
example of the infestation of barbarism into our civilization." The
unfortunate fact is that so many in the "civilized" world,
particularly in academia and in the media, side with those barbarians.
See for example the uncivilized tactics at UC Irvine here.
WAHHABISM AND THE FIRST AMENDMENT
Michael W. Schwartz makes a novel distinction between American
religious institutions and foreign ones, specifically, Saudi-funded
and staffed mosques in America. The reason is that the political
aspects of what is taught in Wahhabi mosques have been implicated in
several massacres by American Muslim terrorists. As one reader of the
original article wrote: "The Constitution is not a suicide pact.
Citizens have not only rights but responsibilities ..." Another reader
noted that if Islam is a religion and not a political invasion, then
we should go by the principle of mutuality: "They get as many mosques
[here in America] as we get Churches/synagogues — Houses of
Worship [in Saudi Arabia.]."
HASBARA: TELLING THE ISRAEL STORY TO THE MANY WHO JUST DON'T KNOW
Avrum I. Ashery reminds us that there are many effective and creative
ways of letting people know about "Israel's exciting accomplishments in
health, science technology and agriculture." And Israel's fast and
brilliant response when disaster strikes. And its religious tolerance
despite the fact that it lives in a region of widespread religious
intolerance. Use the included list of some of Israel's accomplishments
to start you off.
IN THE IDF MEDICAL CORPS DELEGATION TO HAITI WHICH IS HOUSED IN TENTS....
Israel's immediate response to the earthquake in Haiti was dazzling;
it set a new standard for dealing with a disaster by integrating
high-tech and well-trained and dedicated professionals. As Emanuel
Winston put it: "Israel's contribution became the focal point for
other doctors from all over the world. Regrettably, the International
Media worked very hard to insure that Israel's contribution was either
not mentioned or only minimally, at best." And many internet crazies
were sure Israel was there to harvest organs. The article is
an IDF soldier's eyewitness account of the Israeli field hospital
personnel and the reaction of the Haitians whose lives were saved.
THE AFTONBLADET ORGAN-TRAFFICKING ACCUSATIONS AGAINST ISRAEL: A CASE STUDY
Not long before the totally unwarrented and monstrous attack on Israel
by the United Nation's Goldstone Report, Israel suffered another
undeserved kick in the ribs. A Swedish paper, the
Aftonbladet, skillfully mixed rumors, distortions, suggestions,
lies and irrelevent information to accuse Israel of harvesting organs
from dead Palestinians. Tossavainen does an excellent wrap-up of the
story and its aftermath. Or some of the aftermath. It takes but
a moment to realize that organs for transplant need meticulous
handling and the organs of a bullet-riddled terrorist are hardly
likely to be suitable. Nevertheless, such malicious and blatently dishonest
stories about Israel are readily believed by those happy to accept any
negative story about Jews.
ASSESSING FOXMAN OF THE ANTI-DEFAMATION LEAGUE (ADL)
Abe Foxman and the ADL are long-time institutions in the American
Jewish community. Politically, like Merlin in the King Arthur legend,
Foxman seems to be traveling backward in time. Half a century out of
date, he thinks his enemies are right winger who love Israel like Rush
Limbaugh and Christian evangelicals. He rants against right wing
Nazis, whose impact is somewhere around minus zero but he pursues
ecumenical ties with the Muslims, who spend time, money and human
resources in promoting antisemitism in America. Foxman continues to
use his position to side with the political Left, apparently believing
the Left is still philo-semitic and the Right anti-semitic.
What is most disturbing is that Foxman doesn't seem to recognize the
extent that Arab targetting of Jews has influenced American campuses
and churches. In this essay, Susan L. Rosenbluth examines Foxman's
record, particularly his protection of those, like Bishop Tutu, who
defame Israel. It's not clear we can any longer afford an ADL that
defames our friends and ignores the danger posed by Arabs suffering
from Judeophobia.
PERHAPS WE NEED A REPLACEMENT FOR ADL
The ADL is an outstanding example of an important Jewish organization
that is inadequately responding "to the threats posed by Islamist
antisemitism." Unfortunately, it isn't the only one that is passive in
the face of Muslim in-your-face hostility. Other major Jewish
organizations have not forthrightly warned their membership about the
extent of Muslim planning and infiltration into America's educational,
religious and political institutions. These groups certainly know that the Muslims have geared
up to isolate Jews and demonize them in the U.S.A, Canada and several
South American states. Charles Jacobs may have figured out the main
reason why they haven't — they just don't know how to explain it to
the Jewish community. I have news for them. All they have to do is
say it. Plainly. In plain English. The facts. The unvarnished facts.
The worst that can happen is some ostriches will resign from the
groups. But that's better than being accused later of knowing what was
going on and pretending that things would get better.
To put it another way, NOT to
shout in a theatre when there's a fire is criminal.
ISRAEL IN YOUR HANDS — U.S. VOTERS HAVE A SAY ON WHAT HAPPENS IN THE HOLY LAND
As Lou Marano writes, "Contrary to the received wisdom and official
U.S. policy, a Palestinian state is not necessary, desirable or
inevitable." For those committed to a Jewish State in the otherwise
monopolistic Muslim Middle East, he argues it is time for proactive
support. Why? Because there is evidence that the military means used
to impose the current Washington-requested 10-month freeze on new
Jewish construction in Samaria and Judea may portend an expulsion of
these same Israeli Jews from their homes and businesses. A government
that hasn't yet resettled the 8000 to 10,000 Jews it hounded out of
their homes in Gaza in 2005 may be about to repeat this act of terror
against another 200,000 to 300,000 of its citizens. If eastern
Jerusalem is included, the number would go up to 500-600,000 Jews made
refugees by their own government in their own country.
