THINK-ISRAEL
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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A billion seconds pass in 31 years. A billion minutes ago, the year was 1 A.D. A billion hours ago our ancestors were living in the Stone Age.

If you make one dollar every second, you will have a million dollars in twelve days. You will be a billionaire in 32 years. It will take you more than 31,000 years to make a trillion dollars. The politicians can spend that much in a Washington minute.

   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?

"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.)

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. (reference: Dr. Wilbert Simkovitz,
http://dehai.org/archives/dehai_news_archive/ apr04/0223.htmldehai.org/archives/ dehai_news_archive/apr04/0223.html)

"It has no heart. It has no spine. Its mouth serves as its anus. It has a diffuse net of nerves instead of a brain. Is it a jelly fish or an Israeli politician? Pick one. Whichever one you picked, you were right." (Eliezar Edwards, June 20, 2005)

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. (Independent Media Centre, Winnipeg)

"A Palestinian State? You want that? OK. BUT not in Israel. No way. Not now. Not ever. Put this Arab state in Dubai or Kuwait or Saudi Arabia or Libya or Syria. Make it big. Fill it with the Po' Arab "refugees". And with the Arabs of Gaza and Samaria and Judea (AKA West Bank). And treasonous Arabs who have Israeli citizenship. Build a big fence around it. Let them learn to develop the infrastructure of a state. Or let them destroy themselves, if that's what they prefer. If they ever become civilized, then it's time to consider letting them join the human race." (Eliezar Edwards, August, 2008) [For an early excellent solution, read Eli E. Hertz, "The U.S. Congress in 1922," here.]

"What is ironic is that Israel belongs exclusively to the Jews by International Law. (Google Think-Israel for articles by Howard Grief, Yoram Shifftan, Wallace Brand, for the legal basis of Israel's ownership of Israel and the Territories.) So why do the Arabs insist the land is theirs? Because the Jews have been so crazy for peace, they have been willing to share, to give up pieces of their tiny country, for a piece of paper. The Arabs created a phony people in 1964, called the "Palestinians" and blanketed the world with the mantra that they were the Palestinians and Palestine was theirs. There has not ever been a country or a state called Palestine. There have been Palestinians. During the time of the British Mandate — from 1922 to 1948 — the Jews called where they lived Palestine. They played music in the Palestine Philharmonic. They read the Palestine Post (now the Jerusalem Post.) As the Palestine Brigade, they fought in the British Army in World War 2. The Arabs also fought hard — for Hitler." (Eliezar Edwards, December, 2008.)

"... 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." (Noam Bedein, Jerusalem Post, January 6, 2009.)

"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." (Comment by Wallace Brand on Martin Peretz "Narrative Dissonance" The New Republic, July 1, 2009)

Within less than a century, between 7 million and 10 million Balkan refugees have been uprooted from their homes. After WW2, between 12-16 million Germans were forced out of Sudentenland (Czechoslovakia), Romania, Hungary and Poland into Germany; many of them had not supported the Nazis during the war. 14 million people were exchanged between Hindu India and Moslem Pakistan. In 1994, 540,000 Moslems fled Christian Armenia for Azerbaijan and 360,000 Armenian Christians fled Azerbaijan for Armenia. As Israel did with the Jewish refugees from Arab countries, Armenia absorbed the Christian refugees, while — just like the Arab refugees from Israel — the Moslem refugees languish in Azerbaijani refugee camps. From the late '80s on, 75,000 non-Moslem blacks from Mauritania were exiled to Senegal and Mali, while 75,000 Arabs fled to Mauritania. Ethnic conflicts in the Sudan continue — between Muslim Arabs and black animists in the South; and between Muslim Arabs and black Muslims in Darfur. 3 t0 4 million black farmers of Darfur have fled Arab-dominated Khartoum, where some 200,000 to 400,000 black Muslims have already been killed. Cyprus has been split between Christian Greeks and Moslem Turks; this included a population exchange, where 200,000 Greeks and 50,000 Turks were shifted. Even before Israel became a state and increasingly after that, more than 800,000 Jews were forced to flee the Arab countries, where many of them had lived way before the Arabs Conquest; most of them came to Israel. Starting even before the Arabs invaded Israel when it became a state in 1948, Arabs left to avoid the coming war. They fled in fear incited by their own press or were forced by their leaders to leave Israel. The Arabs claim 650,000-750,000 up to a million refugees, while the UN Acting Mediator in October, 1948 (unispal.un.org) set it at 472,000, of which 360,000 required aid (UNRWA is now supporting 4.5 million of their "descendants".) Of all the refugees, only these Arabs have demanded the right of return. (Data mostly taken from Ben-Dror Yemini, MidEast Truth Forum, January 15, 2009. See also the Addendum here.)

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)

"A 'Palestinian' state in the heartland of the Jewish state of any dimension will mark the end of the Jewish state. Even if they [Palestinian Arabs] were the most civilized and peaceful of the earth, were Israel to cede Judea and Samaria and any part or parts of Jerusalem to them, it would be the death knell for the Jewish state. If Israel has no right to exist in J&S and Jerusalem then it has no legitimacy in any part of the Middle East. A nation that discards its past and the very ethos of its national existence is doomed to fail and perish. The cradle of Jewish existence is in J&S and Jerusalem and sans those territories there is no survival of the Jewish state. Then there are the practical considerations. The flooding of millions of so called Arab "refugees" into those territories would exhaust the water supply and wreck untold environmental damage. This tiny sliver just can't sustain such load." (Yidvocate in Israpundit, aug 30, 2011)

"Being a Palestinian (that is, both my parents possessing a Palestinian ID issued by his majesty King George, the only king ever of the whole of Palestine as a geographic entity after king Herod) and my wife's parents possessing the same, I resent the innuendo that palestinians are Arabs. Arabs are Arabs, from the Atlantic to the Indian ocean whereas the only true Palestinians are Jewish!! So please, stop the confusion. Palestine is a name attached by a Roman Emperor to Judea, and rightfully expunged when the modern Judea was resurrected. Palestinians are Jews, whereas Arabs are expatriates from the Arab world, as much as certain Americans are ex-pats living in Jerusalem." (Yuval Brandstetter, November 14, 2011)

 

FEATURED STORIES

NOVEMBER-DECEMBER, 2011

 

What we are talking about in the November-December 2011 issue:

Interwoven Themes In This Issue (Editor)
Fabricating Peoplehood (Meir-Levi, Greenfield, Glick)
Dealing with Muslim Assaults (Auerbach, Fjordman, Lappen, Steele, Hamid, Fawstin, Eidelberg)
A Homeland For The Palestinian Arabs (Lerner, Sherman, Faybyshenko)
It's Puzzling (Bawer, Phillips, Greenfield, Rose, Sennels, Sherman, Newell)
How Churches Reacted To The Revival Of The Jewish State (Merkley, Shapira, Lowe, Merkley)
Academia (Narvey, Lipkin, Frantzman)
Media Matters (DasMaBebi, Bawer, Maistrovoy)
History Section (Mirza, Isaac, Meotti)
Readers' Blog-Ed Pages (November-December)

Interwoven Themes In This Issue

(1) Our leaders in America, Europe and Israel have been perpetuating a hoax. They bought shares in the instant creation of a people, the Palestinians, who of course owned an Ozian country called Palestine, currently occupied by the Jooz, allies of the Wicked Witch of the West. The leaders and politicos and media knew it was a lie but they had a stake in it. How much of a share can be gauged from the aftermath of Newt Gingrich stating the obvious. Fellow politicians admitted it left-handedly but were annoyed that saying it out loud could drive a stake into the heart of the moribund peace process. And damage control has been vicious, varied and imaginative. The pent-up urge to examine the lives and motivation of our leaders, suppressed during Prez Obama's reign, has been released and every minute in Newt's life is under examination. In this issue we focus on facts. We'll spend more time on the aftermath next time.

(2) Given the voiced intent to destroy Israel and the imminent danger of Muslims taking over host nations such as England, it is puzzling that people seem so unconcerned about their self-interest. Being unselfish and protective of the enemy when he is shooting at you isn't noble, it's nutty. We haven't figured it all out. Is it conditioned political correctness? Is it a deficiency of common sense? Is it cowardice moonlighting as nobility? Is it over reliance on authority figures (night time comedians and daytime big mouths)? Don't know. But maybe we've made a dent.

(3) We add to our store of articles on how Muslims are promoting Sharia law and attempting to take over Western institutions. In the 1950s being called a Communist was in the same class of insult as being accused today of being a racist. And far more damaging to one's career. Senator Joseph McCarthy terrorized governmental and private agencies, accusing them -- usually falsely -- of being or harboring communists. At best he overstated the numbers and the danger; at worst he destroyed the lives of many who were no danger to the USA. It was observed that in his eagerness to squelch communism in America, McCarthy probably did more damage to the country than the communists. At the Army-McCarthy hearings in 1954, the army's lawyer, Joseph Welch, focusing on McCarthy's scattershot reckless accusations, asked, "Have you no sense of decency"?

We ask the same of Islamic states such as Iran, Egypt and Saudi Arabia, Muslim groups such as the Muslim Brotherhood and ordinary Muslims who are diligently engaged in promoting anti-Semitism globally. Some of the Muslim clergy and many leaders of Muslim countries are quite open about killing Jews. Perhaps sensing that Judaism must be eliminated if Islam is to succeed in making America and the Western countries subservient to Islamic law, many, many others are willing to use any lie, any misrepresentation, any smokescreen. They declare themselves without bigotry, members of a peaceful religion. Yet they distribute scurrilous books about Judaism while denying the Holocaust happened and that the Jews built Temples on the Temple Mount. They take joy in co-opting ignorant Jewish college students into helping denounce Israel. We ask them and the Western churchmen and academics who aid and abet the Muslim attempt at conquest. "Is there no red line? Is there nothing you won't misrepresent or lie about? Have you no shame?"

FABRICATING PEOPLEHOOD

On December 9, 2011, Newt Gingrich did something very daring: he told the truth about the so-called Palestinian people. He said they were an invented people. The earnest idiots useful to the Pro-Palestinian cause may not have known that Palestinian people is a fabrication. The politicians and media people have likely known it all along. Their immediate response was not this is a shock. Let's look into this. but let's drown this information in silence or in scoffing or in bluster and get back to where we want to be: getting the Israelis to commit suicide by suing for peace.

The articles in this segment are on how the myth of a Palestinian people was started and why we should act on the knowledge that the region is Jewish, not Palestinian Arab. As Martin Sherman has said, "Gingrich is totally correct when he observes that '... there's a lot to think about in terms of how fundamentally you want to change the terms of debate in the region.' ... The Palestinians [are] an artificial construct, [so the] notion of a Palestinian state and the 'two-state solution' [is devoid] of any validity. ... Resolving the Palestinian issue requires a paradigm shift — from the political to the humanitarian; from the collective to the individual." Read Sherman's article here.

AN INVENTED PEOPLE
by David Meir-Levi

  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.
  READ MORE
 

A BADLY INVENTED PEOPLE
by Daniel Greenfield

  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.
  READ MORE
 

GINGRICH'S FRESH HOPE
by Caroline B. Glick

  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.
  READ MORE
 

DEALING WITH MUSLIM ASSAULTS

The West seems to live comfortably with contradictory notions about Islam. On the one hand, Islam is the religion of peace. On the other, we live in fear of arousing its anger and violence. It is as if we've been psychologically lobotomized. We hold very different perceptions of Islam in our minds, but the images don't seem to have a way to confront each other. Or perhaps it's just less scary to pretend Islam is gentle and civilized than to recognize Islam's shackling of the human spirit and its contempt for human life. Meantime, Muslims are attacking us, using propaganda, rewriting history, distorting our textbooks, pressuring our courts to use sharia law, attempting to criminalize any criticism of Islam, corrupting the U.N., infiltrating governmental agencies responsible for our security and murdering people here and everywhere else. This set of essays examines some of the confrontations Islam has initiated and suggests what Israel and the West must do to stop the assault on western civilization.

PALESTINIAN IDENTITY THEFT
by Jerold S. Auerbach

  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.
  READ MORE
 

DID ISLAM SAVE THE KNOWLEDGE OF THE CLASSICAL WORLD?
by Peder Jensen, a.k.a. Fjordman

  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.
  READ MORE
 

SILENCED: HOW APOSTASY AND BLASPHEMY LAWS ARE CHOKING FREEDOM WORLDWIDE
by Alyssa A. Lappen

  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.
  READ MORE
 

THE NARRATIVE OF PERPETUAL PALESTINIAN VICTIMHOOD
by Shelby Steele

  Shelby Steele discusses the Arab war against the Jews, in which the Arab aggressors have successfully persuaded themselves and others that they are "victims of colonialism, ... victims of white supremacy." What is so thought-provoking about this essay is that Steele homes in on the power of a "poetic truth", a fantasy powerful enough to counter factual reality. As he points out, "Poetic truths ... are marvelous because no facts and no reason can ever penetrate. Supporters of Israel are up against a poetic truth," one that is supported by the West, which "lacks the moral authority" to speak the truth. We must counter the Arab narrative and Steele indicates some procedures for restating the narrative.
  READ MORE
 

ARABS NEED A REVOLUTION IN THOUGHT, NOT POLITICS
by Tawfik Hamid

  Tawfik Hamid reminds us that democracy doesn't happen magically by throwing a paper ballot into a box. "Dreaming about democracy without first setting its foundations is similar to dreaming about having a fruit tree without even sowing the seed." In the Arab world starting to develop the infrastructure of a democracy would translate into respecting the rights of minorities and substituting productive activities for their customary self-destructive activities. A tall order.
  READ MORE
 

NON-MUSLIM MUSLIMS AND THE JIHAD AGAINST THE WEST
by Bosch Fawstin

  Bosch Fawstin was born a Muslim. He writes about the many Muslims that are indifferently religious. The non-Muslim Muslim isn't practicing a reformed version of Islam. He is not the moderate but genuinely religious Muslim that many Westerners assume exists. He's just not practicing his religion. But his ways can be imitated by the "stealth jihadists who have figured out how to say what we want to hear, while they scheme behind the scenes to further Islamize the West." The irony is that while Islam, being a religion, is assumed to be peaceful, in practice it is the jihadists who best express the values of Islam. In ten years of waging war, we haven't learned that to civilize Islam, we first will have to clobber its most dedicated practitioners. It doesn't help cultivate the right attitude toward our enemies that the American president says his role is to protect Islam. As Fawstin says, "This is war. We can't be on both sides."
  READ MORE
 

WINNING PEACE BY WINNING THE WAR
by Professor Paul Eidelberg

  How does Israel create a peaceful environment in a unstable, violent area? How does Israel win the war her neighbors have been waging against the Jews since before modern Israel's inception? Professor Paul Eidelberg had some sensible advice. First, the Israeli government must start with a realistic assessment of Muslim theology, which means understanding "there are no empirical grounds to expect Muslims to renounce Jihadism," unless they are totally defeated. Eidelberg suggests some practical actions to calm the Territories. To win the war requires an understanding that "the circumstances confronting Israel are extreme — its very existence is at stake. Therefore, where each of the possible lines of action involves difficulty, the strongest line is the best." Or, as Eidelberg puts it, "Kill for Peace."
  READ MORE
 

A HOMELAND FOR THE PALESTINIAN ARABS

For many years, the Arabs living in the Territories and those living in Arab countries as refugees were passed off as the original inhabitants of the Land of Israel, but it's become known that most of them came into what is now Israel and its Territories starting in the 20th Century. They are not a people and they don't desire to live peacefully as neighbors of Israel. But there are practical considerations -- including the expense of maintaining millions of professional refugees -- to settling them in their own space. The first essay in the set points out that giving them a state in or next to Israel will change their tactics but not their mania for destroying Israel. They need to be transferred out of the region. The other essays suggests some solutions. Over the years, we have published different solutions that make the statement that "EITHER there is a 2-state solution OR there is a 1-state solution" a nonsensical assertion. Several solutions, including Think-Israel's article on Palestina were published here. Some other recent innovative suggestions are here. Google for others posted over the years.

