A LETTER TO JUSTICE RICHARD GOLDSTONE
by Professor David Altman

  There have been many articles which accurately point out the airbrushed terminology and misleading statements and bald lies in the UN Goldstone singularly biased report on Israel's conduct when it invaded Gaza in December, 2008, to put an end to eight years of Hamas' shooting missiles into Israel that targetted civilians. This letter by Daniel Altman deals with another aspect: his horror and loathing of the Cain-like behavior shown by Richard Goldstone, a Jew who has used false witness and his prestigious position to destroy his own brethren and his own country. As Altman writes, "What was in your mind, Justice Goldstone, when you became the emissary of the world's most intractable states? What were you thinking of when you became the representative of Sudan, Syria and Libya?" It is a plausible guess that Goldstone was delighted to be furthering the work of Human Rights Watch an organization — his organization — which, judging by its activities, is unduly devoted to the Palestinian cause.
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HOWARD BERMAN FISKS GOLDSTONE
by Carl of Jerusalem

  The Goldstone Report itself has fared badly in the real world. In fact, except in institutions dominated by Muslims and/or Marxists, articles are moving from condemning the report — it's so obviously biased and error-ridden, it's almost too easy a target. Now the interesting question is: why would anyone, especially a Jew, take on a task knowing from its initial mandate that it could only end by condemning what should have been praised — the care that Israel took in Gaza to avoid civilian injury while attempting to destroy the missiles Hamas was deliberately shooting at Israeli civilians. Goldstone himself wrote a disengenuous and distorted defense in the New York Times — where else? But all it showed was that he was now on the defensive. On November 3, 2009, The US House of Representatives voted overwhelmingly 344 (36 voting against and 22 voting present) for a resolution that strongly rejected the Goldstone report. When the Resolution was first mentioned, Goldstone submitted a condemnation of the proposed Resolution. It was brilliantly demolished by Representative Howard Berman, (D-Cal). Carl of Jerusalem provides us with the details.
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FISKING GOLDSTONE: WHAT'S HAPPENED TO THIS MAN?
by Richard Landes

  As Representative Howard Berman (above) critiqued Judge Goldstone's rebuttal to the Congressional resolution, here Richard Landes takes apart Goldstone's New York Times essay in self-justification. Unfortunately for him, his actions don't map well onto his attitude that he is the injured party and his puzzled wonderment that his conclusions are being questioned. As more of the Committee's foolish acceptance of obvious distortions and bald lies comes to light, Judge Goldstone appears to be reacting by reinventing himself, painting a false picture of a hero trying to make sure both Israel and Hamas were treated fairly and objectively. Israel was not. And much of the reason is Goldstone's lack of objectivity and his inability to conduct a professional examination.
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HOUSE OF CARDS: NGOS AND THE GOLDSTONE REPORT
by NGO Monitor

  NGOs — Non-governmental agencies — have acquired credibility by their informal linkage to the United Nations. Some NGOs have acquired notoriety by their flagrant politicization, sacrificing truth for will-say-anything in support of the Palestinian cause. The current essay makes the point that the already notorious Goldstone report did not — as it was chartered — directly examine much actual evidence. The Goldstone group relied heavily on available reports from prejudiced NGOs that had an anti-Israel agenda; whose personnel were almost always one-sided and anti-Israel; and who in arguing were prone to illiterate and imaginative "interpretations" of International Law.
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HOW 'HUMAN RIGHTS' HAVE TURNED INTO INHUMAN WRONGS
by Melanie Phillips

  OUT of the many NGO's that supplied the Goldstone's commission with flagrantly dishonest information, Melanie Phillips deals specifically with the irresponsible behavior of one particular NGO — Human Rights Watch (HRW). What makes HRW of particular interest is, first, that Judge Goldstone was an active member until very recently. Second, HRW's behavior was so egregiously biased that its chairman for many years found it necessary to write that HRW has lost its ability to distinguish "between open and closed societies." It "has lost critical perspective on [this] conflict." The end notes include links to some pertinent videos.
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THE GOLDSTONE MISSION — TAINTED TO THE CORE
by Irwin Cotler

  The abstract in the Jerusalem Post reads that In Part I, "Professor Irwin Cotler explain[s] how the Goldstone Commission was tainted by the UN Human Rights Council resolution creating its mandate, as well as the predisposed views of some of its personnel. In the second part of his piece, he elaborates the systemic and systematic bias of the UN council itself, and the implications this bias has on the fact-finding mission and on the integrity of international law generally." [emphasis added] To put it bluntly, you can't make anything resembling a silk scarf if you start a bunch of boars with coarse hair.
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BLOCKING THE TRUTH OF THE GAZA WAR: HOW THE GOLDSTONE COMMISSION UNDERSTATED THE HAMAS THREAT TO PALESTINIAN CIVILIANS
by Col. (res.) Jonathan D. Halevi

  Goldstone and his cohorts have aided and abetted anti-Israel forces by making Israel the villain of the Gaza operation last winter. That is not the same as saying they were actually interested in making life better for the ordinary Arab in Gaza. They operated with the same motives as the UNRWA staffers that force Palestinian arabs to live in refugee camps in the Arab states and refuse to let them be absorbed as citizens in these Arab countries. The goal is to turn public opinion against Israel; it is not to help the arab populace. Colonel Halevi makes the point that offensive acts by Hamas against Gazan civilians were ignored, while negative statements against Israel were eagerly accepted as factual. The Goldstone gang played the trivia game, asking many questions about such matters as when evening prayers took place in the Ibrahim al-Maqadma mosque but asking no questions about the terrorists operating from the mosque. Their questioning "proved to be superficial and was ill-suited to elicit the truth about events in Gaza."
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THE LATEST ANTI-ISRAEL STUNT
by David Warren

  David Warren's article starts with essential context, "The significance of Israel is that she stands proxy for America and the West in the minds of our most lethal enemies." The UN Human Rights Council (HRC) is loaded with countries that — themselves human rights violators — use preaching about human rights as weapon to weaken the West. Their latest missilehead is a nominal Jew, who has changed political sides much more often than Ahmadinejad has changed suits. By refusing to withdraw from the Council, [the American administration joined HRC around the time of Durban 2 in the spring of 2009] the U.S. government is again signalling its willingness to seek favour from its own worst enemies, by throwing Israel to the wolves."
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IT'S NOT THE SETTLEMENTS, STUPID
by Sarah Honig

  Sarah Honig argues that it's distortion to ignore historical context, particularly, as in this case, where false premises about root causes have continued to lead to solutions that don't solve and that are continuously being dissolved and reconstructed into yet another pseudo solution. She clears up one aspect of the puzzling fact that the non-Jewish population of the Palestine Mandate, dormant for hundreds of years, jumped up dramatically in the 20th Century. It wasn't just the economic opportunities created by the Jewish Aliyah. It was specific anti-Jewish tactics by the British caretakers to reduce the Jewish population of what was destined to be Israel that gave unhindered Arab immigration a boost up.
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WORLD LEADERS IGNORE INTERNATIONAL LAW
by Eli E. Hertz

  Eli Hertz talks about the international law that pertains to the Middle East. The territory the Ottoman Empire had owned for hundreds of years was taken over by England and France after World War I. The area labeled Mandated Palestine was to be Jewish. The rest — 99.9% of the Middle East — was carved into present-day Arab states; this was never challenged. Only the peaceable Jewish state must show cause for existing, despite its title to the land. In addition to the citations in this paper, you can read other relevant legal opinions by googling Yoram Shifftan and Howard Grief.
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A DAY OF INFAMY: NOVEMBER 10, 1975
by Alex Grobman

  November 10, 1975 was one of the United Nation's most memorable days in its mission to increase harmony and civility in the world by creating an environment conducive to the peaceful resolution of differences between member countries. It was on that day that the General Assembly declared that Zionism Equals Racism. As Alex Grobman points out, this was the first time the UN condemned the intrinsic ideology that formed the bedrock of the culture and religion of a member state. It made any and all spurious charges against Israel — unthinkable in the atmosphere envisioned when the United Nations was created — acceptable. It encouraged "the campaign of disinformation orchestrated by the Arabs and their collaboraters." How else does one explain why a country that has made extraordinary advances for human betterment is treated as more evil than antiquated regimes that treat their own women and all infidels as an underclass and hate democratic ideas almost as much as they do Israel.
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THE RIGGED GAME
by Caroline Glick

  The mentality that produced the Zionism is Racism U.N. resolution and the consequent demonization of Israel is the same that encourages Europe to view Israel as evil, while overlooking Iran's ambition to create destruction nuclear power. Israel is always to blame for Iran's behavior. "So too, Arab terrorism is explained away while every act — small and large — that in any way asserts Israel's right to defend itself is pounced upon as proof of Israel's criminality and brutality." Fortunately, most Americans are more clear-eyed and assign the blame for unsuccessful peace overtures to Iran on Iran. Unfortunately, the present administration is not among this group.
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HUMAN RIGHTS LEADERS GET THEIR PRIORITIES IN ORDER
by Michael Posner

  Sarcasm is hard to get right — to make the point and not sound bitter or sour. In this essay, Michael Posner gets it just right. He envisions a meeting of the heads of important human rights groups gathered together to determine which country is the most heinous practitioner of crimes against human rights. No, it's not Darfur, or Somalia, or Sri Lanka, or Iran, or those states that mutilate the genitals of women and murder the victims of rape, or the muslims will be muslims Shi'ites and Sunnis engaged in mutual destruction. I think we know who they picked as the worst of all.
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A 20-YEAR-OLD PUZZLE: HAVE WE DISCOVERED WHAT IRAN IS REALLY UP TO?
by Peter Huessy

  "Iran's constitution calls on the country to export its brand of murderous Islam" and it has single-mindedly sought power and regional control, using terror, kidnapping, murder, lying, bribing, arming and training terrorists, etc. In this context, Peter Huessy asks: what do we know and/or can surmise about the Iranian nuclear facilities, so we can predict future developments? We know Iran, aided by Russia, China, North Korea and Syria, is building nuclear warheads. We know her ballistic missiles can be launched quickly and will soon be able to reach Europe. We know the West, joined by Third-World countries, has not built a superior defensive shield; it has not taken military action; it has instead wasted its time lambasting "unilateral" action by U.S.A. and — including us — negotiating with the mullahs. Heussey projects what this means for interactions and actions in the near future.
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WAGING DIPLOMATIC WAR
by Caroline Glick

  A reader of the original article writes "Ms Glick is spot on. Goldstone set up Israel with his report & now his vultures are springing the trap with this talk about 'inquiry'". As Caroline Glick writes, the Goldstone report has been approved by the General Assembly. It is expected that it will eventually bring home the gold — acknowledgment by the World Court in the Hague that Israeli's entrance into Gaza was indeed a criminal act and Israeli leaders should be tried as criminals. It also sets a precedent for prosecuting Western countries for fighting terrorists. Concomitantly, the major powers announced they would be enriching Iran's uranian, thus helping Iran's nuclear program move forward faster. Iran, in characteric Muslim fashion, didn't think this good enough — and why ever would she let the enriched fuel out of the country? The American administration thinks this is all swell. Oh well, there's one silver lining. Obama has performed a miracle — Jimmy Carter will not win the prize as the worst president America ever had.
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GETTING READY FOR THE ISLAMIC BOMB
by Washington Times Editorial

I freely admit that I believed that Prez. Obama's quisling acquiescence to all things Muslim was, in a way, America's best protection against a Muslim mass murderer of the sort that has killed hundreds of Israelis and wounded thousands in the last decade alone. Why would they bother when they were successfully infiltrating and termite-gnawing at our educational and political infrastructure? Major Hasan proved me wrong. In similar fashion, this Editorial from the Washington Times points out the devastation we — not just Israel and the Arab countries of the Middle East — will suffer, should Iran be allowed to achieve nuclear capability. It points out that Iran currently supplies Hamas and Hezbollah weapons; "it is chilling to consider how much more bold Iran will be with an atomic arsenal." And, I may add, helpful to future Hasans.
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IRANIAN SUBVERSION IN YEMEN
by Reuven Erlich