The articles range from
the First Liberation — the Great
Liberation of the land destined to be our homeland — to
the Crusades and
to the more recent
massacre of Deir Yassin, which — like so many Arab tales —
turned out to be a hoax.
THE GREAT LIBERATION
Victor Sharpe says of his article, "At this time when the
international community, including the Obama Administration and the
State Department, is applying unbearable pressure upon the Jewish
state to give away its Biblical and ancestral heartland of Judea and
Samaria to the Arabs, who call themselves Palestinians, it is vital to
return to the biblical passages in the Book of Joshua. Joshua was the
great military leader of the Jewish people. It was he who first freed
the Promised Land in what I call the Great Liberation. The
article/essay is replete with biblical passages that list the
liberated territories on both banks of the River Jordan and which we
ignore today at our peril." How foolish it would be to give away
our patrimony for a bowl of promises that the Arabs have no
intention of honoring.
THE CRUSADES: WHEN CHRISTENDOM PUSHED BACK
Selwyn Duke asks: "Were the Crusades really expansionist ventures by
an imperialist Europe? Or were they something else entirely?" He
reminds us that by 732 A.D, when Islam was little more than 100 years
old, Muslims had already taken over many of the Christian countries of
the Middle East and North Africa, Iberia (Spain and Portugal) and were
nearing Paris before they were stopped. But Islam didn't stop trying to
take over Europe. The Crusades, begun some four centuries later, were
attempts by Christianity to take back territory once theirs and to
stop further encroachment. Duke suggests we need to understand the
Crusaders in the context of their time. Muslims were relentlessly
invading and occupying large swatches of Europe, The Crusaders fought
back — perhaps not brilliantly and with dark episodes. But they
fought for the survival of their lands and religion.
THE BIG LIE ABOUT DEIR YASSIN REVEALED
History sometimes has a way of repeating the same elements of the same
story over and over again. In Jenin and again in Gaza last year,
Israel put its own soldiers at risk to prevent the killing of Arab
women and children, whose own families callously put them at risk to
shield the terrorists that Israel was targetting. The same thing
happened when the new state of Israel was just born and immediately
invaded. Deir Yassin was not a peaceful village; it was fortified and
well-equipped with a large supply of arms being used by a large number
of native and foreign fighters, shooting down into Jewish areas.
Strategically placed high up in the hills, it was blocking the road to
Jerusalem. Rather than a surprise attack — which would have saved
Jewish lives — the Jews, using a loudspeaker, offered the town the
opportunity to send away the women and children before they attacked.
What the Jews got for their scrupulous behavior was the Deir Yassin
myth, which asserted the Jews had raped the women and massacred the
town. And this was years before Judge Goldstone with solemn face
falsely certified that Jews committed war crimes in Gaza.
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.
A Blog-Ed page has a quick list of the articles from which you can
access any of the articles immediately.
To go to the list, click the
"Blog-Eds List" box in the Blue Strip on the top of the Blog-Ed page.
January 2010 BLOG-EDS
READ MORE
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NOVEMBER-DECEMBER, 2009
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SUMMARY OF ISRAEL'S LEGAL RIGHTS TO JUDEA AND SAMARIA
Ted Belman summarizes the unbroken series of treaties and resolutions,
laid out by the San Remo Resolution, the League of Nations and the
United Nations, that give the Jewish People title to Mandatory
Palestine and the city of Jerusalem. Ownership of the Land went from
the defunct Ottoman Empire to the present State of Israel. The Arabs
were never involved. The "Palestinians" had never owned the land;
they had never had a state on the land. Considering that during the
same period and by the same mechanisms, the Arabs acquired title to
over 99% of the Middle East, the Arabs can hardly be considered to be
deprived of land.
UN SECURITY COUNCIL RESOLUTIONS 181 AND 242
Eli Hertz presents the pertinent information about two U.N.
Resolutions — 181 and 242 — that are often used inaccurately
to 'prove' that Israel needs to give up yet more of its tiny country
to the Arabs. Resolution 187 was adopted by the General Assembly in
1947 and would have partitioned mandated Palestine into a Jewish state
and an Arab state. It was never adopted by the Security Council, so it
was never a binding resolution. In any event, the Arabs rejected it.
It became null and void when the Arab states invaded the new-born
state of Israel in 1948. U.N. Resolution 242 was adopted after the
6-day war by the Security Council. It said that Israel was to return
some of the land it conquered when the Arab states formally
agreed to allow Israel to live in peace with secure and recognized
borders. It did not mention Palestinian arabs.
BARGHOUTI, AMNESTY AND TRAVESTY
Palestinian Arabs should have a contest on who can invent the most
awful thing to blame on Israel, especially when they have highly
partial NGOs like Amnesty International to help them. Water is so
basic, everyone can sympathize with the po' Palestinians being
deprived of water by the evil Israel. Unfortunately, the figures don't
support their claim. Their problems — as usual — are self-inflicted:
their leaders are not the most ept in maintaining distribution and
they have allowed "untreated effluents to endanger 'downstream'
Israeli supplies." Martin Sherman is discussing the Mountain Aquifer
in Samaria and Judea (the West Bank). Imagine the disaster if they
plonk an Arab state there — the aquifer would go the way of the
Coastal Aquifer that the Gaza arabs have ruined.
THE AL-KUWAITY BROTHERS ARE BACK!
Lyn Julius tells the story of the al-Kuwaity brothers, Saleh and
Daoud, who became famous in the Arab world as composers and
performers. They were born in Kuwait of Iraqi Jewish parents a century
ago. When Iraq and the other Arab countries began terrorizing their
Jewish communities, the brothers fled to Israel along with most of the
other Iraqi Jews. As is usual in totalitarian countries, they became
unpersons in the Arab countries that had acclaimed their compositions.