A POST PALESTINIAN STATE SIMULATION
by Aaron Lerner

  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.
  READ MORE
 

NOTE TO NEWT: RETHINKING PALESTINE
by Martin Sherman

  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.
  READ MORE
 

PALESTINE STATE IN SAUDI ARABIA
by Gennadiy Baruch Faybyshenko

  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.
  READ MORE
 

IT'S PUZZLING

1. How are communities of people manipulated to act against their own best interests?

2. And why do they go along with it?

In European cities, as soon as they have sufficient control, Muslims set up enclaves from which non-Muslims are excluded. Yet the Europeans, particularly in Britain and Norway, do not respond appropriately. Europeans have become submissive to their enemies, the Muslims, and actively hostile to their loyal Jewish citizens. They berate Israel and are strong partisans of the Palestine Arabs.

As another example: fearful of being labeled a bigot, many Jews help Muslims fight Islamophobia. But Muslims attack Jews everywhere, the more so when they have the power, so increasing Muslim control is hardly in the best interest of the Jews. Other essays suggests possible reasons for self-harming behavior.

NORWAY EMBRACES ISLAMIST TYRANNY
by Bruce Bawer

  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 it could be describing the prevailing conditions over much of Europe.
  READ MORE
 

BIGOTRY, REVISIONISM AND BARONESS WARSI
by Melanie Phillips

  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!
  READ MORE
 

WHO IS RESPONSIBLE FOR MUSLIM VIOLENCE?
by Daniel Greenfield

  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.
  READ MORE
 

TRAVERSING HISTORY -- A PRELUDE TO CONSIDERING THE ONLY ALTERNATIVE PEACE PLAN
by Alex Rose

  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.
  READ MORE
 

PSYCHOLOGICAL EXPLANATIONS OF POLITICAL CORRECTNESS
by Nicolai Sennels

  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.
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A STUDY IN SELF-CANNIBALIZATION
by Martin Sherman

  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.
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YOU SAY YOU WANT A REVOLUTION?
by Waller R. Newell

  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".
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HOW CHURCHES REACTED TO THE REVIVAL OF THE JEWISH STATE

Many church groups have come to understand emotionally, not just factually, that Jesus was born a Jew and died a Jew and that Christianity came out of Judaism, which is why their fundamental belief system is what it is. Their attitude is based in Scripture. These Christian Zionists are accused of being brainwashed by theories such as dispensationalism. They have had to fend off various other suspicions. They are suspected of helping Israel in order to bring about the Rapture; this is true in some cases. How many is unknown. Real numbers are hard to come by. Anecdotes abound. They are accused of having a not-so-hidden agenda to convert the Jews to Christianity in a more kindly fashion than in the Middle Ages. Again, this is true for some. But many -- quite possibly the majority - of the Christian Zionists are sincere and dedicated to Israel's welfare as a family matter.

In contrast, other churches despise the Jewish state and are dedicated to destroying it. Activist Presbyterians and Episcopalians temper their language but their actions tell all. Senior American Presbyterian Church officials meet openly with Hezbollah. They enthusiastically endorse BDS (boycotts, divestiture and sanctions against Israel). In contrast, the various Middle Eastern churches make no secret of their animosity. They have the most to lose as Muslims gain the power to destroy Christianity completely in the Middle East, yet they are the most vocal in castigating Israel for any and all crimes. This set of essays examines the views of these antagonistic churches.

CHRISTIAN ZIONISM 101
by Paul Charles Merkley

  Christian Zionists -- some of Israel's staunchest and most dedicated friends -- are under attack from mainline Protestant churches and academic clerics. Paul Merkley's new book, entitled Those That Bless You I Will Bless: Christian Zionism in Historical Perspective (Mantua Books, December 5, 2011) counters their specious arguments. As David Parsons of the International Christian Embassy in Jerusalem says, "In recapturing core biblical truths, ordinary Christians also reawakened to the enduring Jewish hope for restoration in the Land of Israel. Out of British 'Restorationism' emerged the modern-day Christian Zionism movement with the explicit purpose of lending vital support to a reconstituted Jewish state." To provide context and a contrast to the church groups under examination, we are reprinting Merkley's 2007 paper, Christian Zionism, 101. Its introduction read:

Anti-Zionists assert that Christian Zionism derives from "dispensationalism," an off-center Biblical interpretation popular in the eighteen hundreds. Paul Merkley's essay is an effective antidote to anti-Zionist pseudo-theology. His is a very readable, very factual account of what characterizes Despisers of Zion and Defamers of Christian Zionists. These "...chatterers make no effort to get straight the facts about Christian faith. Indeed, it is considered a proof of one's qualification to speak about the biggest issues of life that one should betray no first-hand knowledge of the content of faith..." Countering their propaganda, Professor Merkley cogently explains the actual basis of Christian Zionism: it doesn't come from Dispensationism; it comes from mainstream Protestant theology and the literature of biblical commentary.

See also Victor Sharpe's article on Christian Zionism here. and an excellent overview by Edward Brotsky here.
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MAJOR UK CHURCHES ADOPT CHRISTIAN AID'S ANTI-ISRAEL BDS AGENDA
by Chanah Shapira

  Christian Aid, a well-endowed agency of the World Council of Churches (WCC), was established to alleviate poverty in Israel and the Territories. In actual fact, it is highly-politicized and a strong no-holds-barred promoter of the same anti-Israel ideology as the WCC, using half-truths, omission of critical facts, distortions and lies ad lib as needed. It is politically important because it "determines the actual Middle East policy line" for the leadership of several major UK churches. Christian Aid (CA) provides far-left anti-Israel PR and funds far-left Pro-Palestinian political activist organizations such as the Sabeel Ecumenical Liberation Theology Center, which, like its patron, doesn't feel constrained to be truthful as it works to delegitimize Israel. In fact, as Dexter Van Zile wrote of Sabeel's founder, "In Ateek's writing Christian supersessionism merges with Islamic supersessionism in the Middle East to form a united front of contempt toward Jewish sovereignty." In this essay, Chanah Shapira systematically examines some of the churches in the UK whose attitude toward Israel reflect CA's strong anti-Israel bias: it's all Israel's fault. So say they all.
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"PALESTINIAN THEOLOGIAN" TRASHES "PALESTINIAN THEOLOGY"
by Malcolm Lowe

  Many of the "facts" that influence Western Protestant churches to support the Palestinian Arabs come from Christian Arab theologians. In dhimmi fashion they have promoted the Muslim Arab cause by asserting that the Jews are responsible for Christians fleeing the Middle East, without explaining why the Christian population is decreasing drastically in the Arab countries and increasing only in Israel. In this essay, Malcolm Lowe discusses the latest theological enterprise of Lutheran Pastor Mitri Raheb and Anglican Reverend Naim Ateek. Raheb asserts, despite all contrary evidence, that all of the Bible, including the Book of Persian Queen Esther, was written in Palestine and that Jesus wasn't Jewish but Palestinian. The Jews aren't native to Palestine but the hordes of Arabs that came into the region mostly after 1900 are descendents of an ancient people, and, mirabile dictu, it is the Palestinian Arab Christians who are God's Chosen People. Essentially, Raheb and Ateek are refining the theme that the Arabs are the owners of Israel and the Territories. They give the honor of being the original people of the land to the remaining Christian Arabs Palestinians. What will they think of next?
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AFTER SATURDAY COMES SUNDAY
by Paul C. Merkley

  Paul Merkley writes about the antisemitism of the non-Protestant churches which are by far the oldest and the largest churches in the Middle East: the Eastern Orthodox (Greek Orthodox, Church of Cyprus), the Oriental Orthodox (Armenian Apostolic, Coptic Orthodox and Syriac Orthodox) and the Catholic (Armenian Catholic, Chaldean Catholic, Coptic Catholic, Greek Melkite Catholic, Latin Patriarchate, Maronite Catholic and Syrian Catholic). While the Roman Catholic Church has repudiated demonizing the Jews and inventing blood libels, these Eastern churches remain theologically as much in the Middle Ages as the Muslim majority. Antisemitism is ingrained; contempt for the Jews is visceral. Unless the doer of an evil deed is immediately known and this knowledge can't be denied, the evil is attributed to the machinations of the Jews. The less likely that the Jews could possibly be involved, the more unshakably certain are they that it was somehow part of a Zionist conspiracy. As Merkley points out, this attitude persists at a time that "the Christian communities of the Arab world are being forced upon the path to extermination." And not by the Jews.
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ACADEMIA

Many a university campus has become a hostile environment for the Jewish students who have come for a liberal arts education. College administrators allow Muslim students to terrorize Jewish students and control who is allowed to speak on campus, while all the time proclaiming the need for freedom of speech for all. Organizations whose titles identify them as fighting prejudice against Jews have left Jewish students to fend for themselves. Leftist professors use their classrooms to inculcate students with their political ideology, not their specialized academic knowledge. Whatever happened to the notion that being at University was a time when one could indulge in intellectual pursuits in a serene environment?

U. OF CALIFORNIA NEGLIGENCE: IT DOESN'T PROTECT ITS JEWISH STUDENTS
Bill Narvey

  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.
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TIME FOR A RETREADED MEARSHEIMER TO RETIRE
Bernice Lipkin

  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.
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MISBEHAVING SCIENCES?
by Seth J. Frantzman

  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.
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MEDIA MATTERS

ARABESQUE LINGUISTICS AND POETRY FOR THE WESTERNER
by Dr. Yasser DasMaBebi

  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.
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VERACITY, MENDACITY — AND ISLAM
by Bruce Bawer

  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.
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THE SHIP OF FOOLS AND ADMIRAL HAYREDDIN BARBAROSSA
by Alex Maistrovoy

  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.
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HISTORY SECTION

WHY MUSLIMS HATE JEWS TO THE BONE
by Dr. Syed Kamran Mirza

  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.
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A MATTER OF HONOR
by David Isaac

  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.
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HOW ITALY SOLD ITS JEWS
by Giulio Meotti

  Giulio Meotti writes about the circumstances surrounding the October 1982 terror attack on Rome's synagogue. "Qaddafi gave safe haven to the terrorist who bombed Rome's synagogue, killing a Jewish child. But Italy, as this article exposes, was a collaborator and tacit facilitator to terrorists and terrorism." "Now that Muammar Qaddafi (who protected Abu Nidal's terrorist group responsible for the massacre) has been killed in Lybia, many voices are asking Silvio Berlusconi's government to reveal the secrets of the Italian appeasement to anti-Jewish terrorism ..."
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READERS' 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.

November 2011 BLOG-EDS    READ MORE


SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER, 2011
 

What we are talking about in the September-October 2011 issue:

Islamophobia (DiscoverTheNetworks, Hornick, Glick)
Creeping Sharia (Zumwalt, Gordon, Shulman)
Western Pro-Palestinian Propagandists (Sherman, Murphy, Bell&Steinberg&Balanson, Poller)
Muslim Democracy Ain't Democracy (Greenfield, Helfont)
The Shifting Sands of the Middle East (Takeyh, Al-Tamimi, Gilboa)
The Proposed Palestinian Arab State Of Palestine (Meotti, Elder of Ziyon, Meotti, Klein, Plaut)
What the Arabs Really Want (Brand, Sherman)
The Legal Basis for the Creation of Israel and Its Annexation of the Territories (Duke, Hausman, Rabinowitz)
Attacking Israel's Indecisiveness: Leaving the Wrong Path (Kahane, Marlon, Glick)
History Section (Ramati, Sobel, FresnoZionism, Sobel, Bard)
Readers' Blog-Ed Pages (September,October)

ISLAMOPHOBIA

Creating a new scare-word is probably beginning to cost the Islamists almost as much as buying the presidency. But it might be worth it to them. They've come up with a beauty -- Islamophobic -- which means that you are irrationally afraid of Islam. It could be you soon will fear being labeled an Islamophobe almost as much as you avoid being called a racist. But don't worry. All you have to do is think positive about Islam.

Do you think it's ridiculous giving someone a driver's license photographed wearing a burqa? You might be an Islamophobe. Would you fire a Muslim clerk because he refuses to sell alcohol? Shame on you for interfering with him practicing his religion. Do you think it's irrational that world politicos fear a Jew building a house in Samaria more than Iran building an atomic bomb? You might be islamophobic. When you learn your children are taught how to pray like real-live Muslims by a real-live Muslim coming to their school, do you wonder why they can't pray as Jews or Christians in school? Looks like you need more positive thinking. When your kids come home from college preaching the Palestinian cause, do you remember reading about the millions the Arabs donate to our universities? Focus on other thoughts. Think cheerfully that your kid might find fame and martyrdom as a human shield in Gaza or Iran. When your church declares it is boycotting Israel because it is harming peace-loving Arabs, do you wonder why they aren't worried Christians are being murdered everywhere Muslims are dominant? You're being too cheeky. Get over it. Do you believe that Islam is a peaceful religion working for world peace? Good. Just keep thinking positive.

These next articles were written by people that Islamofools would call Islamophobes.

Submitted by Bill Levinson
to Israpundit
September 6, 2011.

See also: Pat Condell, "American Islamophobia," here.
 

POLITICS OF "ISLAMOPHOBIA"
Discover the Networks

  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.
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I'VE GOT...ISLAMOPHOBIA!
by P. David Hornik

  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.
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THE WAR AMERICA FIGHTS
by Caroline Glick

  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 identify 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.
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CREEPING SHARIA

The Muslim Brotherhood and their front groups emphasize the importance of some pleasing or at least reasonable aspect of Sharia Law to encourage its entry into a host country. In the last issue Andrew McCarthy wrote about the slow but steady growth of Muslims-only enclaves in Western host countries, where Sharia law, Muslim customs and the Islamic educational system with its emphasis on mastering the Koran rather than acquiring a general education or a trade are practiced. The laws and practices of the host country were ignored. The leaders of the Muslim communities chose to practice "voluntary apartheid."

In this issue we discuss the push to permit Sharia courts to handle domestic disputes in civil law cases. It seems harmless enough until you realize, for example, that it entails Sharia restrictions on women. Moreover, from experience we know the Muslims will continue to push for more restructuring of society to suit Islamic requirements.

It is ironic that in the USA, Muslim leaders spend large amounts to underwrite posters, articles, conferences, academic chairs and hate-fests, all preaching Jew hate, yet a major argument used to make Sharia courts an alternative to our courts is to point out that the Jews have Beth Din, Jewish law courts that are empowered to decide civil law cases. So why not have Sharia courts for Muslims in the same way? It sounds reasonable until you examine the details. Jewish law by its own rabbinic rulings defers to the host country's laws; it works out ways to maintain Halachic standards within the strictures of the host country. Islamic law regards its own law as the one that should be adopted by everyone and aims at that happening. It may argue that a Sharia civil court is harmless to the social structure because it would handle only domestic issues. In practise that means that Muslim women will be treated as inferiors, and the environment will need to be modified to ensure Sharia practices can be practiced.

Westerners often aid and abet Creeping Sharia. It is with no pleasure that I tell you that some of them are Jews, charged by their organizations with the mission of protecting Judaism from poisonous Jew-hate propaganda such as the anti-Jewish hate mongering that emanates from Muslim sources.