  Reuven Erlich writes about how Iran is attempting to subvert the Sunni government in Yemen by aiding the Shi'ite Houthi rebels in north Yemen by providing them ideological, religious and material support. The addendum notes that Saudi Arabia is similarly aiding the Yemen government. It adds up to a proxy war between Iran and Saudi Arabia for control of the region.
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AL QAEDA IN NORTH AFRICA THREATENS THE WEST
by Erick Stakelbeck

  Al Qaeda certainly keeps up with the times. Al Qaeda is securely situated in Pakistan and anxious to obtain Pakastan's nuclear bombs. As Erick Stakelbeck writes, al Qaeda is not isolated. It has extended tentacles across the globe, essentially delegating regional franchises to like-minded groups. A leader of one of these groups, AQIM — Al-Qaeda in Islamic Maghreb — has said, "We will not hesitate in targeting (the United States) whenever we can and wherever it is on this planet." AQIM pays its expenses by drug trafficing and kidnapping. It is alive and well; it shares the "goals of al Qaeda's hierarchy in Pakistan"; it has a network and a mission — to carry out jihad against the West.
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THE UNCOVERED CONSPIRACY TO TRANSFORM BRITAIN
by Melanie Phillips

  Citing a recent article by Andrew Neather, "speech writer for Tony Blair, Jack Straw and David Blunkett," Melanie Phillips concludes that the extreme increase in Muslim population in Britain didn't just happen. "It was a deliberate policy of mass immigration ... to change the very makeup of this country without telling the electorate." Immigration controls were loosened, effectively reversing a stated policy limiting the entry of foreign workers, so that "some 2.3 million migrants have been added to the population since 2001." The Labour government continue to see it as a praiseworthy way to create a multicultural England. Many a voter sees it as destructive of English culture. Moreover, if allowed to continue, it will introduce a huge number of immigrants — many of whom are iliterate and without skills — into an already overcrowded country. No wonder that the white working class is voting for the British National Party, that strongly objects to unrestricted immigration. The article mirrors what is happening in much of Europe.
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PEACE PROCESS OR WAR PROCESS?
by Daniel Pipes

  The Oslo Accord, once proclaimed as a brilliantly successful peace process and the start of a new Middle East, was a bust. Daniel Pipes examines how it was that Israel made such a profound mistake and how the Arab response to the Israeli effort shaped the Israeli rejectionist attitude towards more recent attempts at fantasy "peace processes". At the heart of the Israeli delusion was Rabin's belief that one made peace with one's enemy. "Rather," is Pipes' wise assessment, "one makes peace with one's former enemy" — after he has been defeated and given up his goals.
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THE MIDDLE EAST MATRIX
by Mark B. Kaplan

  Mark Kaplan suggests we stop listening to invented facts designed to facilitate an Arab takeover and start examining the actual facts, namely, that Israel is not occupying Palestinian land. She is occupying Jewish land, and so says international law. He may be too idealistic when he asserts that "[b]ringing the Jewish People's rights before the legal system, where propaganda will lose to factual evidence, will end the illusion of illegal occupation and firmly establish the Jewish Nation's legal rights to all of Israel." But it beats letting the Arab fantasy provide the basis for political action.
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A LANDMARK WORK
by William Mehlman

  William Mehlman begins his review of Howard Grief's recent book, "The Legal Foundation and Borders of Israel under International Law: A Treatise on Jewish Sovereignty over the Land of Israel this way: "With The Legal Foundation and Borders of Israel under International Law (Mazo Publishers, Jerusalem) Canadian-born Israeli constitutional scholar and lawyer Howard Grief has given us a book that shatters every myth, lie, misrepresentation and distortion employed over the 61 years of Israel's existence to negate the sovereign rights of the Jewish People to their national home." This is exactly right. It should be required reading for every self-styled maven, journalist, politician, ethicist and humanist — including the Jewish leaders of Israel — who thinks he knows Middle Eastern political history, when his information is, more often than not, anectodal and received from dubious sources.
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A PALESTINIAN STATE: FUEL TO THE FIRE OF A BURNING MIDDLE EAST
by Yoram Ettinger

  Yoram Ettinger reminds us that US administrations have been a major factor in the (re)(re)(re)resurrection of the insistence on creating a Palestinian state. When it comes to the Middle East, they have had many such bad ideas, beginning in 1948 when US agencies "were convinced that establishment of the Jewish State would trigger a war [it did], producing a second Jewish Holocaust in less than a decade [it didn't, but the Arabs sure tried], that a Jewish State would be a strategic burden upon the US [we have only fought wars for the Arabs, not the Jews], that Arab oil producers would boycott the US [and forfeit their stretch limos?] and that Israel would join the Communist Bloc [they got that wrong, too]." What they don't seem to recognize is that a Palestinian state isn't just a threat to Israel. It "would doom the Hashemite regime to oblivion, would constitute a tailwind to pro-Saddam terrorists in Iraq and to Islamic terrorists in Egypt, Lebanon and the Persian Gulf and would provide a foothold in the eastern flank of the Mediterranean to Iran, Russia, China and North Korea."
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GHETTO ISRAEL AND THE CREATION OF AN ARAB TERROR STATE
by Raanan Shalom Isseroff

  Raanan Isseroff illustrates his theme that Israel's leaders are colluding in the death of Israel with American agencies that produce the official U.S. maps of the Middle East. Borders and territory that are said to be not-finalized (optimistically not even negotiated) appear to be a dead certainty according to recent U.S. administrations — at least in the minds of the CIA and State Department. Israel is to be hacked and nibbled, piece by "peace process". When the new Palestinian State is created — or perhaps the new Palestinian states of Gaza and West Bank — then the Arabs will consider it an equal playing field in which to finally destroy what is left of Israel.
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OBAMA'S TWO-STATE FANTASY
by Mark Silverberg

  Pressuring Israel for concessions to the intransigent Arabs is again the wrong medicine for a misdiagnosed situation. More to the point, the peace process can be put on the back burner, with no damage. But "...if the Iranian regime continues to advance its nuclear program, it risks Iranian domination of the oil-rich Persian Gulf, threats to U.S.-allied Arab regimes, the emboldening of Muslim jihadists in the region, the creation of an existential threat to Israel, the destabilization of Iraq, the shutdown of the Israel-Palestinian peace process, and a regional nuclear-arms race." Mark Silverberg warns that "President Obama's whole Middle East strategy is in the process of imploding. He had best re-evaluate his policies rather than advise the Israelis to re-evaluate theirs." An addendum lists Steven Plaut's "The 14 Lies Blocking Peace in the Middle East."
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IS ANYONE LISTENING TO WHAT THE ARABS ARE SAYING ABOUT ISRAEL?
by Alex Grobman

  Alex Grobman provides us with some history of the Arab monomaniacal resistence to sharing any part of land they regard as their own with Jews. (How quickly they forgot that it was the Ottomans, not the Arabs, that had ruled the Middle East for hundreds of years!) It reinforces his statement that "[e]ven if the Obama administration were to succeed in compelling Israel to accept a two-state solution and stop building settlements in Judea and Samaria, this would not placate the Arabs or ensure peace in the region." Considering their history of protracting the conflict, this is an understatement.
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ARABS ARE NOT READY FOR PEACE IN THE MIDDLE EAST
by Dr. Sami Alrabaa

  Professor Alrabaa rounds out the ideas in the previous paper with cogent insights into current-day Arab thinking. To ready the Arabs for peace would require extirpating their universally undemocratic systems of government and dismissing the demagogues that rule the area, It would require a formidable change in Arab attitudes towards themselves and towards everyone else, who, at present, they either look down on or resent. If the West is serious about peace in the region, it will tell the Arab regimes: change or perish! Only then peace will prevail in the Middle East.
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HEVRON : A MICROCOSM IN THE NEW YEAR
by Yonina Pritzker

  Yonina Pritzker describes her visit to Hebron, viewing it both as an ancient Jewish city in which Judaism's early history is rooted and as a small-scale model of the players and the pressures Israel needs to confront to protect her heritage. She writes, "Hevron is a microcosm. Hevron represents the duplicity and grave injustice that is being perpetrated against Jews today, against Jewish history and heritage. If something so clear, so straightforward, so indisputable as Hevron, if something as unmistakable as the Jewish connection to Hevron can be so rewritten, so misrepresented; if those around the world can literally turn history on its head and accuse Jews of being occupiers in Hevron, then the absolute, dire necessity to stand up and fight against this attempt to subvert the truth and rob Jews of their history, heritage, and homeland has never been made more clear."
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MOSHE: BETRAYED BY OUR OWN; RACHEL: FLASHBACKS
by Moshe and Rachel Saperstein

  These are some recent essays from the Sapersteins, who were as traumatized as one is when forced out of what Moshe has described as Paradise — their community in Gush Katif, Gaza. But they've picked themselves up. Being Jews, they didn't feel gunning down people was the way to ease their heartache; instead they started rebuilding their community in a different location. An amazing couple.
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IMMEDIATE GUSH KATIF ASSISTANCE ADVISED
by Hillel Fendel

  There was a period of demonizing the Jews of Gush Katif, Gaza before they were expelled from their homes and greenhouses and farms in August 2005. Many believed that as soon as Gaza was turned over to the Arabs, peace would descend. What descended was the large number of rockets the Arabs lobbed into Israel, deliberately targetting the civilian population. Most people wised up and since then, appeasement has been a hard sell. Still, the people who suffered most were the families who were forced to leave thriving enterprises, where they had grown bug-free vegetables that were sold all over the world; their plight was not made easier by the inept governmental bureaucracy responsible for resettling them. Many have still not recovered. What is also interesting about the article is that there are still people like Nechemiah Strassler, a columnist for Haaretz, who seems to have learned nothing from the expulsion and retained much of the government-induced belief that the Jewish settlers of Gaza were demons who were preventing peace from happening.
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MAZUZ OKAYS HOUSING FOR KFAR DAROM EXPELLEES
by Maayana Miskin

  The Kfar Darom community had developed innovative agricultural techniques and grown bug-free vegetables that were sold all over the world. Four years after the expulsion, their greenhouses have long since been vandalized by the Arabs and plans for permanent housing for them are just now being made. And the settlers themselves have suffered unemployment that has forced them to use up the compensation money that was to pay for building new homes.
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ISRAEL HAS TO STOP APOLOGIZING AND TAKE THE OFFENSIVE
by Isi Leibler

  Isi Leibler makes the case that the best defense for Israel is an effective offense. Applied to responding to the Goldstone report, this would mean that Israel would not be focussed on responding to the findings in the report. Instead, as Leibler writes, "these past few months we should have been concentrating on exposing the evil nature and crude bias of the Human Rights Council before it released its 'findings.' We should have more vigorously exposed the prejudice and double standards of the despicable NGO human rights bodies that have adopted Israel-bashing as a vocation." It's not too late to begin to be effective.
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THE ONLY FEASIBLE BASIS FOR ARAB-ISRAELI PEACE
by Daniel Mandel

  Daniel Mandel writes that peace-process diplomacy is ultimately worthless. "In the current round, Fatah, which controls the PA, can hold a conference reasserting its refusal to accept Israel's existence as a Jewish state while glorifying terrorists and rejecting an end of claims in any future peace agreement with Israel and yet the Obama Administration acts as though the key to the problem is to stop Jews moving into eastern Jerusalem and the West Bank." But long term it would be better if "Israeli and Western leaders would ... declare candidly that Palestinians do not accept Israel and support terrorism against her and that they will not deal with or support the PA under these conditions." That would put the onus on the Arabs, and after all only the terrorists can stop their own terror acts voluntarily. Israel can't stop terror by giving the Arabs concessions that just whet their appetites for more Israeli concessions.
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THE INHUMANITY OF BEING HUMANE TO TERRORISTS
by Daniel Greenfield

