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.
  READ MORE
 

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.
  READ MORE
 

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.
  READ MORE
 

From: Steven Merley, "The Muslim Brotherhood in the United States," Series No 2, Paper No 3, April, 2009, Hudson Institute.
Download: http://www.think-israel.org/merley.usbrotherhood.pdf

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 villian, 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.
  READ MORE
 

WOEFULLY IGNORANT OR WILLFULLY MISLEADING?
by Martin Sherman

  Martin Sherman examines Peter Beinart's assertion that "American Jews, especially the yourger 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.
  READ MORE
 

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 aguments 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-Muslim 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.
  READ MORE
 

LOSING TURKEY TO THE ISLAMISTS
by Barbara Lerner

  Since the Turkish P.M.Recep Tayyip Erdogan took power in 2002, his AKP party has been turning Turkey from a secular society into an anti-Western Islamic state, whose ambition is to become the leader of the Islamic world. Nevertheless, the EU and the American administration have the fantasy that the Turkish military — Turkey's strongest proponent of secularism — is the threat to the West, not the AKP. Western leadership considers the new Turkey neo-Ottoman. Barbara Lerner demolishes this notion, pointing out that the AKP has adopted the standard Islamic cliches for showing animosity to the West and Israel and is encouraging the Turks to adopt a more uniform Islamic way of life, one more in conformity with the general hate-filled Islamic ideology pervasive in the Middle East. In contrast, under the Ottomans, providing the subject people — Muslim, Christian, Jew -- paid the required tribute, they pretty much governed their own communities. This led to multiple patterns of governance, multiple ways to express the various cultures, different living conditions and some opportunity for upward mobility. Turkey was relatively open under the Ottomans and in this way the Ottomans served as a model for Atatürk, not Erdogan.
  READ MORE
 

RETHINKING SECURITY IN THE NEW NUCLEAR AGE
by Andrew McKillop

  There's little argument that it is important to find alternative sources of energy to to reduce dependency on fossil fuel, particularly when the major suppliers are unstable theocracies in an unstable part of the world. From that point of view, nuclear energy has many advantages. And indeed non-military nuclear reactors are beginning to proliferate. Andrew McKillop explores some of the less pleasant possibilities that deserve serious thought before we commit to an extreme makeover. What happens if a reactor is attacked with conventional weapons during a convential war? How are nuclear products maintained and stored? What about the interdependence of civil and military nuclear installations? Given the finite amount of initial material, the solution is usually to advocate building Fast Breeder Reactors, which can create more fuel than is consumed in the process of making the fuel. But this creates another set of problems. As the waste plutonium accumulates, it becomes harder to keep it safe and out of the hands of terrorists; and it is increasingly susceptible to outside attack. How do we define national security under these new conditions?
  READ MORE
 

ISRAELI DEMOGRAPHICS 101. E PLURIBUS UNUM
by Norman Berdichevsky

  This seemingly simple essay condenses a large amount of information on the demographic characteristics of Israeli society. Norman Berdichevsky provides a framework for the interactions and history of some of the major components of Israeli society. He tracks the ongoing integration of the groups — the "Zionist ideal of Kibbutz uMizug haGaluyot (Ingathering and Mixing of the Exiles)" He points out that much of the bad-mouthing of Israel comes from Marxists, "at a loss to explain the survival of the Jewish people and their reconstitution as a nation." According to Marxist doctrine, this wasn't supposed to happen. More generally, national differences everywhere were supposed to disappear, and a working class with solidly working-class concerns emerge. Israel's non-conformity to theory apparently is particularly galling.
  READ MORE
 

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 towards 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.
  READ MORE
 

ISRAEL'S RULING CLASS
by Caroline Glick

  In a recent article Angelo Codevilla pointed out that America's elitist ruling class — politicians, bureaucrats and the policy establishment — thinks much the same despite surface differences in politics and is committed to gaining still more power. It doesn't much much like the rest of America, which prefers smaller government and more individualism. In this essay Caroline Glick applies Codevilla's thesis to the ruling class in Israel, which perverts the will of the majority on behalf of "world opinion" and sometimes in actual collusion with foreign governments. Some of these have actually committed treason, as in the recent example where a trio of far left ex-IDF officers conspired with Obama's agent so that USA could know and have arguments ready to counter Netanyahu's arguments. They "and their leader Yossi Beilin are always working with the Americans and Europeans to force Israel to maintain allegiance to the failed land for peace paradigm." Israel has little margin for error. It is a small country surrounded by hostile neighbors that have the support of the U.N., the E.U. and the American administration. Hence, the mischief-making of this unpatriotic internal elite leadership could have dire consequences.
  READ MORE
 

THE MEDIA'S ANTI-SEMITIC HATE MACHINE
byDaniel Greenfield

  How well Daniel Greenfield explains how anti-semitism is justified, despite the fact that the Arabs are the ones waging the war against Israel: "by linking Islamic terrorism to some form of Israeli provocation, and from there to the support for Israel by American Jews — the same media which would commit seppuku rather than blame Muslims for Islamic terrorism, instead blames Jews for Islamic terrorism." The amazing thing is that this brain-dead logic works, as it has in previous periods of anti-semitic media attack. We can't have the Arabs humiliated — the poor dears were terribly frustrated when they wanted to kill off the new-born state of Israel and couldn't hack it. Curious, the fact that the Jews had a kingdom in the ME in ancient time — that's too long ago. The fact that in the last 60 years, the Jews have fought back the Arab invaders and took back land that was theirs anyways by international law is unacceptable because conquest in modern times is unacceptable. The Arabs came and conquered the land in the 7th Century A.D. — ah, that's just right. Not too old, not too new. What the media are really saying is that the Jews are a thorn in the side of an Arab entity in the Middle East that would otherwise be a unified people ready to conquer the West. This is Intolerable. The Jews surviving, that is. Not the conquest of the West.
  READ MORE
 

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.
  READ MORE
 

THE HIDDEN COSTS OF JEW-BAITING IN ENGLAND
by Richard Landes

  As Muslims take over London, demanding special treatment, forcing the local communities to conform to their requirements, expanding territory that they alone control and where they determine "dress and behavior codes", it is curious that the English — journalists, academics, jurors — show little overt concern or protest. Instead, they displace their anger on the Jews, perhaps because there is no penalty for baiting Jews, no danger in demonizing Israel. Conversely they are careful how they behave towards the Muslims and rarely criticize them openly — there's both fear of physical harm and fear of being called islamaphobic by their peers. As Landes notes, "By failing to denounce toxic Muslim communitarianism and instead adopting its shrill discourse of demonization about Jews, Brits feed the monster that devours them." The Jews may be the first victims of the Muslim takeover; they won't be the last.
  READ MORE
 

WIKIPEDIA'S JEWISH PROBLEM
by Karin McQuillan

  It's pointless urging the ignorant to get the facts when their resources are tainted from the getgo. We've discovered MacMillian's encyclopedia is er...er.. unreliable. Wikipedia is not actually acceptable as a certified source, but it has the advantage of being free, so it is popular. But, as the saying goes, there really aren't any free lunches. The cost is that the unscrupulous can as easily write the "facts" as the conscientous and unbiased. And civility isn't a requirement. This is fertile ground for pro-palestinians with a political agenda and little concern for accuracy. Karin McQuillan shares with us her personal experience attempting to insert her very accurate article on how the New York Times handled news of the Holocaust during World War 2 so badly that one can only call it willful negligance, if not outright cooperation with the Nazi killing machine. They knew about the camps, the killings, the horrors. They barely wrote of it as news or editorialized it. McQuillan discovered her article was not considered worthy of inclusion in Wiki by some very hostile editors. As one reader commented, "so basically Wikipedia functions like the UN."
  READ MORE
 

THE GAZA FLOTILLA CONFRONTATION: FACTS VS. 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 his 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 the obvious or distorted 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."
  READ MORE
 

THE NAKBA OBSESSION: THE PALESTINIAN NATIONAL NARRATIVE IS THE BIGGEST OBSTACLE TO PEACE IN THE MIDDLE EAST
by Sol Stern

  Why are the Arab refugees different from all other refugees? Why do all refugees have one U.N. agency (UNHCR) to help them survive the crisis and resettle them after a brief time — and these Arab refugees have their own dedicated U.N. agency (UNRWA) that has fed, educated and medicated them and their descendents and discouraged resettlement? Why have all other refugees fled from countries that include all the religions but Jewish — and the Arab refugees are the only ones that ran from the Jewish state? Is the explanation that these Arab refugees (now declared to be the Palestinian people) are the only weapon Islam has to try to deny the Jews their homeland? Is that why — compared to true refugees — they live high off the hog (oops, make that lamb) not just in the refugee camps scattered in the Arab countries but in Gaza and the West Bank, foot soldiers in an campaign conducted by a wide number of disparate groups that can not admit in their politically-correct milieu that they hate Jews. In this essay, Sol Stern discusses the Nakba — the Ur-legend that bolsters the fantasy that the innocent Palestinians were forceably cast out from their garden of Eden into wretchedness by a foreign force, (twirl the mustache, here) international Zionism.
  READ MORE
 

ASSESSING ISLAM'S REACH: AN INTERVIEW WITH DANIEL PIPES
an interview with Daniel Pipes by Elwood McQuaid

  In this interview, Daniel Pipes comments on several aspects of Muslim global activity: the large and aggressive immigration of Muslims into Europe; Iran's acquisition of nuclear weapons; and Arab harrassment of Jews, Christians and non-conformist Muslims. A serious problem is that there is no common ground in interpreting Muslim behavior. Explanations range from the optimistic belief that terrorism is due a few bad guys who are atypical of Islam to the assertion that "Islam itself is the problem. ..., with jihad, honor killings, and the like. Islam is itself evil and problematic." It certainly doesn't encourage Muslims to conform to the mores of their host countries when academics and even governments ignore radical Muslim behavior and, instead, persecute those who fight for Western values.
  READ MORE
 

ALBERT THE ALLIGATOR AND THE BRITISH AMBASSADOR
by Barry Rubin

  Barry Rubin makes a strong case that "... nowadays, the most common way of dealing with radicalism, repression, terrorism, and such things in the Third World is to blame it on democratic states so often victimized by such issues." Rubin points out this view ignores the reality: no matter how conciliatory Israel and the West are, "incitement and indoctrination will continue at the same level from those who hate Israel because it exists." To blame the West is actually to patronize the other side. It implies we believe the Muslim world "is merely a blank screen or mirror, reflecting back what we do." It implies that the other side is incapable of setting its own goals. Muslims are often brutally and viciously evil because of their culture and upbringing. They need to change their world view. We don't need to accept responsibility for it.
  READ MORE
 

LEBANON: AYATOLLAH FADLALLAH'S DEATH AND THE EXPANSION OF IRANIAN HEGEMONY
by Shimon Shapira

  Shimon Shapira provides us with an analytical perspective on the life of the recently-deceased Shiite religious leader, Sayyed Muhammed Hussein Fadlallah. He is praised in the West as a peaceful scholar, moral and progressive. In actuality, "[h]e played a leading role in the increasing Islamic radicalization of Lebanese Shiites and laid the foundations for Hizbullah's ideology of violent struggle against the West and Israel." True, he did speak out against wife-beating and rejected the authority of Iran's Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on religious grounds, but these hardly nullify his commitment to jihad against Israel and the West and his condonning the murder of Jewish youngsters massacred as they sat studying in their Yeshiva. He was both dedicated and persuasive doing psych-ops among the Shi'ites in Southern Lebanon on behalf of Iran-owned Hizbollah. Without irony, we can say he was as peaceful as his religion; the word "peaceful" no more fitted him than it fits his religion.
  READ MORE
 

THE TRUTH ABOUT "PALESTINE"
by Steven Simpson

  Nowadays many a propagandist talks about Palestine as if such a sovereign political entity exists anywhere except in the fancy-filled illogic of Jew-haters. It doesn't exist. What's more. It never did. The fallback position of these Jew-haters when forced to admit the facts is: but the land belongs to the natives that were driven out or marginalized when Israel became a state. Again, this is wrong. Some 90-95% of these natives started coming into the land after the Jews and the Brits started creating economic opportunities. Steven Simpson provides us with an excellent history of the development of the "Palestine" myth, which has become one of the more important ways to attack the legitimacy of the Jewish state. Unlike Palestine, the legitimacy of Israel is warranted by history, morality, international law and the rules of conquest.
  READ MORE
 

HOLLOW MEN
by Lee Smith

  Lee Smith inquires why so many Western intellectuals admire terrorist organizations. The 'he loved his mother' defense is often used: Hezbollah and Hamas provide social services; Mullah Fadlalah was sort of pro-feminist, so let's forget he loved suicide-bombers and hated Israel. What is worrisome is not just that they despise Israel but that their ideas could go mainstream. As Smith notes, "all the massive and popular evil of the last century started among a small ideological elite." Their attitude is surprising given that intellectuals provided much of the manpower of the early settlers. Hebrew owes its ability to deal with the modern world because an intellectual created new labels and definitions from it. The miracle of rebirth of the Jewish nation-state has grandeur, even if it isn't the violent, gothic, irrational, swashbuckling sort the intellectuals appear to crave. Lee Smith suggests that what these Western intellectuals really hate isn't Israel; it's themselves.
  READ MORE
 

ISLAMIC COGNITIVE DISSONANCE AND LIBERAL INCENTIVES
by Babu Suseelan

  It's an odd couple. Islam with its dysfunctional belief system, its severe punishment of any behavior it considers deviant and its rigid control of all aspects of life has a political liason with Western far-left liberalism, which finds excuses for whatever the Muslims do, despite the fact that in theory liberal ideology espouses the non-judgmental acception of all sorts of life styles. Babu Suseelan notes that to defend Islam, secular liberals ignore gruesome murders by Muslims, Islamic terrorism and the Koranic basis of that terrorism, even though they themselves would be at risk in an Islamic society. To live in a democratic society, it's the wrong strategy.
  READ MORE
 

DIRECT TALK ABOUT DIRECT TALKS
by Paul Lademain

  This essay by Paul Lademain could have been entitled: how to grow a spine — advice for Israeli diplomats. In the next round of that interminable game called 'Let's make peace' OR 'Chop another piece out of Israel', he suggests putting Israel's interests first and worrying about Israelis instead of wanting to show an indifferent world how cooperative Israel can be. I find it hard to believe that Israel, which by international law holds Samaria and Judea in trust for all Jews, allows itself to be put into a position where it is negotiating the future of Biblical Israel (Samaria and Judea). And to make this a real farce, the term of office for their peace partner, Abbas, expired early in 2009; he isn't legally in office any more. He doesn't speak for Hamas. He doesn't control Fatah, which runs the P.A. So who does he represent? Why are his demands taken seriously? Why are the demands of that phony people, the Palestinians, taken seriously?
  READ MORE
 

THE BLACKMAILER'S PARADOX: ARAB-ISRAEL NEGOTIATIONS ARE A GAME
by Prof. Yisrael Aumann

  Professor Yisrael Aumann applies game theory to how to negotiate with Arabs. In the Blackmailer's Paradox, it is the side that doesn't flinch, that makes unreasonable demands and doesn't compromise, that walks home with the goodies. To date the Arabs have played the game better, convincing Israel to be the one that must compromise. Aumann suggests some necessary changes in Israel's negotiating stance. Of course in real life, the problem is more complex. Negotiation implies a willingness to compromise. Unfortunately, the Arabs aren't just unreasonable — the goal of Islam's leaders is to destroy Israel, no matter what the costs. But Aumann is certainly right that the Israelis need some street smarts.
  READ MORE
 

SHARIA LAW FOR NON-MUSLIMS: CHAPTERS 4 AND 5.
by Bill Warner

  In the May-June 2010 issue, we presented the first three chapters of Bill Warner's Sharia Law for Non-Muslims. The books is short, understandable, well-organized and clarifies important issues. It is good to have available to counter the incomplete information promulgated by many Islamic sources and sources that have accepted Arab money. For example, when you are told that sharia banking is fine because some of its profits go to charity, check with Warner's book. You will find that the statement is true, but a Muslim is forbidden to spend any of it on a Kafir. A Kafir is anyone who is not a Muslim. When the text speaks well of Jews or Christians, check whether it is a earlier verse or a later verse. Later verses nullify earlier verses. The entire book is now available.
  READ MORE
 

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, Muslim 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"
  READ MORE
 

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

A Blog-Ed page has a quick list of the articles from which you can access any of the articles immediately. To go to the list, click the "Blog-Eds List" box in the Blue Strip on the top of the Blog-Ed page.

July 2010 BLOG-EDS    READ MORE

What we are talking about in the May-June 2010 issue: In-Your-Face "Activism" (Sarke, Ceren, Spengler, Choudhury, AllahPundit, Ibrahim, Emerson, Joscelyn) Global Jihad (Brand, Ohri, Swamy, Suseelan, Blankley, Murinson, Smith, Shapira, Smith) Anti-Israel Institutions Based in USA (Eye on the UN, Muravchik, Van Zile, Spotts, Burchell) Israel's Daunting Task (Greenfield, Glick, Haetzni, Saperstein, Glick) Language and the Media (Murphy, Ibrahim, Miller) Sharia in High Places in Government and in the Universities (Warner, Rothstein and Seid, Levy and Poller) History Section (Fishman-Duker, Rose) Readers' Blog-Ed Pages (May, June)

GET THE HELL OUT OF...MY FACE
by Sarke

  As Naomi Ragen put it: "If you've been thinking about a response to Helen Thomas tell-the-Jews-to-get-the Hell-out-of Palestine-and-go-back to -Germany and Poland-, think no more! The best rant on the subject can be found on Jewlicious by Sara K Eisen, who signs herself Sarke." This is it.
  READ MORE
 

ISRAEL PUBLISHES GAZA TRAVEL GUIDEBOOK FOR PRO-HAMAS FREEDOM FLOTILLA
by Omri Ceren

A non-violent Gaza flotilla activist:
Sheikh Mohammed al-Hazimi, a member of the Yemeni Parliament and of Al-Islah, aboard the Mavi Marmara.