Their music was still played, but "attributed to Muslim musicians or
labeled 'of folk origin'". Julius writes, "The Arab world needs to
acknowledge its debt and to accept that uprooting their Jews exacted a
heavy price. The day that a street in Baghdad is named after the
al-Kuwaity brothers would be a day for celebration, indeed."
NIGHTMARE ON CHELM STREET. CATS ALL, FOLKS. BUILD OR FREEZE. 3 DUFFLE BAGS.
This issue, we learn from Moshe Saperstein the reality on the ground
while little-boy politicians play Real Politiks with people's
lives. And Rachel Saperstein gives us the grown-up version of the
story for children about the little red hen that grew the wheat and
eventually baked the bread. Her neighbors came around when the bread
was baked, not before. In the grown-up version, some of the Jews
expelled from Gush Katif, Gaza, shook off despair and set down a new
community in Lachish. The bureaucrats that have mucked up their
resettlement of the Gaza Jews came to the opening ceremonies to take
the credit.
HANUKAH AND A HOME
Over the years, we've posted letters from Anita Tucker, starting from
when she was a farmer in Gaza. Like the Sapersteins (see above), she
and her family were expelled from Gush Katif, Gaza, in August 2005, by a government
that put a lot of effort in destroying the lives of some of their best
citizens and then all but abandonned them. Like the Sapersteins, she
found the courage to build again, a community they will call Netzer
Hazani, named after the community destroyed in Gaza, She writes how
the Obama-inspired 'building freeze' is affecting the community.
'A LIFE'S WORK' DESTROYED IN SAMARIA
Standard English Slander for Jewish villages and towns in the territories and parts of Jerusalem: an outpost is a few trailers, usually on a hilltop and preventing Arab settlers seizing the land illegally; a settlement is any Jewish village, town or city smaller than Tel-Aviv. Just a few months
'ANTI-FREEZE' ACTION PLAN RELEASED
The settlers have a deserved reputation of taking a lot of insult and
physical abuse from the Israeli authorities, with minimal response.
The police, judiciary and government have been blatently supportive of
Arab settlers and hostile to Jewish settlers. Some of the settlers
experienced being expelled from their homes in Gush Katif in 2005 only
to find their Government had made a pointless gesture that had no
impact on the world except that it demanded further concessions. They
understand that a settlement freeze is likely to become permanent and
be the start of yet another expulsion. This time they know from
experience the government will act against patriotic Jews instead of
the Arabs that want to destroy Israel. As Hillel Fendel shows us, the
Jews are planning with more perspicacity.
Israel's politicians are generally not outstanding, but its technical
and scientific people are world-class. And they put their innovative
skills to practical use. It is a sad irony that while Israel in the
last few years has proven the wisdom of rejecting its socialist past
and going to market capitalism, America appears to be going in the
opposite direction — it is starting to adopt a socialist leveling
philosophy, to our economy's detriment.
ISRAEL'S LIVELY START-UP CULTURE KEEPS ECONOMY THRIVING
"Israel has more companies on the tech-oriented NASDAQ than any
country outside the United States — more than all of Europe, Japan,
Korea, India, and China combined." Dan Senor and Saul Singer suggest
that the U.S. could learn lessons from Israel's vital economy and high
concentration of innovation and entrepreneurship. They attribute
Israel's success in part to the experience young people gain in the
army taking responsibility and making vital decisions on the basis of
incomplete information and inadequate resources. Other factors are
important. Israel is open to new immigrants — dynamic capitalists
from America, engineers and scientists from Russia — and has sensible
banking practices. And it was a major boost when they abandoned their
socialist-based financial structure.
SILICON ISRAEL: HOW MARKET CAPITALISM SAVED THE JEWISH STATE
Israel blossomed as a powerhouse of
technological developments when it rejected its early socialist
economic philosophy and adopted market capitalism. George Gilder
points out that in a very short time, Israel has "become a center of
innovation, second in absolute achievement only to the United States,
and on a per-capita basis dwarfing the contributions of all other
nations, America included." It is a world leader "in launching new
companies and technologies." Some of Israel's technology achievements
have millitary application, which "makes Israel one of America's most
important economic allies."
TO BRING ISRAELI POLITICS UP TO THE QUALITY OF ITS TECHNOLOGY
Israel must take control of the land that is its by Bible, by history,
by international law and by conquest. And she can't possibly allow the
Arabs to control Israel's water supply. Without a strong stance, she is
always kept off balance, defending herself from blood libels by the
media and the U.N. For example, she was accused of war crimes in Gaza
when she killed some 1200 — the majority of whom were terrorists and
their human shields. In Yemen, they haven't counted the many thousands
that have been killed and/or displaced in the Saudi-Iran proxy war, and the U.N. says
nothing. This section looks at what Israel needs to do to inprove its political position
-- from casting off its 'court Jew' persona to taking control of
land that it owns legally, morally, and by right of conquest.
WHITHER ISRAEL?
Stephen Schechter speaks bluntly of the unremitting hatred of the
Arabs to Israel — a hatred that makes them insist, ignoring both
history and law, that Jews have no connection with the land; a hatred
they satisfy "by Jew hatred, terror, violence and blood lust." Jews,
in contrast, continue to believe (oh so unrealistically) that there
has to be a peaceful solution, even though every Israeli concession —
including stripping itself of bits of its tiny land — inspires the
Arab world to greater monstrosity. Shechter, ever the realist, argues
that the Jews need to forsake the Court Jew mentality, defeat
the Palestinians "militarily, a goal perfectly within Israel's
capability" and reassert "sovereignty over the land promised to the
Jews by God and the Balfour Declaration." From his lips to Israel's
ears.