The next articles deal with the demand for Sharia courts to handle civil litigation for Muslims.

SHARIAH LOBBY'S PLAY ACTION FAKE - "DANGER, DANGER, DANGER!"
Lt. Colonel James G. Zumwalt, USMC (ret.)

  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.
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YALE'S STERN AND ADL'S FOXMAN: ARE THEY IGNORANT ABOUT JEWISH LAW VERSUS SHARIA ISLAMIC LAW
by Jerry Gordon

  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.
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AMERICAN MUSLIMS CLAIM A RIGHT TO ISLAMIC LAW
by Richard H. Shulman

  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?
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WESTERN PRO-PALESTINIAN PROPAGANDISTS

INTO THE FRAY: ET TU, BILL...
by Martin Sherman

  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.
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DID WESTERN LEFTISTS INVENT 'ISRAELI APARTHEID'?
by Paul Austin Murphy

  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.
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HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH DURING THE 2006 LEBANON WAR AND NOW
Part 1: by Abraham Bell and Gerald M. Steinberg; Part 2: by Gerald M. Steinberg and Naftali A. Balanson

  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."
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THE MUHAMMAD AL-DURA HOAX AND OTHER MYTHS REVIVED
by Nidra Poller

  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 act like lobotomized sheep? Her answer has relevance to so much that we are fed by a supposedly neutral Mainstream Media.
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MUSLIM DEMOCRACY AIN'T DEMOCRACY

The first essay in this set asks whether democracy in the Muslim world is what a Westerner would call democratic. The second essay asks a more general question: does a democratic government stop terrorism by providing "an alternative outlet for the grievances of more moderate Islamists"? Can "democracy in the Middle East ... 'drain the swamps' of Islamic terrorism"?

THE TROUBLE WITH MUSLIM DEMOCRACY
Daniel Greenfield

  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."
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IS DEMOCRACY THE CURE FOR ISLAMIC TERRORISM?
a book review by Samuel Helfont

  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.
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THE SHIFTING SANDS OF THE MIDDLE EAST

THE MARCH TOWARD A NUCLEAR IRAN
by Ray Takeyh

  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."
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INSTABILITY SPREADING SOUTH FROM LIBYA THROUGH NIGERIA
by Aymenn Jawad Al-Tamimi

  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.
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NEEDED: A LEADER IN THE WHITE HOUSE
by Eytan Gilboa

  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." He didn't understand the region then, and he doesn't know what to do now. Except to blame Israel, of course.
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THE PROPOSED PALESTINIAN ARAB STATE OF PALESTINE

At issue is a UN-enforced 2-state solution for peace between Israel and the local Arabs, who miraculously became the Palestinian people some 40 years ago. Mahmoud Abbas, well past-his-term-of-office as President of the Thuggery known as the Palestinian Authority, has stated that in the new state, there will be no Jews. There is every reason to believe him. In the 1940s and '50s, somewhere between 800,000 to 1 million Jews -- most of whom were descendants of Jews who had lived there for hundreds of years before the Arabs came into the area -- were either murdered or were driven from some ten Arab countries without their possessions because the modern state of Israel was coming into being. Only a few Jews still live in the Arab Middle East, mainly in Morocco, and in Iraq, Syria, Tunisia and Yemen No new Jewish immigration is allowed. No Jew is allowed to live in Jordan. Arabs who sell property to Jews are routinely assassinated by the PA and Hamas as collaborators. So there go all the fanciful notions that a 2-state solution can work without forcing anyone, Arab or Jew, from his home.

If the UN grants the Arabs a state gratis, it is likely that an Arab living on land retained by Israel will stay where he is if he wishes, able to choose citizenship in Israel or declare himself a non-citizen resident. His choice, not Israel's. But the more than half a million Jews living in Samaria, Judea and eastern Jerusalem living on land that is given to the Arabs will have no choice. They will be forced out of their homes to become refugees in Israel, wards of a government that has not yet permanently settled the 10,000 Jews who were forced out of Gaza by their own Government in 2005. There is no reason whatsoever to suppose the Arabs will change their minds and allow the Jews to remain. They will have gained a country by false claims and sheer chutzpah, supported by the UN, the EU and the US. What reason have they to act reasonably?

We can ask further, were the Jewish settlers to be removed from Samaria and Judea and eastern Jerusalem, and the land given to the Arabs, would there be peace at last between Arab and Jew? Consider that the Arabs keep telling us and telling their children that their mission is to destroy Israel. Consider that they will have more area to manufacture their tools of war and train their shahids. Consider that they will be closer to Jewish population centers. Consider that they know from experience that they can massacre Israelis without serious repercussions. Churches, politicians and media people will use their influence to shield the Palestinians while blaming Israel. Israel is intimidated so she does little and stops too soon. It's obvious what we can expect. Bombings and massacres of Jewish families will increase, drive-by shootings and drive-alongside stone throwing will become routine. Arab demands will not stop. They never do. Israel will incrementally lose land, confidence and the creative productivity of some of its most outstanding citizens. We can say with confidence that what will not happen is a stable and peaceful region, with two societies living amicably side by side

A SCARLET LETTER - FOR JEWS
by Giulio Meotti

  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.
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PALESTINIAN ARAB "REFUGEES" WOULDN'T BE CITIZENS OF "PALESTINE" - EVEN IF THEY LIVE THERE!
by Elder of Ziyon

  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!
  READ MORE
 

THE FAMOUS STATE OF PALESTINE
by Giulio Meotti

  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.
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THE DURBAN PERVERSION
by Joseph Klein

  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."
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LET'S VOTE FOR INDEPENDENCE!
by Steven Plaut

  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.
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WHAT THE ARABS REALLY WANT

WAS THERE A PALESTINIAN ARAB NATIONAL MOVEMENT AT THE END OF THE OTTOMAN PERIOD?
Wallace Edward Brand

  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.
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REASSESSING 'ROOT CAUSES' FROM 'RED HERRINGS'
by Martin Sherman

  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.
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THE LEGAL BASIS FOR THE CREATION OF ISRAEL AND ITS ANNEXATION OF THE TERRITORIES

JERUSALEM: OUR REDEEMABLE RIGHT: JEWS HOLD LEGAL SOVEREIGNTY OVER ISRAEL'S ENTIRE CAPITAL CITY
by Michael C. Duke

  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.
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ANNEXATION WINS HANDS DOWN OVER A TWO-STATE SOLUTION
by Matthew M. Hausman

  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."
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PEQUOTS, PEKI'IN AND PALESTINIANISM
by William Rabinowitz

  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.
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ATTACKING ISRAEL'S INDECISIVENESS: LEAVING THE WRONG PATH.

The first two essays are particularly appropriate at this time of year. It is a time that we are encouraged to reflect on our actions over the past year and examine what went wrong. We resolve to make an effort to do better. The other essays are some of the small signs that there are stirrings of new ideas and the cracking of wrong old ones.

ON A MOUNTAIN, WITH A TRUMPET
by Rabbi Meir Kahane

  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.
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SPARING AGAG: HARD TRUTHS ABOUT ISRAEL'S INHIBITED WAR VS. TERROR
by Brandon Marlon

  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."
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ISRAEL'S PATH TO VICTORY
by Caroline Glick

  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.
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History Section

Snapshots from the advent of Islam to the Munich Massacre.

THE WAR AGAINST ISLAM
by David Ramati

  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.
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SAFED: THE FORGOTTEN POGROM OF 1834
by Jerrold L. Sobel

  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."
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THE FAILURE OF THE LIBERAL JEWISH ESTABLISHMENT, THEN AND NOW
by FresnoZionism

  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.
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LUBA TRYSZYNSKAS: "THE ANGEL OF BERGEN-BELSEN"
by Jerrold L. Sobel

  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.
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THE MUNICH MASSACRE - SEPTEMBER 5TH, 1972
by Mitchell Bard

  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.
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READERS' 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.

September 2011 BLOG-EDS    READ MORE
October 2011 BLOG-EDS    READ MORE



JULY-AUGUST, 2011

 

What we are talking about in the July-August 2011 issue:

The Three Themes In This Issue. (Editor)
Practicing Islam (Al Fadi, Ibrahim, Imani, McCarthy, Steyn, Butrick, Barron)
The Race to Clobber Israel (Lopez, Fleitz, Imani, Glick, Lerner)
The Consequences of Rewarding Terrorism (Poller, Rubin, Brand, Getz)
Keeping Israel Sovereign. Keeping Israel Alive (Plaut, Auerbach, Kruger, November, Jager, Hasten, Ettinger)
History Section (Hadar-Israel, Ceren)
Readers' Blog-Ed Pages (July, August)

In this issue we present articles that discuss three themes:

1. In Islam, the behavior of the pious Muslim in all aspects of his life is modeled on the words and actions of a 7th century prophet. Marrying a child is sanctioned because Mohammed married the child Aisha. This is very different from Judaism, where customs and life styles flow from the Law. King David was reprimanded for sending Uriah to his death so that David could marry his widow. If Mohammed had behaved as had David, I suspect that today a Moslem's desire for a woman would be considered an acceptable reason for destroying her husband. Basing Islamic law on specific behavior rather than on general laws makes change almost impossible. A law will generally encompass different modes of behavioral expression. Mimicking the behavior of an individual is more specific and thus more resistant to change.

2. the outrageous bias of the U.N and the E.U. in lending their prestige and power to the attempt to destroy Israel has some unwelcome repercussions. The massacre by Anders Breivik may be an early harbinger of a new trend: disgruntled ethnic and national groups may be deciding that terrorizing people as the Palestinian Arabs do is more effective than writing letters. Also, allowing Iran to develop a nuclear bomb might set off a chain reaction of political readjustments in the area which can only contribute to its instability.

3. The U.N. is legally bound by the way the League of Nations divided the Ottoman Empire. The League created many of the current Arab states. With the same authority, it assigned a tiny portion of the Middle East -- what is now Israel, Samaria, Judea, Gaza and the Golan -- irrevocably to the Jewish people. The trust was transferred to the U.N., the successor to the League. Were the U.N. to decide to wipe out Israel by planting another Arab state in Biblical Israel, what does that do to the legality of the present-day Arab states? Such a move might finally shake Israel out of its passivity. A determined Israel would immediately annex Samaria and Judea. A long-term solution for separating Palestinian Arabs and Jews would be to create a homeland for the Arabs somewhere in the vast land holdings the Arabs own.

Read on!
 

PRACTICING ISLAM

In this section, we discuss the lock-and-key relationship of Islam and particular conditions that it needs in order to thrive. We start with Islam's insistence on treating women (and homosexuals, slaves and members of all other religions) as inferiors. As much as we Westerners would like to assume that Islam will outgrow its archaic ideas and come to adopt more tolerant attitudes, unfortunately, this can not happen. The core of Islam is Muhammad, that most perfect of men. His actions are to be emulated; his commands are irrevocable. So there is no way to modify attitudes and behavior yet stay within the tenets of the religion. Every other ethnic and religious group more or less modifies its behavior to conform to the laws and acceptable life styles of the host country. Muslims can not do that; they can not redefine concepts, attenuate some practices, abandon other practices, yet retain the essence of their religion. When Muslims move to non-Islamic countries, pious Muslims, bolstered by their mullahs and head men, will seek to modify their environment according to their religious requirements and the customs and practices that are the outgrowth of Islam. They will not stop their demands until they can live fully under sharia law. It is important we recognize this, because the environment under which Islam will thrive doesn't just inconvenience us; it means that we would need to surrender our way of life to it. We would then be living our lives to suit Islam, not ourselves.

WOMEN UNDER SHARIA LAW: THE DILEMMA OF "THE WIFE BEATING PROTOCOL"
by Al Fadi

  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.
  READ MORE
 

RATIONALIZING PEDOPHILIA IN ISLAM
by Raymond Ibrahim

  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.
  READ MORE
 

ISLAM DEMANDS UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER
by Amil Imani

  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.
  READ MORE
 

STEALTH JIHAD
by Andrew C. McCarthy

  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.
  READ MORE
 

HOW UNCLEAN WAS MY VALLEY
by Mark Steyn

  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.
  READ MORE
 

THE FIVE STAGES OF ISLAM
by Richard Butrick

  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.
  READ MORE
 

HOW ISLAM FASCINATES THE WEST
by Babs Barron

  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.
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THE RACE TO CLOBBER ISRAEL

It seems almost as if there's a race between the UN and Iran on which one can clobber Israel first. Iran is working industriously at developing a nuclear WID -- Weapon of Israeli Destruction. We have done little to counter Iran's promise of nuclear destruction effectively. We have imposed sanctions -- as Jerrold Sobel sarcastically wrote, "Persian rugs and teas can no longer be exported to the United States and word has it opium will soon be on this list." -- and we have debated among ourselves, quibbling about whether Iran can possibly be serious, even though she is spending her wealth and time and resources and proclaiming her evil intent at every opportunity. Letting Iran proceed has larger ramifications in that it encourages other medieval states to attempt to acquire nuclear weapons either because of fear of Iran or as a sign they too have reached technological puberty.

Meantime, calling it a peace plan, the U.N. plans to carve out an instant State, giving most of Biblical Israel to the hostile terrorist-controlled group of Arabs who became the Palestinian people in an instant some 50 years ago. Or as Daniel Greenfield writes: "a Palestinian state should be created the same way the Palestinian people were. By simply pretending it exists and then doing nothing to prove it. If it worked for manufacturing a Palestinian nationality, why not a state. Why not a planet or a galaxy. No one is using Mars are they?"

Ill-reasoned, inappropriate and unseemly hostility to Israel has characterized the U.N. -- controlled by a large bloc of Muslim states -- for decades. As Abba Eban put it years ago, "If Algeria introduced a UN resolution declaring that the Earth was flat and that Israel had flattened it, it would pass by a vote of 164-13 with 26 abstentions." No matter how they prettify their plan, rewarding the Arabs for their refusal to allow a Jewish state in what they regard as their territory won't lead to peace -- it will only make it easier to kill Jews.

IRAN: FROM ESCHATOLOGY TO 21ST-CENTURY FOREIGN POLICY
by Clare Lopez

  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.
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AMERICA'S INTELLIGENCE DENIAL ON IRAN
by Fred Fleitz

  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.
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WILL IRAN'S MULLAHS USE THE BOMB?
by Amil Imani

  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.
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UNMASKING THE 'INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY'
by Caroline B. Glick

  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."
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ISRAEL, PALESTINE, AND THE PEACE PIETIES
by Barbara Lerner

  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.
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THE CONSEQUENCES OF REWARDING TERRORISM

THE PEACE PROCESS may be encouraging the spread of Palestinian Arab terrorism because the world "understands" the need for the Po' Palestinians to resort to terror. People flock to help them. The U.N. wants to give them a State with no strings attached and no effort on their part. They don't even have to give up their obsession of destroying Israel. Other groups with a grievance take note that these terrorists are not punished but rewarded and so terror tactics become attractive. Not every would-be terrorist realizes that Europeans who approve of terror when it is directed at Israel may be less understanding when they are the target.