In this article Omri Ceren publishes a "Guide to Gaza" — the real Gaza is very different than what's painted by our "reliable" news sources. There was, as CNN noted, violence. They forgot to mention the violence was coming from the humanitarians, who assaulted the Israelis -- even throwing them overboard. The Israelis, of course, were forbidden by their politicians from doing bodily harm, if at all avoidable. The only questionable item in Ceren's article is the notion that the people Israel hires to do its hasbara would be effective. And so it is, because Israel's responses were weak and delayed and thanks to the major TV and newspaper media stretching the truth till it broke, the world now knows that the brutal Jews wouldn't allow some brave humanitarians to bring in food to the starving Gazans. If they were serious, why didn't they send the material by truck? That's how the Gazans get their freebies week by week. Come to think of it, if they were serious, why didn't they go to Darfur, where the people really are starving?
  READ MORE
 

NO ISRAELI GOOD DEED GOES UNPUNISHED
by Spengler

  Did you know that just this week, in mid-June, Muslims from Kyrgzstan killed a couple hundred Muslims from Uzbekistan? Tortured hundreds of others? Caused some 200,000 resident Uzbeks to flee the country? Did you know that Yemen was blockading South Yemen? It's a real blockade — no supplies are let in — no water, no food, no medicine. Did you know that Hamas won't let the "Humanitarian suppplies" in anyways unless they take charge of the goodies? With regard to the Gaza flotilla story, it is true that the Jews were in the right in international law, showed saintly forbearance before they were forced either to fight back intelligently or lose their lives. It is true that this was a stunt cooked up by terror groups to show Israel as either weak or heartless. But the main point is that when Jewish Israel kills a Muslim that is news worthy — it will even be declared a war crime when managed by a Goldstone-cur hired by the U.N. But when a multitude of Muslims are killed by other muslims, it doesn't make the news. Moral of the story: if Israel is to be castigated even for minimal killings, she might as well do what needs doing. The decibel level can't get any higher than it is. As Spengler points out in this essay, "The Gaza flotilla affair should teach Jerusalem that no matter how gingerly it approaches the threats on its borders, and how gently it responds, it ends up holding the bag for the region's problems. It might as well get down to the business of war."
  READ MORE
 

Sent by Doron921

STARTER GROUPS FOR ISLAMISM: THE TABLIGHI JAMAAT; ASMA'S IMAN RAUF AND THE MOSQUE AT GROUND ZERO
by Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury

  We have been forced to become frighteningly familiar with some Islamic groups directly involved in terrorism. Starter groups that introduce Islamic ideology into new territory appear less menacing. Salah Choudhury writes of the jihadist organization, Tablighi Jamaat (TJ), which works out of mosques in some 80 countries. preaching "a creed that is hardly distinguishable from the radical Wahhabi-Salafi jihadist ideology that so many terrorists share." TJ has become "a major recruiting agency for terrorist causes worldwide." High-profile terrorists such as John Lindh, the Lackawanna Six, the Oregon cell, "shoe bomber" Richard Reid, etc., were members of TJ at one time or another. Members that "outgrow" TJ are quickly and expertly picked up by more overtly virulent 'activist' groups. (See also Chapter 5 of RK Ohri's book.) Choudhury also writes of Feisal Rauf of the American Society for Muslim Advancement (ASMA), which has bought the land next to the site of the 9/11 terror attack to erect a mosque supposedly to honor the victims of 9/11. Rauf's ideology, network and connections to the Muslim Brotherhood are summarized by Choudhury, who has himself experienced what happens to freedom of expression when Islam feels itself in the ascendency. Would that the New York Times had his courage! In addition, we publish an appeal by Salah Choudhury for funds to continue the publishing of his newspaper, the Weekly Blitz. It is indeed a brave effort, worthy of our support.
  READ MORE
 

A REVEALING SKETCH OF IMAM RAUF: FOUNDED GROUND ZERO MOSQUE PROJECT HELPED FUND THE GAZA FLOTILLA
by AllahPundit

  Imam Rauf is truly a renaissance man. Unfortunately, his idea of renaissance appears to be recreating the medieval Caliphate. AllahPundit makes some connections the Main Stream Media has largely chosen to ignore. Rauf is, for example, a member of the Perdana Global Peace Organization. Perdana, which is based in Malaysia, is the largest contributor to the Gaza Flotilla on record. Rauf is a man that can win Westerns with his charming manner and intellectual discourse. But as Walid Shoebat inter alia has often pointed out, it's what they say to their own people in their own language that counts. And Muslims don't hear ecumenism and tolerance from him.
  READ MORE
 

THE TWO FACES OF THE GROUND ZERO MOSQUE
by Raymond Ibrahim

  Raymond Ibrahim starts this essay by informing us that justice in western terms conveys a very different meaning than it does for a Muslim. Muslims can often take advantage of this, knowing a western audience will, for example, interpret "We seek Justice" in a benign way, whereas the speaker is extolling conquest of the infidel West. As another example, a Muslim group has bought land close to Ground Zero and proposes to build a Mosque/Center there, claiming they wish to honor the victims of 9/11. Their true intent may be gleamed from the fact they are calling this the Cordoba Initiative. Raymond Ibrahim explains why ecumenical tolerance and peace are not their intent. Included are links to several videos about the mosque.
  READ MORE
 

INTELLECTUAL DOUBLE STANDARDS ON ISLAMISTS
by Steven Emerson

  The Muslim Brotherhood is back in the spotlight. It is implicated in the Ground Zero mosque grotesquerie. And the Gaza Flotilla. In the usual news item, the Muslim Brotherhood (MB) is whitewashed so effectively that people can be forgiven for thinking it's somewhat like the Elks or the Lions Club — doing good deeds, giving charity, just nice decent folk. The reality is that the Brotherhood is in business to foster Sharia Law globally. Founded almost a century ago, they are patient and plan well. Hamas is one of their creations but they prefer to emphasize their "moderate" intellectual side, downplaying that their chief intellectual, Yousef Al-Qaradawi, was behind the riots and demonstrations that belatedly protested the Muhammed cartoons around the world. (See Danish Cartoons.) Qaradawi "has made statements praising Hitler, defending organizations like Hamas, and supporting suicide attacks." Another of their intellectuals, Tariq Ramadan, grandson of the founder of the MB, is an admirer of Qaradawi. The grandfather admired Hitler, and worked with the notorious Mufti, Haj Amin al-Husseini. The grandson is no better ideologically than his grandfather but on the surface he sounds open-minded and is touted as a moderate by a media that refuses to probe beneath the surface. (See also Murphy's article below or here.) Steven Emerson provides us with information about the Brotherhood over the generations, using Paul Berman's book Flight of the Intellectuals as a major reference.
  READ MORE
 

THE MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD'S FLOTILLA
by Thomas Joscelyn

  Thomas Joscelyn writes of the ubiquitous Muslim Brotherhood (MB), which seems increasingly to be stripping off its mask of moderation and showing its true face. Were the Flotilla structured like Facebook, the MB could claim to have the mostest friends and relations both on board the flagship Marmara and behind the scene among the workers that ensured the flotilla's success. The show was a benefit performance for Hamas, one of the MB's creations. The Turkish contingent was honchoed by the IHH, which paid for the mercenaries, after it had generously contributed ships. The IHH is part of a Saudi-sponsored group called The Union of Good (UG), which has been designated a terror group. Sheik Qaradawi, who triggered the Danish cartoon riots and is a top man in the MB just happens to be a UG leader. These are just some of the best-known linkages. More connections of the MB to top terror players are likely to emerge.
  READ MORE
 

THE THIRD WAVE
by Wallace Edward Brand

  Muslim leaders have persuaded the current American administration that their jihad against the West is America's fault because it supports Israel. The Arab jihad against Israel is Israel's fault because it inhibits Arab nationalism. Blaming Islamist violence in Afghanistan and Iraq and the nuclear threat in Iran on Israel's supposed occupation of Arab land conveniently forgets that the Arabs were massacring Jews in the Holy Land well before Israel was a state -- "Palestine" was never a state — during the time when Jew and Arab lived equally in squalid conditions under the Ottoman rule. As Wallace Brand makes clear in this essay, the Palestinian-Israeli conflict is just another manifestation of the Third Wave of jihad by a resurgent Islam. The Islamists have again begun a religious war around the world, aiming at world dominance. "Terror in the West is not caused by US support for Israel; terror all over the world is the result of Islamist imperialism."
  READ MORE
 

THE LONG MARCH OF ISLAM: CHAPTER 5
by R. K. Ohri

  We are serializing R.K. Ohri's book entitled The Long March of Islam. In Chapter 5, Ohri writes about the revival of militant Islam in the first half of the 20th Century. It had a large jolt forward in 1947 with the creation of Muslim Pakistan, which was supposed to end religious conflict in India. Instead, almost immediately, the Pakistani invaded Jammu and Kashmir. The matter was taken to the U.N. This resulted — as it did when Israel fought back Arab aggression around the same time — in making a relatively simple situation almost unsolvable. Ohri also expands on the role a government with strong resources and determined Muslims — in this case, Pakistan — can have in promoting jihad, especially when Saudi Arabia is willing to pay for the madrassas that "become factories for producing terrorists and suicide bombers." The goal of the Muslim jihadists — whether they be Arab or Pakistani — may be to pull the world down into their medieval notions of an ideal social structure, but they don't hesitate to make use of Western communication technology and Western freedom of speech to rouse the troops to slaughter.
  READ MORE
 

HOW TO WIPE OUT ISLAMIC TERROR: THE MOMENT OF TRUTH HAS ARRIVED
by Subramanian Swamy

  RK Ohri's article (see above) was a general review, including how India split off Muslim-majority Pakistan in an effort to create peaceful relations between Hindus and Muslims. Instead, it led to renewed aggression, with Pakistan claiming Kashmir. In this essay, Subramanian Swamy writes out a specific plan to fight the terrorism emanating from Pakistan. A major consideration is the potential 5th column of muslims resident in India. Caroline Glick has written of similar radicalization and treasonable activity among Israeli Arabs, with Arab towns in Israel storing weaponry to be used in a future insurrection. ("Hizbullah on the homefront" click here.) As does Glick, Swammy recommends a crackdown -- action, not words. It is eerie how similar terrorism is in both countries and how pusillanimous the response of both Governments. Swarmy recommends some specific measures to stop terrorism. It is a recipe Israel should also consider.
  READ MORE
 

RIDDING PAKISTAN OF ITS JIHADI TERRORISTS
by Babu Suseelan

  Babu Suseelan's essay on Pakistan deals primarily with Pakistan's global impact. Terrorists live there. Terrorists are conditioned there. Terrorists train there. Terrorists travel from there to commit acts of terror all over the world. They kill people indiscriminately, because of the "collective guilt" of their victims or because of some recent events of which they disapprove. This is done with active outside financial support from Islamic governments. There is no world institution acting to stop them. The U.N. doesn't condemn them — the U.N. saves its condemnations for Israel engaged in a legitimate fight against terrorism. America needs to monitor the huge amount of money it gives Pakistan to ensure money is not diverted to the terrorists. We need to act firmly with a strong will to remove a clear and present evil from the world.
  READ MORE
 

AFGHAN WAR BECOMING A BLOODY FARCE
by Tony Blankley

  As Tony Blankley writes, "President Obama has publicly doubted whether Afghan President Hamid Karzai's corruption and incompetence make him a fit partner for our policy goals in Afghanistan." Obama's public condemnation has not improved relations with President Karzai, who, on his part, has lost confidence in America's ability to make a difference in Afghanistan. Blankley suggests that since we aren't going to do anything effective in Afghanistan — and the present American administration has no such intention — we might as well leave. All we are doing is allowing the Afghan struggle to kill off the soldiers of America and its allies needlessly. He might also have said that Afghanistan is a distraction, when our resources would be put to better use stabilizing the Middle East and dampening down the nuclear arms race that Iran's nuclear ambitions has set off among the Arab countries. Bowing to the Saudis, appeasing Iran and stomping on Israel is on Jimmy Carter's level of ineptitude.
  READ MORE
 

IRAN TARGETS AZERBAIJAN
by Alexander Murinson

  Aside from pointing out that Israel is developing a strong alliance with a Muslim country, this article is a case study in how hidebound Islam infiltrates a relatively open state. As Alexander Murinson writes, Azerbaijan was one of the Central Asian states where Iran "launched a comprehensive program for the export of its 'Islamic Revolution'." aimed at an "Islamic revival." To this end, it attempted to staff mosques in Azerbaijan with its own mullahs — a technique the Saudis practice in the U.S.A. It is praiseworthy that they helped feed and house many of the poor. What is less advertised is that they trained rioters and organized riots. It is equally educational to read how Azerbaijan is rebuffing the Iranian efforts at ideological takeover.
  READ MORE
 

THE RETURN OF THE OTTOMANS
by Lee Smith

  While we fritter away our diplomatic resources in the Middle East counting how many houses Israel builds in eastern Jerusalem, alliances between the neighboring states are being reconstructed, and seldom to America's benefit. Lee Smith explains the changing dynamics of this volatile region in response to Iran's bid for domination of the region, followed by Turkey's apparent decision to challenge her. Turkey has become cold, even hostile, to her one-time friend, Israel, while she pleases the Arabs — as in the Gaza flotilla venture — by dramatically taking up their purported cause: Palestinian nationalism. This in itself is curious, because, as Smith notes, "Long before Arab nationalism identified Israel and the United States (and before that the European powers) as the enemy, it was the Ottomans who were called to account for everything that was wrong in the Arabic-speaking regions."
  READ MORE
 

THE FANTASY OF HIZBULLAH MODERATION
by Brig.-Gen. (ret.) Dr. Shimon Shapira

  John Brennan speaking for the Obama administration wants to strengthen the "moderate element" within Hizbullah, Shimon Shapira in this essay explains why this is most unrealistic. Hizbullah isn't a Lebanese nationalist movement. It began as a way for Iran to export the Islamic Revolution and it remains subservient to Iran, even though it has become "the real ruler of Lebanon." Washington's hopes and wishes won't change matters.
  READ MORE
 

THE LOOSE ENDS OF MIDDLE EAST LINKAGE
by Lee Smith

  It is conventional wisdom among our politicians, diplomats and many of our military that, in Lee Smith's words, "the Arab-Israeli arena is the region's defining issue." Were the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to be settled and were the Arabs to see we weren't favoring Israel, the Arabs would support us in Iraq and Afghanistan. The diplomat's corollary of course is since we can't make the Arabs listen to reason, we should pressure Israel. Like much conventional wisdom, the proposition that the Palestinian-Israeli conflict is linked to the major problems in the Middle East is dead wrong. The civil war between Hamas and Fatah, Hezbollah's taking over Lebanon, the conflicts between the Sunni and the Shi'ites, the proxy war in Yemen, Turkey's regression to Muslim orthodoxy and the potential race to acquire nuclear devices won't go away. In this fascinating article, Lee Smith explores where the idea of linkage comes from, why the myth was invented and why it persists. And why it will begin to work against the Arabs.
  READ MORE
 

THE MEMBERSHIP OF SEVERAL UNITED NATIONS COMMITTEES
by Eye on the UN

  This is not a hoax. This is not a spoof. The basic information comes from official documents of the United Nations. So it is straight from the horse's — well, from some part of the horse. Who wouldn't want Iran on a committee devoted to the status of women? And sending its own children out to the fields to identify hidden explosives by stepping on them is Iran's unique qualification for UNICEF, one that few other countries can better. Who knows more about economic development than the Saudis, who happened to land on a pile of oil and never had to do anything themselves to extract it and distribute it? If anyone knows how to create refugees, certainly Sudan and Somalia are qualified to be on the Commission for Refugees. And bully for China on the Human Rights Council. It knows exactly how to handle a desire for Human Rights. Yessir. And who is better for Social Development than Egypt, which continues to treat its Copt minority to such fun activities as murder, torture and enforced conversions. Eye on the UN provides us with additional information on the membership composition of several of the U.N. committees.
  READ MORE
 

THE U.N. IS TERMINALLY ILL
by Joshua Muravchik

  The previous article by Eye on the U.N. showed that the composition of many U.N. committees is part of what has made the U.N. a sick joke. Using the Human Rights Commission as example, this essay by Joshua Muravchik provides context in how the U.N. has failed as an institution. Bowing to pressure, the Commission changed its name but not its practice of rigging the voting procedure for committee membership so that those nominated will be elected. When the various countries, often en bloc, make their complicated deals on who will be nominated, considerations of merit and suitability are not allowed to muddy the process. The end result is what we get. And should get rid of.
  READ MORE
 

THE U.S. PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH'S RENEWED ATTACK ON ISRAEL
by Dexter Van Zile

  In this well-documented yet readable article, Dexter Van Zile reviews the sorry history of the Presbyterian Church's efforts to divest itself and others from investments in Israel, using attacks on Israel, partial withdrawal, and then renewed attacks. The point of view of the activists who control official reports is solidly in sympathy with the Palestinians, who are visualized as the suffering victims of a harsh and illegal occupation by Israel. As VanZile writes, "Leveling chimerical accusations at Israel in the name of peace, these activists seek to enlist their fellow Presbyterians — and the church's bureaucracy — into their efforts to banish the modern state of Israel from the community of civilized nations and portray it as uniquely worthy of criticism and condemnation." With each swing of the pendulum, the Church — by backing these activists — makes more obvious a more basic agenda: the delegimization of the State of Israel. How long will it be before crude anti-Jewish statements -- not clothed in pseudo theology or in a view of Middle East history that ignores most of the facts — become acceptable?
  READ MORE
 

THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH HAS ATTITUDE TOWARDS ISRAEL
An Interview with Will Spotts by Bernice Lipkin

  Anticipatory stories of the 2010 General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church were filled with reports that there were to be motions for divestiture/boycott of Israel that would position the Presbyterian Church more strongly and intemperately in the ranks of the Palestinian sympathizers. I had some specific questions. I asked Will Spotts for clarification. We also include an addendum: Spotts's analysis after the ball was over, the General Assembly ended.
  READ MORE
 

FLOTILLA RALLIES TERROR CHEER SQUAD
by David Burchell

  In this account, David Burchell goes well beyond the facts of the gaza flotilla into a more profound explanation of why the P and H (Peaceniker and Humanitarian) squad has the compulsive need to demonize Israel. Burchell suggests that the early Christian activists couldn't get far with a turn-the-other-cheek approach. Their politics did better chastizing the sinner. In the 1960s, the image of the Palestinian as the innocent injured was in place but was somewhat tarnished by the behavior of the more radical PLO terrorists. "It followed that Israel's motivations had to be made even blacker, as if in moral compensation." Viewing "Israel as a kind of devil-state, the spirit of evil made incarnate in the world" excused any behavior by their Palestinian 'victims', no matter how outrageous. What still needs explaining is why the PLO became the victim to be succoured in the first place. Surely, it wasn't Arafat's blubbery lips, ugly face and unattractive smile. Could it be that the Terror Cheer Leaders deep down don't like Jews any more than the Arabs do?
  READ MORE
 

THE NOOSE AROUND ISRAEL'S NECK
by Daniel Greenfield

  Daniel Greenfield makes the point that Israel's international enemies are tightening the noose around Israel's neck, while Israel tries to live up to the promises she made for the "peace process" called the Oslo Agreement. The Arabs have felt no such compunction. They've never gotten to step 1: to cease violence. Every one of Israel's concessions has brought her closer to the gallows. Israel is now faced with stark options: continue her suicidal course of accomodation to "world opinion" or do what she must: resist the pressure to cave in piecewise and start fighting to survive.
  READ MORE
 

ISRAEL'S DAUNTING TASK
by Caroline B. Glick

  The non-Arab states of Iran, Pakistan and Turkey — Israel's one time major Muslim friend — are competing with the Arabs for leadership of the Muslim world. To show its qualifications for the job, Turkey has even taken the lead in attacking Israel — the Gaza flotilla the most recent example. Simultaneously, the U.S.A. administration is abandonning its allies, ignoring man-made disasters (aka Islamic terrorism) and cuddling up to the Muslims. Because Obama believes the Palestinian-Israeli conflict is the root of all evil in the Arab world (or maybe in the whole world) he is particularly hard on Israel, Israel justifiably feels she is under siege from all sides. Caroline Glick points out Israel can "do nothing to change American behavior," (which would imply that it is pointless for Israel to make life threatening concessions.) It is time for an internal examination of Israel's diplomatic and tactical blunders. It is time for Israel to put the U.N. on the defensive. It is time for Israel to fight back. Intelligently.
  READ MORE
 