  Daniel Greenfield in answer to a reader's comment wrote: "I don't admire Patton, I'm pointing out that he was correct about the priorities of wartime." The objective was to win. And to win, "you must kill the enemy." Today we need to fight a war that was started by Islamic terrorists. And we won't win by ascribing to them our high-minded views. The choice is binary. "We can coddle the terrorists, or we can push them. We coddled them for years until 9/11 happened. Now we have gone back to coddling them again. But there will be more than only a moral price to pay for that, but a bill presented written in the blood of Americans."
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ANNEXING JUDEA AND SAMARIA: THE ONLY VIABLE ROAD MAP TO PEACE, STABILITY
by Moshe Dann

  Moshe Dann articulates what must be done to prevent Israel losing land that legitimately belongs to it. He writes, "The State of Israel can and should change its archaic and ambiguous position and extend full sovereignty to all Jewish communities throughout Judea and Samaria, including State Land and areas necessary for defense and security." Obviously, Israel should acknowledge that Samaria and Judea belong to Israel. If she doesn't, why should anyone else?
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SOLVING THE REFUGEE ISSUE
by Rabbi Benny Elon

  Of the millions of refugees around the globe, the Palestinian refugees are the only ones that continue to be refugees for more than a few years. In fact, generations of their descendants have been added to the refugee list, and no one has been removed. The Palestinian arabs are kept from resettling for political reasons. Rabbi Elon points out that the Palestinian refugee problem can be solved by taking the refugees and the money expended for their care away from UNRWA. "This money can be put to better use when it will be invested in full and generous rehabilitation of the refugees, funded by the US, Europe, and Israel, together with the Arab oil-producing countries."
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TRANSFER MADE EASY
by Samson Blinded

  The majority of international organizations are still trying to square the circle — how to get Palestinian Arabs and Jews to live together or next to each other as friendly neighbors. This experiment has been ongoing for a hundred years and it doesn't work — the Arabs want to kill off Israel, not live peacefully in it or next to it. And the romantics — the Jews who thought the Arabs would be delighted because the Jews were reawakening a sluggish, poverty-stricken area, by introducing a viable economy — well, they seem to have all died out. What you have now in Israel is a majority opinion that wants to separate from the Arabs and a minority Marxist opinion that wants to bolster the Palestinians even if it means destroying Israel. The Land of Israel belongs to Israel by international law. There is no reason Israel should not transfer the Arabs from its territory a few miles into the immense domain that is Arab land. Samson Blinded discusses how this can be done.
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JOEL BEININ'S JIHAD
by Steven Plaut

  Front Page Magazine has been running a series on Jewish Leftists — Collaborators, Quislings against the West and its strongest ally, Israel. In this essay, Steven Plaut examines what makes Joel Beinin of Stanford Univeristy tick. It is bizarre that living on an egalitarian kibbutz made him a believer in Israel as evil while living in Egypt with its "open racial and religious discrimination" made him a believer in the Arab desire to destroy Israel. Today, he has graduated to admiration to that murderer par excellence, Chairman Mao of China. What still needs examination is why a poor excuse for a scholar holds a prestigious position in an elite university.
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SALARIED BY ISRAELI TAXPAYERS, HISTORY PROFESSOR SHLOMO SAND DENIES THE EXISTENCE OF A JEWISH PEOPLE
by Lee Kaplan

  Lee Kaplan writes about Shlomo Sand, who is strikingly audacious, even among the many Israeli Marxist academics, who devote themselves to delegitimizing Israel in new and outrageous ways. He doesn't just think Jews are living on Arab land — he denies the entire history of the attachment of Jews to the Land of Israel. Admittedly, his revisionism isn't quite up to the level of Columbia's Arab professor, Nadia Abu El-Haj, who is capable of denying the tangible evidence of archeology. Sand merely distorted historical fact and minimized Israel's anguished history in the diaspora. In his version there is a disconnect between today's Jews and the Jews of the Bible. And while his history might be defective, his assertions have certainly pleased many an anti-semite.
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CHOMSKY LITE: ANNA BALTZER JOINS ANTI-ISRAEL CAMPAIGNS
by Steven Stotsky

  Steven Stotsky writes about Anne Baltzer, who "tours US campuses, churches and community venues denigrating Israel with baseless and propagandistic allegations." She invokes her "Jewish roots and grandparents lost to the Holocaust to establish her supposed moral authenticity," but her "ideological roots are firmly planted in the anti-Zionist movement. ... She is affiliated with the International Women's Peace Service (IWPS), a group closely associated with the International Solidarity Movement (ISM). Her political message closely reflects the official Palestinian line claiming Israel is a foreign occupier guilty of ethnic cleansing and that the wrongs done to the Arabs can only be righted by reverting back to a mythological pre-Zionist Palestinian land." The narrative relies on historic falsehoods and extravagant fantasies, well beyond what even Amnesty International and HRW will swallow.
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A DIRTY LITTLE SECRET
by Moshe Dann

  Crafty Yasser Arafat is the one credited with deciding that the Arabs weren't going to destroy Israel by fighting the Jews head on. So he invented the Palestinian people, who, he claimed, were native to Palestine (a state that had never existed). Ignoring that this "people" were mostly natives of the neighboring Arab countries, he declared Israel was occupying Palestinian land. Ergo, they were justified — and here the media and many a mainline church agreed with him — in doing anything and everything to regain their land. As Moshe Dann points out, "the fraud worked!" "The success of 'Palestinianism' is a tribute to what money, influence and Jew-hatred will buy and attract." It's time this hoax was exposed.
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INCITEMENT WINS OVER THE ECONOMY AMONG THE PALESTINIANS AT THE END OF THE DAY
by Ben-Dror Yemini

  The major theme of the Palestinian People Myth is that there exists a people that once owned a country called Palestine and this land was invaded and occupied by foreigners, Jews. A subsidiary myth dear to the hearts of foreigners, Westerners, is that if you give a guy a home and a job, he won't want to vandalize and destroy and terrorize his neighbors. Unfortunately, that doesn't work in Gaza. Money has poured in. But the spiritual and secular leaders keep the people in shape for rapid explosion. The Arab people have been emotionally prepped for violence by skillful conditioners.
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OUT WITH THE OCCUPIERS!
by Steven Plaut

  The belief that the Arabs own the Land that is Israel and the Jews do not is a political version of Goldilocks and the three bears. The Jews owned it too long ago and too short a time ago. But the Arabs who conquered the area at the rise of Islam — well, that's just the right time ago. A popular pro-Arab argument is that it has "been nearly 1,900 years since Jews exercised sovereignty there — and it is absurd to argue that any group still has rights to land they last governed such a long time ago." Steven Plaut turns the argument on its fez with a few home truths. For one, If recency wins, then the birth of modern Israel trumps because the last time the Arabs held the land was much earlier. And even then, it was Arabs, not Palestinian Arabs, in charge. It's a pleasure to watch a logical mind spell out the implications of the fanciful nonsense the Arabs dish out.
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AN "ISLAMICALLY CORRECT" CONFERENCE
by Véronique Chemla

  The myth of Islam's benevolent rule over its minority citizens, Christians and Jews, in medieval Spain, has been exploded. Being a dhimmi was ego-crushing, at best. Nevertheless, as Véronique Chemla informs us, the fiction of peaceful coexistence is apparently still serviceable. At the recent Aladdin Project conference at UNESCO, it was promoted by Jewish and Christian diplomats, educators and clerics and other culture gatekeepers, all anxious to develop better relations with Islam. The myth suggested that it would be wonderful to reinstate the good old days and it spread a feeling of bonhomie within the group. Under such circumstances, it would be boorish to complain about the brutal treatment of dhimmis in countries currently under Sharia law. But West-bashing and Israel-bashing were acceptable. All in all, the Conference contributed to the advancement of the long-term Muslim agenda.
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THE MYTH THAT FUELS MIDEAST CONFLICT
by Bob Feferman

  Bob Feferman points out that when UNSCOP visited Mandated Palestine in 1947, it was clear that the Jews — who already numbered some 450,000 before World War 2 — had developed the infra structure of statehood: agriculture, industry, schools, health-care, newspapers, theatre. They were ready. Nevertheless, Arab propaganda blast forward with one theme. "... the Jewish state was created at the expense of the Arabs of Palestine in order to ease the conscience of the world over the tragedy of the Nazi Holocaust." This distorted history makes it seem the Jews had a free ride to statehood, so the local Arabs could — and still do — ignore their own lackluster efforts toward developing a modern state.
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ISLAM AND THE DARK AGE OF BYZANTIUM
by John J. O'Neill

  The received wisdom is that Islam salvaged the textual fruits and scientific findings of the classic civilizations of Greece and Rome when the western part of Charlesmagne's empire, Europe, went into a decline in the 7th century. In the 1930's a Belgium historian, Henri Pirenne, argued Islam was itself responsible for the Dark Ages in Europe by blockading the Mediterranean. The counter argument to Pirenne was that the emergence of Islam didn't destroy Byzantium, the Eastern part of the Empire — by all accounts it continued to thrive. In this essay and in his book, John O'Neill suggests that if we discount the Byzantine propaganda, recent archeological evidence supports Pirenne — civilization fell in both the East and the West with the advent of Islam.
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FACTS, FALLACIES AND BIGOTS
by Bill Warner

  Bill Warner presents us, in his words, with "an exercise in fact-based rational thought." He quotes a fairly typical, politically correct, fair-minded Rabbi committed to ecumenicism and determined to think well of everyone. Warner quotes the letter that embodies that point of view, then proceeds to demonstrate that this image of Islam doesn't conform to reality. Defusing the hatred in the Koran because the Jewish and Christian Scriptures also -- in the Rabbi's words -- contain "bad material" doesn't anwer why Jews and Christians have moved on, but Muslims still stone people and behead them and cut off hands for trivial offenses.
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THE LONG MARCH OF ISLAM: INTRODUCTION AND CHAPTER 1
by R.K. Ohri

  This essay is the Introduction and Chapter 1 of R.K. Ohri's book "Long March Of Islam: The Future Imperfect. As K.P.S. Gill — who served as Director General of Police in Punjab and is currently a consultant on counter-terrorism — writes in the book's Foreword, "Political Islam has gone broadly unchallenged, ... The disastrous consequences of this neglect are now manifested in the increasing radicalisation of this ideology, and its assertion through an assortment of Islamist terrorist movements projected by their principals as jehads. [...] The global response has, however, centred overwhelmingly on neutralizing these manifestations alone — the terrorist groups that constitute immediate and direct threats to individual and state security. An ideological response to the rising tide of Islamist terrorism is yet to emerge in significant measure." Ohri's book is an serious but very readable examination of the ideological underpinnings of terrorism within the context of group relationships, affiliations and population size — factors that affect actual events, now and in the future.
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LOSING ISRAEL
by Bill Warner

  Bill Warner asserts that "Israel is losing the propaganda war, hasbarah, and for a very good reason." Israelis are not inclined to deal with propaganda because they would have to examine Islam. They would have to "face the facts that the Koran and the Sunna (the actions and words of Mohammed) are filled with invectives against the Jews." They would have to grasp that "... when the Jews of Medina rejected Mohammed as a prophet they were all enslaved, exiled, murdered and robbed — all acts of jihad. These were not historical acts, but perfect examples of Islamic action towards Jews models prescribed for Muslims to follow up to the present time." Jews also need to understand that resurgent Islam isn't just targetting them. "[T]he Israel/Palestinian conflict is no different than the jihad in Kashmir, India, the Philippines, or in dozens of fronts in Africa" but global jihad does target Jews, and this has to be acknowledged before intelligent and incisive action can be taken. Praying for some flabby peace won't work. People don't fight effectively against a threat until they acknowledge the threat is real.
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ISRAEL IN THE IRANIAN MEDIA
by Reuven Erlich (Colonel, Ret.)