There's a history of course of Irish Catholic bombings. But playing hide-the-bomb has gone down considerably since the IRA gave up all/many/some of their weapons, so the politicians can claim the peace treaty is still in effect. The Basque continue to explode very small bombs and haven't killed anyone -- that's too boring to make a splash in the newspapers. The ones making news the past few years are Muslim -- a Muslim bomber with bad timing in Stockholm last Christmas, rape terror in Sweden, tire burning and arson in France, as well as kidnapping, torturing and massacring a young Jewish man, Ilan Halimi. British Muslims have been active at home bombing the subway and figuratively raising the flag of Islam over what previously were ordinary English communities, as well as traveling to Israel, Pakistan and Mumbai pour le sport. Muslims are also implicated in major disturbances fronted by people with various (virtuous) causes. As Nidra Poller wrote in the August 28, 2011 American Thinker

"Forces working behind specious liberation movements to forge a united Muslim front against the West are weakening us from within by fostering specious protest movements. Citizens of our democracies are led to identify with enraged mobs -- anarchists, altermondialistes, ecologists, striking students and workers, pro-Hamas anti-Zionists, indignados in Athens and Madrid...the list is endless. Palestinian shahid-murderers of Israeli civilians, stampeding Muslims damning 'Mohammed cartoons,' and middle-class students protesting tuition hikes are linked by a chain of sympathy in this danse macabre. People-gathered-in-a-public-square has become the emblem of virtue, and never mind what motivates them or where they are headed. "

Recently in Norway a white European created enough carnage to hit the papers. Of course, given that he was native stock European and could be described as right-wing and a Christian -- which he disclaimed -- he might have gotten publicity even if he'd only nicked a couple of kids.

Muslims who commit mayhem are never called Christianphobes or Westernphobes or Foreignerphobes. Breivik was immediately called an Islamophobe although his discursive manuscript immortalizing his thoughts include text proclaiming his admiration for Al-Qaeda because of their concern for cultural purity, their ability to acquire weaponry and their dedication to their cause. He studied their training manual and acted on the realization that Arabs don't have an exclusive on using terror as a weapon of demoralization and political change. He despised the takeover of his country by Muslims and on the morning of July 22 he put a bomb outside the Prime Minister's office in a Norwegian government administration building complex, because, he asserted, Norwegian politicians have encouraged Muslim immigration. In the afternoon, he used a gun on the some young Norwegians likely to become the next generation of advocates of multiculturalism and unrestricted Muslim immigration.

Memorial service for terror victims -- at a mosque!
Among the participants were Crown Prince Haakon, Minister of Foreign Affairs Jonas Gahr Store, Equality Minister Audun Lysbakken (SV), Oslo mayor Fabian Stang (H), American ambassador Barry White and the Bishop of Oslo Ole Christian Kvarme. They were welcomed by Imam Najeeb Naz.

Boy holding toy gun is carried by his father as 3000 Gazan Arabs celebrate the shooting murder of Jews, August 31, 2010 (photo: ViciousBabushka)

Muslims are usually said to have become terrorists because they are frustrated or poor or picked upon. But the media immediately decided the Norwegian mass murderer had no environmental or personal reasons for what he did. It was all the fault of the anti-Muslim writers that he read. As Nidra Poller wrote:

"While the similarity among mobs in Clapham, Benghazi, Tahrir Square, Strasbourg, etc. goes unnoticed, a churlish campaign has been launched against authors whose writings were cut and pasted into the manifesto of mass murderer Anders Breivik. (But the same censors go berserk if you say that the words of the Koran, the hadith, and the Sunna, no less than sermons in everyone's corner mosque, promote and provoke violence!) ... Conscientious thinkers who warn against the dangers of jihad conquest are assaulted because the white jihadi Anders Breivik was just smart enough to appreciate their works...like millions of other readers...none of them murderers... and too evil to share their humanity."

Time will tell whether Anders Breivik was an aberration like Timothy McVeigh, a white Lone Wolf terrorist who chalked up a body count sufficient to compete with a lot of more or less competent Muslim terrorists and would-be terrorists. Or was Breivik the start of a new phenomenon: other ethnic and national groups acting like a bunch of Arabs, carrying out grotesque acts of violence, seeking to maximize damage, preferring easy targets like children to facing a soldier with a gun.

While we're on the subject, pro-Palestinian defenders using FBI data cleverly added apples and cockroaches and came out with the startling news that Muslims only committed 6% of the terror attacks in the USA from 1980-2005. Latinos, Jews, Communists, "Extreme Left Wing Groups" and "others" did all the rest. This is probably accurate. After all, burning the flag by Latinos counts as one incident. Destruction of the World Trade Center by suicide-murderers, all Muslims, counts as one incident.

The FBI Terrorism 1980-2005 Terrorism by Event Report actually compared the 318 incidents by type of terror -- 209 bombings, 43 arsons, 20 malicious destructions, 16 shootings, 10 hostile takeovers, 8 robberies, 4 assaults, 2 hijackings, 2 kidnappings, 2 rocket attacks, 1 assassination and 1 WMD. It understood that the fight against terrorists of the sort that destroyed the World Trade Center was a tad more significant than catching those who release animals from a research laboratory.

The propaganda that the Arabs own the Middle East because they invaded much of it in the 7th Century and controlled it for a time can even affect those Jews whose primary allegiance is to Liberalism, politically-correct free speech, and Underdoggery. They will dedicate themselves to any cause that claims to be Liberal and isn't Jewish or whines it is the underdog and needs protection. The last essay in this section talks about one such Jew.

MAYHEM IN NORWAY
by Nidra Poller

  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.
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THE "OSLO SYNDROME" AND THE TERROR ATTACK IN NORWAY
by Barry Rubin

  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.
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A REPLY TO AMBASSADOR SEVJE
by Wallace Edward Brand

  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.
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GETTING BIRTHRIGHT WRONG
by Philip Getz

  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."
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KEEPING ISRAEL SOVEREIGN. KEEPING ISRAEL ALIVE

This set of articles suggest how Israel should handle the current crisis, where the U.N. plans soon to sanction the illegitimate birth of another Arab state. The terrorists who govern the Arabs in Gaza and in Samaria and Judea (what the media insists on calling the West Bank) have announced they will request the U.N. to grant them a state, carving it out of most of Biblical Israel. Inside Israel, Israeli Arabs and Jewish Marxists who would dismember their own State to satisfy a spurious Arab claim are also in favor of a Palestinian state.

An immediate solution to being besieged to give up land would be to annex Samaria and Judea. Israel has international law on its side, as well as Biblical promise, and an extraordinary history of devotion to the homeland: there were always Jews living in Israel despite having to endure dreadful hardships and Jews kept its memory alive for 2000 years when living in the Diaspora. In recent times, Israel created a modern state out of a malaria-infested, rock-strewn wasteland, a state that in a few short years has benefitted the entire world with innovative electronics and medical techniques. It has served as an instructive example of how to live civilized when barbarians want to reduce you to their level. Even demographic trends are in its favor. It also has the reality underlying the creation of most countries -- it conquered the land fair and square, regaining more of its own land each time the Arab countries invaded Israel to demolish it.

The problem is that Israel is still groggy from years of believing that it must cater to world opinion. Unfortunately, it doesn't have the luxury of deferring action. It must rid itself of Fifth-Column Arabs in Israel and curtail the growth of the Arab population so that it doesn't reach the "take-over" stage of Muslim control of a foreign host. (See Richard Butrick article above.)

Annexation is a short-term solution. A better solution and one that gives the Arabs that call themselves Palestinians their own land is to give them their own place within the vast land area the Arabs own. See e.g., Section 1 of the September-October 2010 Issue. This will require regional support -- but, after all, the Arab states were responsible for the local Arabs becoming refugees. In fact they created two sets of refugees: Arab and Jewish.

Israel solved the problem of the Jewish refugees from Arab lands -- it made them citizens and helped them reconstruct their lives as Israelis while keeping what they wanted of their old customs and traditions. They did this with no help from the U.N. The wealth and real property the Jews left behind when they were forced to flee is still in the hands of the Arab states.

The Arab countries have resources to solve the other refugee problem -- they are in position to give the Arabs who now call themselves Palestinians room to construct a state somewhere within the 99.99% of the Middle East the Arab own. It could be much larger than Israel and the Territories and still be a tiny portion of the land the Arabs have. At this point, someone is sure to say: but don't you understand, the Arab refugees want to return to their homeland, just as the Jews did over 2000 years of the Diaspora. The answer is that it is a publicist's dream but a complete lie to say that Israel belongs to the Palestinian people. There is no Palestinian People. There never was a Country or State that was called Palestine. There is no claim by the Palestinian Arabs to land that most of them came to after the Jewish Aliyah made the area economically attractive. The land was owned by the Ottomans for hundreds of years before the Europeans conquered it in WW1, not by Arabs.

It is ludicrous that so many local Arabs have kept their benefits-rich refugee status while living under Arab governance in Gaza, Samaria and Judea. It is pathetic that their pretending that their environment and culture is alien to what they had before their (great) grandparents left Israel -- a few miles down the road -- is accepted by their logic-deficient and history-ignorant sympathizers.

Admittedly, giving the "Palestinians" a state is allowing them to win the "I'm a nuisance" exploitation game, but there are practical reasons to do so. It would wipe out the UNRWA-run ponds where the malaria of terrorism is bred; it would save the ever-growing expense of keeping a large group on perpetual welfare; it would quarantine a group that is a menace not just to Israel but to any of the Arab states that have taken them in. It would eliminate a wild card in an already unstable area of the world. It would remove a distraction so Israel could deal with the very real threat coming from Iran.

For Israel, this is not the time to expel a sizable portion of the half million Jews living in the towns and villages of Samaria and Judea from their homes and businesses, forcing them to flee as refugees to what's left of Israel. It will be impossible to do so without bankrupting the country -- recall that most of the 10,000 Jews of Gaza who were expelled by the Sharon government in 2005 are not yet settled, even though it has already cost much more than even pessimistic projections estimated -- and the contributions the Gazan Jews made to the economy by the sale of their spectacular produce are no more. More to the point, we don't need demoralized Jews, refugees in their own country. Israel is in the forefront of those battling radical Islam. We should help her concentrate on that, not distract her while Iran develops a nuclear bomb.

This set of essays assumes it's o.k. that there be one Jewish state in the Middle East. The first essay is a logical projection of Israel's current conciliatory agreement to a 2-state solution. The other essays look at ways and means to avoiding death by accommodation. They look at two problems that Israel has: a growing Israeli Arabs population, many of whom are radicalized and starting to act as Muslims do in any host country as they become more numerous and see themselves soon reaching critical mass; and an appeasement mentality that is compromising Israel's ability to maintain its sovereignty. It has even infected the IDF.

PEACE AT LAST -- A HARBINGER OF THE IMMEDIATE FUTURE?
by Steven Plaut

  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.
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'PALESTINE' IN THE LAND OF ISRAEL?
by Jerold S. Auerbach

  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.
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THE TWO-STATE "SOLUTION": AROUND THE WORLD AND IN HISTORY
by Steven Kruger

  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.
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ARABS IN ISRAEL
by Zvi November

  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.
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THE JEWISH WAY IN WAR
by Elliot Jager

  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."
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BUILDING THE LAND OF ISRAEL ONE TREE AT A TIME
by Josh Hasten

  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.
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HOW TO HANDLE THE PALESTINIAN ARAB PROBLEM
by Yoram Ettinger

  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.
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History Section

JERUSALEM DAY: TODAY AND 1948
Hadar-Israel

  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.
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OBAMA'S EAST JERUSALEM STANCE REWARDS 1948 ETHNIC CLEANSING
by Omri Ceren

  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!"
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READERS' 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.

July 2011 BLOG-EDS    READ MORE
August 2011 BLOG-EDS    READ MORE



MAY-JUNE, 2011

 

What we are talking about in the May-June 2011 issue:

Osama Bin Laden Is Dead. Is Al-Qaeda? (Swami, Greenfield, Anbar, Solway, Plaut)
The Peaceful Religion Of Islam, Where Lies Are Truth And Brutality Is A Habit (Ibrahim, Imani, Bussel, Barnhardt)
The Arab Nakba/i> (Greenfield, Yemini, Hornik)
What's Happening With Israel's Previous Peace Partners? (Spengler, King)
Israel As Front Line Defense Against An Islamic Takeover. Israel As A Major Asset For The West (London, Eidelberg, Kemp)
What Will It Be? Two Distorted States In Chronic Tension Or A Single Sovereign Jewish State? (Honig, Dann, Hinderacker)
Hasbara And Public Relation (Davidson, Shulman, Eidelberg, Saperstein, Levinson)
History Section (Julius, Clifford, Loewenberg)
Readers' Blog-Ed Pages (May, June)

OSAMA BIN LADEN IS DEAD. IS AL-QAEDA?

This set of essays speculates on what the next phase of Islamic terror will look like. One thing is certain. It isn't going away. Not when it is so effective. Acts of terror are the stick. "Moderate" Muslims and the U.N. hold out the carrot of appeasement. And many a Westerner is all too willing to bite. Some seem to crave dhimmitude, both for themselves and for us.

AL-QAEDA: THE NEXT GENERATION
by Praveen Swami

  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.
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AL QAEDA'S NEXT WAVE OF TERROR
by Daniel Greenfield

  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.
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INTIMIDATION
by Michael Anbar

  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.
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AN UNHOLY MARRIAGE
by David Solway

  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.
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HOW SUPPORTERS OF PALESTINIAN TERRORISM ARE MURDERED AND RAPED BY THEIR PALESTINIAN SPONSORS
by Steven Plaut

  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?
 
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THE PEACEFUL RELIGION OF ISLAM, WHERE LIES ARE TRUTH AND BRUTALITY IS A HABIT

The way of life it encourages also creates some serious physical problems for its adherents.

WERE CONQUERED CHRISTIANS REALLY LIBERATED MUSLIMS?
by Raymond Ibrahim

  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."
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COMPASSION - ISLAMIC REPUBLIC STYLE
by Amil Imani

  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."
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PALESTINIANS SHOW CONCERN FOR THEIR LAND BY POLLUTING THE WATER SUPPLY
by Ari Bussel

  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.
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THE KEYSTONE OF THE ISLAMIC MILIEU: INBREEDING
by Ann Barnhardt

  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.
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THE ARAB NAKBA

From the Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center:
(http://www.terrorism-info.org.il/malam_multimedia/ English/eng_n/html/ipc_e191.htm)

"Events for Nakba Day, the 63rd anniversary of the founding of the State of Israel in 1948, climaxed on May 15, 2011. They included mass marches, rallies and propaganda demonstrations. In some locations there were also riots, stone-throwing, confrontations with IDF soldiers and a violent invasion of Israeli territory."

[...]

As far as Hamas and the others who reject the right of the State of Israel to exist were concerned, the Nakba Day events were successful. They were many and large, had a propaganda impact, and included the precedent of the forceful invasion of Palestinians into Israeli territory in the Druze village of Majdal Shams, who used it as a stage to proclaim the 'right of return.' In our assessment, such a 'success' is liable to inspire and encourage others in the territories, the Arab countries and around the world to promote similar tactics."

Brainwashing the younger generation with the "right of return:" Gazan children carrying signs reading "We will certainly return to...Acre" and "We will certainly return to...Ashdod." The key at the lower right symbolizes the so-called "right or return;" upper left, the Hamas emblem (Hamas' Palestine-info website, May 15, 2011).

NAKBACIDE
by Daniel Greenfield

  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.
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THE STORY OF ARAB APARTHEID
by Ben-Dror Yemini

  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.
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THE NAKBA CONCENTRATES ISRAELI MINDS
by P. David Hornik

  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.
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WHAT'S HAPPENING WITH ISRAEL'S PREVIOUS PEACE PARTNERS?