CALLING THE PA BLUFF
by Boaz Haetzni

  The Palestinians arabs are in the odd position of demanding a state — which they never had and were never part of and never really wanted — and have people like Prez Obama take them seriously. Their demand for Israeli land was a ploy to further their mission of destroying Israel in stages. To date, any land where they've gained control has been used to develop military capability, store war material and train fighters and terrorists. Would they be different in Judea and Samaria than they are in Gaza? Boaz Haetzni points out that if Israel withdraws and eliminates the Jewish settlement towns, Hamas would soon take over Judea-Samaria — they have more popular support than Abu Maazen — and they would settle down in expanded quarters to carry out their mission of destruction, not to form a state. "They are a branch of the Muslim Brotherhood, which is against individual Arab states." They believe in what Arafat said, "our real nation is the Arab nation which ranges from the Atlantic to the Red Sea and beyond..." This is why "Hamas did not declare a state in Gaza although it is the only force in charge there and could do so."
  READ MORE
 

HAIRCUT AND HISTORY; BIRTHDAY AND THE BIBLE; IN THE BEGINNING
by Rachel Saperstein

  Rachel Saperstein writes three essays: her 3-year old grandchild has his first haircut near the tomb of Samson; Her husband celebrates a birthday, surrounded by family; she confers with the other families — Ashkenazim, Sephardim, Yemenites, Ethiopians, Bnai Menashe from India — who are founding a new town: Bnai Dekalim in Lachish. From these snapshots, would you guess she was one of the Jews traumatized by being forced out of her home in Gaza by her own government? Her husband Moshe and she survived the trauma and the depression that followed and now they are again rebuilding their lives.
  READ MORE
 

MAKING ISRAEL'S CASE
by Caroline B. Glick

  A major reason for Israel's poor showing in the propaganda wars is that the Arabs come across as passionate about their land, Israel and the territories. Arab leaders. Arab clerics. Arab academics. And the Arab schlub in the street. All of them are passionate as they claim land that is not theirs. In contrast, Israeli spokesmen and consular representatives are rightly perceived as lukewarm about Jewish ownership — if not actively delighted at the prospect of another Arab state in Biblical Israel, with its capitol in Jerusalem. Caroline Glick insists "[t]he government must stop trying to play both sides of the aisle. Instead it should follow the lead of its extraordinary citizens and of Jews throughout the world in asserting the rights of the Jewish people to our capital and our country."
  READ MORE
 

THE UK'S THE NEW STATESMAN DEFENDS SHARIA LAW
by Paul Austin Murphy

  Defending sharia law usually involves some variant of the civic value of diversity, but it can be a hard sell, because some major brutalities — chopping heads and hands for minor crimes and treating women as chattel — are a non-negotiable part of sharia. In this essay, Paul Murphy equips us with ways to read obfuscating pro-Islam propaganda as he points out the fallacies in a recent defense of Sharia. He also examines some ends-justify-the-means lies and misdirection spun by Tariq Ramadan, grandson of the founder of the Muslim Brotherhood. Murphy makes the major point that once Sharia drives out civil law, all of it becomes law, not just its laws and customs that seem to fit into modern practices.
  READ MORE
 

WHAT DID YOU SAY ABOUT MUHAMMAD?!
by Raymond Ibrahim

  Though it is contrary to commonsense, Raymond Ibrahim points out that apparently Muslims found the South Park cartoons of Muhammad more infuriating than very ugly statements about Muhammed broadcast to millions of Muslims on Life T.V. Life T.V. stood its ground, ignoring initial threats, continuing to discuss Muhammad in unflattering terms — and doing so safely. The South Park producers reacted by appeasement. Ibrahim suggests that it may well have been this appeasement that acted as the stimulus to increase Muslim ire. As he notes, "if you voluntarily act like a dhimmi — a subjugated non-Muslim who must live in debased humility — you will be treated like a dhimmi."
  READ MORE
 

THE ART OF MISLEADING
by Yvette Alt Miller

  Short, direct, informative. This essay by Yvette Alt Miller lays out common ways the media avoid telling the truth. Presenting it in such a way that is is easily dismissed. Or telling it partially. Her examples are actual instances of bias against Israel. Miller suggests readers practice finding instances of these tricks, to better understand what they are being fed by the media. My prime example would be the New York Times, which managed to downplay the ongoing Holocaust in World War 2. Most newspapers may not be as clever hiding such a big story but the omission and trivialization of Prez Obama's close friendships with a slew of Marxists before he was nominated come close. This is a very useful reference.
  READ MORE
 

SHARIA LAW FOR NON-MUSLIMS
by Bill Warner

  Bill Warner has written a book that compactly explains sharia law to the non-muslim. It offers a compact summary of Sharia Law. It is useful as a starting pointer for the ignorant, to start exploring. It is a summarization for those who have acquired a good understanding of Sharia law. Mark this in you reference directory.
  READ MORE
 

FACING HATRED ON CAMPUS: YOU CAN'T FIGHT FIRE WITH FLOWERS
by Roz Rothstein and Roberta R. Seid

  The campuses are infested by student hate groups, whose leaders make their efforts at demonizing Israel their main job, one that takes priority over classes and ordinary school activities. They are dedicated, single-mindeded, possessed of religious fervor and will stop at nothing. Their activities suggest their handlers have a big budget, clever scenario writers and have spent considerable time and effort making longterm plans before this attack was launched. Group leaders have learned how to create dramatic props and creative events, inveigle and indoctrinate other students, flummox the administration and paralyze the Jewish groups on campus so they don't fight back. Roz Rothstein and Roberta Seid have observed that these groups maintain continuity, groom replacement leaders; develop networks with other like-minded campus groups; and orchestrate demonstrations, cheering crowds and disruptive hecklers. They don't miss opportunities to promote their ideas and they are good at creating opportunities. Lucky for them, the Jewish students, faculty and groups haven't adjusted to the fact that they are under sustained attack and have to fight back. The Jews are hamstrung by their belief that freedom of speech is always a good thing and that everyone has built-in limits to incivility.
  READ MORE
 

SELF-INFLICTED DEFEAT
by Janet Levy and Nidra Poller

  Some Muslim encroachment in America — such as the projected mosque at Ground Zero — is high profile, but most of their activities are not well known. Nevertheless, they are successfully buying friends and chairs at universities; buying some in the media and frightening others into self-censorship; and subsidizing books friendly to Islam. Now with a Commander-in-Chief who sees making friends with the Muslims as a noble undertaking, they have reached into high levels of Homeland Security and the military, where they have the clout to get hostile patriots fired. Janet Levy and Nidra Poller describe how different this is from the way we behaved in World War 2. "Placing a Nazi in a high-level Pentagon position with access to top-secret war data and giving him the ability to control military strategists and censor vital information would have been punishable by death for treason." I wonder what good our expensive war equipment will do us, if, as Levy and Poller note, "Our citizens at home and our troops on the battlefield are disarmed by a narrative that imposes respect for a political-religious system that seeks their subjugation and death."
  READ MORE
 

JERUSALEM, CAPITAL OF THE JEWS: THE JEWISH IDENTITY OF JERUSALEM IN GREEK AND ROMAN SOURCES
by Rivkah Fishman-Duker

  As Rivkah Fishman-Duker writes, by the early second century CE, when Tacitus wrote his history, it is clear that the narrative of the circumstances of Jerusalem's foundation had become standardized among Greeks and Roman writers. Descriptions of the Temple are always part of the accounts of Jerusalem and Judaism. In addition to physical descriptions, Fishman-Duker describes the religious aspect of the Temple, which differed radically from Greek and Roman paganism. Their accounts range from the factual to the libelous and bizarre. As Fishman-Duker writes, "The references to Jerusalem in these classical texts not only demonstrate the historical attachment of the Jewish people to Jerusalem, but also contribute to our knowledge of Jews and Judaism in the ancient world."
  READ MORE
 

TWO NOTABLE EVENTS RECALLED THROUGH THE PRISM OF HISTORY
by Alex Rose

  Alex Rose writes about two notable events of of historical importance. The first was the San Remo Conference of 1920. "It recognized the exclusive national Jewish rights to the Land of Israel under international law, on the strength of the historical connection of the Jewish people to the territory previously known as Palestine." The San Remo Resolution "remains irrevocable, legally binding and valid to this day." The second was Abba Eban's speech to the UN General Assembly's Special Political Committee in 1958 suggesting transfer of the Arab refugees to the states responsible for the problem — the Arab states that had invaded Israel in 1948 and 1967. Actually, these states were responsible for two sets of refugees: the Arabs from Israel and the Jews from the different Arab countries. Israel, with few resources, took in the Jews. The Arabs had huge resources but have reneged. It's time they faced up to their responsibility.
  READ MORE
 

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

A Blog-Ed page has a quick list of the articles from which you can access any of the articles immediately. To go to the list, click the "Blog-Eds List" box in the Blue Strip on the top of the Blog-Ed page.

May 2010 BLOG-EDS    READ MORE
June 2010 BLOG-EDS    READ MORE

What we are talking about in the March-April 2010 issue: Myths Can Kill You (Brand, Chweidan, Rubin, Salvato, Sheridan) A Religious War (Eidelberg, Wilder, Simmons, Maistrovoy, Ohri) How Friendly is the Current American Administration? (Haselkorn, Prelutsky, Poller, Sharpe) Europe's Treatment of Muslims and Jews (Gur, Alexander, Landen, Legger, Glick, Bat Ye'or) Solutions For A Genuine Arab-Israeli Peace. Cutting The Gordian Knot. (Mansdorf, Bialkin, Sharpe, Think-Israel Staff, Kogan, November, Bussel) Is There A Linkage Between Islam And Terror? (Stakelbeck, Poole, Spencer, Emerson, Greenfield, Imani) Anti-Semitism, Anti-Zionism And Muslim-Purchased Propaganda (Cravetts, Plaut, Rubin, Frantzman, Erlich) History Section (Raizman, Rigler) Readers' Blog-Ed Pages (March, April)

ISRAELI SOVEREIGNTY OVER JERUSALEM, JUDEA AND SAMARIA.
by Wallace Edward Brand

  Wallace Brand discusses the diplomatic foundation documents underlying the creation of the modern state of Israel. It is also very readable. Store this with your stack of reference material to use when Arab propagandists assert that Israel is occupying Palestinian/Arab land. The State of Israel was carved out with international approval from a sliver of the Middle East holding of the Ottoman Empire. If it is not legitimate, then what happens to the legality of the modern Arab states of Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Oman, Yemen and United Arab Emirates? (Iran, Egypt and modern Turkey were also part of the Ottoman Empire but Iran and Turkey aren't Arab, and Egypt had been under de facto British rule for many years by the time the Ottomans lost out.) These constructed states were given more than 99% of the Middle East segment of the Ottoman Empire by the same international authority that established Israel.
  READ MORE
 

HISTORY OF JEWISH SOVEREIGNTY OVER ISRAEL OVER 3000 YEARS
by Roy Chweidan

  This was written to counter the pernicious and widespread myth that the Arabs pre-date the Jews in Israel. Depending on the gullibility of the audience they claim to be the early Canaanites; or Philistines; or they claim that in Temple times it was a Palestinian state filled with Palestinians like Jesus and his mother Mary; or they claim they intermarried with the natives when they conquered the land in Mohammed's time, and this is the next best thing to being native themselves. They ignore that 90-95% of them came after 1900 into what is now Israel and the Territories. Roy Chweidan presents a short summary of the actual history of Israel starting in the period of the Judges. The appendices contain additional useful information.
  READ MORE
 

PARDON ME, OBAMA ADMINISTRATION, BUT ISN'T YOUR POLICY ON FIRE?
by Barry Rubin

  We don't have to go the National Inquirer to find weird and unreal. It's right there in the Oval Office in the Big White Building in the District of Columbia. Barry Rubin writes how Obama is sticking like velcro to the notion that au fond Iran is reasonable and can be persuaded to be nice, no matter what it does and what it says and how many of its own citizens it tortures because they don't agree with the Mullahs. And Iran, filled with confidence by how well everyone is treating her, is seeking a seat on the Human Rights Council.
  READ MORE
 

DENYING REALITY BRINGS US CLOSER TO NUCLEAR MIDNIGHT
by Frank Salvato

  Like a child learning to play pick-up sticks, tangling them, ignoring the good moves, fixated on poor choices, ignoring gravity, ignoring his lack of coordination, President Obama deals with situations with a child's knowledge of foreign policy. Frank Salvato recounts some of his moves. Obama pulls together a bunch of nations to deal with the problem of nuclear weapons falling into terrorist hands, and they flip up with a non-binding "agreement." which is meaningless. He weaves and waves his hand around Iran but, of course, nothing happens. He spends times picking on Israel — and that's an easy move. But it won't change the fact that to get at the the terrorists means also, and perhaps first, dealing with the clump of terror states that shield them and support them. As Salvato points out: he needs to "accept the truth that should Iran become a nuclear capable nation, so, too, would terrorist organizations become nuclear capable."
  READ MORE
 

U.S. ALLOWS IRAN ITS NUCLEAR VISION
by Greg Sheridan

  Greg Sheridan has written a sensible article integrating the facts including Obama's manufactured irritation with Israel and drawn the obvious conclusion: that Obama is willing to live with an Iran that has nuclear power. Maintaining a steady supply of oil has for long controlled much of our foreign policy. Yet Obama seems indifferent to Iran's obtaining nuclear power that, at best, will destabilize the Middle East, making our oil supply uncertain. At worst, Iran could destroy vital connections in the stream or make the area radioactive, use the bomb to blackmail the region and/or share their supply with peripatetic terrorists. What is nervous making, when dealing with "world opinion," is how successful anti-Israeli propaganda has been. History, geography and international law are disregarded and too many are sure Israel is sitting on Arab Palestinian land. Most of the readers' comments to this article see Iran as a sovereign state that can do what it wants and, inconsistently, it isn't near to a nuclear bomb anyways, so why worry. Nor do they differentiate between a trustworthy nuclear power and one controlled — by our standards — by a bunch of fanatics with a mission to aggrandize Islam.
  READ MORE
 

TO WIN WE MUST KNOW OUR ENEMIES AND KNOW OURSELVES
by Professor Paul Eidelberg

  Muslim leaders have bragged how Muslims love death and this gives them the edge in fighting the "infidel" who is attached to life. Paul Eidelberg makes the surprising suggestion that this love of death is rooted in a fear of life that started in pre-Islamic times when inter-tribal warfare was chronic and brutal. Survival depended on tribal loyalty, engendering a herd mentality, rather than the development of the individual, as in Western culture. Eidelberg credits Judaic monotheism for making possible the Western trust in a meaningful universe. In Part I, he develops implications of the idea that in the Arab culture, paganism was "never fully transcended." In Part 2, he writes about Israel's repetitive retreats from land that is hers, noting that Israel will "continue to shrink so long as its government betrays the God of Israel."
  READ MORE
 

PAST THE SEVENTH STEP
by David Wilder

  The Ma'arat HaMachpela (the Machpela cave) in the city of Hebron is a Jewish holy site; it is Judaism's second most holy site. It is where the Patriachs and Matriachs are buried: Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebecca, Jacob and Leah. Nevertheless, for hundreds of years when the site was under Muslim control, Jews were not allowed to enter the cave. They were allowed to climb as far as the seventh step, while Muslims were permitted to climb past and enter the caves. The Arabs deny that the Machpela is a Jewish legacy. To do so would mean acknowledging the profound relationship of the Jews of Israel to the Land of Israel.
  READ MORE
 

A FASCINATING STORY: 7 QUESTIONS FOR A NOACHIDE
by Rabbi Shraga Simmons

  There is a growing world-wide group called Noachides. They aren't Christian; but they aren't Jewish either. As individuals they more or less follow Torah law, but they are all follow the Seven Laws of Noah. — Judaism considers that the basic civilizing ideas from the Torah — the laws of Noah — are for everyone. This essay is Rabbi Shraga Simmons interview with one of these Noachides. In the context of our examining difference resulting from basic differences between Judaism and Islam, it should be noted that Judaism doesn't feel compelled to convert everyone to Judaism. Islam does. Unless, you'd rather live as a dhimmi; or be beheaded.
  READ MORE
 

JEWS IN THE HOLY LAND? WHAT JEWS?
by Alex Maistrovoy

  Alex Maistrovoy puts in context the Arab strategy of denying that Israel has any historic connection to the Land of Israel. Theirs is "...simply the genocidal approach that is characteristic of Islam. Power and possession are inherent parts of religious attitude in Islam. This approach extends to all other religions, not only to Judaism. The idea consists in depriving other cultures of their spiritual base to achieve total physical domination over them." Given that Islam is intrinsically hostile to all other religions. Judaism's fight against Islam's brutal hostility may be unwilling but it has become a major player in what eventually may be a global response to Islam — if the world wakes up in time. Meantime, Israel needs to protect its holy places from the Muslim ambition to eradicate a Jewish presence in Israel.
  READ MORE
 

THE LONG MARCH OF ISLAM: CHAPTER 4.
by R.K. Ohri

  We are serializing R.K. Ohri's book entitled The Long March of Islam. Previously, Ohri first laid out Islam's structure and its major directive to wage jihad against the infidal. In Chapter 4, he reviews some of Islam's early history to explain how it is that Islam acquired both its dedication to the Islamic ummah (nation) and its appetite for conquering and looting non-Islamic communities. Within a 100 year after Muhammad, the Arabs had "destroyed almost all old civilizations of the [Middle East] region" and invaded Christian Europe for booty, slaves and involuntary converts and where they suffered their first defeat by a coalition of Christian countries. But now again "the contagion of militant Islam has already spread to scores of Muslim countries"; they are obsessed with regaining Islam's lost grandeur.
  READ MORE
 

RELATIONS OF MUTUAL LIABILITY
by Avigdor Haselkorn

  The obama administration appears to believe that the long arm of Israel-Arab discord reaches Iran and Afghanistan, to the detriment of American goals. In this bizarre view, if only Israel would make the Arabs happy, the Muslim world would fall all over itself to be friendly to us Americans. Israel, in a word, is a liability. Judging from Muslim behavior over the centuries, this proposition is nonsense. Rephrasing the sentence as America is a liability to Israel is, on the other hand, a legitimate observation, based on evidence. Avigdor Haselkorn makes the case that the America's presence limits Israel's freedom of action. In brief, American enemies do what they want and ignore overtures and shows of force. "By threatening to target [American] regional bases, Iran is in effect keeping these contingents hostage and acting to dissuade any military undertaking against its nuclear facilities." "...The U.S. deployment has become a handicap for Israel," denying it "the strategic initiative that is vital for preserving its national security."
  READ MORE
 

OBAMA AND THE JEWS
by Burt Prelutsky

  E.W. Jackson Sr. wrote about the source of Obama's anti-Israel policy this way: "Obama clearly has Muslim sensibilities. He sees the world and Israel from a Muslim perspective. His construct of "The Muslim World" is unique in modern diplomacy. It is said that only The Muslim Brotherhood and other radical elements of the religion use that concept. It is a call to unify Muslims around the world. It is rather odd to hear an American President use it. In doing so he reveals more about his thinking than he intends. The dramatic policy reversal of joining the unrelentingly anti-Semitic, anti-Israel and pro-Islamic UN Human Rights Council is in keeping with the President's truest — albeit undeclared — sensibilities." Certainly, once elected, Obama discarded the ambiguity that surrounded the question of whether he is Muslim. He confirmed he was born Muslim (which in Islam is for life — if you expect to live long) and has Muslim sympathies. As Burt Prelusky notes in this essay, his recent behavior to Netanyahu and Israel is convincing evidence "that in his heart, at least, Obama is an Islamic." Prelutsky's bottom line: "there must be something terribly wrong with a man who seems to be far more concerned with a Jew building a house in Israel than with Muslims building a nuclear bomb in Iran."
  READ MORE
 