  Iran is on a roll. The nastier she sounds, the nicer the West is towards her. And the West did nothing to encourage the election protesters. As Reuven Erlich writes, "This past month Iranian defiance of Israel and the West reached new heights.." Basically, Iran's leadership feels ready to take on the leadership of those who are anti-West in the Middle East. It is "of the opinion that it has the military and ideological-religious capabilities to breathe new life into the original sentiments of the Muslim-Arab peoples: hatred for Zionism, the establishment of the State of Israel (the 'cancerous growth') and the West which supported it after the Holocaust ('an imaginary event'). " Using what's written in the press as a mirror of government thinking, Iran feels its a winner and its first target is Israel. It has every intention of pursuing "a defiant, revolutionary agenda, where emphasis will be placed on support for the terrorist and Islamic networks around the world, especially the Middle East." This article is loaded with insights into the thinking of the leaders of a country that has made itself a major threat to world peace.
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IS ISLAMIC TERRORISM REACTIVE OR PROACTIVE?
by Daniel Greenfield

  This essay by Daniel Greenfield deals with the politically correct notion that terrorism is "a kind of desperate activism taken in reaction to oppression." It treats the terrorist as a victim of X, where X depends on the writer's own attitudes. X is capitalism for the Marxist, Zionism for the anti-Semite, US foreign policy for the hater of America, etc. But the reactive model breaks down when subjected to inquiry into who the terrorists are, where did they come from and what was their ideological education. A statement from the Muslim Brotherhood makes clear that jihad "is an obligation on every Muslim in order to spread Islam to the infidels and subjugate Jews and Christians who refuse to live under Islamic law." And millions of Muslims subscribe to this belief. [Addendum: the media ascribed the massacre at Fort Hood to Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome until it was pointed out that Major Hasan had never been to a war zone. Then some suggested he caught it from returning soldiers -- like it was a virus.]
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ISLAM IS MISUNDERSTOOD
by Amil Imani

  To believe the ubiquitous ads and media puff pieces about peaceful, tolerant Islam, you'd have to conclude that Islam is being undeservedly maligned. People just haven't understood how well Islam fits into a multicultural country. It is curious, Amil Imani notes, that the multicultural euphemism is not ever "even mentioned by any Islamic leader, ever printed in the Islamic press, or ever appears in any form anywhere in Muslim countries." To put it bluntly but accurately, the purpose of the "multiculturalism gambit is Islam manufactured wool to pull over the eyes of the non-Muslims while the Muslims carry on with their unrelenting campaign of eradicating anything or anyone non-Islamic anywhere in the world."
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THE MUSLIM WOLF AT FEMINISM'S DOOR
by Daniel Greenfield

  The spread of Islamic customs and practices to Europe, North America and Australia means that immigrant Muslim women continue to be treated as they are in Islamic countries. Moreover, because any women is regarded as subject to punishment if they are not completely covered, rapes of non-Muslim women are becoming common. Daniel Greenfield deals with one aspect of this: the non-response, the lack of indignation, by feminists. He notes that "[r]ather than confront the threat to women posed by Islamic law, feminist authors like Naomi Wolf are instead claiming that the wolf is really a misunderstood poodle." They do not support their sisters who try to fight back in Muslim countries; they side with Islam law, ducking the issue by insisting that the wearing of a head schmatta will make women free. How very curious.
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THE MAKING OF ISLAMIC TERRORISTS
by Dr. Babu Suseelan

  The world has come a long way towards civilized behavior by suppressing destructive instincts. Islam is different. "Islam was started by predators and spread by predators. It has lived off the decaying corpses of the civilizations it has destroyed." Babu Suseelan notes that "[s]ince 1973, there have been 179 armed conflict around the world 169 were involved with Muslims." Their goal is to replace democracy with Sharia law, with the suicide/bombing a major tool. To understand this, Suseelan examines the psychology of the jihadist homicide bomber, starting with his early indoctrination from his Islamic religious education, and proceeding, state by stage, to more ideologically-driven conscienceless behavior. Suseelan points out this will not stop as long as our only response is attempting to punish the jihadist in a criminal justice system, which has proven ineffective in handling this type of situation.
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BELTWAY SNIPERS EXPOSED AS MUSLIM TERRORISTS
by Paul L. Williams

  Most building invasions and drive-by killings by single Muslims have been single-time events and dismissable as random. In this essay, Paul L. Williams follows up on the 2002 series of terror killings by John Muhammad and his 17-year old side-kick, Malvo. Muhammad's previous army experience was stressed, as if that was responsible for his behavior. It was just a year after 9/11, yet the duo's affiliation to terror groups, their dedication to Islam and their anti-semitism were heatedly denied or just ignored by the media, until courtroom exhibits made denial impossible. In 2009, the mainstream media are again ignoring the role the Islamic religion played in his terror spree when announcing that Muhammad's execution date has been set.
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TERROR SUSPECTS CONNECTION: SHARIAH
by Frank Gaffney Jr.

  There are individuals and small groups that — even if they have never met — are bonded in that they have the same commitment: to inflict sharia law on the West. At the very least, the success of one encourages others to work towards their common goal. The West seems to have no way to cope, except to treat each episode of terror as a separate event, unrelated to other such events. We focus on the terrorists who invades our airports and community centers, while ignoring their ideology. Frank Gaffney points out that dealing with the root cause of jihad by denial and accomodation has encouraged terrorism, not stopped it. [Update: This article was published before the Fort Hood massacre.]
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11 MEARSHEIMER-WALT ERRORS ON THE ISRAEL LOBBY
by Richard H. Shulman

  Mearsheimer and Walt's articles and books serve to popularize and make respectable the pro-Palestinian anti-Israel rhethoric in current use. They are professors in respectable universities — surely one can assume that they have carefully examined the facts and speak truth. Unfortunately, the only truth is that they nicely rephrase the raw anti-semitism heard from cruder tongues. They are very successful at this and are cited on all the sleezoid sites. Richard H. Shulman has done a masterful job in summarizing the major areas they cover and in uncovering their errors.
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HOW THE MEDIA REPORTS TEMPLE MOUNT CLASHES IN JERUSALEM
by Richard H. Shulman

  Think of this article as a teaching experience. Richard Shulman describes how two major newspapers reported a news story on clashes. Same data were available to both; both contributed political slants to a "news story." Considering the respect given The New York Times, it is surprising -- except we've learned from experience this happens all the time -- that its headline was misleading and important facts are omitted. Moreover, "the Times, as is its custom, writes that Israel is in "contested territory that Israel took from Jordan in the 1967 war. Without explanation, its seizure sounds improper. Actually, Jordan had no right to it, having seized it by aggression." The Wall St. Journal labeled the Jews that wanted to pray at their own temple "extremists" and "hard-line". Why? "Neither paper mentioned that the Muslim Arabs believe that they alone have rights to the Temple Mount and to the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron." As usual, Arab violence is not the result of incitement by Arab leaders; "it is due to frustration with the stalled negotiations." Of course. What else could it possibly be?
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MUSLIM MAFIA EXPOSED
by Phyllis Chesler

  P. David Gaubatz and Paul Sperry have written a well-documented account of CAIR and its tactics in carrying out its mission, which is to islamize America, using a variety of tactics that include labelling anyone who criticizes them as an Islamophobe. CAIR — Council for American Islamic Relations — was founded by members of a Hamas-support network and its major funding is not U.S.A. "grass roots" but comes from Sunni Gulf States donors. In this essay, Phyllis Chesler focusses on how CAIR trivializes abuse of women and financially aids men who have committed honor code murders in the U.S.A. and Canada.
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RIFQA BARY, ISLAM, MUSLIMS, SHAR'IAH, AND APOSTASY
by M. Zuhdi Jasser

  Rifqa Bary converted from Islam to Christianity and fled her home, saying she feared for her life. Dr. Jasser, himself a devout Muslim, believes "the preponderance of the intellectual evidence shows a systemic intolerance and, in fact, there is strong evidence for legal (Shar'iah-based) underpinnings for the intolerance, abuse, discrimination, and even at its worst, direct countenance of murder of apostates." He believes this isn't acceptable to the majority of lay Muslims, but the ulemaa (theocratic scholars) do have their influence, even in the West. And there are enough cases of Muslims killing their children to protect the honor of the family to take Rifqa's fears seriously. There is also the larger question for the Muslim community: will they circle the wagons and play the put-upon victim as does CAIR or will they venture at reform. As Jasser writes, American Muslims "can either hold blindly onto tradition, victimization, tribalism, and obfuscation or they can use these cases as teaching moments to highlight the reform necessary within our communities..."
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THE SCOURGE OF ARAB INFILTRATION
by Leslie Stein

  Arab terror strikes against Jews in Israel began long before the recent claim that Arabs are merely reacting to Israel "occupying" the West Bank. From the late 1800's on, the Jews were reviving the economy in an area that had been rock-bottom stagnant for hundreds of years, but the controlling Arab sentiment was anger and resentment that any group other than Arab should dominate land — no matter how small and undeveloped — that Arabs claimed as their own. Leslie Stein writes about the Arab guerilla warfare soon after Israel became a state in 1948. It cost Israel hundreds of slaughtered lives before Israel began responding effectively. Sensibly, the "severity of Israeli retaliations had not been calibrated" on proportional retaliation but to the "potential impact on the behaviour of Israel's adversaries." It encouraged the Jordanian and Egyptian governments (temporarily) to curb some infiltration into Israel. Unfortunately, Israel was intimidated by the international outcry at Israel defending itself, a hostility mislabeled as the "moral" view. Sound familiar?
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  This is where our readers get a chance to write opinions and editorials and share articles they find informative. The Blog-Eds page for the month is updated every few days.

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

September 2009 BLOG-EDS    READ MORE
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JULY-AUGUST, 2009 What we are talking about in the July-August 2009 issue: THE IRANIAN NUCLEAR THREAT (Bayefsky, Beres, Wald, Gilder) A PALESTINIAN STATE INSIDE ISRAEL (Plaut, Sultan Knish, Ettinger) NEW PALESTINA IN ARAB LAND (King, Al-Shiryan, Spengler, Honig, Faybyshenko, Shane, Kossoff) WITHDRAWALS: PREVIOUS AND PROPOSED (YidWithLid, Greenwald, Issar, Saperstein, Dann, Ettinger) HAMAS PR IN GAZA; FOREIGN PR COMES TO THE WEST BANK (Erlich, Schanzer, Frantzman) JIHAD IN THE WEST (Gordon, Landen, Prelutsky, Jochnowitz, Fulford, Stillwell, Dann, Wasserman, Dunleavy, Ginsberg, Gorin) CHRISTIAN CHURCHES IN THE WEST (Van Zile, Sharpe) JEWISH SELF-HATERS (Frantzman, Kaplan, Hausman) The MEDIA (Shepherd, Kramer, Rubin, Levin) HISTORY SECTION: Islamic Colonizers, Rescuing Jews (Fjordman, Rigler) BLOG-ED PAGES (July)