GEORGE ORWELL IS ALIVE AND WELL IN ISRAEL
In Orwellian Newspeak, doublethink is the ability to believe
wholeheartedly and simultaneously in two contradictory statements or
in a conclusion that flies in the face of the plain known facts. Tsvi
November describes Israel's own version of Newspeak: the media and the
leadership praise appeasement and abasement as furthering peace, when
experience continues to demonstrate that catering to the Arabs make
them ever more violent and demanding. Israel grows more prosperous and
self-sufficient while the social, economic, political and demographic
problems in the Arab countries worsen, yet the appeasers insist time
is working against Israel. Some Israelis believe there will be real
peace if only the "Palestinians" sign an agreement even though when
they themselves shop in a souk, they don't believe anything the Arab
owner says without verifying it for themselves. In Newspeak, "disputed
territories" meant land not held permanently by one of the
Superstates; "disputed territories" is how Israel's diplomats describe
land they own by international law but are afraid to say so. It's time
the media stopped feeding the public "the peace in our time' fantasy"
and let common sense come to the fore.
ISRAEL'S LEADERSHIP IS IGNORANT OF LAW
It is Paul Lademain's contention that Israel's leaders — he doesn't
think highly of them — are not dealing correctly with the Arabs
encroaching on Jewish land. Israel makes stupid gestures of goodwill
"bargaining away its right to assert control over lands in its
possession," whereas the Arabs understand — as Israel's leadership
apparently does not — that, practically speaking, possession is
90% of the law. "Nations who agree to relinquish their land or
their power in exchange for air-kisses are correctly perceived as
'losers.'" He recommends that "[t]o perfect control over YOUR land you
must first resolve that the land is YOURS--and shall always be
yours--and to do so without any qualms and with absolutely no guilt."
Sensible advice.
ARABS TO ISRAEL: JUDEN RAUS
Victor Sharpe points out that Israel jeopardizes its future by not
asserting its rights. Even if it were foolish enough to allow a
Palestinian State in Biblical Israel, the Palestinians would still
attempt to grab more land. The Arabs would yell for Israel to move to
the 1949 Armistice Lines as now they yell for Israel to withdraw to
the 1968 lines. And in whatever territory they take over, they allow
no Jews. So there is actually a very stark option. Either Israel take
control of its land or the Arabs will. Sharing is not in the cards.
IT'S ANNEXATION TIME
Since Oslo — or perhaps since 1968 when Israel regained Biblical
Israel — Israel has kept the future of the thriving Jewish
communities of Samaria and Judea ambiguous, hoping to use them as a
bargaining token, where many of them would be swapped for peace with
Israel's Arab neighbors. Over the years, Israel's ambition shrunk to a
hope for peace with the local Arabs, who had started to call
themselves "Palestinians"; and now even the putative head of some of
these arabs mocks them. It has been a foolish policy that has
destroyed the lives of some of her best citizens and gained Israel
nothing except condemnation, whatever it does or doesn't do. Michael
Freund suggests a different course, one based on Israel's legal
ownership of the land, when he writes, "For far too long, Israel has
been overly vulnerable to Palestinian machinations and games by
leaving the status of the settlements unresolved. Now is the time to
send a clear message to our foes, and there is no better place to
start than with our own unilateral measures, chief among them the
annexation of all the Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria." An
Addendum from The Israeli Initiative suggests a somewhat
different way to regain what belongs to Israel. A good start to
doing what Israel should have done in 1968.
UNILATERALISM IS OUR ONLY OPTION
Many arabs were settled into Biblical Israel — eastern Jerusalem,
Samaria and Judea — by Jordan after 1967 when she occupied the area
and many have come in legally and illegally since then. Ted Belman
reviews his way of regaining Biblical Israel and also variations
suggested by others. As does Michael Freund (see above), these plans
deal with the human rights of the Arab population in the Territories;
they were not granted political rights (voting) in Mandated
Palestine. The ultimate objective is to do what should have been done
in 1968 — take back control of Samaria and Judea, land that legally
belongs to the State of Israel in the name of the Jewish people.
WE NEED HEROES TODAY. LET US BE LIKE MACCABEES
The Maccabees had to fight both their Greek rulers and Hellenized
Jews, whose goal was for Israel to reject Judaism and be like everyone
else — assimilated into the Greek culture of their time. Bernard J.
Shapiro suggests that Israel can strengthen its "political and
strategic situation" by annexing land that is rightfully theirs "from
the Mediterranean to the Jordan, from the Golan to Gaza" and otherwise
focus on making Israel Jewish instead of favoring the Arab. He
advocates a "loyalty oath and national service for all citizens of
Israel, including Arabs" and letting the IDF stop terrorists, even when
they use their civilian population as shields.
These essays discuss the plight of the Christian minority living in
the Territories under Muslim Arab rule. The facts are not hidden, so
it is curious that so many theologians in the West and locally in
Biblical Israel ignore the violence that Palestinian Arabs display to
the Christians in Gaza and Samaria/Judea (West Bank) and blame Israel
for everything. The attitude of the local Christians is understandable
-- there isn't much distance between their throats and the knives the
Muslims hold close by. But why do Western clerics blame Israel?
CHURCH LEADERS REMAIN SILENT WHILE PALESTINIAN CHRISTIAN ARABS SUFFER AT THE HANDS OF MUSLIMS
Christian Arabs are molested, sexually harassed, raped, murdered,
terrorized, forceably converted to Islam, forced to pay extortion
money and have their cemeteries desecrated in areas controlled by
Muslim Arabs. Yet some of their church leaders "[a]gainst all evidence
claim that the Christians Arabs are living comfortable and prosperous
lives." Out of fear and intimidation by the Muslims in control,
Christians are leaving cities where they used to be in the majority
and Muslims are taking over. In 1990, Christians were 60% of
Bethleham's population; by 2001, they were down to 20%. Yet prominent
Christian clerics blame Israel for Christian flight. Alex Grobman
provides us with some accurate information.