ISRAEL IS THE HEART OF OUR CIVILIZATION, NOT THE APPENDIX
by Nidra Poller

  We are used to being told — and it is true — how important Jerusalem is to the Jews. Nidra Poller points out another important truth about the relationship of Jerusalem and the Jews: Jerusalem is important to the West because of the Jews. There would be little interest in the chief city of the Jews were it not that Christianity is based in large part on Judaism and because Judaism created the moral foundation of Western civilization. Because of that and because Israel is a democracy — the only one in the Middle East -- there is a closeness between America and Israel. It is ironic, therefore, that Obama is taking advantage of that closeness to pressure Israel to a peace that would not resolve the Arab-Israeli conflict. Instead, if carried out, it would replace Judaism with Islam in Judaism's birthplace.
  READ MORE
 

ABDULLAH IN WONDERLAND
by Victor Sharpe

  Israel needs to watch its back not just from the Arab countries obviously out to destroy her, but even from Jordan, her peace partner, which is kept secure by Israel, is given water by Israel and whose economy has been helped to develop by Israel. Victor Sharpe writes about Jordan's King Abdullah, who shows his gratitude by undermining Israel whenever and whereever he can, with straight-faced disregard of facts. His father killed off thousands of "Palestinians" for threatening his throne; Abdullah is outraged by the IDF killing some people who were acting as human shields for terrorists. Abdullah is appalled that Israel has jurisdiction over Jerusalem and its Muslim holy places. How easily he ignores that when Jordan conquered eastern Jerusalem in 1948, it destroyed Jewish synagogues in Jerusalem and wouldn't allow Jews access to their holy sites. The king of inversion. Truly a Lewis Carroll character.
  READ MORE
 

TO COMMEMORATE YOM HASHOAH
by Jacob Gur

  Europe destroyed Jewish culture and six million Jews. The space has been filling with muslim immigrants, impatient to inflict their laws and customs over the subjugated natives. And ironically, while the Jews tried so hard to fit in and were, for the most part, rejected, the Muslims don't give a damn and ignore what resistance there is to their take-over. Jacob Gur writes of a particular victim of the Holocaust of the Jews: Pninah. She was twelve. She was murdered. He asks that Israel not forget her and the other victims of the Shoah but that it strengthen its Judaism and rebuild.
  READ MORE
 

BRITANNIA WAIVES THE RULES. A HISTORY OF ANTISEMITISM IN ENGLAND
by Edward Alexander

  Edward Alexander reviews Anthony Julius' recent book that addresses the literary roots of English antisemitism from Chaucer to Dickens, connecting the historic blood libel against the Jews that is embedded in English culture to the modern-day anti-semitic rants by academics and dramatists, which also are not weighted down by facts. Julius writes also of Jewish anti-semitism. As Jewish converts to Christianity in the Middle Ages were glad to confirm Christian theological allegations against Jews, no matter how false and/or absurd, so modern-day Jewish anti-semites loathe Israel and can see only evil in her every motive and action.
  READ MORE
 

IN GERMANY IT IS BETTER TO BE A MUSLIM THAN A BAPTIST
by Thomas Landen

  Baptist immigrants to Germany from the Soviet Union, where they had been persecuted for their religious beliefs, were subjected to vicious attacks by the German authorities when they wished to homeschool their children. Germany's Supreme Court ruled that German tradition trumped Baptist desires. The State was in charge of children's education, not their parents. In contrast, schools cater to Muslim eating and clothing requirements, even when these infringe or nullify German traditions and practices. As Thomas Landen writes, "While Christians are prosecuted and fined, Muslims are appeased." There are other differences that explain the behavior of the German establishment: "Saying 'No' to Baptist demands is not a security risk for a school; saying 'No' to Muslim demands is." Baptists don't become violent when their requests aren't granted; Muslims do.
  READ MORE
 

WHY SPINOZA WAS NOT MURDERED
by Artur Legger

  Holland has such a reputation for liberal drug laws and a nonchalant attitude for outre activity that it is puzzling that it has put Geert Wilders on trial for producing a documentary that is scrupulously factual — if not flattering — about Islam (see below.) In this essay, Artur Legger clears up the inconsistency. Fearing reprisal, Government officials and the media tried to block the documentary from being shown. Unable to censure the film beforehand, they resorted to slandering Wilders and withholding protection — despite the fact that there's a history in Holland of Muslims killing off 'offenders'. Holland's attitude is not new. Throughout the centuries, the goal has been on preventing social disruption and maintaining control by the governing elites by whatever means were needed, not ensuring freedom — not even in the time of Spinoza.
  READ MORE
 

WHEN RHETORIC RULES THE ROOST
by Caroline Glick

  The initial hysterical reaction by European diplomats to the assassination of the terrorist, Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, in Dubai, was to blame Israel. This didn't abate until it was learned the assassins went from Dubai to Iran, not exactly a Jew-friendly haven. Using this as example, Caroline Glick points out that "blaming Israel has become Europe's default foreign policy," dictated by the European Union (EU). The Lisbon Treaty which gave power to the EU "...effectively bars EU member states from adopting independent foreign policies..." so they focus on rhetoric and don't act to safeguard their best interests. In part to placate Europe — and the present American administration -- Israel has not been pursuing her own best interests either. At the moment what is important is to disarm Iran and to exert its legitimate claim to Samaria and Judea. Urgently.
  READ MORE
 

EUROPE'S ANTI-ISRAEL STRATEGY WILL RESULT IN THE DESTRUCTION OF EUROPE ITSELF
by Bat Ye'or

  Robert Spencer presents some highlights from Bat Yeor's speech at the recent Conference on Antisemitism, Multiculturalism and Ethnic Identity at Hebrew University. Bat Yeor coined the term Eurabia to describe the ideological alliance since the 1970's of European leaders and Arabs. It promotes anti-Americanism and anti-Zionism, while catering to Muslim concerns under the guise of multiculturalism. To the Europeans, supporting Arab politics and ideology seemed a clever way to ensure an uninterupted supply of oil while avoiding Arab terrorism. "The countries of the Arab League and the Islamic Conference saw in this alliance with Europe the means to separate Europe from America; to divide and weaken the Western camp; to destroy Israel; to achieve technological parity with Europe; and, through the Mediterranean Partnership, to set up a vast Euro-Arab demographic, political, economic and cultural zone. In this way, with multiculturalism and immigration, Islam and Arab culture could be introduced as a force toward the Islamization on the European continent."
  READ MORE
 

IS ISRAEL A COLONIAL STATE? THE POLITICAL PSYCHOLOGY OF PALESTINIAN NOMENCLATURE
by Irwin J. Mansdorf

  Irwin Mansdorf suggests that the negative and misleading and often false language used to describe Israel's motives and activities be abandoned and replaced by descriptions that conform to actual history and applicable international law. He delves into the modern history of Arab-Jewish relations, and points out the surprising fact -- surprising only because of the wide subcription to the constantly-repeated myth that the Arabs had always ruled the Middle East and the Jews are occupying some of this Arab land illegally -- that the Balfour Declaration, a foundation document in the establishment of the Jewish State, was of great benefit in also "advancing Arab independence and nationalist goals." During the first part of the 20th century, while the land still belonged to the Ottomans, before there was a modern state of Israel, or states called Jordan or Syria or Yemen or Kuwait or Oman or the United Arab Emirates — before the time that the Arabs were gifted with 99.9% of the Middle East — the Arab leader, Emir Feisel, recognized this fact. It was later that Arab leaders and academics, in order to defend their assertion that Israel was colonialist, began denying Jewish roots in Mandated Palestine, forcing them into the ludicrous position of denying Israel's ancient connection to its holy sites such as the Machpela Cave and the Temple Mount and its holy cities of Hebron and Jerusalem. In promoting this canard, they blithely ignored that "[m]any of the Arab states, in contrast, were modern fabrications of the British and the French," with no historic roots.
  READ MORE
 

THE PREREQUISITE FOR PEACE IN THE MIDDLE EAST: ARAB RECOGNITION OF THE LEGITIMACY OF ISRAEL
by Kenneth J. Bialkin

  THE 'peace process' — it seems always to apply only to the the Arab Israeli conflict — certainly hasn't lacked high-level presidential involvement, from the Elder Bush to Obama, plus the presence of the U.N., the E.U. and their cohort of diplomats and politicians. Nevertheless, as Kenneth J. Bialkin puts it: "A peace process which rests upon Israel's unilateral concessions is doomed to

fail — unless and until the world also demands that the Arab states (including the Palestinians) recognize Israel's legitimacy and sovereignty, explicitly and openly. ... This is the most important prerequisite for peace."
  READ MORE
 

NEXT YEAR IN WEST JERUSALEM
by Victor Sharpe

  Victor Sharpe points out that the fatal flaw in the succession of peace plans is that "[f]or Muslims, no non-Muslim state or nation that is on land once conquered by Muslim armies in the name of Allah will ever be tolerated." This cuts down the number of intelligent options for Israel to 1. "Unpalatable as it must be, the only solution for Israel is to make not one additional concession but resolve to face the entire world if need be rather than deny Jewish history, Jewish faith, and the Zionist cause." It must ignore "the siren calls of a fraudulent, beguiling and deceptive peace."
  READ MORE
 

GUSH KATIFERS. THE FIFTH YEAR AND STILL NOT SETTLED
by Staff, Think-Israel

  The Israeli government appears to be revving up to gift the Palestinian Arabs land in Samaria and Judea. To diplomats, politicians and sundry pro-Palestinians who have been nibbling away at Israeli land, this is a good start to eating up all of Israel. It would of course be a disaster, should Israel give up the land where the Jews first took root and where they developed the way of life that eventually became the basis of Western morality. It would also mean making some half-million or more citizens homeless, jobless and demoralized. In this essay, we examine how well the government did resettling the 10 thousand Jews they expelled from their homes and synagogues and orchards and businesses in Gaza in 2005 in a cockamamie bid for "peace" with Arabs lusting after Jewish blood. The only good that has come out of this stupid action is that many people are reconsidering their attitudes and questioning whether giving up land can bring peace. They really don't have that much more with which to experiment.
  READ MORE
 

THE REHABILITATION OF THE PALESTINIAN REFUGEES FIRST
by Shulamit Kogan

  The Arab refugees — hold-overs from the 1948 invasion of Israel by the neighboring Arab countries — continue to be a festering sore, a major factor guaranteeing there will not be a resolution of the Arab-Israeli conflict. The Arab leaders of the countries where the refugee camps are located never actually help their Arab Palestinian cousins; in fact, they deny them citizenship. Nevertheless, they claim they can't make peace with Israel until the refugee problem is resolved by Israel letting in a group of Arabs that could be almost as large as the number of Jews currently living in Israel to return to what they claim as their homes. In this way, the Arab refugees act as a piteous mask for the real intent of these Arab leaders — to wipe out Israel, which has had the temerity to defeat Muslim countries and won't accept dhimmi status. Shulmit Kogan examines why it would be foolhardy to make concessions for peace until the Arab refugees are rehabilitated and not allowed to become another ploy for land concessions by Israel. She also suggests that it's time Israel talked about the other group of refugees: the Jewish refugees from Arab countries. Many of these families had lived in the Arab countries longer than the Arabs. These Jewish refugees did not voluntarily leave. They fled for their lives. Those who came to Israel were given a new start as ordinary citizens. They were not left to fester in refugee camps.
  READ MORE
 

A DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVE REGARDING THE CURRENT CRISIS IN US-ISRAEL RELATIONS
by Tzvi November

  Tzvi November's has a number of recommendations for improving Israel's standing in world opinion. His essay reminds us once again that Israel should not put its trust in princes — this time on American administrations, Democrats or Republicans. What Israel should do is proclaim its own stance, its own ideology, its rejection of an Arab state in Israel's heartland. And stick to it. Calling Judea, Samaria and Gaza "disputed territories" as Shimon Peres does is plain stupid. The Arabs are savvy and "always refer to these areas as Arab land or Palestinian land but never as disputed land." It makes a better claim and is better PR. That it isn't Arab land doesn't bother them at all. So they are more effective than Israel, which does own the land, but is too timid to say so directly.
  READ MORE
 

INSPIRED
by Ari Bussel and Norma Zager

  Ari Bussel and Norma Zager write of activist projects in public diplomacy developed by individuals, projects that should be done by the Government but aren't. So people follow the injunction: where there are no men, strive to be a man (pirkei-avos/chapter2- 6.html). The Muslims have long since recognized that America is a battleground and have fought to win support with whatever weapons work -- lectures, bribes, raucous demonstrations, breaking up meetings, ecumenical sing-alongs with gullible Jews, convincing mainstream Churches that the Muslim arabs that drove the Christian arabs out of Bethleham are the good guys and it was all Israel's fault, working with Marxists because they and the Muslims have a common hatred of Judaism, rewriting K12 textbooks with puff pieces about the Religion of Peace, persuading the government they must reach out to the Muslims, introducing shari'a banking with only a few strings attached. Israelis, on the other hand, are just beginning to recognize the necessity of fighting the propaganda war effectively. For example, IDF officers — authentic ones — have come to explain the IDF to Americans. One of them bemoans the fact that "Muslims speak in one voice, with one narrative, and are therefore more powerful. We, on the other hand, are fragmented to the point where our position suffers." The joke about the 3-Jew town that needed 2 synagogues isn't always funny.
  READ MORE
 

NEW DETAILS ABOUT OHIO MUSLIM'S ARREST
by Erick Stakelbeck

  Erick Stakelbeck frequently reports on home-grown terrorists -- Americans who convert to Islam and then turn to terror activities against America. Many are recruited where there is active and sustained proselytizing: in prison or at a neighboring mosque. Now that the Obama administration is removing such alarmist words as Islamic terrorism and jihad from its vocabulary, it is easier to ignore what might otherwise be an obvious connection: someone goes off to Pakistan or another terrorist training area, illegally keeps an extensive arsenal at home, and is a new recruit for Islam. Given the present Administration's reluctance to see a pattern -- and to use this knowledge to stop terrorists before they do harm -- it may be some time before the larger issue is addressed: do violent people seek out Islam, or does converting to Islam encourage one to become violent? And, in either case, isn't labeling Islam 'the religion of peace' way off the mark?
  READ MORE
 

TERRORISM WITHIN THE UNITED STATES: THE MIDDLE EAST CONNECTION
by Patrick S. Poole

  The previous article was an instantiation of what is likely a wide-spread phenomenon. Muslim terrorists operating in America are trained directly in the Middle East or by dedicated Islamisists in the West. And the number of attacks on American soil has begun to increase markedly — 2009 was a banner year. Patrick S. Poole points out that even when the convert terrorist appears to have been self-radicalized, he was usually exposed to foreign recruitment videos and often was trained abroad. By noting that the same Middle Eastern mechanisms are operative in Africa, Canada and Britain as in the U.S.A., we can conclude that there are active, well-funded, well-organized, wide-spread and effective programs that convince new and born-again Muslim converts that Allah wants them to commit obscene violence. It is not a case of, as Daniel Pipes put it, 'sudden jihad syndrome.' Poole provides us with convincing details about many plots that have been uncovered. Now all we have to worry about are those that are still unidentified.
  READ MORE
 

SEPARATING ISLAM FROM TERRORISM
by Robert Spencer

  The Obama administration has separated the connection between Islam and terrorism — at least in National Security documents, Robert Spencer provides us with examples from the Qur'an, as well as quotes from Muslim leaders and scholars that indicate that Islam and Islamic terrorism are justifiably linked. He discusses the New Mardin Declaration, composed by Muslim scholars, which superficially seems to promote peaceful behavior towards non-Muslims; but it doesn't really warrant optimism. As Spencer points out, "the conceptual apparatus establishing a peaceful Islam has never been presented." Hence, "[t]he intersection of Islam and Terrorism is not coincidental or the result of specific political moves made by non-Muslim nations, as the conventional narrative claims. It is the inevitable result of Islamic theology which is supremacist and materialist, which when combined with the honor-shame code of a tribal culture, drives it compulsively toward war and conquest."
  READ MORE
 

THE GROWING THREAT OF FEMALE SUICIDE BOMBERS
by Steve Emerson

  Practice may not make perfect, but most tasks can be bettered, given experience and practice. This apparently even holds for improvements in delivering and aiming terrorist weapons. As Steve Emerson writes, delivery has been made more reliable as terrorists have begun using women. Women have carried their share of the burden, so to speak, for years — most have good education and they can use loose, concealing clothes as handy props. But only recently has it been recognized how well they avoid detection, being a group that is not profiled as terrorist. Which may acount for their popularity. Steve Emerson notes they have been used by Shi'ite and Sunni, Al-Qaeda and the Muslim Brotherhood, secular Fatah and religious Hamas. Now that they have hit the big times — bombing the Moscow metro — they should get the respect they deserve.
  READ MORE
 

WHAT DRIVES ISLAM TO BE THE RELIGION OF WAR
by Daniel Greenfield

  In this essay, Daniel Greenfield points out that Islam is "constantly a source of war, violence and discord" "[because]Islam is a religion of physical supremacy, and anything that challenges that supremacy is a direct attack on their beliefs." He concludes that "[t]he intersection of Islam and Terrorism is not coincidental or the result of specific political moves made by non-Muslim nations, as the conventional narrative claims. It is the inevitable result of Islamic theology which is supremacist and materialist, which when combined with the honor-shame code of a tribal culture, drives it compulsively toward war and conquest."
  READ MORE
 

WILL AMERICA SURVIVE ISLAMOFASCISM?
by Amil Imani

  Mohammed conquered Persia — modern-day Iran — some 1400 years ago. As usual, this was accompanied by looting, enslavement and enforced conversion. In our time, by analogy, because of its Constitution, America is tolerant as was ancient Persia, and the Islamists are still the Islamists. Amil Imani points out that longstanding Islamic practice is to be meek while weak and assume despotic intolerant power as it gains strength." "Mild Islamism" is already in America -- special facilities and perks for Muslims only; appeasement by American leaders, who ignore Iran's increased power to build a nuclear weapon; and "for-purchase politicians who keep endlessly broadcasting the false mantra that Islam is a religion of peace." "The barbarians have made it inside our fortress." We need to fight them.
  READ MORE
 

"THE OCCUPATION MADE ME BEAT MY WIFE:" BIASED SCHOLARSHIP IN THE PROPAGANDA WAR AGAINST ISRAEL
by Richard L. Cravatts, Ph.D.