This issue, we emphasize two critical threats to Israel: Iran's continuing to build a nuclear bomb and the Obama Administration's insistence on creating a Palestinian state in Biblical Israel (the "West Bank"). As our readers know, Think-Israel has argued that either a 1-state solution or a 2-state solution was a prescription for a 0-state of Israel. The retort usually is: don't you think the Palestinians deserve their own State? To which we reply: If you want them to have another state to add to the existing 20 Arab states and the 57 Muslim states, there are large amounts of underpopulated regions in the 99.9% of the Middle East that the Arabs control. A tiny fraction of that land would provide space for a Palestinian state 10 times the size of Israel. This way, you still have a viable and productive Israel continuing to benefit mankind. And you just might have a functional Palestinian state: "New Palestina." THE IRANIAN NUCLEAR THREAT While Obama fiddles around hoping to play a soothing tune that will please the Iranian ear, Iran continues its development of the nuclear bomb to destroy Israel. It considers "collateral damage" to local Arabs and to oil pipes at Haifa worth it. Nor is it reassuring that the now Secr.-of-State Clinton promised last year that America will attack Iran if she launches a nuclear attack against Israel. Should a nuclear attack by Iran be allowed to happen by negligence or miscalculation by the policy makers, afterwards, along with the recriminations of why didn't the world act, we can expect stepped-up global terrorism from a jubilant Islam and strident demands for instituting sharia law. Israel? She will be barely viable. So, together with oil delivery disruptions and horror stories on the nightly news, the world will discover it has lost the powerhouse of modern inventiveness in technology, engineering and medicine that Israel has become. HOW WE KNOW OBAMA WON'T STOP IRAN AND HOW HE GOES ABOUT DOING NOTHING by Anne Batefsky   Anne Bayefsky lists the reasons that make it obvious that President Obama — if it's left up to him — has no intention of stopping Iran from acquiring nuclear arms. Obama "... is refusing to back strong, immediate sanctions in response to Iran's umpteen violations of the Nuclear Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and human rights." His "only concrete plan ... is more talk" despite Iran's lack of response and there are no plans for a reassessment of what is a failed policy based on false premises. This places Israel in the untenable position of risking potential annihilation by doing nothing or doing something and risking "the ire of a deeply hostile president." And all the while, Iran is certainly doing much of a something to develop her nuclear capability.  READ MORE   MR. OBAMA'S CONTRADICTIONS AND ISRAELI SURVIVAL by Louis René Beres   Iran announces that it was developing a nuclear bomb — for peaceful uses, of course. Its first job has been announced: destroy Israel. And the world sits as quiet and uninvolved as the brain-washed captives in the Manchurian Candidate. Professor Beres paints a graphic and frightening and — worst of all — accurate picture of the physical and medical consequences of a nuclear attack on Israel. As he writes, "[n]o country can be expected to cooperate in its own annihilation."  READ MORE   THERE IS A MILITARY OPTION ON IRAN by Chuck Wald   This is a sober assessment of how the U.S. military could confront Iran, before it succeeds in developing nuclear armament. General Wald points out that "[i]f the Iranian regime continues to advance its nuclear program despite the best efforts of Mr. Obama and other world leaders, we risk Iranian domination of the oil-rich Persian Gulf, threats to U.S.-allied Arab regimes, the emboldening of radicals in the region, the creation of an existential threat to Israel, the destabilization of Iraq, the shutdown of the Israel-Palestinian peace process, and a regional nuclear-arms race." The future consequences of Prez Obama's insouciance will likely make Jimmy Carter's gross error in forcing the Shah of Iran off the throne seem small potatoes.  READ MORE   CAPITALISM, JEWISH ACHIEVEMENT, AND THE ISRAEL TEST by George Gilder   This article by George Gilder is based on his most recent book. David Pryce-Jones wrote about it this way: "Israel of course has its defenders, but they use arguments based on nationalism, territory, ethnicity, defence of minorities, rights, historicism, and so on. Gilder sees Jews since their emancipation as the vanguard of human achievement. They may be few in numbers, but their creativity has brought prosperity to themselves and those around them, and that prosperity in turn has brought freedom." Relating his thesis to the Arab-Israeli conflict, Gilder asks, "Are you for civilization or barbarism, life or death, wealth or envy? Are you an exponent of excellence and accomplishment or of a leveling creed of troglodytic frenzy and hatred?"  READ MORE   A PALESTINIAN STATE INSIDE ISRAEL Israel is faced with another threat to its survival, one just as pressing as the threat of nuclear annihilation — the creation of a Palestinian Arab state in Biblical Israel. Obama's CEO in charge of thuggery and threats, Rahm Emanuel, has told Israel it MUST make concessions to the arabs "for peace" — starting by throttling Jewish towns in the "West Bank" — else America will thwart any attempt by Israel to defang Iran. Sounds like a old third-rate movie: swallow the poison or I will shoot you. This section explains why we can't have a 2-state solution with an Arab state inside and/or next to Israel. TWO-STATE SOLUTION — OR POTEMKIN PEACE by Steven Plaut   A one-state solution of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict or a two-state solution would have the same predictable outcome: the destruction of the Jewish State. A one-state binational state would have the Jews pay for a preponderance of Arab births, which has only one objective: democractically crushing the Jewish state. The two-state solution sounds, in comparison, like a sober solution. It isn't. Steven Plaut points out it is paper-thin, with no substance. Trim away the nonsense and political babble and bombast and there is — as there has always been — one simple reason why there is no peace: "the refusal of the Arab world to come to terms with Israel's existence within any set of borders whatsoever." Israel continues to attempt to accomodate Arab 'sensitivities' and acts as if the Palestinian claim that Israel is occupying Arab land had historic substance. But it all continues to crash against the often-repeated reality that "any Palestinian state, regardless of who rules it, will produce nothing but escalated violence, terror and warfare in the Middle East, certainly not stability or peaceful relations."  READ MORE   WHAT IS THE TWO STATE SOLUTION SUPPOSED TO SOLVE ANYWAY? by Sultan Knish   Sultan Knish describes what we can expect from a Palestinian State. Essentially, it's more of the same, but more so. More terrorism. More regional instability. More internecine conflicts between the different Palestinian groups. More unemployment because there aren't any major employers except UNWRA and the Palestinian Authority, which is a way of saying they are living on the dole. Having demonstrated that such a mix can not be shaped into a workable political entity, Sultan Knish concludes, "...if the Two State Solution can't even create a Palestinian state, what can it solve? Absolutely nothing."  READ MORE   JUDEA AND SAMARIA — A WAKE UP CALL by Yoram Ettinger   Yoram Ettinger devotes this article to a recap of some important historical facts about Samaria and Judea — Biblical Israel — and to explaning the region's importance to Israel's security needs. As he pointed out in a previous paper that to talk about: "[d]efensible borders for the Jewish State on the one hand, and a giveaway of the mountain ridges of Judea and Samaria on the other hand, constitutes a deadly oxymoron." The current paper adds substance to that conclusion.  READ MORE   NEW PALESTINA IN ARAB LAND There is however a win-win situation. Israel has space to grow and develop innovations for all of us, instead of devoting its time to fending off Arabs obsessed with a self-imposed mission of destroying the Jewish state. The Palestinian Arabs have a munificent plot of land in which to create a state — if that's what they want. The former U.S. presidential candidate Mike Huckabee put it well: "The question is: should the Palestinians have a place to call their own? Yes, I have no problem with that. Should it be in the middle of the Jewish homeland? That's what I think has to be honestly assessed as virtually unrealistic." These are different takes on where a viable Palestinian State could be located. PUTTING FIRST THINGS FIRST — SOLVING THE ARAB REFUGEE PROBLEM by Ruth King and Rael Jean Isaac   Ruth King and Rael Isaac write that "the issue of 'refugees' remains the defining obstacle to any reconciliation in the region." The Arabs remain adamant that the Arabs that fled when the Arab states invaded Israel in 1948 must be allowed to return to their villages in Israel. Allowing in the millions who claim to be these refugees or descendants of these refugees would demographically overwhelm Israel. Resettling them in Arab countries would give the refugees the opportunity to live normal lives in a familiar milieu, instead of serving as the excuse for Arab leaders to continue their hostility and aggression against Israel. And a major obstruction to stabilizing the region would be eliminated.  READ MORE   A CALL FOR RESETTLEMENT OF PALESTINIAN REFUGEES by Daoud Al-Shiryan (translated and organized by MEMRI)   The myth of Israel creating the Arab refugee problem has been discredited in recent years as Palestinian Arabs have begun speaking out and putting the blame where it belongs — on the Arab leadership, which directed the local arabs to leave their homes in 1948, when the arab countries that neighbor israel attacked the brand-new state. (See PMW's "Arab responsibility for refugees" at http://palwatch.org/main.aspx?fi=567.) Now a few voices — such a Daoud Al-Shiryan in this article — are speaking out that the Arabs who created the refugee problem be the ones to fix it. As noted by MEMRI, "Daoud Al-Shiryan, Al-Hayat columnist and deputy secretary-general of Al-Arabiya TV, recently published several articles criticizing how the Palestinian refugees have been treated by the Arab countries in which they live. He called on these countries to integrate the refugees into their societies and to resettle them before they are forced to do so by the international community." He pointed out that: "Objecting to resettlement is no different than objecting to peace. It is nothing but an unrealistic slogan."  READ MORE   PALESTINE PROBLEM HOPELESS, BUT NOT SERIOUS by Spengler   Considering how our economy is going, we might consider asking the Po' Palestinians for a handout. Spengler provides us a clear picture of just how how well off the Palestinian Arabs are financially, especially as compared to the neighboring Arabs. (And that's just the acknowledged contributions from UNRWA, EU and us, the taxpayers of U.S.A.) They have free health care and receive better education than most other arabs. Given all that funding, "why," he asks, "should any Palestinian refugee resettle in a neighboring Arab country? This is particularly so because they haven't developed industries to support themselves. Moreover, because their subsidies depends in part on the Western belief that paying the Palestinians off will contain their violence, they have a disincentive to become peaceful. Given these facts, Spengler comes to conclusion that may be surprising but is obvious — once you look at the facts.  READ MORE   (TRANS)JORDAN IS PALESTINE by Sarah Honig   The British were given the administration of the Palestine Mandate to aid the Jews settle Palestine as a homeland. Instead, the Brits gave the administration of the portion of Palestine east of Jordan River to the Hashemite clan, which today rules a state made up largely of what are called Palestinians. It is now withdrawing citizenship from many of these arabs. Sarah Honig writes about Jordan, pointing out some home truths.  READ MORE   A PALESTINIAN STATE IN SAUDI ARABIA by Gennadiy Baruch Faybyshenko   Gennadiy Faybyshenko notes that the Saudi Arabian Initiative — which provides for the creation of a a Palestinian state inside Samaria and Judea and the return of enough Arabs to almost double Israel's Jewish population — would mean the end of Israel. That won't do. But given the Saudi concern for their Palestinian brethren and given that Saudi Arabia is huge but sparsely-settled, a comfortably-sized state for the Palestinian refugees could be set up in some small portion of Saudi Arabia. Refugee problem: solved! A state for the Palestinians: created! And, that, according to the Obama administration, is the key to peace and harmony in the Middle East.  READ MORE   THE PERFECT PEACE-PLAN by Brother Shane   Brother Shane proposes a bold yet traditional peace-plan to stabilize the Middle East: First, the Arab terrorist thugs need to be eliminated, not rewarded. Then the Palestinian Arabs in the territories are to be moved to Jordan, where Palestinian arabs are already living. A novel part of the plan is to create borders for Israel in accordance with the ancient patrimonies of the original 12 tribes of Israel, erasing some modern divisions. Pagan and totalitarian practices are not to be tolerated; the United Nations — a puppet of Islamo-Fascists — will be designated a terrorist organization. This plan certainly beats Israel giving up some of its tiny bit of land to people with a much larger amount of land and a very large amount of hatred toward Jews.  READ MORE   MID EAST PEACE? LET PALESTINIANS BE JEWISH by Julian Kossoff   I don't know if this is tongue-in-cheek but it certainly is thinking outside the box. Julian Kossoff suggests a novel way to solve the Israel-Palestinian Arab conflict. Convert the Arabs to Judaism. Let them become Jews. He reminds us that "[h]istorically, the key to the Jewish reluctance to convert non-Jews was an unwillingness to provoke the host Christian/Muslim community. But as a survival strategy that's now backfiring; in a post-Christian world that fear is no longer relevant, while the demographics aren't looking good." The Jews were indeed heavy into proselytizing Gentiles — some 10% of the Roman Empire in the 1st century C.E. was Jewish. They were told point-blank when the Church gained power that if they continued proselytizing, the Church would destroy Judaism. Unfortunately the Jews incorporated this negative attitude and have forgotten their strong commitment to converting the Gentile. Perhaps Kossoff will write another article on reclaiming all the Jews forced over the centuries into becoming Muslim at the point of the sword.  READ MORE   WITHDRAWALS: PREVIOUS AND PROPOSED This next articles reinforce the idea that Israel should not give up any more of Israell's patrimony. They deal with the involuntary withdrawal from Hebron after the 1929 Massacre and with Kadima's expulsion of all the Jews from Gaza in August 2005. The last article in the set reminds us that as Israel gives up land, people are waiting in the wings with demands on further land give-aways — all in the pursuit of a peace that becomes all the more unattainable the more Israel gifts to an enemy determined to destroy the Jewish state. HOW HEBRON BECAME OCCUPIED TERRITORY by Yid-With-Lid   The 4000-year old city of Hebron, Judaism's second most holy city, is the site of the Machpelah, the Cave of the Patriachs, where Abraham and Sarah are buried. The Jews lived there no matter what the political climate throughout the centuries. In 1929, when rumors started to spread that the Arabs were planning to attack the Jews, many Jews refused to believe it. Sammy Benoit (Yid with Lid) writes of the massacre in August, 1929. Arabs, who for years had been friendly neighbors, turned vicious and, encouraged by the mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Amin al-Husseini, slaughtered the Jewish population. The British removed the Jews from the city, not the Arabs — an early example of rewarding terrorism. The Jews were denied permission to return to Hebron. After 1967, when Israel regained the city and against the opposition of the local Arabs and their own government, Jews began to resettle in Hebron. This article appeared on the Yid-With-Lid website in December 2007. Since then, the Jews continue to be harassed by the Arabs and by the Israeli government, which make no secret of the fact that it favors the Arab population of Hebron in any dispute.  READ MORE   THE HEBRON MASSACRE, AUGUST 23, 1929 by Toby Klein Greenwald   This article by Toby Klein Greenwald provides additional history and eye-witness accounts of the 1929 Hebron Massacre, which we commemerate on August 23rd.  READ MORE   PALESTINE NAKBA: LETTER TO THE CHILDREN OF THE MOUKHTAR OF COLONIA by Arie Issar   This is Arie Issar's account of his experiences at the time of the Hebron massacre. In August 1929, because he came down with a case of mumps, he and his family were unable to travel to Hebron to friends the day the Hebron massacre occurred. He learned later "that the Sheikh of Colonia (most probably the Moukhtar) came on the day before the massacre to the Makleffs [the friends] and vowed by Almighty Allah and the Holy Koran that they are safe and should stay at home." As Ami Isseroff says in the foreword, "the 1948 war was preceded by decades of Arab violence and bad faith, such as [this] incident. Issar draws this moral from the Sheikh's lies, "If you do not want your grandchildren to live in a refugee camp, do not betray your neighbor who trusted you and your vows."  READ MORE   MOSHE: WHEN THE SPINELESS LEAD THE BRAINLESS; RACHEL: TO STRENGTHEN A PEOPLE by Moshe and Rachel Saperstein   This issue we have an essay by Moshe Saperstein who is in superb sardonic form. Listen to this: "Had my ancestors swung on the trees of Britain rather than Bialystok,... we would likely have a family crest. On that crest would be crossed salamis under a pickled herring. And the engraved motto would be — in Yiddish, of course — 'No Moment Spent Sleeping is Ever Wasted'." Rachel Saperstein, whose vision is more outward, talks about the Fourth Anniversary of Israel's sobering attempt at government-sponsored ethnic cleansing: the expulsion by the Israeli Government of the Jews from Gaza. It is a sobering thought for us that the Israeli Government has done such an inadequate job at resettling the 10,000 Jewish Refugees from Gaza that private citizens like Rachel are doing the Government's work. With its I-flunk record, how can the Government be contemplating another expulsion — this time of up to some 600,000 Jews from Samaria and Judea and Eastern Jerusalem? It boggles the mind.  READ MORE   THE COSTS OF EVACUATION by Moshe Dann   Moshe Dann writes about some of the costs of ejecting the productive and patriotic Jews of Gush Katif, Gaza from their homes and business in August 2005. As he writes, "Biilions were wasted for nothing; military advantages were squandered and economic benefits to both Jews and Arabs were destroyed. The sheer human tragedy on all sides is difficult to evaluate." To rub salt into the wounds, most of these refugees have still not been fully compensated or permanently settled — and much of what has been achieved has been done by the expellees themselves or with private help. It is particularly important to consider the aftermath of the Gaza folly now that "the world" is demanding a Palestinian state be built in Gaza and Samaria and Judea and eastern Jerusalem. If Israel accedes to this demand, eventually it will necessitate expelling up to 500,000 to 600,000 Jews. How will a bureaucracy that couldn't competently deal with 10,000 refugees deal with this?  READ MORE   THE GOLAN HEIGHTS, SYRIA AND WATER by Yoram Ettinger   The importance of Samaria and Judea to Israel's water needs has been discussed in sister articles, here. and here. This essay by Yoram Ettinger summarizes important facts about the Golan and its contribution to Israel's water supply. The Golan has again become an issue now that retards in the Israeli government are wistfully planning dialoguing with Syria. The Addition, Guy Bechor's article entitled, "Syria is drying up", explains why Syria is interested.  READ MORE   HAMAS PROPAGANDA IN GAZA; FOREIGNER PR COMES TO THE WEST BANK As Ethan Bronner put it: "Hamas has suspended its use of rockets and shifted focus to winning support at home and abroad through cultural initiatives and public relations.." In reality, Hamas does not accept Israel as a Jewish state and is still committed to violence. Domestically, Gaza is being 'talibanized' in that Hamas is increasingly imposing shari'a law enforced by religious police. Human rights violations are extensive and as Jonathan Schanzer writes, "Hamas maintain[s] control of Gaza's predominantly Sunni population through a combination of violence, authoritarian rule, and Islamism." In the area controlled by Fatah, it has become obligatory for foreign human righters and peacenikers to come and violently show their disapproval of what Israel is doing — whatever Israel is or is not doing. HAMAS IS CONDUCTING A "SMILE SPIN" FOR THE WEST, PARTICULARLY THE UNITED STATES by Dr. Reuven Erlich   Hamas is trying something new. Instead of turnoffs like beheading the enemy or blowing up babies — Jewish babies, true, so it's really OK, but some oddballs seem to object — it is trying something new. The rhetoric has softened. They are reaching out to the West, using the non-stop media as conveyor of these new smile-ridden assertions. You understand, of course, that nothing has changed back at the ranch. But the ratings West-wise should be considerably inproved.  