The Arab Spring seems headed for a cold winter. Israel invested a great deal in its initial peace negotiations with Arab countries, returning all of the Sinai that it had captured from Egypt after Egypt yet again invaded Israel. The peace with Egypt has always been a brittle one and now that Egypt has had a "regime change" from Mubarak's dictatorship, it might break up entirely. The new contenders for power in Egypt don't sound democratic. They spout Islamic ideas and threatens to repudiate the peace treaty. The other shiny example of a peaceful neighbor is Jordan. Though unacknowledged, Israel has been a mainstay, helping the Hashemites who rule over Jordan stay in power. The Jordanian king has shown his gratitude by trashing Israel verbally whenever he's had a chance. His survival on the throne now appears more precarious than ever.

THE HUNGER TO COME IN EGYPT
Spengler

  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.
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THE HASHEMITES IN PALESTINE: A ROYAL SCAM THAT KEEPS ON SCAMMING
by Ruth King

  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.
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ISRAEL AS FRONT LINE DEFENSE AGAINST AN ISLAMIC TAKEOVER. ISRAEL AS A MAJOR ASSET FOR THE WEST.

THE UN VOTE ON A PALESTINIAN STATE
by Herbert London

  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.
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A CONSPIRACY OF SILENCE IN ISRAEL
by Professor Paul Eidelberg

  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.
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THE IDF, BRITAIN AND AFGHANISTAN
by Colonel Richard Kemp

  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.
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WHAT WILL IT BE? TWO DISTORTED STATES IN CHRONIC TENSION OR A SINGLE SOVEREIGN JEWISH STATE?

Maybe Israel should stop trying to make the unworkable work. A Two-State Solution is no solution when the Arabs have stated their goal is to kill off Israel, not to create yet another Arab state. Why should Israel continue to invest effort in a two-state solution, which, at best, will leave her crippled and at the mercy of her terrorist neighbors? Israel should, instead, put her energy in developing herself as a sovereign state. That will allow her to grow and develop her uniqueness as a Jewish state chock full of talented people, who put their energy into enterprises that benefit everyone. What happens to the Arabs in Samaria and Judea and Gaza? The Arabs have 99.99% of the Middle East. There must be some spot they can deed to the "Palestinians" from the Territories and the refugee camps as a potential homeland.

THE BÖRNE IDENTIFICATION
by Sarah Honig

  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.
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THE IMPERATIVE OF JEWISH SOVEREIGNTY
by Moshe Dann

  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."
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TIME TO ANNEX JUDEA AND SAMARIA?
by John Hinderacker

  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.
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HASBARA, PUBLIC RELATION AND EDUCATION

RULES AND GUIDELINES FOR WESTERNERS REPORTING ON THE MIDDLE EAST
by Edward Davidson

  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.
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IS THE HISTORY OF JIHAD A MATTER OF INTERPRETATION?
by Richard H. Shulman

  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.
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CHANGING THE LANGUAGE OF PUBLIC DISCOURSE
by Professor Paul Eidelberg

  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."
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SWEET REVENGE; OHR'S BAT MITZVAH
by Rachel Saperstein

  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!"
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ADL AND NJDC: OBAMA'S ANTI-ISRAEL GARBAGE DOESN'T STINK
by Bill Levinson

  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?
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HISTORY SECTION

FARHUD: A SLAUGHTER IN IRAQ
by Lyn Julius

  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.
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PRESIDENT TRUMAN'S DECISION TO RECOGNIZE ISRAEL
by Clark Clifford with Richard Holbrooke

  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.
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WE HAVE RETURNED TO THE TEMPLE MOUNT
Professor F.M. Loewenberg

  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.
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READERS' 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.

May 2011 BLOG-EDS    READ MORE
June 2011 BLOG-EDS    READ MORE



MARCH-APRIL, 2011

 

What we are talking about in the March-April 2011 issue:

The Core of Islam -- and its impact on its practitioners (Cline, Mannheimer, Imani, Ibrahim, Greenfield, Kerwick, Jessup, Chesler)
The Jewish Core -- how Judaism hands the same realities. (Roberts, Wilder, Saperstein)
It's Gang-Up On Israel Time At The O.K. Corral ( Baker, Hertz, Hausman, Ahlert, Rose)
How Israel Can Turn Things Around (Glick, Greenfield, Feiglin, Shavit, Spengler, Tobin, Ohri)
Public Relations, Hasbara And PR (Bussel, McQuillan. Stalinsky, Lipkin)
History Section (Kanigel, Itto)
Readers' Blog-Ed Pages (March, April)

THE CORE OF ISLAM -- and its impact on its practitioners. And on us.

BETWEEN CAESAR, GOD AND ALLAH
by Edward Cline

  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.
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THE PRINCIPLE OF ABROGATION IN THE QURAN
by Michael Mannheimer

  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."
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SLAVERY IN ISLAM
by Amil Imani

  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.
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MUSLIM JIHAD IN CHRISTIAN ETHIOPIA: LESSONS FOR THE WEST
by Raymond Ibrahim

  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.
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THE MUSLIM TERRORIST WAR AGAINST ISRAELI FAMILIES
by Daniel Greenfield

  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.
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TERRY JONES, HIS CRITICS, AND ISLAM
by Jack Kerwick

  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.
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THE SHARIAH THREAT
by Kathy Jessup

  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.
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AMERICA: BEWARE GIVING IN TO THE FALSE CONCEPT OF ISLAMOPHOBIA
by Phyllis Chesler

  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.
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THE JEWISH CORE -- How Judaism handles the same realities.

A LETTER TO G-D
by Ted Roberts

  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.
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SHALHEVET - 10 YEARS LATER: AN INTERVIEW WITH YITZHAK PASS
by David Wilder

  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.
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RECAPTURING ROOTS; FLASHBACKS AND AFTER SHOCKS
by Rachel Saperstein

  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.
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IT'S GANG-UP ON ISRAEL TIME AT THE O.K. CORRAL

In this Section, we focus on a new and upcoming piece of inventiveness by Israel's many enemies: The Palestinian Authority is crowing because, despite the fact that it has made no effort toward peaceful relations with Israel, it believes it will be given a State gratis. The U.N. is exploring tactics on how to do this. And looming over the horizon, the American administration has just dumped us into an irregular, unplanned and unnecessary war in Libya. To add to the bizarreness, we and Al-Qaeda will be fighting on the same side. Duh.

Meanwhile, the activities of the Arabs and their friends over the last years to delegitimize Israel are accelerating and in some areas are being coordinated. It's not just that Hizbollah, Hamas, Fatah, and dozens of splinter groups of terrorists have acquired huge amounts of weaponry. The years of demonizing Israel are also paying off. Here are some of the problems Israel faces.

1. Israel is condemned by the U.N. Israel is accused of being an apartheid state, despite the fact that Arab Israelis can buy housing anywhere and shop anywhere. They receive welfare and medical care well above their percent of the total Israeli population. They attend Israeli universities, often with less effort than required of Jewish children. One Arab Ph.D. candidate has the extracurricular hobby of coordinating boycotts against Israel for being apartheid. Israel is condemned for war crimes -- they unintentionally killed human shields that Hamas terrorists were using for cover, while Arab terrorists who specifically target Jewish children riding in a bus, walking to school, sleeping in their beds, are treated as heros and models for how to conduct oneself by the Arab community. Israel is condemned for invading Gaza and cautiously attempting to kill only the terrorist managers, while the U.S. bombs Libyan civilians wholesale. The U.N. appoints Iran, Libya, Saudi Arabia, and other such proponents of human rights and the rights of women to its councils. And it labels Israel, the only democracy in the Middle East, racist.

2. The Obama Administration reserves its wrath for Jews putting up housing and ignores what a sorry place the Middle East will be when Iran explodes a nuclear device. One global consequence is that oil production and distribution will become disorganized and erratic, if the oil fields are even accessible.

3. Politicians, mainstream churches, universities and their resident faculty particularly those in the soft sciences, Muslim student groups, newspaper and TV media and book publishers have shown themselves to be worth every penny Radical Islam has spent on them. See as a small slice of the larger problem the video by Dr. Richard Cravatts of Boston University: here. It is entitled "The War Against Israel on Campus".

4. The Wafq has been allowed to demolish Jewish artefacts of historic value on the Temple Mount. Israel is willing to barter away some of its holy sites and historic sites and places we read about in the Bible, indicating an indifference to its roots and religion, while the recently-created Palestinian people lay claim -- erroneously but passionately -- to Mandated Palestine. Israel doesn't loudly proclaim its irrevocable right to Mandated Palestine, a right guaranteed by international law, so naturally most everyone assumes the Jews are the occupiers. Why shouldn't they when Israeli politicians sound more enthusiastic about having a Palestinian state that do the Palestinians, who mostly want welfare and the fun of slaughtering their Jewish neighbors.

5. When Israel reclaimed Samaria and Judea and Gaza in 1968, it started building the local Arabs their first ever higher-level educational institutions, and providing them with medical care, gas, electricity and water. They continued to do this even after the Hamas terrorists took over Gaza and the Fatah terrorists Samaria and Judea. They did this though the Arabs took pot shots at them while they were repairing the electric grids. In one notable PA hoax, done with the cooperation of the foreign media, they simply closed the curtains to keep out the afternoon sun and lit candles. Their claim to be without electricity was heard around the world. Israel continued to provide water even though the Arabs were destroying the water supply by stealing the cement, by digging wells and by garbaging up the entrances to the desalination plants. The Jews thought the Arabs would be grateful and this would lead to peace. Everyone naturally assumed it meant the Jews were ashamed for stealing the land in the first place.

6. Jewish settlements in the Territories are legally on Jewish land. Given the unrest in all of the Middle East and the need to be alert to changes in the neighboring countries, this doesn't seem a good time for the Israeli Government to create havoc in Israel by uprooting Jews in the Territories. Nevertheless, the Netanyahu Administration is wrongheadedly acting as if it fully intends to give away Samaria and Judea, as soon as it can find a taker.

7. Marxist Israelis defend Arab illegality and condemn Israel defending itself. I wonder if they have second homes in the West and open airplane tickets. Or do they believe the grateful Arabs will let them live if ever they can finish off Israel? It didn't work for Juliano Mer-Khamis, a Jew who lived in Jenin among the Arabs and was devoted to their cause. They killed him anyway. For the sin of being a Jew? Because women were treated with respect in his productions? Because he produced Animal Farm, in which an actor played a pig? Who knows.

8. Some helpful folk suggest Israel preempt a decision by the U.N. on Palestinian statehood by coming out first with a declaration that what is Biblical Israel is now to become [drum roll here] Palestina. Wow, that's like advising someone to commit suicide to prevent the possibility that his enemy will manage to kill him. Wouldn't it be better -- and more Jewish -- to have a gun handy and be ready to use it first?
 

IT IS JUST POSSIBLE THAT ISRAEL WILL WAKE and understand they can't allow West Bank Arabs to control their water supply. They might have a stroke of understanding and admit that from the West Bank you can walk into Tel Aviv and Jerusalem -- you don't need a long-distance bomber. Maybe their ability to organize for defense in a hurry will kick in on time. I sure hope they haven't let it go too long.

THE PALESTINIAN UN GAMBLE - IRRESPONSIBLE AND ILL-ADVISED
by Alan Baker

  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.
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THE U.N. CHARTER DOES NOT SUPPORT GENERAL ASSEMBLY RESOLUTIONS
by Eli E. Hertz

  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.
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THE PROGRESSIVE WEST SUPPORTS A JUDENREIN STATE OF PALESTINE
by Matthew M. Hausman

  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.
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ARMING THE ENEMY IN LIBYA
by Arnold Ahlert

  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.
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THE GATHERING STORM: REDUX or DÉJÀ VU?
by Alex Rose

  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.
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HOW ISRAEL CAN TURN THINGS AROUND
Bottom Line: What Israel needs to do is to stop lying - to herself and to the world. No, she really doesn't want to sacrifice herself to give a bunch of death-dealers some additional space to construct explosives and launch missiles.

How to avoid the disasters that loom? How to win? The first task, Israel, is to stop lying to yourself. As Daniel Greenfield says (see below), "It is time to stop the lies and tell the truth. The call to peace is the call to death." This will free you up to admit that you can't barter your land for peace anymore than you can sell your child. Admit your passion for Israel. Realize the Jews of Samaria and Judea aren't the enemy; by securing the hilltops in Yesha, they safeguard the Jews living in Tel-Aviv. Stop trying to kick them out of their homes. Stop promoting an Arab state and start shoring up Israel.

Ari Bussel in "An Old-Fashioned Remedy" (April 3, 2011) writes:

"Israeli politicos are proud of all they are doing to improves the lives of the local Arabs. At best this might create good P.R. Actually it doesn't. What with the current milieu where demonizing Israel is acceptable, it doesn't create good-will. People assume Israel is doing it out of guilt -- so it just reinforces the Arab lie that Israel is occupying Arab land.

"[d]iverting enormous resources to the Arab minority and enabling Palestinian unprecedented growth — measured on a global scale — will prove very harmful to Israel."

"Israel has a variety of problems she faces, and she needs to prioritize them."

First: Military Preparedness

"Israel's security services and intelligence communities must seriously focus on the Iranian threat. That is the greatest long-term existential danger to the Jewish State.

"Israel's military must prepare for an eventuality similar to the 1947-1948 scenario when the Arabs converged en masse against the newly recognized Jewish State, except present day magnitudes are vastly greater in strength. It must be ready for an attack on multiple fronts, especially if the Jordanian regime falls and Israel finds herself surrounded.

"As happened not so many decades ago and throughout the last two millennia in the same neighborhood, Israel will be completely surrounded by Egyptian, Jordanian, American-trained Palestinian and Syrian forces on her borders, an Arab contingency from within and Hamas-Hezbollah snakes hissing and threatening from the North and the South. The names of the players may have changed, but the intentions from Amalek to the Palestinians remain as potent: Destroy the Jews!

"Preparations must take place quietly, internally, with constant diligence, re-evaluation and adjustments. Quite frankly, while we should be able to speculate on their scope (and hope our analysis reflects, at least in part, reality), none of these actions should be common knowledge. It is not deterrence Israel needs; it is preparedness and readiness for what the future assuredly holds."

Second: Public Diplomacy

To attend to the ongoing delegitimization and demonization attacks against her very being and to fight the currently forming country of Palestine,

"Israel must mobilize now rather than ex post facto — and seemingly might have started doing so during the past few weeks — all of its public relations bureaucracy. This must include the Foreign Ministry and the Ministry of Public Diplomacy and the Diaspora and every body in between that has some overlapping interest, as tangential as it may seem.

" Unquestionably, Israel has the people and the abilities to devise plans for her survival one cannot easily envision. The main question is — does she have the mindset to engage in so doing, right now and without delay?"

Bussel's TODO list is sensible. Israel politicos need to take it to heart. And soon.

THE SILVER LININGS OF THE CLOUDS OF GLOOM hanging over Israel are two:

First, despite the ingrained negativity of the media, it is becoming more difficult to blame Israel for unwillingly killing a human shield when Arab terrorists steal into Jewish homes and slaughter Jewish families. We can also expect that the increasing turbulence in the Middle East might unhinge the monomaniacal attention the media and the U.N. pay Israel and force them to attend to the Arab implosion.

Second, the single document that most helped demonize Israel around the world, the Goldstone report, has been declared erroneous -- by Goldstone himself. As Jeffrey Goldberg writes (The Atlantic, April 2, 2011):

"... the South African Jewish judge Richard Goldstone, who excoriated Israel for allegedly committing premeditated crimes against civilians in Gaza -- contributing, more than any other individual, to the delegitimization and demonization of the Jewish state -- now says, well, Israel didn't actually set out to target Palestinian civilians, unlike Hamas, whose plainly-apparent goal was to murder Israeli civilians... Unfortunately, it is somewhat difficult to retract a blood libel, once it has been broadcast across the world."