  The insistence that Israel is the evil witch of the West is acquiring a coating of academic scholarship of poor quality but strong conviction. Richard Cravatts writes about the findings of a Italian group that the health of Gaza children was jeopardized by the Israeli invasion last year — the group found high concentrations of metal in the hair of the study's subjects. As indication of the quality of the experimental design, Cravatts reports an earlier study by NIEHS that also found high lead levels in Gazan children — they lived near a battery factory. The wall Israel erected to keep out terrorists has of course been blamed for a variety of psychological symptoms by various 'scientists.' Other pseudo-scientists attribute the abusive treatment by Palestinian husbands of their wives to the emotional stress engendered by the Israeli occupation. If we add the poor quality of articles that once prestigious journals such as Lancet will accept providing they tar Israel [see here and here.], these degraded journals will soon need to sport a label: read with caution.
  READ MORE
 

THE BUTLER DID IT!
by Steven Plaut

  It is common to see a Marxist take up the cause of Muslims, though ideologically they don't have much in common, except in identifying Israel and America as the enemy. Judith Butler of UC Berkeley is a Jew, an anti-Zionist and a Marxist, involved in doing her bit to destroy Israel, America and capitalism. She knows Israel is an oppressor country, just as she is certain that Hamas and Hizbullah don't deserve their bad reputation. To hear her talk, you'd think homosexuals and women are much better off in Arab countries than in Israel.We have Steven Plaut to thank for peeling away some of her incomprehensible prose to expose her vacuous ideas.
  READ MORE
 

HOW NY TIMES COVERAGE BURIES MIDDLE EAST REALITY; FIND THE FOUR GIGANTIC ERRORS
by Barry Rubin

  In examining a particular article in the New York Times, Barry Rubin provides us with an excellent analysis of the distortions in an article whose subject matter, one would think, was 'human interest' rather than politics, hence more likely to be reported without major distortions. It wasn't. In reporting on the restoration of a Cairo synagogue — Jews were in Egypt much earlier and longer than Muslims, as the Haggadah would attest — the Times whitewashes the Egyptian government's hostility towards Jews and ignores the hate-filled statements issued by Egyptian officials. As on any hate-spewing anti-semitic website, the aura around the Times article affirms that 'it's all the fault of the Jooz.'
  READ MORE
 

SAUDI ARABIA'S 'REFORM' OFFENSIVE
by Seth J. Frantzman

  Saudi Arabia (SA) can pay for the best. And when she sets out to show how modern, how reformed, the country is becoming, she can afford the best. Seth J. Frantzman writes how SA has recruited Westerns, particularly western woman, to handle the campaign. Maureen Dowd of the New York Times have made her mark in clobbering Israel. Now she is using her talent for whole-cloth imagery to paint a picture of the Saudi King as a "social revolutionary" and a kingdom hell-bent on modernization. Other Times columnists have also celebrated each micrometer of progress and ignored the continuation of slavery and beheadings, crippling social customs and harsh punishments for attempts to gain a modicum of independence. SA is betting that rhetoric will top reality — it has, after all, worked in the Arab world.
  READ MORE
 

THE POWER OF MONEY
by Dr. Reuven Erlich

  While the Saudi reform offense is aimed at Westerners (see above), much of the Arab media for Muslims is "a venue for blatant anti-Semitism." Reuven Erlich writes of the Al-Jazeera March 15 TV show starring Muhammad Yussuf al-Qardawi, an influential and respected scholar of Islam, spiritual leader of the Muslim Brotherhood (the parent organization of Hamas and al Qaeda) and the man who ignited the Muhammed cartoon riots — what he called "a day for worldwide Muslim protests over the insulting campaigns against Allah and His Prophet Mohammed." Erlich points out that al-Qardawi is "a dominant figure in shaping the anti-Israeli worldview in the Muslim and Arab world." Al-Jazeera broadcast his authoritative opinion to a receptive audience of millions: "the war against the Jews was not only for the Palestinians to fight, but rather a war of all the Muslims."
  READ MORE
 

THE "PHONEY WAR" AND THE NEXT WAR
by Dmeetry Raizman

  Dmeetry Raizman describes some cogent similarities between the Peace Process just preceding World War 2 and the current Israeli appeasement policy. In 1939, while the Germans were gaining strength and confidence to attack and when France's army was one of the strongest in the world, she disengaged from Saarland, "a location of strategic importance, unilaterally, without a fight, without a shot, and then for months the French forces sat in idleness..." on the front facing Germany. French leadership had been persuaded by Marshal Pétain that their objective should be defensive — 'to minimize losses', and to strive for peace — a policy enthusiastically seconded by the French Left and foreign peace groups. The consequences of this policy were seen when World War 2 began in earnest.
  READ MORE
 

RESTORING THE HURVA SYNAGOGUE
by Sara Yoheved Rigler

  Considering how touchy Muslims are about anyone even drawing an image of Mohammed, one wouldn't think they'd be so unfeeling about sites important to other people. But they are. They have a dismal record for not respecting other people's religions. In 1973, they attacked Israel on Yom Kippur. Given control of Joseph's tomb, they vandelized it, ripped up the Torah scrolls and defecated everywhere. They used the Avraham Avinu Synagogue in Hebron as a goat sty. Constant sniper fire forces visitors to Rachel's tomb to arrive in armored trucks that park behind concrete road blocks. When Jordan invaded and conquered the eastern part of Jerusalem, it destroyed the synagogues and used headstones from the Mount of Olives cemetary as stepping stones to the latrines. One of these was the Hurva Shul. Sara Yoheved Rigler recounts the history of the Hurva Synagogue, which has just been rebuilt.
  READ MORE
 

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

A Blog-Ed page has a quick list of the articles from which you can access any of the articles immediately. To go to the list, click the "Blog-Eds List" box in the Blue Strip on the top of the Blog-Ed page.

March 2010 BLOG-EDS    READ MORE
April 2010 BLOG-EDS    READ MORE

What we are talking about in the January-February 2010 issue: EDITORIAL: CROSSROADS SECTION 1: IF IT WADDLES LIKE A TERRORIST (Ohri, Ibrahim, Rubin, Warner, Sidman, Frantzman, Glazov, Averick, Suseelan, Adams) SECTION 2: CROSSROADS IN EUROPE: DEMOCRACY OR ISLAM GEERT WILDERS' TRIAL (Fjordman, Wilders, NRO Symposium) EUROPE: MUSLIM IMMIGRATION AND RISING ANTI-SEMITISM (Murphy, Phillips, Erlich, Bawer, Fjordman) SECTION 3: ISRAEL AND ITS VIRULENT NEIGHBORS GUSH KATIF REMEMBERED (Saperstein, Ronen and Kempinski, Wilder) DIDDLING IN IRAN (Imani, Glassman and Doran, Timmerman) ISRAELI PROBLEMS AND HOW SOME OF THEM BEGAN (Rose, Gordon, Kaplan, Greenfield, Glick) THE PALESTINIAN PEOPLE — PART OF THE ARAB UMMAH (Brand, Wohl, Julian, Toameh) U.N. AND UNRWA — KEEPING THE ARAB REFUGEE PROBLEM ALIVE (Steyn, Sorek, Delmar) SECTION 4: AMERICAN JEWS — HASBARA, ACTIVISM AND PASSIVITY (Darwish, Schwartz, Ashery, IDF Soldier, Tossavainen, Rosenbluth, Jacobs, Marano) HISTORY SECTION (Sharpe, Duke, Ostroff) READERS' BLOG-ED PAGES (January, February)

THE LONG MARCH OF ISLAM: CHAPTER 3
by R.K. Ohri

  We are serializing R.K. Ohri's book entitled The Long March of Islam. Previously, Ohri first laid out Islam's grand ideas for its global future and then discussed Islam's foundation tenets. In Chapter 3, he examines in detail a directive that towers above all others: to wage jihad against the infidel until he accepts "Allah as his Lord, Islam as his religion and Muhammad as his Apostle." Jihad is not an occasional act. "It is a holy war to be waged throughout the ages till the Day of Judgment." Current apologists of Islam make jihad sound like a fuzzy finding oneself spiritually. In reality, jihad calls for slaughter in the land; i.e., putting infidels to the slaughter. Which may be why jihad — better described as terrorism — has become so soul-satisfying in recent years with the Muslim youth and clergy. It is interesting that in India, jihad is justified because the British supposedly abolished the Caliphate; in the Middle East, the reason given is that the Jews are "occupying" Arab land; Osama bin Ladin cited the insult that westerners were in Saudi Arabia as the reason to destroy the World Trade Center and try to knock out the White House and Pentagon. The reasons vary; jihad slaughter is a constant.
  READ MORE
 

HOW TAQIYYA ALTERS ISLAM'S RULES OF WAR
by Raymond Ibrahim

  Raymond Ibrahim has previously written about taqiyya (unabashed lying to the infidel), a practice highly praised in Islam as a superior way to win a battle or an argument. Feigning apostasy — and not just under threat of death — is another aspect of taqiyya that is encouraged. The Qu'ran may itself be viewed as a study in taqiyya. Admonitions for peace in the earlier verses — written when Islam was still weak and outnumbered — are later replaced by calls for sustained jihad to convert the infidels. It is the later verses that are to be obeyed. In another context, a peace treaty can be made only for a fixed period of time, ten years at most; open-ended truces are illegitimate. Lies that further the spread of Islam are legitimate. "Yet", Ibrahim notes, "most Westerners continue to think that Muslim mores, laws, and ethical constraints are near identical to those of the Judeo-Christian tradition." For us in the West to continue to believe the Muslim is programmed in the same way as a Christian or Jew, is dangerous folly.
  READ MORE
 

RADICAL ISLAMISM: AN INTRODUCTORY PRIMER
by Barry Rubin

  Barry Rubin makes an important distinction. Jihadism and Terrorism are not equivalent; "Revolutionary Islamism is the main strategic problem in the world today. Terrorism is the main tactical problem." This suggests we stop limiting ourselves to the notion that we are fighting — or we were, pre-Obama — terrorism and acknowledge the enemy is the jihadist who uses terror. The Jihadist is fighting to inflict the rule of Islam everywhere in the world. As do many, Rubin takes comfort in separating political-theological Islamism from theological Islam. As he points out, "Islamism is an interpretation of Islam and not the only one possible. Indeed, for centuries there have been different interpretations." True, but from the start Islam was political as well as theological; jihad spread the word more efficiently than persuasion. We need to identify our enemies before we see the whites of their eyes. It will be too late, then.
  READ MORE
 

IS A NICE MUSLIM A GOOD MUSLIM?
by Bill Warner

  Bill Warner starts with the proposition that it a binary situation: one is either a muslim OR a kafir (a non-believer). There are no religious gradations in degree of belief in the fundamental Muslim credo. If an individual follows Muslim doctrine, he is a Muslim. Otherwise he is a kafir. And the two are treated differently. As Warner notes, "The Koran says that kafirs may be hated, plotted against, deceived, murdered, raped, enslaved, mocked and tortured. All of those actions are Islam and perfect doctrine." "So how do you tell if a nice Muslim is good or bad? From the kafir point-of-view, there is only the fact that a Muslim is following Mohammed's example. And that is bad, very bad."
  READ MORE
 

A GOD WHO HATES
by Fern Sidman

  One view of Islam asserts it is a warm religion of peace. Asked why almost all terrorists are Muslims, the response is: Well, a few marginal people — deprived, uneducated, frustrated — are terrorists, but they aren't authentic Muslims. The other view of Islam makes do with the facts: in practice, Islam is violent. Its practitioners are taught that violence and dishonesty as well as beheading and sneak attacks are acceptable weapons in fighting the infidel. Considering that the Muslim global population is estimated at 1.6 to 1.8 billion, even if only 15% of Muslims are pro-terror in that they will at least riot and burn tires to bolster suicide-bombers and snipers, we are talking about more than 250 million people, (which is getting mighty close to the population of the U.S.A.) Fern Sidman reviews a book by Wafa Sultan, an ex-Muslim, who has seen the religion from the inside and the outside and who has the training to assess it analytically — an ability few of its propagandists have.
  READ MORE
 

FALSE PROGRESSIVES IN THE MUSLIM WORLD
by Seth J. Frantzman

  Seth Frantzman suggests a practical test of how advanced a Muslim country is. Ignore what it says it is. Look at the way women are treated in the country. Look specifically how the Muslim male treats the women in his own family. Nothing dramatic. Just the ordinary things. How much freedom of action does she have? How much control does she have over choosing her friends? How is she allowed to dress in public? Forget the official PR. It is a sad fact that most Muslim countries, including the Arab ones, have become ever more regressive.
  READ MORE
 

THE ISLAMIC ROOTS OF ABDULMUTALLAB'S SUICIDAL ODYSSEY
by Jamie Glazov

  The new morality is that jihadists aren't responsible for their crimes for they are the victims of society, poverty, neglect and other social causes. So the the attempted destruction of a planeload of people by a rich, nice, educated Muslim is puzzling to those who won't believe "what Islamic terrorists like Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab themselves insist motivated them: ... following Islam and reading the Koran." Jamie Glazov argues that the causes of Umar's hate aren't to be found in Marxist economics and politics but in the "life-hating teaching of a religion that demonizes earthly happiness, joy, and pleasure." As Ayatollah Khomeini said, "there is no fun in Islam." There is too much hate — more than too many Muslims can cope with in a rational way.
  READ MORE
 

MADE IN AMERICA MUSLIM TERRORISTS
by Lori Averick

  Hostile activity by Arabs and other Muslims often takes the form of maligning non-Muslims, writing poorly-spelled but brutally ugly comments on the internet, disrupting public meetings organized by non-Muslims, and randomly attacking Jews physically on the street. There are also intra-Muslim hate crimes, such as the honor killings by even "moderate" Arabs — Muzammil H. Hassan beheaded his wife because she was uppity — and these are feebly reported by the press. What is becoming more frequent, as Lori Averick reports, is the western or westernized born-Muslim or convert, who wakes up one day and takes it upon himself suddenly to shoot up a Jewish community center, a group of fellow soldiers or — trying for the brass ring — to explode a planeful of people. An early example was Sayyid Nosair, Rabbi Meir Kahane's murderer, who came from Egypt and became a member of the notorious al-Farouq Mosque in Brooklyn. Whenever we have a single-person attack, the sob sisters of the FBI immediately reassure us that there is no conspiracy; the murderers were not radicalized by their religious leaders. It was simply that they were hurt, harrassed, insulted, ignored, picked upon, slighted, scorned, forced to this, forced into that, etc., etc., by the insensitive majority society. Yah, right.
  READ MORE
 

DEFEATING JIHADI TERRORISM
by Dr. Babu Suseelan

  Dr. Babu Suseelen writes about the impact of random terrorism on the lives of the citizens where the attack occurred. Security officers and political leaders warn against attack, but are silent about the jihad ideology that motivates the jihadists. In time, "citizens have become inoculated against the terrorists. And these habituated citizens who are inoculated and who are hiding behind a thick wall of denial no longer react." We need to fight back to preserve our future — for example, to demand that "hatred from the Koran be expunged." "Commonsense suggests that citizens have the right to identify people trying to ferment violence, spread hatred and terror in our country."
  READ MORE
 

A CONFLUENCE OF FOLLY
by D. L. Adams

  This comes as close as any article I know to articulating that we are at a crossroads — "a crossroads where denial and ignorance meet rationality and common sense." A reader, Christopher Ward, commented: "D.L. Adams lays out for us the dangers of fundamentalist Islam and the way we are reacting or rather not reacting."

We are currently militarily engaged in Iraq and Afghanistan. Both these countries and both sides in both countries are ideologically governed by Sharia law. Sharia law with its lack of tolerance to any other religion and its refusal to allow woman freedom of action is intrinsically "contrary to our concepts of justice and human rights." As Adams points out, "We fight against jihad at the same time we create states that will mandate it and support it — we will always be its victims; this is folly." More recently, in Iran, we've again sided with an ideological Islamic regime, not with those who want lessened state control.

Adams asks, "What is our purpose in supporting the creation and growth of societies and governments that are fundamentally opposed to our existence." How do we define victory? Whatever the outcome, it can hardly be called democracy?

Aside from the larger issues that need examination, we need to rethink some of our prejudices. We have rejecting profiling in airports, though profiling is a sensible way to pick out potential terrorists. We fear giving offense to Islam to the point that we have weakened our security. It is ludicrous but significant that the Dep't of Homeland Security has eliminated the word terrorist from its vocabulary. We need to understand that those who think of us as the Great Satan will not love us, no matter what we do. "The adherents of Islamic doctrine attack us because they hate us; they hate us simply because we exist."
  READ MORE
 

GALILEO AND GEERT WILDERS
by Fjordman

  It is trite to say that many a time we don't recognize when our civilization is at a major crossroad at the time when it happens. Bringing that strong advocate of freedom for the individual, Member of the Dutch Parliament Geert Wilders, to trial on January 20, 2010, for insulting Islam, may be one of those epochal events. Fjordman makes us understand this by comparing Wilders' persecution to that of Galileo, who was forced to recant his conclusion that the earth traveled around the sun, and not, as was commonly believed and enforced by the Catholic Church, that the sun traveled around the earth.
  READ MORE
 

AMERICA, THE LAST MAN STANDING
by Geert Wilders

  This was the Address given by Geert Wilders, Chairman of the Party for Freedom (Netherlands), at the Four Seasons, New York City, September 25, 2008, introducing an Alliance of Patriots and announcing the Facing Jihad Conference in Jerusalem.
  READ MORE
 

WESTERN CIVILIZATION ON TRIAL
by National Review Online (NRO) Symposium

  NRO asks a group of experts about the start of Geert Wilders trial: (1) Is there any legitimate reason he's in court? (2) What are the implications of such a trial being held, nevermind its outcome? These are the thoughtful and analytic responses by Bat Ye'or, a leading authority on the islamization of Europe, Paul Marshall and Nina Shea of the Hudson Institute Center for Religious Freedom, Robert Spencer, Director of Jihad Watch, and Daniel Pipes, Director of the Middle East Forum.
  READ MORE
 

SALMA YAQOOB OF THE BRITISH RESPECT PARTY
by Paul Austin Murphy

  As in America, the left ideologues and the Muslim fundamentalists in Britain find common cause in anti-war and anti-zionism activities. Paul Austin Murphy writes about Salma Yaqoob, a leader of the Respect Party, whose membership comes from Socialists and Communists on the left and Muslims on the right. Ideologic differences on gay and women's rights have caused the Party problems, but there is one area of perfect harmony among the members — they all hate Zionists (pronounced: Jews) and are for Palestinian rights. Murphy challenges some of Yaqoob's arguments, including her downplaying terror in Britain and complaining that Muslims are demonized. He also questions her claim to be of the "working class". He points out that her type of defamation of Judaism is responsible for much of the recent rise of anti-Semitism in England.
  READ MORE
 

THE SECRET PLOT TO DESTROY BRITAIN'S IDENTITY
by Melanie Phillips

  Christian churchmen, such as Lord Carey, former Archbishop of Canterbury, are warning against uncontrolled Islamic immigration that threatens Britain's "very ethos or DNA." As Muslim immigration has increased, rather than leading to a multifaceted but integrated community anchored in a single language and democratic goals, it has led to increased outlay in welfare expenses, demands that England give way to Muslim culture by adopting sharia law and a radicalization of the younger generation of Muslims. In this article, Melanie Phillips points out that Muslim immigration didn't just happen — it was encouraged in the name of "multiculturalism." Ironically, Muslim immigration is leading to a bizarre monolithic society where Islam is topdog and the other groups subservient.
  READ MORE
 

BRITAIN AS A FOCUS FOR HAMAS' POLITICAL, PROPAGANDA AND LEGAL ACTIVITIES IN EUROPE
by Reuven Erlich

  Britain has shown great concern for Muslim sensitivities. It has been extremely accomodating to what Muslims claim they need to perform their religious duties — to the point of stamping on the religious and social sensitivities of everyone else: not allowing non-Muslim employees to eat in the lunch room during Ramadan; not allowing Christian religious icons to be displayed publically, not allowing mixed bathing in swimming pools, not teaching the Holocaust, etc. One result has been that Muslims dedicated to violence have made London the base of their political, propaganda and lawfare activities. Hamas is on the European Union's list of terrorist organizations. Yet, camouflaged as a supporter of the Palestinian cause, it has turned "Britain into a center for extensive anti-Israeli activity." Hamas and its ideology has infiltrated "British politics, media and universities." Reuven Erlich provides us examples of their activities.
  READ MORE
 