MAINLINE AMERICAN CHRISTIAN "PEACEMAKERS" AGAINST ISRAEL
This is a well-documented and thorough study of five prestigious
Protestant churches that have taken a hard anti-Israel stance and are
unswervingly pro-Palestinian. They portray Israel as almost solely
responsible for Arab hostility and violence towards Israel and for not
trying hard enough to achieve a peaceful resolution of the
Arab-Israeli conflict. Actual facts — e.g., the Arabs speak proudly
of their genocidal acts against innocent civilians because they have
the seal of Islamic approval — are waved aside. The leaders of these
churches promulgate anti-Israel propaganda and engage in boycott and
divestment activity against Israel, with the hope they will "help
transform bipartisan American support for Israel into an artifact of
the hard Right." Resistance to this myopic view has been growing
within the Church membership, but there are still unanswered
questions: why the initial instinct of the Protestant leadership to
blame just Jewish Israel? What motivates a bishop such as Rev.
Margaret Payne to lie blatantly about easily-checked facts when
propagandizing for the Palestinian arabs? What makes a Christian Arab
like Naim Ateek whitewash the Muslims who are destroying his
community? What makes an ordained minister like Gary Burge distort the
plain meaning of the Torah to flay modern Zionism? What makes him
insist that Jews don't own Israel because they have rejected Jesus as
the Messiah? Is it that being anti-Israel is really a way to express Jew-hate, an attitude that is not exactly
politically correct?
There is a widely-held belief, a widely-held hallucinatory
belief, that yet another Palestinian state — in addition to Jordan
and Israel that are already states carved out of Mandatory Palestine
-- would bring peace to the Middle East. This ignores that the Middle
East is an unstable area where Sunni fights Shi'ite and Iran fights
Saudi Arabia and the latest splinter terror group fights the
previously most rabid terrorist group. These quarrels have little or
nothing to do with Israel; they have much to do with competing
versions of Islam and competition for which country will be top dog in
the Arab Middle East.
YEMEN SEIZES IRANIAN ARMS SHIP CARRYING WEAPONS FOR THE SHI'ITE REBELS IN THE COUNTRY'S NORTH
Iran and Saudi Arabia are fighting a proxy war in Yemen, with Saudi
Arabia aiding the Yemen government, Iran sending supplies and men to
the Houthi Shi'ite rebels fighting the Yemini army in the north. The
rebels are trying to bring down a government they say is too
pro-Western. Thousands have died on both sides and some 150,000 people
have been displaced. All this has taken place with little media
attention and no action by the U.N. except to help create a refugee
camp. This article by Dr. Reuven Erlich is about the capture of an
Iranian arms shipment on its way to Yemen. Iran has similarly shipped
weaponry by sea to Hezbollah to fight Israel.
Syria isn't strong enough to be a major power but it does well for
itself acting as a major node in the distribution of weaponry from
Iran to Hezbollah. Over the years, Hezbollah has conducted suicide
attacks against Israel as the active arm of Iran and Syria — states
that are not in a position to wage war openly. Hezbollah has its own
power base — it controls Lebanon. When Syria was forced out of the
Bekaa Valley, which is noted for its opium poppy fields and marijuana
production, Hezbollah took control. Michael Rubin points out that Iran
(operating from its embassy in Damascus) and Syria have bonded; they
work well together and have common goals and outlook. They have
unified the Shia in the region — in Iran, Syria, Lebanon, Iraq and
even Bahrain — and are a steady source of support for other regional
terrorist groups, including Hamas and Islamic Jihad. This network
would be united in a confrontation with Sunni Saudi Arabia. The U.S.
State Department continues to believe it can woo Syria from its
power-conferring relationship with Iran.
HEZBOLLAH'S DELUSIONS
Jonathan Spyer makes the point that Hezbollah's victories in Lebanon
are a miniature version of "larger regional developments." After its
election victory, Hezbollah is now pushing to force Shi'ite rule on
everyone. A similar push to a more orthodox Islam can be seen in
Turkey, Iran and Gaza. As part of this, of course, the United States
is demonized and Israel is targetted for destruction. "But at the core
of the strategic thinking of Hezbollah and its patrons lie a series of
delusions, which are likely to bring about the defeat of the movement
over time." Especially if the West starts to understand that this political
ideology can not be ignored or accomodated.
AS THE ISLAMIC CURTAIN DESCENDS
Mark Silverberg chronicles the gradual evolution of an Islamic
mini-state in Gaza under Hamas rule and Shari'a law. A dress code for
women is enforced "on the street, in schools and in the courts";
mixed-gender classes in schools are discouraged; gender separation in
public is encouraged; religious studies have been expanded; and more
mosques and madrasses and Shari'a courts are being constructed.
Nevertheless, Hamas has not satisfied some still more religiously
stringent groups, who now consider Hamas offices legitimate targets to
attack. On the other hand, other Gazans may find increased conformity
to Shari'a law too restrictive.
Chapter 2 of R.K. Ohri's book on the tenets of Islam sets the
stage for the other articles in this set on how muslims treat fellow
muslims and infidels, anybody and everybody, as prescribed by the
Muslim religion.