He's right, blood libels are hard to kill. But at least Israel has been handed some good ammunition. Let's hope she understands that she is still the one to load the gun and use it. Goldstone's admission by itself won't change attitudes.

This Section is sister to the previous segment outlining some major problems Israel must confront. The essays below address some necessary actions and attitudes.

PALESTINIAN STATEHOOD IS INCREASINGLY MORE LIKELY. THE LESSONS THAT CAN -- AND MUST -- BE LEARNED FROM THE GOLDSTONE AFFAIR
by Caroline B. Glick

  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."
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PALESTINE IS GENOCIDE
by Daniel Greenfield

  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."
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JEWISH RIGHTS ON THE TEMPLE MOUNT: THE ACID TEST
by Moshe Feiglin

  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.
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ENOUGH ALREADY: ARE ISRAELI SETTLEMENTS ACTUALLY 'ILLEGAL'?
by Moshe Dann

  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?
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ISRAEL'S LEFT NEEDS TO WISE UP TO MIDDLE EAST REALITY
by Avi Shavit

  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."
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ISRAEL THE WINNER IN THE ARAB REVOLTS
by Spengler

  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.
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SYRIAN UNREST THREATENS MYTHICAL PEACE PROCESS
by Jonathan S. Tobin

  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.
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THE LONG MARCH OF ISLAM: CHAPTER 10
by R. K. Ohri

  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."
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PUBLIC RELATIONS, HASBARA AND PR

THE POWER OF THE WRITTEN WORD
by Ari Bussel

  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.
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NATIONAL PUBLIC RADIO ON A BAD DAY
by Karin McQuillan

  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.
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ISSUE V OF INSPIRE, THE ENGLISH-LANGUAGE MAGAZINE OF AL-QAEDA IN THE ARABIAN PENINSULA — A GENERAL REVIEW
by Steven Stalinsky

  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.
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IS THIS THE FACE OF A TERRORIST?
by Bernice Lipkin

  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.
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HISTORY SECTION

THE JEWISH CONSPIRACY: A STRATEGIC WEAPON TO DEMONIZE JEWS AND DELEGITIMIZE ISRAEL
by Judge Hadassa Ben Itto

  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.
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THE OCCUPIED TERRITORIES REVISITED: THE DOCTRINE OF DEFENSIBLE BORDERS
by Harry Kanigel

  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.
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READERS' 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.

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 2011 BLOG-EDS    READ MORE
April 2011 BLOG-EDS    READ MORE



 

INDEX FOR THE JANUARY-FEBRUARY 2011 ISSUE

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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.

SECTION 1:

"Editorial: The Middle East in Revolt" by Editor, Think-Israel.org

Democracy and Revolution

Islam + Democracy = Islam by Edward Cline
The Great Middle Eastern Democracy Show Hits A Bump by Nidra Poller
Be Careful What We Wish For by Seth J. Frantzman
Is An Egyptian "Democracy" A Good Thing? by Raymond Ibrahim

How Revolution Is Played Out In Different Countries

The New Middle East At A Glance — Country By Country by Hillel Fendel
Anti-Semitism: The New Necessity For Arab Regimes by Mudar Zahran
Youth Uprising 2011 -- A Planetary 1968 by Andrew MacKillop
A Firsthand Account Of The Protests In Egypt by Joshua R. Goodman
Do The Protesters Want Democracy? by Andrew C. McCarthy
Evidence Of Anti-Semitism At The Egypt Protests by John Rosenthal
Sunni Wahhabism And Shiism In Saudi Arabia by Joshua Teitelbaum
Tunisia Meltdown by Marion DS Dreyfus
Jordan's Future Challenges by Juan José Escobar Stemmann
Qatar's Game by Elliot Jager

These Essays Investigate The Muslim Brotherhood

The Muslim Brotherhood Is The Enemy by Frank J. Gaffney, Jr.
Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood: In Their Own Words by Jonathan D. Halevi
Qaradawi And The Treason Of The Intellectuals by Andrew G. Bostom

SECTION 2:

Loner Terrorists And Small-Boat Pirates

How Do We Deal With Terrorists That Have No Fixed Identification? by Bernice Lipkin
Somali Piracy Hits America: Some Questions In Need Of Answers by J. Peter Pham, Ph.D.
A Cruise To The Coast Of Pirate-Infested Somalia by To-The-Point Cruise Lines

Wishing For Islamic Moderation And Reform

Inside The Mind Of An Islamist by Phyllis Chesler
The Long March Of Islam: Chapter 9 by R. K. Ohri
Does Muslim Moderation Exist; Is Islamic Reform Likely? by Fjordman

Is Israel Going To Change Policy And Grow Or Grovel And Die?

In Memory Of Herbert Zweibon by Helen Freedman
Preemptive Surrender by David Isaac
Playing Israel's Good Hand by Caroline Glick

Hasbara, The War Front Where Israel Is Losing

Why Israel Loses PR War by Moshe Dann
Exposing Arab Falsehoods by Martin Sherman
Who Is Uri Avnery, And Why Does He Matter? by Aryeh Tepper
Narrative Isn't Everything by Jonathan Rosenblum
A Dozen Bad Ideas For The 21st Century by Mark Durie

History Section

The Wartime Diary Of Edmund Kessler reviewed by Omer Bartov
The Most Heinous Killers Of The Holocaust: The Muslim-Catholic Ustasha by Edwin Black
Opening Palestine's Doors by Rafael Medoff

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.
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February Blog-Eds

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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
Editor, Think-Israel




JANUARY-FEBRUARY, 2011

 

What we are talking about in the January-February 2011 issue:

SECTION 1:
Editorial: The Middle East in Revolt
Democracy and Revolution (Cline, Poller, Frantzman, Ibrahim)
How Revolution Is Played Out In Different Countries (Fendel, Zahran, MacKillop, Goodman, McCarthy, Rosenthal, Teitelbaum, Dreyfus. Stemmann, Jager)
The Muslim Brotherhood (Gaffney, Halevi, Bostom)

SECTION 2:
Loner Terrorists and Small-Boat Pirates (Lipkin, Pham, To-The-Point Cruise Line)
Wishing for islamic moderation and reform (Chesler, Ohri, Fjordman)
Is Israel Going To Change Policy And Grow Or Grovel And Die (Freedman, Glick, Isaac)
Hasbara, The War Front Where Israel Is Losing (Dann, Sherman, Tepper, Rosenblum, Durie)
History Section (Bartov, Black, Medoff)
Readers' Blog-Ed Pages (January, February)

SECTION 1:

EDITORIAL: THE MIDDLE EAST IN REVOLT

If, in your way of thinking, the opposite of dictatorship is democracy, then what's happening in the Middle East is wonderful. The ice floe didn't crack slowly; it all melted magically. To use imagery Al Gore would believe: it was as if a zillion people suddenly vented CO2-filled breaths in synchrony.

And vent they did. In Iran. In Tunisia. In Egypt. In Libya. In Lebanon. In Yemen. In Jordan. In Algeria, Bahrain, Djibouti. In Iraq. In Kuwait, Morocco and Sudan. Even in Saudi Arabia. Thanks to our media, we have learned that it is youth yearning for jobs and the poor yearning for bread and everybody yearning for democracy that caused it to happen.

It's true there are in Egypt and Iran and maybe in some of the other countries many young people who truly want to live under a western-style democracy. Considering how much Middle Eastern dictators oppress the people, everyone should be eager for democracy, freedom, tolerance and the ability to decide one's one lifestyle. We forget that in an organized Islamic political system based on sharia law, rulers and the majority of their subjects share in common certain values, similar hatreds and biases. Given the intense religious conditioning even in more secular Muslim countries, it is not surprising that as long as basic needs for food and shelter are met, dictators and mullahs can easily incite the populace against foreigners and people of other religions. But the same conditioning traps the rulers. Were they to declare they want to come to peaceful terms with those Islam sees as enemy, the people would likely shift their allegiance and the rulers would soon be replaced by an even more dedicated and brutal gang. In recent history, the people seem always to pick -- or end up with -- a government that is more wicked, more vile, most committed to monstrous acts of violence. The Iranians threw out the Shah and now we have Ahmadinejad. The Palestinian Arabs picked Hamas when given free choice. With the current imminent changes in regime in so many Middle Eastern countries, we might ask, in the immortal words of Tom Lehrer talking about countries wanting the bomb: "Who's next: Who's next?"
 

SOME VIEW the uprisings in the different countries as unrelated. Our current president, Barack Hussein Obama -- perhaps determined to wrench the title of "American President Most Damaging To The USA" from Jimmy Carter's jaws -- has been selective in which ones he supports. Doing a fast catch-up, he praised the Egyptian rioters whereas he sat on his hands when Iranians took to the streets desirous of regime change. He is most circumspect and hesitant about Libya but he was untroubled that Hizbollah was taking over Lebanon. He seems to believe that the source of global evil and upheaval is Israel and so his biggest worry is that a Jewish family might enlarge its living quarters to give the kiddies another bedroom.

Nevertheless, the uprisings and demonstrations happened so quickly and smoothly, there does seem to have been at least some coordination. One might think the labile hordes of the Middle East had been drummed into action by the Muslim Brotherhood's Yusuf al-Qaradawi just as he had orchestrated the riotous outrage at the Danish cartoons back in 2005. One could almost believe that the small surges and outrages these past few years have been fire drills to test how to pump up the response in different parts of the orchestra, where to send different factions to amplify the noise, how to select the soloists who would speak to the press, how to create the photo opportunities and reward trustworthy media people. And where to place the potties. Even true spontaneity can be put to use. Good ideas can come from anyone anywhere, but it takes intelligent social engineering to turn the idea to effective use.

As Joseph Farah of World Net Daily put it, "...there is a global Islamist revolution under way... "With revolts going on in Egypt, Tunisia, Pakistan, Yemen, Lebanon and Jordan, most of them clearly orchestrated from Iran, it's easy to believe these are unrelated, disconnected uprisings." [Actually,] "this is the work of the Muslim Brotherhood (MB), with the aid and encouragement of Tehran. And the ripple effect of what we're seeing is hard to overstate. As the leader of Jordan's powerful Muslim Brotherhood, Hammam Saeed, warned over the weekend [29Jan2011], the unrest in Egypt will spread across the Mideast and Arabs will topple leaders allied with the United States."

Frank Salvato, Director of Terrorism Research for BasicsProject.org, has characterized the MB this way: "The Muslim Brotherhood is a world-wide Sunni Islamist movement, which has spawned several religious and political organizations in the Middle East, including al Qaeda, Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, dedicated to the jihadi credo: 'Allah is our objective, the Quran is our Constitution, the Prophet is our leader, struggle is our way, and death for the sake of Allah is the highest of our aspirations.'"

Do I believe the unrest is being manipulated by the Muslim Brotherhood, that beloved and benevolent group favored by our State Dept and our Director of National Intelligence, by the academics who sit on Saudi-established academic chairs and the media who now doesn't have to worry about job security? Just because the terrorists sponsored by the MB say they are out to kill off Israel and America, do I feel the MB is a menace? Do I worry just because they have been major establishers of front groups in the West? Certainly not.

I don't think it's the whole MB. I think there's a small cadre of them -- in my mind I call them the MBC, the Muslim Brotherhood Cadre. They have spent the last 90 years establishing mosques, stocking them with clerics who preach the need for Islam to be supreme and who are skillful at igniting idealists and psychopaths with the desire to join in this most worthy mission. They are the teachers, the tacticians, the trainers, the script writers, the spine stiffeners. They believe in their way-of-life and their love-of-death. They believe that to live a proper Islamic life, they need only model themselves on the thoughts and actions of that perfect man, Mohammed.

Their unswerving dedication melts resistance in those of other religions who have less zeal and dedication. Mainstream Protestants and Reform Jewry have turned their organizations away from spiritual yearning and the contemplation of how to live in social harmony in a complex society to the simpler goal of social betterment for mankind, where implementation depends on the goal of the month -- multiculturalism, achieving parity in monetary distribution, even academic and job quotas to prove we have no quotas. Islam may have very different ideas on how to achieve the Glory of a UniThink society than its Western allies but it is very strong, clad in the armor of its original, rigid 7th-Century mentation.

Make no mistake about it. The MBC isn't looking to fit into other groups. It isn't interested in tolerating alien ways of thinking or alternative life styles. It wants the world run by Sharia law. And you simply can not have a robust sharia framework within western law, any more than the sun can shine in the middle of the night. If the sun is shining, it isn't night, no matter what the clock says. There really are binary situations. Not all matters are gray.

Sharia brings with it foul-mouthed anti-semitism, an expectation that women, children and servants will be politely subservient and that dhimmi politicians and academics will continue to restructure society to convenience Muslims. There will be no reciprocation. Putting foot baths in college bathrooms and closing traffic on busy streets to accommodate Muslim prayers will not be followed by Muslims spending money on tread mills and soccer balls for all high schoolers. In fact, the dhimmis will be expected to keep a low and respectful profile towards their betters, the followers of Mohammed.
 

THIS SECTION presents some analyses of what's happening in general and in specific countries.

We westerners are apt to see the dynamics in simple terms: are we witnessing the start of a process that will introduce democratic regimes into the Middle East? Or not? It is assumed that if they dissolve tyrannical regimes and vote democratically, they will become like us -- reasonably tolerant of other groups and willing to live in peace with non-Muslims.

Unfortunately, the situation is trinary, not binary. The role of the Islamists needs to be factored into the tug between dictatorial regimes and democratic rule. As Barry Rubin put it: (How Many Dictators Can Stand on the Head of a Policy? February 4, 2011) "What are we going to do -- watch friendly regimes fall to become anti-American, terror-sponsoring Islamist dictatorships for the rest of eternity because we don't want to protect allies and instead watch Islamists taking over every political system in the Middle East?"

The first essays below explore the concept of democracy as applied to the demonstrations and agitation. Later ones examine activity in context of several particular countries. The final segment examines the Muslim Brotherhood, the group most likely to take control in the long run.

To ask again: are we witnessing the start of a process that will introduce democracy into the Muslim Middle East? I can sum up the general conclusion of this section in the words of the then Ass't Sec-of-State Edward Djerejian in reference to an earlier Civil War: Algeria, 1991 -- 'One Man, One Vote, One Time.'

DEMOCRACY AND REVOLUTION

These essays examine the relationship of the ongoing chaos, revolution and violence to democracy. In fact, they ask, what is democracy? Some use the uprising in Egypt as a point of reference -- Egypt is an influential Arab state and was prominent in getting the protests established.

ISLAM + DEMOCRACY = ISLAM
by Edward Cline

  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.
  READ MORE
 

THE GREAT MIDDLE EASTERN DEMOCRACY SHOW HITS A BUMP
by Nidra Poller

  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."
  READ MORE
 

BE CAREFUL WHAT WE WISH FOR
by Seth J. Frantzman

  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.
  READ MORE
 

IS AN EGYPTIAN "DEMOCRACY" A GOOD THING?
by Raymond Ibrahim

  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.
  READ MORE
 

HOW REVOLUTION IS PLAYED OUT IN DIFFERENT COUNTRIES

The first essay in this section is a brief summary of the reactions in some of the countries in the second half of February 2011. The next two discuss some important commonalities between the separate uprisings. The rest examine some of the countries now reacting against their governments and demanding regime change. Differences in expression of dissatisfaction are often understood better when the country's history and/or degree of conformity to its interpretation of the Koran are taken into consideration.