WHILE EUROPE SNEERED
by Bruce Bawer

  When a believer in the basic goodness and fair-mindedness of mankind come up against guys who seem to be maniacally driven to kill people, something has to give. When the disparity is in the mind of a politicized intellectual expert, he often will sneer away the hard facts to preserve his political integrity. As Bruce Bawer describes so vividly, using Justin Vaïsse, as a case in point, he will ignore "the draining of European welfare systems by Muslim families, the explosion in rapes and gay-bashings and Jew-baitings, the proliferation of honor killings and forced marriages and no-go zones..." Curiously, the supercilious know-it-all is often not even concerned about fellow experts and professionals, who haven't denied reality but forthrightly fight against the ugliness and brutality that the entry of a large number of colonizing Muslims has brought to Europe. Calling those who fight to preserve European culture Islamophobes won't make the problems go away.
  READ MORE
 

REVIEW OF CHRISTOPHER CALDWELL'S REFLECTIONS ON THE REVOLUTION IN EUROPE
by Fjordman

  Fjordman comments on a book by Christopher Caldwell emphasize that while it is a lucid presentation of the major problem confronting Europe — namely, that Europeis being inundated by colonizing Muslims — the book does not come to grips with the likely consequence that Europe may soon lose its identity and be absorbed into the world of Islam. As example of the tenor of the book, Caldwell states that "Europeans can only hope that newcomers, especially Muslim newcomers, will assimilate peaceably." Fjordman points out that "Muslims have never 'assimilated peaceably' anywhere." He is justifiably annoyed that by downplaying the problem now, Caldwell contributes to a bloody future when and if Europe wakes up.
  READ MORE
 

THREE CHANUKAH MIRACLES; MY STONES... WHICH WERE NEVER MINE
by Moshe and Rachel Saperstein

  Moshe Saperstein relieves himself of his opinon of a Chanukah obscenity -- inviting an enemy of Israel to light the Chanukah menorah in Washington, D.C. But he also writes of three small miracles, all of which happened at Chanukah time. Rachel posts an essay by Paula R. Stern, a moving story of how she salvaged stones from the synagogues that were left behind by the Jews forced out of Gaza. They were desecrated by the new Arab inhabitants.
  READ MORE
 

GUSH KATIF REMEMBERED THROUGH ART
by Gil Ronen and Yoni Kempinski

  As a reader commented, "just too bad that a tragedy such as this one at Gush Katif was the spark that ignited their tremendous creative spirits. Here's hoping that these talented women continue to bring beauty in to the world. Theirs is a great example of tikun olum."
  READ MORE
 

A 'NATIONAL HEROES' LAW
by David Wilder

  Ugly punishments were meted out to teenagers who stood and protested — without stones or guns or any weapons — that expelling the Jews from Gush Katif was dreadfully wrong. They were treated much more harshly than Arab prisoners in Israel who have been found guilty of killing Israelis. The Arab prisoners even study for degrees while in jail; the teenagers were locked up "pre-trial" for indefinite amounts of time. That has now been judged by the courts to be excessive. The expulsion from Gaza has also been judged wrong. David Wilder is perhaps looking at a possible future when the Israeli leadership fearful of 'them' — America, the media, "world opinion" — might commit the crime of expelling some 200,000 to 300,000 Jews from Biblical Israel. This would be so outrageous as to make the suffering and demoralization caused by the Gush Katif expulsion seem mild in comparison. So he suggests that now that the Judiciary has come to its senses, it pass a law recognizing all the expellees as national heroes and making the leaders promise that this will Never Again Happen. It follows, for the law to have teeth, that the leaders responsible of the Gush Katif evil pay for their crime.
  READ MORE
 

EMPOWERING IRANIANS TO DISLODGE THE MULLAHS
by Amil Imani

  Amil Imani suggests that "all signs point to an early demise of the Islamic Republic — and the establishment of a secular democracy." In response to the public's unrest, the Iranian government has become more repressive and brutal, and in doing so, it becomes yet more unpopular. Imani estimates it has at best the support of some 10-15% of the population. "[T]he opposition movement is massive and determined, capable of exploiting any opportunity to disempower the regime." It includes labor and teacher unions, student groups, religious and ethnic minorities and journalists. They should be backed up by the world's nations imposing immediate sanctions. Whether the revolution or the bomb will come in first is still to be answered.
  READ MORE
 

THE SOFT POWER SOLUTION IN IRAN
by James K. Glassman and Michael Doran

  James K. Glassman and Michael Doran provide us with ABB — All But the Bomb --- ideas on dealing with Iran's as yet unstopped program to build nuclear bombs. They suggest ideas for a regime change in Iran, following up on the obvious dissatisfaction among the Iranians due to the fraudulent reelection of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad last summer. Should Iran be allowed to continue her nuclear plans, even if she doesn't immediately blast Israel, she becomes the more powerful state in the Middle East, or, as more likely, starts a race among the group of equally-unstable barely-civilized Arab states of the region to secure their own nuclear weapons.
  READ MORE
 

U.S. ACTING IN IRAN'S INTEREST, OPPOSITION LEADER SAYS
by Kenneth Timmerman

  Kenneth Timmerman describes his interview with Rahman Haj Ahmadi, leader of the outlawed Free Life Party of Iranian Kurdistan (PJAK) in Europe. As Timmerman writes, "Far from being a terrorist group, PJAK is dedicated to the overthrow of the Islamic Republic regime in Iran and its replacement by a pro-Western, secular, united Iran that recognizes the rights of all its citizens." Instead of encouraging this dissident group, the American Administration has, under the media radar, labeled the group as terrorist and frozen its assets, thus ensuring that other groups would avoid working with it.
  READ MORE
 

HISTORICAL ERRORS AND CONSEQUENCES
by Alex Rose

  Alex Rose describes some bad decisions Israel has made in its short lifetime, sometimes for noble reasons, sometimes from timidity and fear of asserting its legitimate rights. These decisions have led to some almost insolvable present-day problems. Moreover, her continued concessionary attitude and preoccupation with peace and peace partners and the peace process are giving her enemies a better shot at her destruction. She has not, however, been responsible for one of the most stupid decisions in the recent history of the Middle East, namely, Jimmy Carter's undermining the Shah of Iran. We can thank him for Iran's present-day rulers, the tyrannical Mullahs.
  READ MORE
 

THE DEADLY PRICE OF PURSUING PEACE
by Evelyn Gordon

  The conventional wisdom is that Israel's international standing depends on its willingness to advance the "peace process." If so, why, Evelyn Gordon asks, "has Israel's reputation fallen so low despite its numerous concessions for peace since 1993?" She points out that "among anti-Israel radicals, Israel's increasingly frantic pursuit of peace has aroused not admiration but rather the instincts of a predator scenting blood." To the terrorists, a concessionary Israel signals that Israel is in panic, so it's a good time to step up terror. Israel should attend to some truisms. First: Diplomats pressure the pressurable. Second: Terrorists expand their terror activities whenever possible. The Arabs in control of the Territories are terrorists. As Gordon points out, "the desperate pursuit of peace is not the solution but the problem."
  READ MORE
 

CHARLIE MCCARTHYISM
by Lee Kaplan

  The term McCarthyism — describing unfair accusations reminiscent of the pronouncements of the late unlamented Senator Joseph McCarthy — is a favorite retort of Marxist academics, especially when they are accused of disloyalty. They proclaim loudly and angrily that they are being deprived of their right to free speech, no matter how sloppy or non-factual or treasonous their speech. They never call it McCarthyism when they don't allow their students or colleagues the same right to free speech. Lee Kaplan explains the origin of the term McCarthyism, and suggests that the spectacle of Israeli Marxists becoming offended when their pseudo-scholarship, inaccuracies and political ideology are called into question is more Charlie McCarthy than Joseph.
  READ MORE
 

ISRAEL, STATE AND NATION
by Daniel Greenfield

  A particularly damaging action by the Israeli left has been to insert "appeasement [touted as peace] into the culture and the educational system of the State of Israel." This is while the government knows Arab kiddies are inculcated from the time they can crawl to celebrate murder of Jews. One consequence has been a fall in IDF recruitment from the Israeli Left — when once almost all Israelis aspired to join the army — while more Arab youth are recruited as suicide-murderers. An unforeseen paradox has been that Israel must rely on the religious Jew in the army, but the religious soldiers are put into the position of being commanded to crush their own religious Zionist communities at the behest of the Leftist politicians. How long can Israel function while violating the deepest patriotic values of the majority of its citizenry?
  READ MORE
 

THE NEW ISRAEL FUND AND THE NEXT WAR
by Caroline Glick

  Caroline Glick points out that Israel is being hemmed in by different groups of Muslim terrorists, which suggests that a regional war is imminent. To prepare for it, Israel of course needs to examine the potential military aspects. It also needs to neutralize the political-social items that would prevent Israel from responding effectively: the 5th column some Israeli arabs have shown themselves to be; "the ideological dependence on the far left and its central contention that it is Israel's presence in contested areas rather than our enemies' commitment to Israel's destruction that causes wars"; and the support given by a single source — the New Israel Fund — to all of the 16 anti-Zionist NGOs which wrote the war crimes charges made official by the Goldstone Committee in its attempt to prevent the IDF from fighting effectively in future engagements. NIF's motto might as well be: 'we'll do anything to undermine Israel: we support riots, terrorize Israeli officials, and amplify the voices of radicalized Islam.' Israel needs to make it clear that "the political open season on Israel is over." Israel must never again sue for peace after winning the war.
  READ MORE
 

SOVIET RUSSIA, THE CREATORS OF THE PLO AND THE PALESTINIAN PEOPLE
by Wallace Edward Brand

  If Yasser Arafat was the father of the Palestinian People, Russia was its mother. Wallace Edward Brand writes about the role Soviet Russia played in literally creating the Palestinian People in 1964 and in establishing Yassir Arafat as its leader. He bases much of this on the revelations of Major General Ion Mihai Pacepa, who has been vetted and certified as a credible source. Creating the "Palestinian" people as a propaganda weapon to counter Israel's ownership of Mandated Palestine has also been confirmed by many Arab sources (cf. here.)
  READ MORE
 

HISTORY LESSON FOR ARAB SPOKESMEN
by Assaf Wohl

  This essay by Assaf Wohl is written as replies to assertions by prominent Arabs who insist the Land of Israel belongs to them, past, present and future. That they say so would ordinarily be their own business — and error — but unfortunately, their words have incited Arabs to riot. Would that Assaf Wohl's essay motivates them to substitute Israel's real history for their fantasy version. As he has pointed out, "in every Arab village where you dig a little, you will find a synagogue."
  READ MORE
 

THE TWO FACES AND ZERO AUTHORITY OF MAHMOUD ABBAS
by Hana Levi Julian

  Mahmoud Abbas is quite a guy. He has two faces — the smiley one he turns toward Westerners when he asserts that he abjures violence and the dedicated look of the good Muslim when he honors Arabs terrorists. Two faces and no elected position — his term of office as President expired January 9, 2009. So they just extended it — with new elections sometime in 2010. Maybe. And yet, the American administration spends more effort worrying about how to get Israel to gift him with Samaria and Judea than it does worrying about the Iran-Syria-Hezbollah-Hamas alliance. I'm guessing the USA administration figures it would complicate things if Hamas wins in Samaria and Judea in a new election before the U.S.A. can "peace-process" Israel into giving its land away.
  READ MORE
 

PALESTINIAN AUTHORITY: STILL STEALING "HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS." HAMAS TAKING OVER
by Khaled Abu Toameh

  Abbas may not be as colorful a murderer as Arafat, but his heart is in the right place: he too believes in the Arab version of the work ethic: take home whatever you can steal. The longer he stays in office, the more likely it is that he and his buddies will live like Arafat's widow does. Arafat died in 2004, but widowlady Sufa still keeps dress boutiques and fancy food stores in business, all by her little self. Wot a benefactress. Of course, Hamas also takes big chunks of the money coming in to welfare the po' Palestinians in Gaza. No difference.
  READ MORE
 

WHEN IN ROME, DO AS THE VISIGOTHS DO
by Mark Steyn

  In writing this article about the U.N. Mark Steyn is as usually witty, incisive and right on the mark. It is a bit depressing to ponder that this description of the U.N.'s corruption is five years old. And it is still accurate.
  READ MORE
 

HOW TO SOLVE THE ARAB REFUGEE PROBLEM
by Yoav Sorek

  Yoav Sorek presents a brief synopsis of the Israeli Initiative for solving the Palestinian refugee problem. He argues that "the Palestinian refugee issue [is] the key to real change in the Middle East. Contrary to popular understanding, this issue could be solved in a relatively simple way: treating the Palestinian refugees like all other refugees. A fair humanitarian solution to this problem is of interest to all who seek stability and peace — Israel, the US, moderate Arab regimes, and of course, the Palestinian refugees themselves. The main obstacle for rehabilitation of the Palestinian refugees has always been the Palestinian National Movement, which takes advantage of the refugee issue, and the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), the body responsible for the perpetuation of the refugee situation over six decades. The fact that UNRWA is financed by western countries with the US as its largest sole donor, gives us an opportunity to make a change." Something needs to be done soon. After the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, the U.N estimated the number of Arab refugees at 472,000, of which 360,000 needed help. The number has grown so that UNRWA, whose only clients are these Arab refugees, feeds, houses, educates, provides health care and propagandizes for more than 4.5 million people who claim to be the original refugees and/or their descendants. And the number continues to grow.
  READ MORE
 

THE PALESTINIAN ARAB'S RIGHT OF RETURN — TO THEIR HOMELAND, ARABIA
by Mark Delmar

  Mark Delmar supplies references for facts that have been submerged by the fraudulent claim of the "Palestinians" that they are the original occupants of the Land of Israel and that the Jews invaded their land and are occupying it. There never was a country or state called Palestine. It is a fantasy that owes little to history and geography. Quite the reverse is true. When the Jews returned in numbers to their ancient land of Israel at the end of the 19th Century, the land was a poverty-striken, unfertile, unsanitary part of the Ottoman Empire. The Jews revitalized the land and the Arabs came in because of the renewed economic opportunities. The truth has often been told. It is time it was accepted.
  READ MORE
 

CIVILIZATION VERSUS BARBARISM
by Nonie Darwish

  Nonie Darwish describes yet another way that Islamic attitudes and values are infiltrating our educational system and affecting the values of young students. They send around speakers to schools, who, under the guise of explaining Islam, mispresent Islam, excusing its violence and spouting misinformation. These tactics are also designed to create an attitude of hate against Israel and America in the next generation. As Yuval Zaliouf has said of this essay, "Here is a clear example of the infestation of barbarism into our civilization." The unfortunate fact is that so many in the "civilized" world, particularly in academia and in the media, side with those barbarians. See for example the uncivilized tactics at UC Irvine here.
  READ MORE
 

WAHHABISM AND THE FIRST AMENDMENT
by Michael W. Schwartz

  Michael W. Schwartz makes a novel distinction between American religious institutions and foreign ones, specifically, Saudi-funded and staffed mosques in America. The reason is that the political aspects of what is taught in Wahhabi mosques have been implicated in several massacres by American Muslim terrorists. As one reader of the original article wrote: "The Constitution is not a suicide pact. Citizens have not only rights but responsibilities ..." Another reader noted that if Islam is a religion and not a political invasion, then we should go by the principle of mutuality: "They get as many mosques [here in America] as we get Churches/synagogues — Houses of Worship [in Saudi Arabia.]."
  READ MORE
 

HASBARA: TELLING THE ISRAEL STORY TO THE MANY WHO JUST DON'T KNOW
by Avrum I. Ashery

  Avrum I. Ashery reminds us that there are many effective and creative ways of letting people know about "Israel's exciting accomplishments in health, science technology and agriculture." And Israel's fast and brilliant response when disaster strikes. And its religious tolerance despite the fact that it lives in a region of widespread religious intolerance. Use the included list of some of Israel's accomplishments to start you off.
  READ MORE
 

IN THE IDF MEDICAL CORPS DELEGATION TO HAITI WHICH IS HOUSED IN TENTS....
An IDF Soldier

  Israel's immediate response to the earthquake in Haiti was dazzling; it set a new standard for dealing with a disaster by integrating high-tech and well-trained and dedicated professionals. As Emanuel Winston put it: "Israel's contribution became the focal point for other doctors from all over the world. Regrettably, the International Media worked very hard to insure that Israel's contribution was either not mentioned or only minimally, at best." And many internet crazies were sure Israel was there to harvest organs. The article is an IDF soldier's eyewitness account of the Israeli field hospital personnel and the reaction of the Haitians whose lives were saved.
  READ MORE
 

THE AFTONBLADET ORGAN-TRAFFICKING ACCUSATIONS AGAINST ISRAEL: A CASE STUDY
by Mikael Tossavainen

  Not long before the totally unwarrented and monstrous attack on Israel by the United Nation's Goldstone Report, Israel suffered another undeserved kick in the ribs. A Swedish paper, the Aftonbladet, skillfully mixed rumors, distortions, suggestions, lies and irrelevent information to accuse Israel of harvesting organs from dead Palestinians. Tossavainen does an excellent wrap-up of the story and its aftermath. Or some of the aftermath. It takes but a moment to realize that organs for transplant need meticulous handling and the organs of a bullet-riddled terrorist are hardly likely to be suitable. Nevertheless, such malicious and blatently dishonest stories about Israel are readily believed by those happy to accept any negative story about Jews.
  READ MORE
 

ASSESSING FOXMAN OF THE ANTI-DEFAMATION LEAGUE (ADL)
by Susan L. Rosenbluth

  Abe Foxman and the ADL are long-time institutions in the American Jewish community. Politically, like Merlin in the King Arthur legend, Foxman seems to be traveling backward in time. Half a century out of date, he thinks his enemies are right winger who love Israel like Rush Limbaugh and Christian evangelicals. He rants against right wing Nazis, whose impact is somewhere around minus zero but he pursues ecumenical ties with the Muslims, who spend time, money and human resources in promoting antisemitism in America. Foxman continues to use his position to side with the political Left, apparently believing the Left is still philo-semitic and the Right anti-semitic. What is most disturbing is that Foxman doesn't seem to recognize the extent that Arab targetting of Jews has influenced American campuses and churches. In this essay, Susan L. Rosenbluth examines Foxman's record, particularly his protection of those, like Bishop Tutu, who defame Israel. It's not clear we can any longer afford an ADL that defames our friends and ignores the danger posed by Arabs suffering from Judeophobia.
  READ MORE
 

PERHAPS WE NEED A REPLACEMENT FOR ADL
by Charles Jacobs

  The ADL is an outstanding example of an important Jewish organization that is inadequately responding "to the threats posed by Islamist antisemitism." Unfortunately, it isn't the only one that is passive in the face of Muslim in-your-face hostility. Other major Jewish organizations have not forthrightly warned their membership about the extent of Muslim planning and infiltration into America's educational, religious and political institutions. These groups certainly know that the Muslims have geared up to isolate Jews and demonize them in the U.S.A, Canada and several South American states. Charles Jacobs may have figured out the main reason why they haven't — they just don't know how to explain it to the Jewish community. I have news for them. All they have to do is say it. Plainly. In plain English. The facts. The unvarnished facts. The worst that can happen is some ostriches will resign from the groups. But that's better than being accused later of knowing what was going on and pretending that things would get better. To put it another way, NOT to shout in a theatre when there's a fire is criminal.
  READ MORE
 
 