READ MORE   THE TALIBANIZATION OF GAZA: A LIABILITY FOR THE MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD by Jonathan Schanzer   Hamas rightfully claims it is more popular than is the P.A. with the Palestinian Arabs, who appear to prefer unsullied, undisguised violence against Israel. Many in the American administration have suggested that American start dealing with Hamas directly as de facto and de jure rulers of Gaza and, more than likely, also Samaria and Judea, should Israel give up these areas. Such appeasement of a totalitarian government might make life simpler for the State Department, but other consequences are dire and should be considered. Jonathan Schanzer describes what life is like in Gaza, where Hamas is now unopposed.  READ MORE   THE COLONIZATION OF THE CONFLICT by Seth J. Frantzman   We've progressed from the radical chic in the sixties to what Seth Frantzman calls protest tourism, where foreign and domestic visitors show their commitment to peace in the Middle East by making an obligatory stop in Arab Bilin where they harass Israeli soldiers until, if the gods be with them, the troops stop the rock throwing with rubber bullets and tear gas. As Frantzman notes, "That isn't peace, it is a manufacturing of the conflict, manipulation of the conflict for the cameras."  READ MORE   JIHAD IN THE WEST The initial essays benchmark the current highwater levels of the Islamic invasion of Europe and the U.S.A. The others suggest that one of the major activities of Islamic Jihad — preaching and promoting anti-semitism — has and is gaining adherents in several unrelated professional areas, government agencies and private institutions, even in prisons, as sympathy for — or fear of — radical Islam increases. The main reaction of the public to increased Muslim demands and sporadic violence by Muslims continues to be almost total indifference. THE STEALTH JIHAD OF HIJRA: MUSLIM IMMIGRATION EXPOSED by Jerry Gordon   David Meir-Levi listed the ten stages of how Muslims take over a country "peacefully" and provided an estimate of far various countries are in the takeover process here. In this article, Jerry Gordon comments on a book review by Janet Levy of "Modern Day Trojan Horse" by Sam Solomon and Elias Al Maqdisi. The book describes more fully the Muslim strategy of peaceful conquest starting with Muslims migrating into the Dar-al-Harb, the Land of War, where they strive to consolidate their power and soften up the population for imposition of Sharia law and Muslim domination. In the U.S.A., we are really coming along, especially now that we have a Muslim president in place to smooth the way.  READ MORE   EURABIAN SAFARI by Thomas Landen   It seems only yesterday that Malmö was pointed out because even though it was a western city, some of it was western-frei and controlled by Muslims. Now, as Thomas Landen indicates, it is one of many European areas — in Brussels, Sweden, France — where entry by a Westerner may be hazardous to his health. In fact, entry is usually by stealth, a safari entailing high risk. Landen notes that the Ramadan period is particularly dangerous, because the nightly "feasts easily spill over into nightly spasms of mayhem, vandalism, and violence. Europe's Ramadan riots often go on for days or weeks, during which hundreds of cars, shops and public buildings are set on fire" with little response from the authorities, who also "fail to impose the existing laws of the land on Islamic immigrants" and provide polygamous Muslims with welfare benefits. Landen predicts the next step with be "the imposition of Sharia law on everyone, non-Muslims as well as Muslims."  READ MORE   THE STRAIGHT POOP ON RADICAL ISLAM by Burt Prelutsky   Burt Prelutsky asks why our leaders "pay lip service to these people[Muslims} in a way we never did with Nazi Germany, Imperial Japan or the Soviet Union. Is it because the Muslims commit sadism and murder in the name of religion and not country? If anything, I would think that would make their evil acts all the more contemptible." Their code of honor isn't much of a recommendation, either.  READ MORE   THE UNIVERSALITY OF ANTI-SEMITISM by George Jochnowitz   George Jochnowitz has written on the pervasiveness of Anti-Semitism over time and often in areas that seldom, if ever, see a Jew. Nowadays, its universality owes much to a bizarre and illogical alliance of Muslims and Communists, both obsessed with a virulent and ferocious hatred of Jews. In other matters, they hold opposing views and are sworn enemies of each other. David Nathan wrote of this essay: "I have read much on the subject but never so fine and profound and succinct a piece as this." Read it. Perhaps, it will make you stop adducing all the variants of 'blame the victim' and ask instead: What accounts for the current manifestation of an attitude that, in Jochnowitz's words, "makes no sense" and "is pointless."  READ MORE   WHEN CRITICIZING ISRAEL BECOMES RITUAL by Robert Fulford   Robert Fulford writes of the many ways that have evolved to show hate towards Israel. "Opposing Israel has become an institutionalized ritual" performed in "the universities, churches and unions," with activities that repetition has turned into traditions — such as" Israel Apartheid Week, celebrated every spring in universities." Muslims claiming they are oppressed by the Chinese are ignored; El-Fatah Palestinians killed by Hamas are not memorialized; nor are Hamas soldiers killed by the P.A. Israel is the exclusive target of this venom. This isn't criticism of Israel. It is simple, old-fashioned hate of the Jew that is being manifested.  READ MORE   TERRORIST IN THE IVORY TOWER? by Cinnamon Stillwell   Academia has become a welcoming habitat for Marxists and Muslims. Anti-American preaching is common and is usually protected by University administrators and fellow academics, who — for all their virtuous defense of freedom of speech — are usually not as conscientious at protecting free speech by rightwingers. Cinnamon Stillwell writes of a new twist: professors who don't just accept Islamic terror but practice it. She writes about U of Ottawa's professor Hassan Diab, who stands accused of leading a PLO commando team that bombed a Paris synagogue in 1980. If true, he will join others such as William Ayres of the University of Chicago, who once practiced what they now preach.  READ MORE   THE INTERNATIONAL RED CROSS' WAR AGAINST ISRAEL by Moshe Dann   Remembering that the International Red Cross had no problem accepting the Arab's Red Crescent (which has often taxied terrorists into Israel) but refused to allow the entry of the Jewish Magen David until it agreed to not display the Magen David symbol, it comes as no surprise to learn that the International Red Cross is a politicized anti-Israel participant in demonizing Israel. In this essay, Moshe Dann focusses on how they misuse the provisions of the Geneva Convention, specifically Article 49.  READ MORE   THE AIPAC CASE AND PREJUDICE by Gary Wasserman   The spy case against AIPAC staffers has frittered out. Charges have been dropped. Two critical pieces of information suggest we're just beginning to see the outlines of the real story. First, the AIPAC men were at no point suspected of dealing with enemy foreign governments. As Gary Wasserman informs us, "they were targets of a bizarre sting in which they were fed false information suggesting that the lives of U.S. and Israeli operatives in Iraq were at risk"; they were told no one was doing anything. They tried openly to get different agencies to do something, to save lives. Second, the Iago in this sting operation, Larry Franklin, said he'd tried hooking other prominent Jews in government, using the same bait and he'd been asked by the FBI about other of his Jewish contacts. So why a sting operation against American Jews sympathetic to Israel, who weren't at any point suspected of being spies? Why Jews? Expand this a bit. Why is the FBI using Arabs in sensitive spots but won't hire Jews who are fluent in idiomatic Arabic too translate Arabic tapes? Why is the FBI giving classes in Sharia law? Why are meaningful words like terrorist dropped from Homeland Security's vocabulary? Why are CIA operatives threatened with law suits for doing their job effectively? What is going on?  READ MORE   THE ROOTS OF RADICAL ISLAM IN PRISON by Patrick Dunleavy   Islam has found the prison system an excellent source for actively recruiting converts and candidates for acts of terror. It is a particularly hard group to infiltrate because the prisoners know each other and don't accept strangers. This article deals with such a network. When members of a Newburgh NY mosque were exposed before they could attack a Jewish community center, Warith Deen Umar, a muslim convert, who was both a prisoner and then a prison chaplain converting others to Islam, briefly became a topic for conversation. What is not recognized is that the wahabbist chaplains and their clerks have been creating a successful organization for converting prisoners to radical Islam for some 30 years. In this article, Patrick Dunleavy writes of five other Muslims affiliates of Umar, who have promulgated radical Islam and planned terror activity while in prison as prisoners or as prison chaplains or clerks.  READ MORE   KING DAVID'S PALACE UNEARTHED IN JERUSALEM by Rachel Ginsberg   Some four years ago Israeli archeologist Eilat Mazar discovered a stepped stone structure in the City of David in Jerusalem that she believes is the remains of King David's palace. This is an exciting discovery in its own right, whether palace or not, yet It has been only meagerly publicized. Thanks are due Rachel Ginsberg not only for this excellent article on the find but for inquiring into why it is that it has been ignored by secularists, both archeologists and laymen, who claim greater objectivity. Their sneer campaign revolves around the fact that the dig has received financial support from a Jewish millionaire who believes in the Bible and their secular certainty that Judaism can not possibly have a rock-solid foundation (pardon the pun).  READ MORE   MUSLIM TERRORIST'S NEIGHBORS STILL "LOOKING FOR REASONS" by Julia Gorin   Julia Gorin focusses on what is one of the more puzzling facts about America's general reaction to resurgent Islam — there seems to be a general indifference to the threat of Islamic Jihad. We are no longer concerned that Muslims that look to the resurrection of the Caliphate declared war on us September 11, 2001. Muslims who look to the return of the Mahdi declare they will bomb Israel — a true friend — into oblivion and we warn them that if they don't stop ... we will warn them again. We elect a self-declared Muslim as president while we are supposedly fighting Islamic terrorism and we excuse violent Muslim behavior — beheadings, massacres, bombings, drive-by shooting, tractor killings — as understandable. Gorin asks "[h]ow many more terror plots have to be uncovered before everyone realizes that Islam is a threat?"  READ MORE   CHRISTIAN CHURCHES IN THE WEST There is a sharp divide between the Christian churches in the West: the mainstream groups led by liberals are pro-palestinian while the more traditional and less trendy churches with closer contact to the Bible are pro-Israel. An anomoly is the Mennonite Church, which itself suffered torture and violence. Yet it is so dedicated to peace it doesn't recognize that it doesn't really understand the monomanical evil practiced by resurgent Islam. KEY MENNONITE INSTITUTIONS AGAINST ISRAEL by Dexter Van Zile   Dexter Van Zile writes about the One-State Solution activists of the Mennonite church who equate peace in the Middle East with abolishing the sovereign state of Israel, while they "provide aid and comfort to those who ... seek Israel's destruction." Van Zile suggests that, despite the torture and persecution suffered by the Mennonites in post-Reformation Europe, they have "an inability to deal with the reality of evil and the power needed to confront it." Denying reality, they routinely portray Hamas and Islamism as either victim or "as idealistic religious movements" while the Jews are the bullies. This may be because the pacifist Mennonites can rely on others to keep them safe. Israel can not.  READ MORE   CHRISTIAN ZIONISTS, PAST AND PRESENT by Victor Sharpe   Zionism, as Victor Sharpe reminds us, is the national liberation movement of the Jewish people. "In Biblical terms, it is the return from exile of the Jews to Zion — to that very special land promised by God to the first Jew, Abraham. And it is through reading his Bible that many a Christian has become a zionist, and consequently a friend to Israelis working to reconstitute their ancestral homeland. In this essay, Sharpe writes of some Christian zionists who helped further what at the time seemed an impossible dream — the reconstruction of their nation state by Jews after 2,000 years in the diaspora.  READ MORE   JEWISH SELF-HATERS We start with an essay on the general phenomenon, which describes the anger and denial of reality that marks the self-hating Jew. We then provide two specific examples, one an individual, the other a group. As Seth Frantzman says, "Jewish self hate is one of the most fascinating of phenomena." It is also mystifying. THE PEOPLE OF ILLOGIC: NOTES ON JEWISH SELF HATE by Seth J. Frantzman   This is a continuation of Seth Frantzman's examination of Jewish self-hatred. He writes, "Jewish self hate is one of the most fascinating of phenomena. While many nations now produce intellectuals who have self-hate, the Jews seem especially adept at it. It is worth examining a few cases to understand that self-hate is primarily based on illogical concepts."  READ MORE   MARXIST PROFESSOR ALALUF SUPPORTS EUROPEAN ANTI-SEMITES by Lee Kaplan   Lee Kaplan presents us with the case study of a Jewish sociologist, a professor in a European university, who in his devotion to the Arab cause distorts reality and ignores factual information. For him, Jewish nationalism is racism. He ignores the Socialist ideology of the early kibbutzniks and flays Israel as a "colonial enterprise of the capitalist west." More generally, his stance is always predictable: Israel is always the bad guy, no matter what the circumstances. If the Arabs act badly, it is always justified.  READ MORE   THE MISREPRESENTATION OF J STREET by Matthew M. Hausman   J Street was created to counter Aipac, the major pro-Israel advocacy group in America. It proclaims itself as supporting Israel, but its actions don't match its words — unless, of course, you subscribe to the Arab story about its "historic" rights and believe that capitulating to Arab demands is good for Israel. It is not clear how many Jews it fools, but, certainly, some Muslims and pro-Palestinian activists recognize it for what it is and have given J Street both personal and financial support. If you are looking to support an active activist group devoted to Israel, put your money into AFSI.org, or ZOA.org or the newly-formed Z (for Zionist) Street. (18ZSTREET@gmail.com, http://ziostreet.wordpress.com/)  READ MORE   THE MEDIA Since it was started in July 2002, Think-Israel has chronicled media-created lies about israel and how easily the media accept Arab-generated lies. A particularly outrageous example is the story circulated out of Sweden accusing the IDF of harvesting Arab organs for transplant. What next? SWEDEN'S NEWSPAPER BLOOD LIBEL OF THE IDF by Robin Shepherd   Using Arab sources, Sweden's largest-circulation newspaper, Aftonbladet, ran a ghoulish screed claiming the IDF killed Palestinians arabs and harvested their organs. Robin Shepherd examines the shameful events that happened afterwards. Aftonbladet's editor admitted the paper had no proof but refused to retract its assertion; in fact, he published it again. The Swedish government did not see this blood libel of Israel as important enough to contradict, portraying itself as the virtuous defender of free speech. It even refused to back up its ambassador to Israel who condemned the article. Contrast this to how news about Muslims is treated: many of the newspapers self-censor themselves, fearing violent repercussions by Muslims to even mild criticism of Islam or Muslim practices. Recall that the Swedish government reacted in panic to Muslim anger at a cartoon featuring Mohammad, even shutting down a website that showed the cartoon.  READ MORE   PROPAGANDA'S VICTORY: THE TWO BIG LIES by Rita Kramer   This essay is about some home truths. Rita Kramer succintly describes two big lies that have emerged since Nazi times, when the world accepted that Germany was entitled to a population that was purely aryan and that the Jews were responsible for German's economic collapse. One is the retooling the educational system so that its function no longer is to teach Western values and culture. It has become an instrument to inculcate "diversity". The other big lie is that the world accepts the Arab myth that the Palestinian Arabs, through no fault of their own, are under Israeli occupation, a fantasy that justifies all savage behavior by the Arabs as necessary in their struggle to liberate their land.  READ MORE   WHY IS ISRAEL DEMONIZED WHILE REAL RIGHTS' VIOLATORS AND WAR CRIMINALS ARE SANITIZED, EVEN LIONIZED? by Barry Rubin   Barry Rubin asks a fundamental question: why do the media single out Israel for human rights violations, most of which are eventually shown to be false, while Arab human rights violations — real, brutal and of long-standing — are excused? He offers a group of possibilities that include: Arab money/oil, Western guilt, Arab money/oil, physical intimidation, Arab money/oil, psychological intimidation and Arab money/oil [repetitions added.]  READ MORE   GENOCIDAL LINKAGE by Kenneth Levin   Kenneth Levin makes an interesting association on how "The world's media have given scant coverage lately to the ongoing genocide in Darfur, and — despite extensive reporting on Israel and the Arab-Israeli conflict — they have likewise offered little on the continuing campaign of genocidal incitement against Israel by her enemies." Levin develops the theme that the connecting link is the Arab non-acceptance of non-Muslims on what they see as Muslim land. And when the conflict is Muslim against Muslim, they will side with the Arabs. Their lead is followed by many in the media and politics and even in anti-Israel Jewish organizations.  READ MORE   THE HISTORY SEGMENT. The history of Muslim colonizers who enslaved Europeans and a successful rescue of Jews from a British detention center EUROPEANS AS VICTIMS OF COLONIALISM by Fjordman   In this well-documented essay, Fjordman writes of the long-term colonization and enslavement of Europeans by Muslims. As a reader of the original article wrote: "Mohammedans are not 'ashamed' of their 1300 plus years of violent colonizing and conquest of the infidels, unlike the Europeans (who have come, through their political and social development, and philosophies, to regard all people as deserving of human rights and basic decency and respect), because the Muslim colonial movement is the sanctified dogma of the imperialistic, expansionistic Koran." Another reader noted, "We'd have far less tolerance of the 'Moslems as victims' pose if the appalling cruelties of Islamic imperialism were better known by the Western public."  READ MORE   ESCAPE FROM ATLIT by Sara Yoheved Rigler   Starting in the 1930's the British 'forgot' that they were given the administration of the Palestinian Mandate to help the Jews create the infrastructure for a state, They curtailed Jewish immigration into Palestine, Just when Jews desperately needed to escape from Europe. Jewish immigration was declared illegal. The British didn't just close the borders; they intercepted ships "and sent their hapless Jewish passengers back to a certain death in Europe." Those who made it to Palestine before they were caught were interned in a military camp south of Haifa in Atlit. Sara Rigler tells the story of a daring rescue of prisoners from Atlit engineered by the Hagana and aided by Jew living in Haifa. "For once, the Jews united and won."  READ MORE   READERS' BLOG-EDS   This is where our readers get a chance to write opinions and editorials and share articles they find informative. The Blog-Eds page for the month is updated every few days. A Blog-Ed page has a quick list of the articles from which you can access any of the articles immediately. To go to the list, click the "Blog-Eds List" box in the Blue Strip on the top of the Blog-Ed page. July 2009 BLOG-EDS    READ MORE NOTE: Because of various website reconstructions, we did not have a Blog-Ed page for August, 2009.