THE NEW MIDDLE EAST AT A GLANCE-COUNTRY BY COUNTRY
Hillel Fendel

  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."
  READ MORE
 

ANTI-SEMITISM: THE NEW NECESSITY FOR ARAB REGIMES
by Mudar Zahran

  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.
  READ MORE
 

YOUTH UPRISING 2011 -- A PLANETARY 1968
Andrew MacKillop

  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.
  READ MORE
 

A FIRSTHAND ACCOUNT OF THE PROTESTS IN EGYPT
by Joshua R. Goodman

  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.
  READ MORE
 

DO THE PROTESTERS WANT DEMOCRACY?
by Andrew C. McCarthy

  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.
  READ MORE
 

EVIDENCE OF ANTI-SEMITISM AT THE EGYPT PROTESTS
by John Rosenthal

  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.
  READ MORE
 

SUNNI WAHHABISM AND SHIISM IN SAUDI ARABIA
by Joshua Teitelbaum

  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.
  READ MORE
 

TUNISIA MELTDOWN
by Marion DS Dreyfus

  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."
  READ MORE
 

JORDAN'S FUTURE CHALLENGES
by Juan José Escobar Stemmann

  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.
  READ MORE
 

QATAR'S GAME
Elliot Jager

  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. She is the home of Al-Jazeera, the pro-Islamist TV network, which has "played a critical role in setting, or codifying, the notion of contemporary pan-Arab unrest." It broadcasts the words of wisdom of al-Qaeda and of Yussuf al-Qaradawi of the Muslim Brotherhood. One reader of the original article commented that "Those who light both ends of a candle will eventually get burnt." So far, Qatar's strategy as deep-pockets silent partner to terrorists seems to be working.
  READ MORE
 

THESE ESSAYS INVESTIGATE THE MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD.

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
by Frank J. Gaffney, Jr.

  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.
  READ MORE
 

EGYPT'S MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD: IN THEIR OWN WORDS
Jonathan D. Halevi

  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.
  READ MORE
 

QARADAWI AND THE TREASON OF THE INTELLECTUALS
Andrew G. Bostom

  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."
  READ MORE
 

SECTION 2:

LONER TERRORISTS AND SMALL-BOAT PIRATES

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

  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.
  READ MORE
 

SOMALI PIRACY HITS AMERICA: SOME QUESTIONS IN NEED OF ANSWERS
J. Peter Pham, Ph.D.

  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.
  READ MORE
 

A CRUISE TO THE COAST OF PIRATE-INFESTED SOMALIA
To-The-Point Cruise Lines

  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.
  READ MORE
 

WISHING FOR ISLAMIC MODERATION AND REFORM

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
by Phyllis Chesler

  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.
  READ MORE
 

THE LONG MARCH OF ISLAM: CHAPTER 9
by R. K. Ohri

  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."
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DOES MUSLIM MODERATION EXIST; IS ISLAMIC REFORM LIKELY?
by Fjordman

  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."
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IS ISRAEL GOING TO CHANGE POLICY AND GROW OR GROVEL AND DIE?

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
Helen Freedman

  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.
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PREEMPTIVE SURRENDER
by David Isaac

  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."
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PLAYING ISRAEL'S GOOD HAND
by Caroline Glick

  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.
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HASBARA, THE WAR FRONT WHERE ISRAEL IS LOSING

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
by Moshe Dann

  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.
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EXPOSING ARAB FALSEHOODS
Martin Sherman

  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. "
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WHO IS URI AVNERY, AND WHY DOES HE MATTER?
by Aryeh Tepper

  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.
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NARRATIVE ISN'T EVERYTHING
by Jonathan Rosenblum

  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.
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A DOZEN BAD IDEAS FOR THE 21ST CENTURY
by Mark Durie

  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.
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HISTORY SECTION

THE WARTIME DIARY OF EDMUND KESSLER
reviewed by Omer Bartov

  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."
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THE MOST HEINOUS KILLERS OF THE HOLOCAUST: THE MUSLIM-CATHOLIC USTASHA
by Edwin Black

  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.
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OPENING PALESTINE'S DOORS
by Rafael Medoff

  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.
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READERS' 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.

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    READ MORE
February 2011 BLOG-EDS    READ MORE



NOVEMBER-DECEMBER, 2010

 

What we are talking about in the November-December 2010 issue:
Hoaxes (Lipkin, Glick, Bernstein, Lipkin, Dann, Ha'Ivri, Sharpe)
Steps on the road to adopting Islam's View of the World (Warner, Nirenstein, Phillips)
Anti-Semites from Church and State (Alexander, Bard, Hertz)
Islamic Intolerance is incompatible with Democracy (Ohri, Fjordman, Ibrahim, Greenfield, Simpson)
Prescription for Peace (Katz, Jacobs, Soloway, Isaac, Halevi, Bernstam)
History Section (Shragai, Joffe and Romirowsky)
Readers' Blog-Ed Pages (November, December)

HOAXES

In this Issue, we start by examining hoaxes -- the kind the Muslims play upon the rest of the world, and the ones they inflict on themselves.

There was a science fiction story a half century ago about a culture that worshipped a god-person, the Supreme Being named, if I remember rightly, Garoma -- well, something like that. As the story develops, we learn that his psychiatrist who knows everyone's secrets believes himself the real power behind the throne, while Garoma is just eye candy for the crowds. Shaggy dog past the number of people who believe they are the real power to the one who really does hold the world in his power. As the story ends, Garamo is being paraded down the street, and everyone screams enthusiastically, "Help us, Garoma." -- including the ultimate holder of power.

By analogy, the Arabs and their pro-peace marxist Pals are excellent at creating realistic hoaxes. With the help of the lackey-media, these hold up, at least until someone looks at them logically. Or until someone takes a photo of the directors setting up the hoax.

What is also becoming clear is that apparently it is as easy for the hoaxsters to fool themselves as it is to fool anyone else. They begin to believe their own lies. The world then can not be trusted. Whoever doesn't agree with them must be lying. Whoever denies Arab claims is conspiring against the Arab world. It can't possibly be that they themselves are not credible. This is not a mentality that is attuned to progress or new knowledge. It won't reject ideas that don't stand up to experience. Indeed, the opposite is true. The world and all within it must conform to the notions the Arab know to be true. There is no room for argument.

So it is that what starts out as a mild self-serving lie becomes a self-induced deception. For the lie to be maintained, the environment often needs to be restructured. The hoax is the natural medium to refit the environment to the proper shape, to provide the right context.
 

HOAXES, STUNTS, SETUPS, MISINTERPRETATIONS, COME IN ALL SIZES of believability. Some assertions have such shock value, their sheer impossibility is ignored. In August 2009, the Swedish journalist Donald Bostom created a blood libel against the Jews out of whole cloth. He claimed some Palestinian Arabs told him how their dead son was taken away by the IDF and returned with large stitches in his midsection. The implication was clear: the Jews were ripping the organs out of innocent terrorists for organ transfer. When you get past the shock value, this is giggle-making. Organs from bullet-riddled terrorists are not suitable for organ transfer. Extracting, preserving and inserting vital organs are tricky procedures; they aren't done under field conditions. What's interesting is that the dead terrorist's relatives initially denied that he was an involuntary organ donor. But after other families took up the charge, they came to claim it as the truth.

Way at the other end of the scale of taking a bizarre interpretation seriously has been the universal reaction to the announcement that the Saudis had captured a Mossad spy -- a vulture. The bird was equipped with a ring with "Tel Aviv University" written on it and a global positioning satellite (GPS) so the Israeli researchers could keep track of their subjects, the birds. Naturally, the Saudis suspected the bird of spying for Israel. Almost everyone treated the story with sarcasm. No one insisted that the Jews come up with evidence the vulture was not a spy. Nor did the Jews volunteer any evidence. It was a pleasant change from the pathetic way Jews explain that, gee whiz, the Temple Mount really does belong to us, honest. Don't ya read the Bible? Who but reactionary Marxists ever doubted it?

 READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE


 

WHEN ISRAELI LEFTISTS TURN AGAINST THEIR COUNTRY WITH HORRENDOUS LIES, THE WORLD MEDIA IS HAPPY TO DISSEMINATE THEM
by Caroline B. Glick

  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 watching it. (click here.) And even if she had been in the thick of things, tear gas is used precisely because it doesn't kill. While these particular accusations unraveled without doing much damage, more often than not, Israel suffers political injury because the rigged situations are certified as legitimate by respected NGOs, many of them Israeli, that will stop at nothing to delegitimize Israel.
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HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH IS BADLY DISTORTING THE ISSUES
by Robert L. Bernstein

  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.
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THE SYMBOLISM OF THE OLIVE TREE
by Bernice Lipkin

  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!
by Moshe Dann

  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.
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OLIVES OF WRATH
by David Ha'ivri

  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.
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LIES, DAMNED LIES, AND ERAKAT
by Victor Sharpe

  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.
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DO WE STILL HAVE THE MENTAL FACULTIES TO REJECT ISLAM IMPOSING ITS VIEW OF THE WORLD ON US?

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
by Bill Warner

  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.
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THE INVENTION OF "PEACE" IN THE MIDDLE EAST
by Fiamma Nirenstein

  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. "
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THE CHALLENGE OF PUBLIC DIPLOMACY VIS-A-VIS THE DELEGITIMISATION OF ISRAEL
by Melanie Phillips

  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.
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ANTISEMITES FROM CHURCH AND STATE

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
by Edward Alexander

  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.
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THE ARAB LOBBY: THE AMERICAN COMPONENT
by Mitchell Bard

  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.
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THE EUROPEAN UNION: NO INNOCENT BYSTANDER, NO HONEST BROKER
by Eli E. Hertz

  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.
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ISLAMIC INTOLERANCE IS INCOMPATIBLE WITH DEMOCRACY

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
by R. K. Ohri

  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.
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WHY ISLAM MUST BE EXPELLED FROM THE WEST
by Fjordman

  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.
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THE ART OF PROJECTING ONE'S VICES, MUSLIM-STYLE
by Raymond Ibrahim

  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.
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ISLAM WAS BORN OUT OF CHILD ABUSE AND RAPE
by Daniel Greenfield

  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.
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THE "PALESTINIAN" ARABS AND THE FORGOTTEN IRANIAN ARABS
by Steven Simpson

  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?
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PRESCRIPTION FOR PEACE

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
by Shmuel Katz

  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.
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JEWISH MALWARE
by Charles Jacobs

  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?
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THE "TWO-STATE DELUSION": WHO WANTS A "TWO-STATE SOLUTION"?
by Alan Soloway

  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.
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THE SETTLEMENTS AND THE MONSTROUS CHARGE OF ILLEGALITY
by David Isaac

  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.
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THE PALESTINIAN REFUGEES ON THE DAY AFTER "INDEPENDENCE"
by Jonathan D. Halevi

  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?
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PALESTINIAN PROLETARIAT
by Michael S. Bernstam

  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.
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HISTORY SECTION

RACHEL'S TOMB, A JEWISH HOLY PLACE, WAS NEVER A MOSQUE
by Nadav Shragai

  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.
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A TALE OF TWO GALLOWAYS: Notes on the Early History of UNRWA and Zionist Historiography
by Alexander H. Joffe and Asaf Romirowsky

  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.
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READERS' 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.

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    READ MORE
December 2010 BLOG-EDS    READ MORE



SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER, 2010

 

What we are talking about in the September-October 2010 issue:

SECTION 1:
Positive Proposals To Resolve The Palestinian-Israeli Conflict (Lipkins, Shulman, Sherman, Meltzer, Lipkin )
International Acknowledgment of Israel as the Nation-State of the Jewish people (Grief, Teitelbaum, Zebulon)
The Unworkable:The Last Four Decades of Peace Babble (Glick, Isaac, Sherman, Sharpe, Dann, Karsh, Silverberg)
SECTION 2:
Muslims, Moderate and Immoderate (Editorial, McCarthy, Fjordman, Goldberg, Think-Israel Staff, Imani, Ibrahim)
The Muslim Brotherhood in the West (Dann, Emerson, Rubin, Dry Bones, Kilpatrick)
Assymetrical Warfare (Beres, Perdue, Norwitz, Ohri)
Academics and Media that Favor Arabs and Malign Jews (Murphy, Berdichevsky)
History Section (Laskin, Dykes)
Readers' Blog-Ed Pages (September, October)

SECTION 1:

POSITIVE PLANS FOR RESOLVING THE PALESTINIAN-ISRAELI CONFLICT

More and more people have come to realize that creating a Palestinian Arab state from Biblical Israel will go a long way towards destroying Israel. Creating a single state of Arabs and Jews would destroy the only Jewish state in the world even faster. What the three proposals in this section have in common is that they they go beyond simply rejecting the current solutions that are on the table. They make suggestions that may have a better chance of succeeding. Independent of each other, they examine different aspects of the problem.

The Lipkins suggest a 2-state solution, where the state housing the Arabs from the refugee camps and the Arabs from the Territories is located within the Arab land holdings. Seemingly drastic, it is actually an example of a routine 2-stage population transfer, where the first stage occurred in the 1940s and '50s when the Jews were forced to flee from the Arab countries. It suggests that given current political events, the time for establishing such a viable Palestinian State is propitious. It would solve many current and potential problems at one fell swoop. Martin Sherman's essay suggests working with individual Arab families rather than with their political leaders, gifting each family with a "dowry" that would make it attractive to some Muslim country. Richard Shulman takes a stepwise approach to attacking the problem and emphasizes that much of the solution lies in Israel's changing many of the ways it does things. He also identifies factors and concepts that have dominated the peace process but that are mostly irrelevent, immoral or just plain wrong. These should not be considered in a solution.

Any workable plan will need to factor in annexing the Territories as Yoel Meltzer observes. We also reprint "The Case for Population Exchange" of the Jewish and Arab populations, basic reading for a clear understanding of the issues involved. Additional thoughtful suggestions for solving the Palestinian arab problem can be found by searching in the Google box above. For a previous collection of ideas, see here.

AN ALTERNATIVE 2-STATE SOLUTION
by Bernice Sacks Lipkin and Lewis Edward Lipkin;
appendix by Richard H. Shulman

  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.
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A NEW PLAN FOR RESOLVING THE ARAB-ISRAELI CONFLICT
by Richard H. Shulman

  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.
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THE PALESTINIAN PROBLEM: A REAL SOLUTION
by Martin Sherman

  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.
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ANNEXATION NOW!
by Yoel Meltzer

  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.
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THE CASE FOR POPULATION EXCHANGE
by Lewis Lipkin

  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"
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INTERNATIONAL ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF ISRAEL AS THE NATION-STATE OF THE JEWISH PEOPLE

LEGAL RIGHTS AND TITLE OF SOVEREIGNTY OF THE JEWISH PEOPLE TO THE LAND OF ISRAEL AND PALESTINE UNDER INTERNATIONAL LAW
by Howard Grief

  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.
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ISRAEL AS THE NATION-STATE OF THE JEWISH PEOPLE: FROM SAN REMO TO THE NETANYAHU-ABBAS TALKS
by Joshua Teitelbaum

  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]
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SETTLEMENTS, AGREEMENTS, LEGITIMACY
by Michael Zebulon

  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.
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THE UNWORKABLE: THE LAST FOUR DECADES OF PEACE BABBLE

Has anyone scraped away the Arab fantasies to examine whether there is any substance at the core of their assertions? Has anyone asked why the Palestinians, whose "peoplehood" hasn't reached the half-century mark, are entitled to any land they claim, while the Kurds, a legitimate people, are given no opportunity to control their own lives? Has anyone thought through the consequences of the off-and-on peace offensive, should it -- has v'halila -- be put into motion? Has anyone examined the attitudes of the groups involved? Has anyone considered that maybe a new approach is needed?