ISRAEL IN YOUR HANDS — U.S. VOTERS HAVE A SAY ON WHAT HAPPENS IN THE HOLY LAND
by Lou Marano

  As Lou Marano writes, "Contrary to the received wisdom and official U.S. policy, a Palestinian state is not necessary, desirable or inevitable." For those committed to a Jewish State in the otherwise monopolistic Muslim Middle East, he argues it is time for proactive support. Why? Because there is evidence that the military means used to impose the current Washington-requested 10-month freeze on new Jewish construction in Samaria and Judea may portend an expulsion of these same Israeli Jews from their homes and businesses. A government that hasn't yet resettled the 8000 to 10,000 Jews it hounded out of their homes in Gaza in 2005 may be about to repeat this act of terror against another 200,000 to 300,000 of its citizens. If eastern Jerusalem is included, the number would go up to 500-600,000 Jews made refugees by their own government in their own country.
  READ MORE
 

THE GREAT LIBERATION
by Victor Janice Sharpe

  Victor Sharpe says of his article, "At this time when the international community, including the Obama Administration and the State Department, is applying unbearable pressure upon the Jewish state to give away its Biblical and ancestral heartland of Judea and Samaria to the Arabs, who call themselves Palestinians, it is vital to return to the biblical passages in the Book of Joshua. Joshua was the great military leader of the Jewish people. It was he who first freed the Promised Land in what I call the Great Liberation. The article/essay is replete with biblical passages that list the liberated territories on both banks of the River Jordan and which we ignore today at our peril." How foolish it would be to to give away our patrimony for a bowl of promises that the Arabs have no intention of honoring.
  READ MORE
 

THE CRUSADES: WHEN CHRISTENDOM PUSHED BACK
by Selwyn Duke

  Selwyn Duke asks: "Were the Crusades really expansionist ventures by an imperialist Europe? Or were they something else entirely?" He reminds us that by 732 A.D, when Islam was little more than 100 years old, Muslims had already taken over many of the Christian countries of the Middle East and North Africa, Iberia (Spain and Portugal) and were nearing Paris before they were stopped. But Islam didn't stop trying to take over Europe. The Crusades, begun some four centuries later, were attempts by Christianity to take back territory once theirs and to stop further encroachment. Duke suggests we need to understand the Crusaders in the context of their time. Muslims were relentlessly invading and occupying large swatches of Europe, The Crusaders fought back — perhaps not brilliantly and with dark episodes. But they fought for the survival of their lands and religion.
  READ MORE
 

THE BIG LIE ABOUT DEIR YASSIN REVEALED
by Maurice Ostroff

  History sometimes has a way of repeating the same elements of the same story over and over again. In Jenin and again in Gaza last year, Israel put its own soldiers at risk to prevent the killing of Arab women and children, whose own families callously put them at risk to shield the terrorists that Israel was targetting. The same thing happened when the new state of Israel was just born and immediately invaded. Deir Yassin was not a peaceful village; it was fortified and well-equipped with a large supply of arms being used by a large number of native and foreign fighters, shooting down into Jewish areas. Strategically placed high up in the hills, it was blocking the road to Jerusalem. Rather than a surprise attack — which would have saved Jewish lives — the Jews, using a loudspeaker, offered the town the opportunity to send away the women and children before they attacked. What the Jews got for their scrupulous behavior was the Deir Yassin myth, which asserted the Jews had raped the women and massacred the town. And this was years before Judge Goldstone with solemn face falsely certified that Jews committed war crimes in Gaza.
  READ MORE
 

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

A Blog-Ed page has a quick list of the articles from which you can access any of the articles immediately. To go to the list, click the "Blog-Eds List" box in the Blue Strip on the top of the Blog-Ed page.

January 2010 BLOG-EDS    READ MORE
February 2010 BLOG-EDS    READ MORE

What we are talking about in the November-December 2009 issue: LET'S START WITH SOME FOUNDATION PAPERS (Belman, Hertz, Sherman) JEWISH OUTPOSTS AND SETTLEMENTS, REFUGEES AND CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE (Julius, Saperstein, Tucker, Ratzlav-Katz, Fendel) WHAT ISRAEL IS DOING RIGHT RIGHT NOW (Senor and Singer, Gilder) TO BRING ISRAELI POLITICS UP TO THE QUALITY OF ITS TECHNOLOGY (Schecter, November, Lademain, Sharpe, Freund, Belman, Shapiro) CHRISTIANS IN BIBLICAL ISRAEL (Grobman, VanZile) OTHER MIDDLE EAST CONFLICTS (Erlich, Rubin, Spyer, Silverberg) HOW ISLAM TREATS FELLOW MUSLIMS AND INFIDELS (Ohri, Roberts, Alexiev, Rubin) ANTI-SEMITISM IN AMERICAN BLOGS AND SYRIAN RADIO AND EARLIER INFLUENCE (Kesler, Levick, Erlich, Herf) ACADEMIC ANTISEMITES (Shifftan and Lipkin, Plaut, Waltzer, Plaut) EUROPE ON THE WAY TO DISSOLUTION (Bawer, Fjordman, O'Neill) AMERICAN PERCEPTION OF TERRORISM (Spengler, Lerner, Emerson and Himelfarb, Jonas, Dzubow) BLOG-ED PAGES (November, December)

SUMMARY OF ISRAEL'S LEGAL RIGHTS TO JUDEA AND SAMARIA
by Ted Belman

  Ted Belman summarizes the unbroken series of treaties and resolutions, laid out by the San Remo Resolution, the League of Nations and the United Nations, that give the Jewish People title to Mandatory Palestine and the city of Jerusalem. Ownership of the Land went from the defunct Ottoman Empire to the present State of Israel. The Arabs were never involved. The "Palestinians" had never owned the land; they had never had a state on the land. Considering that during the same period and by the same mechanisms, the Arabs acquired title to over 99% of the Middle East, the Arabs can hardly be considered to be deprived of land.
 READ MORE
 

UN SECURITY COUNCIL RESOLUTIONS 181 AND 242
by Eli E. Hertz

  Eli Hertz presents the pertinent information about two U.N. Resolutions — 181 and 242 — that are often used inaccurately to 'prove' that Israel needs to give up yet more of its tiny country to the Arabs. Resolution 187 was adopted by the General Assembly in 1947 and would have partitioned mandated Palestine into a Jewish state and an Arab state. It was never adopted by the Security Council, so it was never a binding resolution. In any event, the Arabs rejected it. It became null and void when the Arab states invaded the new-born state of Israel in 1948. U.N. Resolution 242 was adopted after the 6-day war by the Security Council. It said that Israel was to return some of the land it conquered when the Arab states formally agreed to allow Israel to live in peace with secure and recognized borders. It did not mention Palestinian arabs.
 READ MORE
 

BARGHOUTI, AMNESTY AND TRAVESTY
by Martin Sherman

  Palestinian Arabs should have a contest on who can invent the most awful thing to blame on Israel, especially when they have highly partial NGOs like Amnesty International to help them. Water is so basic, everyone can sympathize with the po' Palestinians being deprived of water by the evil Israel. Unfortunately, the figures don't support their claim. Their problems — as usual — are self-inflicted: their leaders are not the most ept in maintaining distribution and they have allowed "untreated effluents to endanger 'downstream' Israeli supplies." Martin Sherman is discussing the Mountain Aquifer in Samaria and Judea (the West Bank). Imagine the disaster if they plonk an Arab state there — the aquifer would go the way of the Coastal Aquifer that the Gaza arabs have ruined.
 READ MORE
 

THE AL-KUWAITY BROTHERS ARE BACK!
by Lyn Julius

  Lyn Julius tells the story of the al-Kuwaity brothers, Saleh and Daoud, who became famous in the Arab world as composers and performers. They were born in Kuwait of Iraqi Jewish parents a century ago. When Iraq and the other Arab countries began terrorizing their Jewish communities, the brothers fled to Israel along with most of the other Iraqi Jews. As is usual in totalitarian countries, they became unpersons in the Arab countries that had acclaimed their compositions. Their music was still played, but "attributed to Muslim musicians or labeled 'of folk origin'". Julius writes, "The Arab world needs to acknowledge its debt and to accept that uprooting their Jews exacted a heavy price. The day that a street in Baghdad is named after the al-Kuwaity brothers would be a day for celebration, indeed."
 READ MORE
 

NIGHTMARE ON CHELM STREET. CATS ALL, FOLKS. BUILD OR FREEZE. 3 DUFFLE BAGS.
by Moshe and Rachel Saperstein

  This issue, we learn from Moshe Saperstein the reality on the ground while little-boy politicians play Real Politiks with people's lives. And Rachel Saperstein gives us the grown-up version of the story for children about the little red hen that grew the wheat and eventually baked the bread. Her neighbors came around when the bread was baked, not before. In the grown-up version, some of the Jews expelled from Gush Katif, Gaza, shook off despair and set down a new community in Lachish. The bureaucrats that have mucked up their resettlement of the Gaza Jews came to the opening ceremonies to take the credit.
 READ MORE
 

HANUKAH AND A HOME
by Anita Tucker

  Over the years, we've posted letters from Anita Tucker, starting from when she was a farmer in Gaza. Like the Sapersteins (see above), she and her family were expelled from Gush Katif, Gaza, in August 2005, by a government that put a lot of effort in destroying the lives of some of their best citizens and then all but abandonned them. Like the Sapersteins, she found the courage to build again, a community they will call Netzer Hazani, named after the community destroyed in Gaza, She writes how the Obama-inspired 'building freeze' is affecting the community.
 READ MORE
 

'A LIFE'S WORK' DESTROYED IN SAMARIA
by Nissan Ratzlav-Katz

  Standard English Slander for Jewish villages and towns in the territories and parts of Jerusalem: an outpost is a few trailers, usually on a hilltop and preventing Arab settlers seizing the land illegally; a settlement is any Jewish village, town or city smaller than Tel-Aviv.

Just a few months after Defense Minister Ehud Barak approved new housing in Samaria and Judea, he's back destroying "illegal" Jewish homes and farms such as the Botzer farm in Mevo Dotan West. These acts are barely reported in the media. I don't know what is more horrifying about this latest — that the Israeli government destroyed the home of a young industrious couple that is part of a community dedicated to keeping Israel Jewish or that the Israeli government hired neighboring Arabs, many of whom are themselves living in illegal housing, to carry out the destruction. How would we feel if men like the would-be airplane bomber were hired to smash up the home of a family of a soldier on duty in Iraq? As Ellie Katz (http://elyakatz.wordpress.com/) wrote, "This farm was dismantled with the assistance of local Arabs! What is the Israeli government doing? This is giving the Arabs an appetite for this sort of thing."
 READ MORE
  'ANTI-FREEZE' ACTION PLAN RELEASED
by Hillel Fendel

  The settlers have a deserved reputation of taking a lot of insult and physical abuse from the Israeli authorities, with minimal response. The police, judiciary and government have been blatently supportive of Arab settlers and hostile to Jewish settlers. Some of the settlers experienced being expelled from their homes in Gush Katif in 2005 only to find their Government had made a pointless gesture that had no impact on the world except that it demanded further concessions. They understand that a settlement freeze is likely to become permanent and be the the start of yet another expulsion. This time they know from experience the government will act against patriotic Jews instead of the Arabs that want to destroy Israel. As Hillel Fendel shows us, the Jews are planning with more perspicacity.
 READ MORE
 

ISRAEL'S LIVELY START-UP CULTURE KEEPS ECONOMY THRIVING
by Dan Senor and Saul Singer

  "Israel has more companies on the tech-oriented NASDAQ than any country outside the United States — more than all of Europe, Japan, Korea, India, and China combined." Dan Senor and Saul Singer suggest that the U.S. could learn lessons from Israel's vital economy and high concentration of innovation and entrepreneurship. They attribute Israel's success in part to the experience young people gain in the army taking responsibility and making vital decisions on the basis of incomplete information and inadequate resources. Other factors are important. Israel is open to new immigrants — dynamic capitalists from America, engineers and scientists from Russia — and has sensible banking practices. And it was a major boost when they abandoned their socialist-based financial structure.
 READ MORE
 

SILICON ISRAEL: HOW MARKET CAPITALISM SAVED THE JEWISH STATE
by George Gilder

  Israel blossomed as a powerhouse of technological developments when it rejected its early socialist economic philosophy and adopted market capitalism. George Gilder points out that in a very short time, Israel has "become a center of innovation, second in absolute achievement only to the United States, and on a per-capita basis dwarfing the contributions of all other nations, America included." It is a world leader "in launching new companies and technologies." Some of Israel's technology achievements have millitary application, which "makes Israel one of America's most important economic allies."
 READ MORE
 

WHITHER ISRAEL?
by Stephen Schecter

  Stephen Schechter speaks bluntly of the unremitting hatred of the Arabs to Israel — a hatred that makes them insist, ignoring both history and law, that Jews have no connection with the land; a hatred they satisfy "by Jew hatred, terror, violence and blood lust." Jews, in contrast, continue to believe (oh so unrealistically) that there has to be a peaceful solution, even though every Israeli concession — including stripping itself of bits of its tiny land — inspires the Arab world to greater monstrosity. Shechter, ever the realist, argues that the Jews need to forsake the Court Jew mentality, defeat the Palestinians "militarily, a goal perfectly within Israel's capability" and reassert "sovereignty over the land promised to the Jews by God and the Balfour Declaration." From his lips to Israel's ears.
 READ MORE
 

GEORGE ORWELL IS ALIVE AND WELL IN ISRAEL
by Tsvi November

  In Orwellian Newspeak, doublethink is the ability to believe wholeheartedly and simultaneously in two contradictory statements or in a conclusion that flies in the face of the plain known facts. Tsvi November describes Israel's own version of Newspeak: the media and the leadership praise appeasement and abasement as furthering peace, when experience continues to demonstrate that catering to the Arabs make them ever more violent and demanding. Israel grows more prosperous and self-sufficient while the social, economic, political and demographic problems in the Arab countries worsen, yet the appeasers insist time is working against Israel. Some Israelis believe there will be real peace if only the "Palestinians" sign an agreement even though when they themselves shop in a souk, they don't believe anything the Arab owner says without verifying it for themselves. In Newspeak, "disputed territories" meant land not held permanently by one of the Superstates; "disputed territories" is how Israel's diplomats describe land they own by international law but are afraid to say so. It's time the media stopped feeding the public "the peace in our time' fantasy" and let common sense come to the fore.
 READ MORE
 

ISRAEL'S LEADERSHIP IS IGNORANT OF LAW
by Paul Lademain

  It is Paul Lademain's contention that Israel's leaders — he doesn't think highly of them — are not dealing correctly with the Arabs encroaching on Jewish land. Israel makes stupid gestures of goodwill "bargaining away its right to assert control over lands in its possession," whereas the Arabs understand — as Israel's leadership apparently does not — that, practically speaking, possession is 90% of the law. "Nations who agree to relinquish their land or their power in exchange for air-kisses are correctly perceived as 'losers.'" He recommends that "[t]o perfect control over YOUR land you must first resolve that the land is YOURS--and shall always be yours--and to do so without any qualms and with absolutely no guilt." Sensible advice.
 READ MORE
 

ARABS TO ISRAEL: JUDEN RAUS
by Victor Sharpe

  Victor Sharpe points out that Israel jeopardizes its future by not asserting its rights. Even if it were foolish enough to allow a Palestinian State in Biblical Israel, the Palestinians would still attempt to grab more land. The Arabs would yell for Israel to move to the 1949 Armistice Lines as now they yell for Israel to withdraw to the 1968 lines. And in whatever territory they take over, they allow no Jews. So there is actually a very stark option. Either Israel take control of its land or the Arabs will. Sharing is not in the cards.
 READ MORE
 

IT'S ANNEXATION TIME
by Michael Freund

  Since Oslo — or perhaps since 1968 when Israel regained Biblical Israel — Israel has kept the future of the thriving Jewish communities of Samaria and Judea ambiguous, hoping to use them as a bargaining token, where many of them would be swapped for peace with Israel's Arab neighbors. Over the years, Israel's ambition shrunk to a hope for peace with the local Arabs, who had started to call themselves "Palestinians"; and now even the putative head of some of these arabs mocks them. It has been a foolish policy that has destroyed the lives of some of her best citizens and gained Israel nothing except condemnation, whatever it does or doesn't do. Michael Freund suggests a different course, one based on Israel's legal ownership of the land, when he writes, "For far too long, Israel has been overly vulnerable to Palestinian machinations and games by leaving the status of the settlements unresolved. Now is the time to send a clear message to our foes, and there is no better place to start than with our own unilateral measures, chief among them the annexation of all the Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria." An Addendum from The Israeli Initiative suggests a somewhat different way to regain what belongs to Israel. A good start to doing what Israel should have done in 1968.
 READ MORE
 

UNILATERALISM IS OUR ONLY OPTION
by Ted Belman

  Many arabs were settled into Biblical Israel — eastern Jerusalem, Samaria and Judea — by Jordan after 1967 when she occupied the area and many have come in legally and illegally since then. Ted Belman reviews his way of regaining Biblical Israel and also variations suggested by others. As does Michael Freund (see above), these plans deal with the human rights of the Arab population in the Territories; they were not granted political rights (voting) in Mandated Palestine. The ultimate objective is to do what should have been done in 1968 — take back control of Samaria and Judea, land that legally belongs to the State of Israel in the name of the Jewish people.
 READ MORE
 

WE NEED HEROES TODAY. LET US BE LIKE MACCABEES
by Bernard J. Shapiro

  The Maccabees had to fight both their Greek rulers and Hellenized Jews, whose goal was for Israel to reject Judaism and be like everyone else — assimilated into the Greek culture of their time. Bernard J. Shapiro suggests that Israel can strengthen its "political and strategic situation" by annexing land that is rightfully theirs "from the Mediterranean to the Jordan, from the Golan to Gaza" and otherwise focus on making Israel Jewish instead of favoring the Arab. He advocates a "loyalty oath and national service for all citizens of Israel, including Arabs" and letting the IDF stop terrorists, even when they use their civilian population as shields.
 READ MORE
 

CHURCH LEADERS REMAIN SILENT WHILE PALESTINIAN CHRISTIAN ARABS SUFFER AT THE HANDS OF MUSLIMS
by Alex Grobman

  Christian Arabs are molested, sexually harassed, raped, murdered, terrorized, forceably converted to Islam, forced to pay extortion money and have their cemeteries desecrated in areas controlled by Muslim Arabs. Yet some of their church leaders "[a]gainst all evidence claim that the Christians Arabs are living comfortable and prosperous lives." Out of fear and intimidation by the Muslims in control, Christians are leaving cities where they used to be in the majority and Muslims are taking over. In 1990, Christians were 60% of Bethleham's population; by 2001, they were down to 20%. Yet prominent Christian clerics blame Israel for Christian flight. Alex Grobman provides us with some accurate information.
 READ MORE
 

MAINLINE AMERICAN CHRISTIAN "PEACEMAKERS" AGAINST ISRAEL
by Dexter Van Zile

  This is a well-documented and thorough study of five prestigious Protestant churches that have taken a hard anti-Israel stance and are unswervingly pro-Palestinian. They portray Israel as almost solely responsible for Arab hostility and violence towards Israel and for not trying hard enough to achieve a peaceful resolution of the Arab-Israeli conflict. Actual facts — e.g., the Arabs speak proudly of their genocidal acts against innocent civilians because they have the seal of Islamic approval — are waved aside. The leaders of these churches promulgate anti-Israel propaganda and engage in boycott and divestment activity against Israel, with the hope they will "help transform bipartisan American support for Israel into an artifact of the hard Right." Resistance to this myopic view has been growing within the Church membership, but there are still unanswered questions: why the initial instinct of the Protestant leadership to blame just Jewish Israel? What motivates a bishop such as Rev. Margaret Payne to lie blatantly about easily-checked facts when propagandizing for the Palestinian arabs? What makes a Christian Arab like Naim Ateek whitewash the Muslims who are destroying his community? What makes an ordained minister like Gary Burge distort the plain meaning of the Torah to flay modern Zionism? What makes him insist that Jews don't own Israel because they have rejected Jesus as the Messiah? Is it that being anti-Israel is really a way to express Jew-hate, an attitude that is not exactly politically correct?
 READ MORE
 