May-June, 2009 What we are talking about in the May-June 2009 issue: EDITORIAL: ANOTHER FACET OF GLOBAL JIHAD: CREATE A PALESTINIAN STATE TO DESTROY ISRAEL LINKAGES, OBAMA'S CAIRO SPEECH(Peters, Spencer, Yid with Lid, Ettinger, Kirchick, Kedar) THE SETTLEMENTS (Auerbach, Sultan Knish, Krauthammer, Peck, Dann, Frantzman) THE OTHER REFUGEES (Julius, Yemini, Saperstein) PALESTINIANS AND PALESTINE (Mandelbaum, Shusteff, Eidelberg) PEACE COMPLETE WITH TERROR (Mauro, Rose, Plaut, Prowisor, McCarthy, Reisman, Ehrenfeld) PROBLEMS WITH ANOTHER PALESTINIAN STATE (Even, Arens, Hertz, Miller) SOLVING THE PALESTINIAN PROBLEM (Bonner, Teich, Bussel, Sharpe, Eldad, Dann) HOW ISLAM IS IMPACTING THE USA (Dreyfus, Glazov interviewing Gaubatz, Reyto) ISLAM IN EUROPE (Landen, Steyn, Fjordman, No Sharia) JEW HATE (Finch, Ravid, Schanzer, Gerson, Marquardt-Bigman, Franzman) HISTORY SECTION (Medoff, Whartman, Zamir) BLOG-ED PAGES (May, June)