THE LONG MARCH OF ISLAM: CHAPTER 2
In the previous issue, R.K. Ohri discussed the "geo-political
implications of the long reach of radical Islam and the consequences
of their global designs for the civil society of 'tomorrow and the
day after.'" In the current essay, Ohri describes Islam's foundation
tenets: the 'Shahada', its declaration of faith; namaz
(prayers); zakat, (giving charity); roza (fasting, as
used in India); and Haj (pilgramage to Mecca). These are
unexceptionable in a religion. However, a Muslim's life is prescribed by
Sharia, "the collectivity of laws that govern the lives of Muslims";
sharia allows for no individual interpretation. In addition, there is
"'Ummah' ... a grand idea that binds Muslims all over the world into
a common brotherhood or one single fraternity." In practice it means
that allegiance to Islam comes before loyalty to country — as we saw
recently when Major Hasan massacred his fellow soldiers at Fort Hood.
If there is a fight between foreign Muslims and the Muslim's country,
a Muslim has no choice but to fight for the foreigner. This is
continously preached from mosques around the world and confirmed by
Islamic scholars.
FITNA AND THE KAFIR
It is the crime of fitna if one says something publically that would
"cause controversy, testing, fragmentation, scandal, chaos, or
discord, disturbing social peace and order within the Muslim
community,.." The punishment is death, which any Muslim can administer
to the perpetrator, his family or his whole community. Kenneth Roberts
points out that violence against critics of Islam applies to everyone,
Muslim and infidel. Even "[t]o analyze Mohammed's ethical
inconsistencies is fitna." Official dogma of mainstream Sunni Islam,
who number almost a billion, it is an effective technique for
controlling public information sources and inducing self-censorship.
The Danish cartoon riots were to teach infidels not to disagree with
Mohammed in public. Even five years later, a Somali man was caught
breaking into the cartoonist's home, armed with a knife and hatchet.
It is easy nowadays to spot newspapers that snipe and sneer at Jewish
and Christian practices but are mealy-mouthed about Muslims; they are
practicing self-censorship to avoid trouble.
JIHAD, INC.
The FBI has arrested some 20 homegrown Muslims planning terrorist
attacks in just the last 6 months alone. They were radicalized in
mosques in America by imams preaching an ideology that demonizes "the
West as a subhuman civilization that must be destroyed if Islam is to
survive and triumph," starting with America. As Alex Alexiev explains,
"[P]eaceful coexistence between Islam and any other religion or
ideology is rejected." Their enemy is anyone, Muslim and non-Muslim,
that doesn't accept sharia law. They began building infrastructure
back in 1960s — a well-funded, active and growing network of student
and professional associations, publishing houses, schools, mosques and
charities. The Fort Hood massacre was dramatic, but their preferred
methods are those that arouse less antagonism: "taking over moderate
Muslim institutions, radicalizing mainstream believers, indoctrinating
the young, aggressively proselytizing among the infidels, infiltrating
government institutions and the political establishment, and
organizing support for extremist causes and jihad overseas." The U.S.
Government needs to start connecting the dots.
WHY I MURDERED 13 AMERICAN SOLDIERS AT FORT HOOD: NIDAL HASSAN EXPLAINS IT ALL TO YOU
Before he massacred army personnel at Fort Hood, Major Hasan had given
a Power Point lecture explaining how the Koran framed his view of how
a Muslim in the U.S. Army should behave when forced into a situation
where he might have to kill brother Muslims in Afghanistan and Iran.
He concluded he couldn't fight in an infidel army — the army of his
own country, America — against other Muslims. Barry Rubin points out
that, having examined alternative ways of handling the situation,
Hasan "clearly did see himself as a Jihad warrior" with limited
options of what to do.
The number of the polite and respectable sources
of attack on Jews — the ones that mask their agenda — have increased
over the years; and they add new areas and inventive arguments all the
time. Moreover, they make possible the advent of American blogs that
openly spout anti-semitic hate and assert the truth of nonsensical
non-facts. The more openly hateful opinions are becoming more
prevalent on blogs and comments to blog articles. They are not as
virulent as Arab propaganda but they are closer than they were after
World War 2, when shock as the details of the Holocaust came out had a
temporary paralyzing effect on the customary anti-jew statements.
RULES OF ETIQUETTE FOR MODERN ANTI-SEMITISM
Bruce Kesler provides us with an superb summary of how much of
anti-semitic propaganda is spread in America using a variety of smoke
screens to mask the hate-the-Jews message. The number of attacks from
polite and respectable sources have increased over the
years. Modern anti-semitism "wraps up old canards in purposely cute
circumlocutions, to deceive and forward its deadly goal, the death of
the civilized West so that backwardness, tyranny and barbarities can
continue or prevail in greater safety from exposure, comparison or
challenge. "
ANTI-ISRAELISM AND ANTI-SEMITISM IN PROGRESSIVE U.S. BLOGS/NEWS
WEBSITES: INFLUENTIAL AND POORLY MONITORED
For years even after World War 2, hate was expected from the Right,
not from the liberals, the democrats, the "good guys." Since then, it
is the Left that has become the major home of anti-semitism and
anti-zionism. Adam Levick chronicles the temperment of some on the
"respectable" Left, where anti-semitism, pro-Palestinian, globalism
and share-the-wealth live comfortably together.
THE HATE INDUSTRY: THE PROTOCOLS OF THE ELDERS OF ZION IN A
RADIO BROADCAST FROM DAMASCUS
The Arab media maintains a steady stream of anti-Jewish T.V. and radio
shows. Unlike in the West, there is nothing to inhibit the Religion
of Peace from spouting hate.
HATE RADIO: THE LONG, TOXIC AFTERLIFE OF NAZI PROPAGANDA IN THE ARAB WORLD
In this essay, Jeffrey Herf deals with the contribution Nazi
anti-semitism made to the Muslim's religious obligation to be globally
superior to all other groups. He writes, "The founding charter of
Hamas, the militant Palestinian group, recapitulates conspiracy
theories about Jews that were popular in Europe in the 20th century.