YEMEN SEIZES IRANIAN ARMS SHIP CARRYING WEAPONS FOR THE SHI'ITE REBELS IN THE COUNTRY'S NORTH
by Dr. Reuven Erlich

  Iran and Saudi Arabia are fighting a proxy war in Yemen, with Saudi Arabia aiding the Yemen government, Iran sending supplies and men to the Houthi Shi'ite rebels fighting the Yemini army in the north. The rebels are trying to bring down a government they say is too pro-Western. Thousands have died on both sides and some 150,000 people have been displaced. All this has taken place with little media attention and no action by the U.N. except to help create a refugee camp. This article by Dr. Reuven Erlich is about the capture of an Iranian arms shipment on its way to Yemen. Iran has similarly shipped weaponry by sea to Hezbollah to fight Israel.
 READ MORE
  THE ENDURING IRAN-SYRIA-HEZBOLLAH AXIS
by Michael Rubin

  Syria isn't strong enough to be a major power but it does well for itself acting as a major node in the distribution of weaponry from Iran to Hezbollah. Over the years, Hezbollah has conducted suicide attacks against Israel as the active arm of Iran and Syria — states that are not in a position to wage war openly. Hezbollah has its own power base — it controls Lebanon. When Syria was forced out of the Bekaa Valley, which is noted for its opium poppy fields and marijuana production, Hezbollah took control. Michael Rubin points out that Iran (operating from its embassy in Damascus) and Syria have bonded; they work well together and have common goals and outlook. They have unified the Shia in the region — in Iran, Syria, Lebanon, Iraq and even Bahrain — and are a steady source of support for other regional terrorist groups, including Hamas and Islamic Jihad. This network would be united in a confrontation with Sunni Saudi Arabia. The U.S. State Department continues to believe it can woo Syria from its power-conferring relationship with Iran.
 READ MORE
 

HEZBOLLAH'S DELUSIONS
by Jonathan Spyer

  Jonathan Spyer makes the point that Hezbollah's victories in Lebanon are a miniature version of "larger regional developments." After its election victory, Hezbollah is now pushing to force Shi'ite rule on everyone. A similar push to a more orthodox Islam can be seen in Turkey, Iran and Gaza. As part of this, of course, the United States is demonized and Israel is targetted for destruction. "But at the core of the strategic thinking of Hezbollah and its patrons lie a series of delusions, which are likely to bring about the defeat of the movement over time." Especially if the West starts to understand that this political ideology can not be ignored or accomodated.
 READ MORE
 

AS THE ISLAMIC CURTAIN DESCENDS
by Mark Silverberg

  Mark Silverberg chronicles the gradual evolution of an Islamic mini-state in Gaza under Hamas rule and Shari'a law. A dress code for women is enforced "on the street, in schools and in the courts"; mixed-gender classes in schools are discouraged; gender separation in public is encouraged; religious studies have been expanded; and more mosques and madrasses and Shari'a courts are being constructed. Nevertheless, Hamas has not satisfied some still more religiously stringent groups, who now consider Hamas offices legitimate targets to attack. On the other hand, other Gazans may find increased conformity to Shari'a law too restrictive.
 READ MORE
 

THE LONG MARCH OF ISLAM: CHAPTER 2
by R. K. Ohri

  In the previous issue, R.K. Ohri discussed the "geo-political implications of the long reach of radical Islam and the consequences of their global designs for the civil society of 'tomorrow and the day after.'" In the current essay, Ohri describes Islam's foundation tenets: the 'Shahada', its declaration of faith; namaz (prayers); zakat, (giving charity); roza (fasting, as used in India); and Haj (pilgramage to Mecca). These are unexceptionable in a religion. However, a Muslim's life is prescribed by Sharia, "the collectivity of laws that govern the lives of Muslims"; sharia allows for no individual interpretation. In addition, there is "'Ummah' ... a grand idea that binds Muslims all over the world into a common brotherhood or one single fraternity." In practice it means that allegiance to Islam comes before loyalty to country — as we saw recently when Major Hasan massacred his fellow soldiers at Fort Hood. If there is a fight between foreign Muslims and the Muslim's country, a Muslim has no choice but to fight for the foreigner. This is continously preached from mosques around the world and confirmed by Islamic scholars.
 READ MORE
 

FITNA AND THE KAFIR
by Kenneth Roberts

  It is the crime of fitna if one says something publically that would "cause controversy, testing, fragmentation, scandal, chaos, or discord, disturbing social peace and order within the Muslim community,.." The punishment is death, which any Muslim can administer to the perpetrator, his family or his whole community. Kenneth Roberts points out that violence against critics of Islam applies to everyone, Muslim and infidel. Even "[t]o analyze Mohammed's ethical inconsistencies is fitna." Official dogma of mainstream Sunni Islam, who number almost a billion, it is an effective technique for controlling public information sources and inducing self-censorship. The Danish cartoon riots were to teach infidels not to disagree with Mohammed in public. Even five years later, a Somali man was caught breaking into the cartoonist's home, armed with a knife and hatchet. It is easy nowadays to spot newspapers that snipe and sneer at Jewish and Christian practices but are mealy-mouthed about Muslims; they are practicing self-censorship to avoid trouble.
 READ MORE
 

JIHAD, INC.
by Alex Alexiev

  The FBI has arrested some 20 homegrown Muslims planning terrorist attacks in just the last 6 months alone. They were radicalized in mosques in America by imams preaching an ideology that demonizes "the West as a subhuman civilization that must be destroyed if Islam is to survive and triumph," starting with America. As Alex Alexiev explains, "[P]eaceful coexistence between Islam and any other religion or ideology is rejected." Their enemy is anyone, Muslim and non-Muslim, that doesn't accept sharia law. They began building infrastructure back in 1960s — a well-funded, active and growing network of student and professional associations, publishing houses, schools, mosques and charities. The Fort Hood massacre was dramatic, but their preferred methods are those that arouse less antagonism: "taking over moderate Muslim institutions, radicalizing mainstream believers, indoctrinating the young, aggressively proselytizing among the infidels, infiltrating government institutions and the political establishment, and organizing support for extremist causes and jihad overseas." The U.S. Government needs to start connecting the dots.
 READ MORE
 

WHY I MURDERED 13 AMERICAN SOLDIERS AT FORT HOOD: NIDAL HASSAN EXPLAINS IT ALL TO YOU
by Barry Rubin

  Before he massacred army personnel at Fort Hood, Major Hasan had given a Power Point lecture explaining how the Koran framed his view of how a Muslim in the U.S. Army should behave when forced into a situation where he might have to kill brother Muslims in Afghanistan and Iran. He concluded he couldn't fight in an infidel army — the army of his own country, America — against other Muslims. Barry Rubin points out that, having examined alternative ways of handling the situation, Hasan "clearly did see himself as a Jihad warrior" with limited options of what to do.
 READ MORE
 

RULES OF ETIQUETTE FOR MODERN ANTI-SEMITISM
by Bruce Kesler

  Bruce Kesler provides us with an superb summary of how much of anti-semitic propaganda is spread in America using a variety of smoke screens to mask the hate-the-Jews message. The number of attacks from polite and respectable sources have increased over the years. Modern anti-semitism "wraps up old canards in purposely cute circumlocutions, to deceive and forward its deadly goal, the death of the civilized West so that backwardness, tyranny and barbarities can continue or prevail in greater safety from exposure, comparison or challenge. "
 READ MORE
 

ANTI-ISRAELISM AND ANTI-SEMITISM IN PROGRESSIVE U.S. BLOGS/NEWS WEBSITES: INFLUENTIAL AND POORLY MONITORED
by Adam Levick

  For years even after World War 2, hate was expected from the Right, not from the liberals, the democrats, the "good guys." Since then, it is the Left that has become the major home of anti-semitism and anti-zionism. Adam Levick chronicles the temperment of some on the "respectable" Left, where anti-semitism, pro-Palestinian, globalism and share-the-wealth live comfortably together.
 READ MORE
 

THE HATE INDUSTRY: THE PROTOCOLS OF THE ELDERS OF ZION IN A RADIO BROADCAST FROM DAMASCUS
by Reuven Erlich

  The Arab media maintains a steady stream of anti-Jewish T.V. and radio shows. Unlike in the West, there is nothing to inhibit the Religion of Peace from spouting hate.
 READ MORE
 

HATE RADIO: THE LONG, TOXIC AFTERLIFE OF NAZI PROPAGANDA IN THE ARAB WORLD
by Jeffrey Herf

  In this essay, Jeffrey Herf deals with the contribution Nazi anti-semitism made to the Muslim's religious obligation to be globally superior to all other groups. He writes, "The founding charter of Hamas, the militant Palestinian group, recapitulates conspiracy theories about Jews that were popular in Europe in the 20th century. Al Qaeda's war against 'the Zionist-Crusader Alliance' and the anti-Zionist rants of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran also display a blend of anti-Semitic themes rooted in Nazi and fascist, as well as Islamist, traditions. To be sure, each of these movements and ideologies have non-European, local, and regional causes and inspirations. But the formulation of Nazi propaganda during World War II and its dissemination stand as a decisive episode in the development of radical Islamism."
 READ MORE
 

SHLOMO SAND AND THE ORIGIN OF JUDAISM
by Yoram Shifftan and Bernice Lipkin

  Shlomo Sand has written a book denying that present day Jews are connected to the ancient Land of Israel; instead, they are descended from relatively recent converts to Judaism. It is a popular book, already translated into several languages. If nothing else, it is a testament to how many people are delighted by the idea that Jews may be neither authentic nor ancient. There is a lovely bit of sleight-of-hand associated with written reviews — the emphasis is on the outrage the orthodox Jewish community must be feeling because the book destroys some of its "myths." This helps to authenticate Sand's arguments; it frames the issue as a joust between two points of view. In this essay, Yoram Shifftan and Bernice Lipkin suggest that the problems with the book are intrinsic. It's not just the what and where. It's the impossibility of the how.
 READ MORE
 

RICHARD FALK: A COLLABORATORS IN THE WAR AGAINST THE JEWS
by Steven Plaut

  Steven Plaut labels Richard Falk "America's leading practitioner of the Orwellian inversion. "For Falk, "America is a fascist monstrosity, while the world's fascist and totalitarian monstrosities are democratic enclaves of freedom. For him, Israel is a terrorist aggressor, while the Arab terrorist aggressors are innocent victims and peace-loving progressives. For him, Israel is a Nazi-like country seeking genocide, while the genocidal Islamofascists of the Hamas and their backers are merely protesters against social inequality inside Israel. For him, terrorist aggression against Jews is really the pursuit of peace, while self-defense by Israel is criminal, terrorist aggression and genocide." So it is not at all surprising that the U.N. appointed him as "Special Rapporteur on human rights in the Palestinian territories."
 READ MORE
 

INTRODUCING ALISON WEIR
by Ken Waltzer

  Alison Weir is representative of the latest model journalists that wave academic credentials to support their virulent chants of hate against Israel. They make no bones about their desire to erase the Jewish state and countenance any violence that will make this possible. They are not at all uneasy that their claims have no factual basis. They assert — ignoring factual history — that the land really belongs to the Arabs calling themselves Palestinians, and the Jews are occupying it illegally. No libel is too outré for them to mouth. The latest lurid assertion by Weir and her fellow Jew-haters — that Israelis harvest Palestinian organs for transplant — is just too juicy to be squashed by the fact that conditions during a military operation — or in any situation that impedes the complex procedure for a successful transfer — make it impossible to salvage usable organs.
 READ MORE
 

HARVARD'S HAMAS DUMPLING: SARA ROY
by Steven Plaut

  Steven Plaut writes about Sara Roy, a foot soldier in the War Against the Jews. In most ways, she is a very ordinary Jew-hating Jew. She is an academic who claims expertise in areas where she has no credentials. She is the child of Holocaust survivors who preaches about the evils of the Jewish state. Billed as an intellectual, her publications are heavy with anger but light on facts. She stands out in the crowd of Jew-haters only in that she specializes in whitewashing Hamas, painting them as seekers of peace and chock full of concern for the Palestinian Arabs. She has argued that Fatah has probably killed more Israells than Hamas. In that, she may be right.
 READ MORE
 

WHO'S SLEEPING MORE DEEPLY — EUROPE OR AMERICA?
by Bruce Bawer

  In this benchmark article written a year ago, Bruce Bawer argues that Europe is in a more parlous state than the USA, when it comes to denying the inroads Islam has made into cracking up Western culture. A year later, Europe has had two bits of good luck: the Swiss referendum against minarets and the revelation that the CRU group in England so manipulated its weather station data, it might as well have started with random numbers — and in some cases, did. Meantimes, in America, Prez Obama won't let these revelations prevent him from trying to make a cap and trade deal in Copenhagen that will further improvish America. Clearly, there are opposing trends — globalization versus concern for the individual's freedom of action. Which will dominate?
 READ MORE
 

SURVIVING THE COMING CRASH
by Fjordman

  In this essay Fjordman points out a reality most of the media ignore; e.g., that "European Union (EU) has forced through the EU Constitution/Lisbon Treaty and in essence ... [has] dissolved dozens of nation states, while making "legal opposition to their rule" impossible. Meantime, the staggering debt the USA has incurred has so weakened the dollar that it is unlikely the USA will long keep its leadership position. If the breakdown of western democracies was planned and staged, Fjordman is inclined to blame groups advocating a global oligarchy. Factor in that there are documented plans to include Muslim North Africa and Middle East in the EU. Factor in that it is de rigeur for teachers and the media to disparage or minimize the contributions of white culture. Factor in that, as the Muslim population in Europe expands, some European leaders seem comfortable with the idea that the natives in white majority Western countries will soon be a minority in their own countries. Fjordman is clear that Europe's external problems will never be solved unless Marxists are stopped from destroying the European structure and character of the Western countries. As he puts it, "We must switch from a 'save the world' to a 'save ourselves' mode."
 READ MORE
 

NAZI EURABIA AND AMERICA'S FATE
by Jim O'Neill

  Jim O'Neil writes a clear summary of some of the changes in Europe since Muslims started to arrive in sufficient numbers to make a difference. They didn't just soak up welfare funds and have babies. The Left promoting globalization and share-the-wealth and Islam promoting Islam have made common cause — at least for the while — which ensures that Muslim violence is mostly ignored. In France, Muslims initiated a marked increase in anti-Jewish crimes — beatings, harassment, vandalism — without government action. Only when a young Jew was kidnapped and slaughtered were the Muslim murderers put on trial. In England, Sharia law is now the law for Muslims and people are becoming used to having their values and feelings take second place while sensitivity to Muslim concerns is emphasized. Resistance against Muslim rule has started to grow in Switzerland and Denmark, and poll after poll indicates the people approve curtailing Islamic growth, even if their leaders don't. In America, Islamic activity has todate been mostly operating under the radar, and the administration tamps down calls for awareness and alertness between the periods of so-called lone wolf terror acts.
 READ MORE
 

THE IDIOT TWINS OF AMERICAN IDEALISM
by Spengler

  Trust Spengler to come up with the perfect telegraph-length assessment of a morass of wrongheaded opinions. He notes that "[a] widely shared fantasy ... doesn't qualify as reality" and proceeds to demolish opinions that sound "realistic" but are based on facts that are not significant. Thus, a multitude of friends of Islam think Mearsheimer and Walt are realists because they want America to break its alliance with Israel, which has only 7 million population, when the Muslims number well over a billion. All that proves is that they can compare two numbers and pick out the larger one. Spengler highlights the significant information: given Israel's advanced technological skills, its "contribution might be decisive in a number of fields, for example avionics and especially drone technology." America needs that edge.
 READ MORE
 

THE WAR FOR 21ST-CENTURY FREEDOM
by Barbara Lerner

  "Islamists are fighting for control of the world." Their power increases; their alliances multiply; Iran serves as their model — "the world's first Islamist nuclear power." We are at war, Barbara Lerner writes, "a long-dormant, 14-century-old religious war against the Christian West," a war we must win, if we are to retain our religious freedom, our fundamental freedoms, including "the right to disbelieve." Yet here it is 8 years after 9/11. Neither Bush and now Obama faced the fact that we are at war with resurgent Islamists, a war we didn't chose and still try to deny. Iran has been on the offensive since 1979, and our leadership still ignores its attacks, believing we can work things out by negotiation and friendliness. Fortunately, Lerner points out, we "have two great trump cards: the fundamental honesty and good sense of the American people, and the back-against-the wall courage of the Israeli people." Given the right leadership, that might do.
 READ MORE
 

WOULD IRAN PROVIDE A NUCLEAR WEAPON TO TERRORISTS?
by Steven Emerson and Joel Himelfarb

  Given the number of supposedly lone-wolf terrorists attacking army bases, air planes, synagogues and Jewish community centers, there is growing concern that an Iran with nuclear weapons might decide to share these weapons with terror organizations. Steven Emerson and Joel Himelfarb ask whether such a concern is reasonable. We know there has been informal cooperation between al-Qaeda, al-Jihad, Iran and Hezbollah, including supplying weapons and training in explosives. Moreover, attacking the United States is a publically stated ambition of these groups. We know al-Qaeda continues to seek nuclear weapons, components and information in Europe and Pakistan. There is evidence that Iran is "uncomfortable at the prospect of terrorists acquiring such weapons" because our retaliation would include Iran. But conditions might change. And meantime, while some supplies from Iran have been seized, it is also likely that other shipments have succeeded in making it to Middle East terror organizations.
 READ MORE
 

THE BOMB IS JUST THE BEGINNING
by George Jonas

  An amazing story that will make you understand the real scariness of terrorism. As George Jonas writes, "The bomb is just the beginning." The act of terrorism causes you to distort your thinking to keep yourself from recognizing that you are terrified. You feel like a coward for feeling that way. The real awfulness is that you then persuade yourself you have become passive for good sensible reasons, not fear. It makes understandable the behavior of newspapers like the New York Times that worry about injuring the "sensitivity" of Moslems — who show their anger violently — but will print nasties about Christian and Jews — who politely complain.
 READ MORE
 

BUYCOTT ISRAEL. DON'T LET THE BOYCOTT BITE
by Roberta E. Dzubow

  Roberta Dzubow suggests a way the ordinary citizen can fight the Islamic campaign to lash out at Israel in as many ways as possible. A major tactic is to boycott Israeli products in the grocery. Or to attempt to destroy them. The Buy Israel Steering Committee has organized to counter their efforts by buying Israeli products. The basic strategy can be supplemented by having a camera handy and making a movie to post on You Tube. Talk to the other shoppers about the unfairness of the boycott campaign. Buy some of the products and hand out samples to people walking by. Just start. You'll figure out what to do next. Don't be shy.
 READ MORE
 

  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 2009 BLOG-EDS    READ MORE
December 2009 BLOG-EDS    READ MORE

My aunt, Elaine Cutler, made aliyah yesterday, Thursday, November 12, 2009. She is excited about beginning this new adventure. She was born between 1908 and 1910. So if she isn't already 100, she likely will be on her birthday, come next month. Here she is being greeted by two of her grandchildren, Natan and Liat, at the airport.