DO JEWS HAVE CIVIL RIGHTS?
by Caroline B. Glick

  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.
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THE OSTRICH ACCORDS
by David Isaac

  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.
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THEATER OF THE ABSURD
by Martin Sherman

  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.
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WHOSE IS THE LAND?
by Victor Sharpe

  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.
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O, PALESTINE!
by Moshe Dann

  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.
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JUSTICE FOR PALESTINE
by Efraim Karsh

  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.
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NEGOTIATING IN THE MIDDLE EAST: HOW THE OTHER SIDE SEES IT
by Mark Silverberg

  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.
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SECTION 2:

EDITORIAL: MUSLIMS, MODERATE AND IMMODERATE

Isn't it odd that almost a decade after 9/11 we don't have a specific term for the enemy that declared war on Israel and the West? We know them, even if we haven't yet settled on a name for them. Should we call them islamofascists? Islamocists? Islamic extremists? Muslim freedom fighters? Islamists? Are they a handful of criminals not in touch with their religion? Are they Muslims driven mad by western hostility? Are they Muslims driven to retaliation for something or other perpetrated by Israel and/or the West against Islam or against the founder of Islam or against some Muslims somewhere? Or are they simply ordinary run-of-the mill Muslims conforming to the tenets of their religion, living a life style sanctioned by their religion, with the attitudes instilled by their religion? Is the enemy Islam itself? If so, perhaps we should call it Resurgent Islam, now that Islam has the money to carry out a sustained and well-planned attack to make Islam become the dominant religion world-wide?

Then there's a category we can name readily -- we're just not sure it exists. Define for me, if you will, a moderate muslim? Is it your neighbor who grills hot dogs at his fancy backyard chef station? You don't discuss politics or religion with him -- it would be rude. Sometimes you wonder what would happen if you offend him -- and uneasily stifle that thought. Is it the girl wearing a head scarf and smart jeans, shopping at the mall? Is it, as is claimed, all but a very few, the criminal few we have a problem naming.

 READ THE ENTIRE EDITORIAL
 

WHO SAYS ISLAM IS TOTALITARIAN?
by Andrew C. McCarthy

  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.
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ON THE ILLUSION OF A MODERATE ISLAM
by Fjordman

  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.
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THE NATURE OF THE BEAST
by Steven Goldberg

  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. "
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THE RAMALLAH LYNCHING
Material from FreeRepublic Blog; revised by Think-Israel Staff

  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.
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WHAT IS ISLAM?
by Amil Imani

  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."
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OFFENSIVE JIHAD: THE ONE INCONTROVERTIBLE PROBLEM WITH ISLAM
by Raymond Ibrahim

  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.
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THE MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD IN THE WEST

THE MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD: ISLAM'S GLOBAL CHALLENGE TO THE WEST
by Moshe Dann

  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.
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WASHINGTON'S SCHIZOPHRENIC APPROACH TOWARD THE MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD
by Steve Emerson

  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?
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MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD DECLARES WAR ON AMERICA; WILL AMERICA NOTICE?
by Barry Rubin

  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.
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THE ROAD TO SHARIA
by William Kilpatrick

  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.
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ASSYMETRICAL WARFARE

These essays examine aspects of assymetrical warfare, which usually refers to methods by which a weak military force can control events and immobilize or at least weaken a more powerful but conventional military force. Less familiar is lawfare as practiced by Judge Goldstone and the U.N. Human RIghts Council (UNHRC), where a supposedly respectable group is both judge, jury and arbiter of what evidence is admissible. Goldstone and the UNHRC misused international law against a legitimate state to support terrorists, who played the role of weak innocents, but who do not see themselves as bound by international law. We also suggest that overpopulating a host country to hog the country's welfare resources is using the country's benevolence against itself.

FACING EXISTENTIAL HARM: RECOMMENDATIONS FOR ISRAEL'S STRATEGIC FUTURE
by Louis Reneé Beres

  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.
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PRECLUSIONARY ENGAGEMENT
by Jon B. Perdue

  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.
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GOLDSTONE AND THE GUERILLA FLOTILLA: AN EMERGING PATTERN OF LAWFARE
by Trevor S. Norwitz

  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.
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THE LONG MARCH OF ISLAM: CHAPTER 7
by R. K. Ohri

  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.
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ACADEMICS AND MEDIA THAT FAVOR ARABS AND MALIGN JEWS

ISLAM AS POLITICS: EDWARD SAID'S ACCOUNT OF ISLAM
by Paul Austin Murphy

  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.
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THE NEW YORK TIMES AND BBC; JUST THE NEWS THEY SEE FIT TO PRINT
by Norman Berdichevsky

  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.
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HISTORY SECTION

VISITING RELATIVES
by David Laskin

  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."
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BRITAIN BOMBED SHIPS THAT WERE TO TRANSPORT JEWS AFTER HOLOCAUST
by Brett Michael Dykes

  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.
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READERS' 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.

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    READ MORE
October 2010 BLOG-EDS    READ MORE



JULY-AUGUST, 2010

 

What we are talking about in the July-August 2010 issue:

Editorial: Israel's Exceptionalism
Distorted Morality. Double Standards. Beinart-Style Lies
The Ubiquitous Muslim Brotherhood
The Ground Zero Mosque and Promoting Sharia (McCarthy, Kumar, Sharpe, Ramelah)
Fallout from the Flotilla (Gross, Meir-Levi, Ahmed)
Intellectuals, politicians and NGOs (Sherman, Adams, Beker, Fredman, Sieff,Gilligan, Landes, McQuaid, Suseelan, Rubin, Smith)
Media Anti-semitism (Greenfield, McQuillan)
Destabilzation of the Middle East (Greenwald, Phares, Lerner, Shapira, McKillop)
The Wrong Priority: A New Round of Peace Talks (FSM, Stern, Lademain, Aumann, Simpson, Belman, Grief)
The Right Priority: Countering Sharia and Resurgent Islam (Warner, Miller, Joe Settler, Greenfield, Ohri)
Israeli Society (Berdichevsky, Glick, Yemini)
5th Year Commeration of the Gush Katif Expulsion (Saperstein, Fendel, Vanunu, Dann)
History Section (Pollack, Price, Shragai )
Readers' Blog-Ed Pages (July, August)

ISRAEL'S EXCEPTIONALISM

If this issue has a theme, it's Israel's exceptionalism. There's the double standard - for Israel, one standard; for all other countries, another.

Or perhaps it's that Israel is held to a higher standard. But, as in producing Hebrew National hotdogs, it's one thing if Israel itself sets its goals high; it's another when the gang-up of the EU and UN and American State Dept sets an unobtainable standard and faults Israel for not meeting it.

And there's the double talk. When triumphalist Muslims want to mark their 9/11 victory over the west, the bray is "Religous Freedom." When Israel want to build for its expanding population on land that is their own, the tune changes.

Pathological joy in death, murder for trivia, wholesale killing of civilians, subjugation of women and minorities, no protection of individualism are so common in Muslim countries, they are ignored. Genocidal Arabs deliberately target Jewish cars, babies held in their parent's arms, children walking to school in the early morning, and the moralists of the West defend these murderers. After all, the Po' Palestinians have so few ways of defending themselves; and no one asks: against what? Let Israelis be forced to defend themselves, as when the IDF sailors finally fought back against the Gaza flotilla's Turkish mercernaries, and it's deemed a war crime.

Why the hostility to Israel? A modern miracle. A celebration of life. An ancient people have redeemed their own land and in developing the modern reincarnation of their state, have made life better for everyone with their creative innovations in science, engineering, medicine and art. But -- putting aside the purchasing of hate propaganda by the Arabs against Israel -- Israel's exceptionalism does contribute to making people uneasy. Israel does things that are just too different. It makes folks suspicious. They start figuring there must be a really dark and nasty reason for what Israel is doing. Who else puts its own soldiers at risk to save the lives of enemy civilians who respond by juryrigging bombs and leading the soldiers to their deaths? What other court system won't allow the destruction of abandonned houses used by Arab snipers to shoot at Jewish cars?? Who else waits years to respond to missiles lobbed at its civilian population? To go from no response to even minimal response -- no wonder the U.N. called it a war crime. It was just too steep a gradient.

What other state wouldn't mention that it is the most legitimate of states -- and owns its land by Biblical promise, by history, by international law, by overcoming invaders in wars it didn't start. Israel knows that the only land it is occupying is its own. It knows that there never was a Arab Palestine. It knows that the "Palestinians" are immigrants; some 95% of them came after 1900. Yet it makes desperate attempts to share the land, as if by giving up what is most dear to it, it will win peace from monomaniacal neighbors whose goal is its destruction. Who else would supply the hostile Arabs in the Territories with food and medicine, water and electricity, especially when the Arabs take pop shots at the men who come to repair the electricity lines? Who else bolsters the throne of a neighboring monarch who shows his gratitude by trashing Israel whenever he can? Who else would continue to provide Jordan with water and security? Jordan is hosting an international conference on chemical sciences -- another area where Israelis are topnotch -- and didn't invite any Israeli speakers. Prominent chemists complained about this discrimination, but the President of the Israel Chemical Society subverted the protest by writing to some thousand chemical society members suggesting they still attend the conference.

Even Israeli Marxists are pecular. The universities are filled with Marxists who advocate that the academics of the world boycott Israeli universities and forgo collaborations with Israeli academics. If their international comrades act on their plea, they will be the ones that suffer.

Years ago during the horrors of the second intifada -- when after a bombing they were scraping exploded brain tissue off pavements and doctors were removing rusty nails coated in rat poison from little Jewish children -- I asked a waitress why Israel didn't just bomb the terrorists and their families. "Oh no, she said, 'we're not like them."

To paraphrase Hillel, if you don't stand up for yourself, who will stand up for you? If you have no self-respect, why shouldn't the world dump on you?


DISTORTED MORALITY. DOUBLE STANDARDS. BEINART-STYLE LIES

The contrast between the insistence that the Ground Zero Mosque is for peace and brotherhood and the images of Arabs celebrating murder -- from their joyous dancing on 9/11 and now as they celebrate their latest massacre, a drive-past shooting of Jews riding in an automobile -- has sharpened the disparity between the belief in the nobility of the "Palestinian" cause and the reality of their barbaric cult of murder. The pretentiousness of the Gaza flotilla's putative aims versus its cold-blood actual goals is also percolating through people's consciousness.

3,000 Hamas Supporters Celebrate the Cold-Blooded Murder of Four Jews and a Fetus (Additional photos available at VIciousBabushka.)

This set of articles examines some of the new questioning about the morality of not holding the Arabs to any standard of civilization while insisting that however careful Israel is, that's isn't good enough. The initial reference is to the Muslim Brotherhood, the glue that holds all these together: the Mosque promoters; the Flotilla; the Arab-aiders from academia, government, and the media. The many-tentacled Muslim Brotherhood wants to reestablish the supremacy of Islam globally. And it has the patience and resources to have a real chance.

The first set discusses the increasing understanding that the Mosque symbolizes Islamic triumphalism and will become a new center for introducing Sharia law. The next set points to some new thinking inspired by the flotilla fiasco. The next set examines attacks on Israel by those who purport to be objective academics, compassionate humanitarians or fair-minded politicians; and finally we look at routine attacks by the media.

 

THE UBIQUITOUS MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD
From: Steven Merley, "The Muslim Brotherhood in the United States," Series No 2, Paper No 3, April, 2009, Hudson Institute.
To download the monograph, click here.
 

The Ground Zero Mosque and Promoting Sharia

IT'S ABOUT SHARIA: NEWT GINGRICH RESETS OUR NATIONAL-SECURITY DEBATE
by Andrew C. McCarthy

  This morning I listened to a vapid press sitcom on TV discussing why whitebread America has taken an aversion to Islam. Different reasons, none of them having much to do with Islam's own behavior, or with its single-minded mission to convert the whole world to Sharia. The Ft. Hood massacre was done by a crazy, we are told; not a word about Major Nidal Hasan's attendance at a mosque that preached hate or about a military too timid to confront obvious signs of treasonable behavior, All in all, the Press and this administration seem to be the last to know that Americans are concerned with each new manifestation of resurgent Islam because they don't want to be enveloped in sharia law. As Andrew McCarthy makes clear, the politicians have received a forceful push from Newt Gingrich toward having to take a position: are you for or against sharia? That is the question. The only important question. When or if the Press will wean themselves away from their 20th century concerns is anyone's guess.
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THE MUSLIM MOSQUE: A STATE WITHIN A STATE
by Vijay Kumar

  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.
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THE MOSQUES OF WAR
by Victor Sharpe

  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"
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LOYALTY TO ISLAM IS PRIMARY. IT HAS NO BORDERS, NO EXCEPTIONS
by Ashraf Ramelah

  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.
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Fallout from the Flotilla

GAZA SNAPSHOTS
by Tom Gross

  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.
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THE GAZA FLOTILLA CONFRONTATION: FACTS VERSUS THE ACADEMICIANS
by David Meir-Levi

  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."
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ISRAEL AND THE FLOTILLA: ON THE DANGERS OF A BINARY VIEW
by Qanta Ahmed, MD

  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.
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The immoral lies of intellectuals, politicians and the NGOs who aid and abet the Muslim cause, either because they sympathize with it or because they hate Israel and Judaism.

WOEFULLY IGNORANT OR WILLFULLY MISLEADING?
by Martin Sherman

  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.
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FAILED ZIONISM — LIBERAL UTOPIANISM AND THE ABANDONMENT OF ISRAEL
by D.L. Adams

  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." This has led to pretzelated reasoning to condemn Israel by the ordinary Leftist, which is bad enough. When it comes from Jews -- especially Jews who claim exemption from attack for maligning Israel because their grandparents were Holocaust survivers — it is obscene. To make his case, Adams examines Peter Beinert's distorted and confused bluster, deconstructions that rise above earthly facts and are not to be questioned. As such, they can serve — and this says much about today's academic intellectual — as a crib sheet chock full of authoritative arguments for Leftist anti-zionists, who, with no sense of irony, condemn Jews for supporting the Jewish state instead of giving all their devotion to liberalism's ideology, just as the early Marxists condemned Jews making aliyah to create a particularistic workers' paradise instead of concentrating on global revolution.
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EXPOSING HOW POST-ZIONISTS MANIPULATE HISTORY
by Avi Beker

  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.
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PRECISION-GUIDED OR INDISCRIMINATE? NGO REPORTING ON COMPLIANCE WITH THE LAWS OF ARMED CONFLICT
by Asher Fredman

  In this seminal investigation, Asher Fredman asks: how accurate are Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) in their conclusions when judged by objective standards? The Daily Alert website (9Jul10) describes the study this way: "This monograph analyzes the factual and legal claims of two of the most powerful NGOs, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, regarding the 2009 conflict in Gaza, particularly relating to Israel's use of white phosphorus and UAVs. The analysis demonstrates that many of the factual claims made by the NGOs are contradicted by military sources, weapons experts, and media reports, and their presentation of key aspects of international law is inaccurate or incomplete." As Fredkin notes, "The NGOs may be engaged in 'standard setting' rather than in objective evaluations." Contrary to their public image, many NGOs are heavily politicized, promoting a particular agenda rather than doing the impartial monitoring they claim to do.
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DON'T TAKE HAMAS'S GOALS OUT OF THE EQUATION
by Michelle Sieff

  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.