Al Qaeda's war against 'the Zionist-Crusader Alliance' and the
anti-Zionist rants of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran also
display a blend of anti-Semitic themes rooted in Nazi and fascist, as
well as Islamist, traditions. To be sure, each of these movements and
ideologies have non-European, local, and regional causes and
inspirations. But the formulation of Nazi propaganda during World War
II and its dissemination stand as a decisive episode in the
development of radical Islamism." In a recent paper in Front Page Magazine entitled
"Auto-Genocide, Jewish Style,"
SHLOMO SAND AND THE ORIGIN OF JUDAISM
Shlomo Sand has written a book denying that present day Jews are
connected to the ancient Land of Israel; instead, they are descended
from relatively recent converts to Judaism. It is a popular book,
already translated into several languages. If nothing else, it is
a testament to how many people are delighted by the idea that Jews may
be neither authentic nor ancient. There is a lovely bit of
sleight-of-hand associated with written reviews — the emphasis
is on the outrage the orthodox Jewish community must be feeling
because the book destroys some of its "myths." This helps to
authenticate Sand's arguments; it frames the issue as a joust between
two points of view. In this essay, Yoram Shifftan and Bernice Lipkin
suggest that the problems with the book are intrinsic. It's not just
the what and where. It's the impossibility of the
how.
RICHARD FALK: A COLLABORATORS IN THE WAR AGAINST THE JEWS
Steven Plaut labels Richard Falk "America's leading practitioner of
the Orwellian inversion. "For Falk, "America is a fascist monstrosity, while
the world's fascist and totalitarian monstrosities are democratic
enclaves of freedom. For him, Israel is a terrorist aggressor, while
the Arab terrorist aggressors are innocent victims and peace-loving
progressives. For him, Israel is a Nazi-like country seeking genocide,
while the genocidal Islamofascists of the Hamas and their backers are
merely protesters against social inequality inside Israel. For him,
terrorist aggression against Jews is really the pursuit of peace,
while self-defense by Israel is criminal, terrorist aggression and
genocide." So it is not at all surprising that the U.N. appointed him
as "Special Rapporteur on human rights in the Palestinian territories."
INTRODUCING ALISON WEIR
Alison Weir is representative of the latest model journalists that
wave academic credentials to support their virulent chants of hate
against Israel. They make no bones about their desire to erase the
Jewish state and countenance any violence that will make this
possible. They are not at all uneasy that their claims have no factual
basis. They assert — ignoring factual history — that the land really
belongs to the Arabs calling themselves Palestinians, and the Jews are
occupying it illegally. No libel is too outré for them to
mouth. The latest lurid assertion by Weir and her fellow Jew-haters —
that Israelis harvest Palestinian organs for transplant — is just too
juicy to be squashed by the fact that conditions during a military
operation — or in any situation that impedes the complex procedure
for a successful transfer — make it impossible to salvage usable
organs.
HARVARD'S HAMAS DUMPLING: SARA ROY
Steven Plaut writes about Sara Roy, a foot soldier in the War Against
the Jews. In most ways, she is a very ordinary Jew-hating Jew. She is
an academic who claims expertise in areas where she has no
credentials. She is the child of Holocaust survivors who preaches
about the evils of the Jewish state. Billed as an intellectual, her
publications are heavy with anger but light on facts. She stands out
in the crowd of Jew-haters only in that she specializes in
whitewashing Hamas, painting them as seekers of peace and chock full
of concern for the Palestinian Arabs. She has argued that Fatah has
probably killed more Israells than Hamas. In that, she may be right.
What a difference a few million Muslims make! In 60 years, the
number of European Muslims went from some two hundred thousand to over
50
million
WHO'S SLEEPING MORE DEEPLY — EUROPE OR AMERICA?
In this benchmark article written a year ago, Bruce Bawer argues that
Europe is in a more parlous state than the USA, when it comes to
denying the inroads Islam has made into cracking up Western culture. A
year later, Europe has had two bits of good luck: the Swiss referendum
against minarets and the revelation that the CRU group in England so
manipulated its weather station data, it might as well have started
with random numbers — and in some cases, did. Meantimes, in America,
Prez Obama won't let these revelations prevent him from trying to make
a cap and trade deal in Copenhagen that will further improvish
America. Clearly, there are opposing trends — globalization versus
concern for the individual's freedom of action. Which will dominate?
SURVIVING THE COMING CRASH
In this essay Fjordman points out a reality most of the media ignore;
e.g., that "European Union (EU) has forced through the EU
Constitution/Lisbon Treaty and in essence ... [has] dissolved dozens
of nation states, while making "legal opposition to their rule"
impossible. Meantime, the staggering debt the USA has incurred has so
weakened the dollar that it is unlikely the USA will long keep its
leadership position. If the breakdown of western democracies was
planned and staged, Fjordman is inclined to blame groups advocating a
global oligarchy. Factor in that there are documented plans to include
Muslim North Africa and Middle East in the EU. Factor in that it is
de rigeur for teachers and the media to disparage or minimize
the contributions of white culture. Factor in that, as the Muslim
population in Europe expands, some European leaders seem comfortable
with the idea that the natives in white majority Western countries
will soon be a minority in their own countries. Fjordman is clear that
Europe's external problems will never be solved unless Marxists are
stopped from destroying the European structure and character of the
Western countries. As he puts it, "We must switch from a 'save the
world' to a 'save ourselves' mode."
NAZI EURABIA AND AMERICA'S FATE
Jim O'Neil writes a clear summary of some of the changes in Europe since Muslims started to arrive in sufficient numbers to make a difference. They didn't just soak up welfare funds and have babies. The Left promoting globalization and share-the-wealth and Islam promoting Islam have made common cause — at least for the while — which ensures that Muslim violence is mostly ignored. In France, Muslims initiated a marked increase in anti-Jewish crimes — beatings, harassment, vandalism — without government action. Only when a young Jew was kidnapped and slaughtered were the Muslim murderers put on trial. In England, Sharia law is now the law for Muslims and people are becoming used to having their values and feelings take second place while sensitivity to Muslim concerns is emphasized. Resistance against Muslim rule has started to grow in Switzerland and Denmark, and poll after poll indicates the people approve curtailing Islamic growth, even if their leaders don't. In America, Islamic activity has todate been mostly operating under the radar, and the administration tamps down calls for awareness and alertness between the periods of so-called lone wolf terror acts.
In America, perhaps because terrorist acts have been isolated and
minimized both by the press and the government, there is not the
understanding how the sustained work of the Islamists is slowly
changing America. Previous issues have dealt with Muslim infiltration
into mainline churches, law courts, the media, text book publishing
and education, with Marxist professors openly hostile to democracy.
This set of articles suggest that America needs to face the fact that
the Islamists are fighting us in many ways. Many of these attacks
create dry rot termite-style and do not confront us with a locust
swarm of devastation. We don't even seem to recognize friend from foe.
We don't comprehend how fear of terrorist retaliation has already
created self-censorship in the media. We ignore that Islamic preaching
of hatred of America may prefigure Mumbai-style attacks in the U.S.A.
And pro-Palestinian 'grass roots' groups continue to promote boycotts
of Israeli products — not, of course, the cell phone and computer and
medical equipment developed in Israel, but the stuff they personally
don't need. Given that the major Jewish organizations are ineffective
in seriously fighting the multi-front attack on Judaism and Jews, we
end with a story how one organization is fighting the boycott with a
buycott of Israeli goods.
THE IDIOT TWINS OF AMERICAN IDEALISM
Trust Spengler to come up with the perfect telegraph-length assessment of a morass of wrongheaded opinions. He notes that "[a] widely shared fantasy ... doesn't qualify as reality" and proceeds to demolish opinions that sound "realistic" but are based on facts that are not significant. Thus, a multitude of friends of Islam think Mearsheimer and Walt are realists because they want America to break its alliance with Israel, which has only 7 million population, when the Muslims number well over a billion. All that proves is that they can compare two numbers and pick out the larger one. Spengler highlights the significant information: given Israel's advanced technological skills, its "contribution might be decisive in a number of fields, for example avionics and especially drone technology." America needs that edge.
THE WAR FOR 21ST-CENTURY FREEDOM
"Islamists are fighting for control of the world." Their power
increases; their alliances multiply; Iran serves as their model —
"the world's first Islamist nuclear power." We are at war, Barbara
Lerner writes, "a long-dormant, 14-century-old religious war against
the Christian West," a war we must win, if we are to retain
our religious freedom, our fundamental freedoms, including "the right
to disbelieve." Yet here it is 8 years after 9/11. Neither Bush
and now Obama faced the fact that we are at war with resurgent
Islamists, a war we didn't chose and still try to deny. Iran has been
on the offensive since 1979, and our leadership still ignores its
attacks, believing we can work things out by negotiation and
friendliness. Fortunately, Lerner points out, we "have two great
trump cards: the fundamental honesty and good sense of the American
people, and the back-against-the wall courage of the Israeli people."
Given the right leadership, that might do.
WOULD IRAN PROVIDE A NUCLEAR WEAPON TO TERRORISTS?
Given the number of supposedly lone-wolf terrorists attacking army
bases, air planes, synagogues and Jewish community centers, there is
growing concern that an Iran with nuclear weapons might
decide to share these weapons with terror organizations. Steven
Emerson and Joel Himelfarb ask whether such a concern is reasonable.
We know there has been informal cooperation between al-Qaeda,
al-Jihad, Iran and Hezbollah, including supplying weapons and training
in explosives. Moreover, attacking the United States is a publically
stated ambition of these groups. We know al-Qaeda continues to seek
nuclear weapons, components and information in Europe and Pakistan.
There is evidence that Iran is "uncomfortable at the prospect of
terrorists acquiring such weapons" because our retaliation would
include Iran. But conditions might change. And meantime, while some
supplies from Iran have been seized, it is also likely that other
shipments have succeeded in making it to Middle East terror
organizations.
THE BOMB IS JUST THE BEGINNING
An amazing story that will make you understand the real scariness of
terrorism. As George Jonas writes, "The bomb is just the beginning."
The act of terrorism causes you to distort your thinking to keep
yourself from recognizing that you are terrified. You feel like a
coward for feeling that way. The real awfulness is that you then1
not fear. It makes understandable the behavior of newspapers like the
New York Times that worry about injuring the "sensitivity" of
Moslems — who show their anger violently — but will print nasties
about Christian and Jews — who politely complain.
BUYCOTT ISRAEL. DON'T LET THE BOYCOTT BITE
Roberta Dzubow suggests a way the ordinary citizen can fight the
Islamic campaign to lash out at Israel in as many ways as possible.
A major tactic is to boycott Israeli products in the grocery. Or to
attempt to destroy them. The Buy Israel Steering Committee has
organized to counter their efforts by buying Israeli products. The
basic strategy can be supplemented by having a camera handy and
making a movie to post on You Tube. Talk to the other shoppers
about the unfairness of the boycott campaign. Buy some of the
products and hand out samples to people walking by. Just start.
You'll figure out what to do next. Don't be shy.
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.
A Blog-Ed page has a quick list of the articles from which you can
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November 2009 BLOG-EDS
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Submitted by Bill Levinson