EDITORIAL: ANOTHER FACET OF GLOBAL JIHAD: CREATE A PALESTINIAN STATE TO DESTROY ISRAEL Barack Obama's Cairo Cuddle speech in June was in some ways a projective test. Areas in which he sought to praise the Arabs are those that count with Westerners, and may have been designed not just to flatter his Muslim listeners, but to tell us how close culturally Middle Easterners are to the West. The West is proud of its achievements in science and technology and medicine. Obama ignored Jewish prizewinners — relative to their percentage of the global population, their share of Nobel awards has been hugely disproportionate — and attributed such accomplishments to the Arabs. He wasn't completely wrong — a handful of Nobel science and medicine awards has gone to Arabs. Admittedly, saints such as Yassir Arafat have walked off with the Nobel Peace Prize, but, thanks to him and his fellow Arabs, no one takes the Peace Prize seriously any more. Obama plunged back into history to credit Arabs with technological achievements. As Robert Spencer points out, "much of this has been exaggerated" and misattributed. We care about defending democracy and so he claimed Morocco was the first nation to recognize the new United States of America. He must hope that Americans are as ignorant of history as they are reputed to be; otherwise, they might know that our major interaction with Tangiers was in fending off the Tripoli pirates that preyed on our ships. Shades of Somalia! How far Prez Obama had to stray from the truth to make nice to Islam is a measure of how unproductive Islam really is except in terror and violence and other man-made evil.  READ THE ENTIRE EDITORIAL   LINKAGES TO OBAMA'S CAIRO SPEECH: In his Cairo speech, except for a few teaspoons of soothing oil for the Jews, President Obama's made it clear that he would be hitting on Israel and making nice to the Muslims. Shamefully, as do the Arabs, he linked the Holocaust and how the Israelis purportedly treat the Palestinian arabs. What was surprising in the Cairo speech was the number of factual howlers and mistatements. Obama promised he would "speak the truth..." Misinformation, disinformation, partial truths, lies dressed up as truths are not Truth Speak. The Palestinian-Israeli hostilities took up much of the speech. Obama's miracle treatment to stabilize the Middle East is based on the proposition that there is a linkage between reducing the Iranian threat to nuke Israel and the Peace Process, where Israel "voluntarily" gives away Biblical Israel to create another Palestinian state. This set of essays discuss the speech and the Iran-Peace Process Linkage. WHAT OBAMA TAUGHT ME by Ralph Peters   What did I learn from President Obama's Cairo speech, asks Ralph Peters. Let me count the ways. As example, terrorism? The President never mentioned the subject. It must have stopped. The Israelis who are routinely subjected to missiles from Gaza and sniping as they drive the highways will be thrilled to know this. Another example? Tolerance must have come to Saudi Arabia — why else did he not mention the Saudi fondness for torture and for not allowing churches and synagagues. He was quick enough to apologize for America's bad behavior.  READ MORE   PLATITUDES AND NAIVETE: OBAMA'S CAIRO SPEECH by Robert Spencer   This is a transcript of President Obama's speech with glosses by Robert Spencer. In the main, the glosses point out factual errors, stuck like porcupine quills into a mass of gooey flattery. Whatever else one can say about it, it was an excellent piece of dhimmi writing, with patches where he scolds the Muslims. Is this the proper way for the President of the United States to act?  READ MORE   HOW OBAMA'S CAIRO SPEECH THREW ISRAEL UNDER THE BUS by Yid with Lid   In his Cairo speech, Obama made clear he has accepted the Arab narrative — i.e., he has bought into the Arabs view history. All events are tethered to their rock belief that Islam is on the rise and will soon take its rightful place as dominant group, to which all others ethnic and religious groups must pay homage. Any hinderance towards their dominance — such as the Jews avoiding extermination when the Arabs invaded their country in 1948, 1967 and 1972 — is regarded as a tragedy. In their view, the Jews "got" Arab Palestine because of the Holocaust. This ignores of course Judaism's ancient ties to Israel. It ignores that in modern times, the Arabs are in Israel because the Jewish aliyas beginning in the late 19th century created economic opportunities so the people from the neighboring areas flooded into what was to become Israel, including Samaria and Judea. As Winston Churchill pointed out, 95% of the Arabs in "Palestine" came after 1905. Recall they were not declared a people until 1964, when the world conveniently forgot there had never been a Palestinian State. There had been "Palestinians" when England was given control of mandated Palestine to help the Jews make a state. These Palestinians were otherwise called Jews.  READ MORE   A SELF-DESTRUCTIVE IRAN-PALESTINIAN LINKAGE by Yoram Ettinger   In no uncertain terms, Yoram Ettinger meticulously details that is wrong with linking the Arab-Israeli conflict with stopping Iran from producing a nuclear weapon. He points out that "[t]he attempt to link the battle against megalomaniac Iran and the resolution of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict is detached from Middle East reality. It plays into the hands of Iran, exacerbates Arab radicalism, undermines critical US national security interests and causes a setback to peace." It will have no impact on the quarrel between Sunnis and the Shites. Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Dubai and Oman will still "consider Iran a clear and present lethal threat." Nor will giving Judea and Samaria to the Palestinians "facilitate a broad anti-Iran coalition." The Arab countries have "shower[ed] Palestinians with rhetoric," not resources. In sum, "[t]he linkage concept creates an unwarranted US-Israel tension, thus adrenalizing the veins of Arab radicals and Palestinian terrorists, erodes Israel's posture of deterrence, pours cold water on the prospects of peace and adds fuel to the fire of terrorism, dealing a blow to vital US and Israeli interests."  READ MORE   ISRAEL BETRAYED by James Kirchick   Obama has suggested that key to peace in the Middle East and the friendship of hostile Muslims is to resolve the Arab-Israeli conflict. And the key to doing that, judging by his actions, is to put all the blame for a stalled peace process on Israel. One consequence of the American administration's war against Israel is that this message amplified by the media has resulted both in Israel's reduced popularity and in Jews being blamed for America's financial crisis. Another likely consequence is that an unchecked Iran might frighten its neighbors sufficiently to "set off a regional arms race, with Saudi Arabia and Egypt as the next likely proliferators. Yet the Obama administration does not seem to realize that stopping an Iranian nuclear bomb ought take precedence over the stalled 'peace process.'"  READ MORE   OBAMA THE ROOKIE by Mordechai Kedar   Mordechai Kedar points out that Barack Obama is as naive about the Middle East as Jimmy Carter, and is likely to do major damage to American interests, just as Carter did. Carter helped unleash the Iranian mullahs, and that lead to the present Iranian regime, with its nuclear ambitions. Obama believes he and the ayatollahs can reason together. He ignores that Iran "even before it has turned nuclear, quickly changes the face of the Middle East. Iran's long arms are already tightly grasping Lebanon, Iraq, and Gaza, and are also decisively and powerfully directed at other states such as Egypt, Morocco, Jordan, Oman, Bahrain, and Saudi Arabia." Were Israel to disappear, it would solve none of the Middle East's problems. Iran will still try to take over its neighbors, which could ignite a nuclear arms race. The Sunnis and Shi'ites will still battle it out. And the end result will be that thousands will die because of Obama's foolish notions, just as thousands died because of Carter's misapplication of his "humanitarian" ideals.  READ MORE   THE SETTLEMENTS While sympathy is more or less extended to the Po' Palestinians and their terrorism excused, everyone is sure that the villains, the obstacles to peace, are the settlers (a sneer is obligatory when you say settlers). The settlers are the Jews who returned to live in Samaria and Judea and eastern Jerusalem ever since the Jews fought off the Arab invasion in 1968. The settlements are their towns and villages and cities and trailer camps and compounds. Why are these patriotic Jews demonized? Perhaps because they can't be persuaded by Arab-aiding nonsense. They know that this land is Jewish: by God's will, by the Bible, by history, by devotion, by never completely leaving the land over the centuries, by international law that established an irrevocable trust for the Jewish people, and by conquest after fighting off the invading Arabs. With all the facts on Israel's side, how does one promote the claims of a non-people, the Palestinians? Simple. Demonize the "settlers". Then no one will complain when you steal Jewish land. This section is on the bravest of the brave: the settlers, Israel's staunch nationalists. They know it's their land and they plan to live there, despite the dangers and the hardships, during the times their government encourages them and during the times the government, at the bidding of foreigners, harasses them. ARE SETTLEMENTS ILLEGAL? by Jerold Auerbach   Like holding up a cross to ward off the devil, "Geneva Convention!" is heard whenever the legality of the Israeli settlements in Samaria and Judea is asserted. The settlements are supposedly against the Geneva Convention which declares that an "occupying Power shall not deport or transfer parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies." As Jerold Auerbach lucidly explains in this article, the Geneva Convention does not apply in this situation and the settlements are not only legal, they are protected as Jewish land by international law that is applicable and binding. If I have one quibble, it is that it should be made clear that the Zionist Max Nordau used homeland as a non-confrontational term for State. It did not mean that the Jews were to have only a portion of the Land for a State.  READ MORE   OBAMA, ISRAEL AND THE SETTLEMENTS by Sultan Knish   Another superb article by Sultan Knish dedemonizing the settlements and describing what they really are. In U.S.A. terms, they are towns and villages and cities that are suburbs of Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, many of which were inhabited by Jews for thousands of years. Given Israel's friendly neighbors, they are also early alert systems to monitor the local Arabs. As Sultan Knish writes, "What Obama really wants is for Israel to put its own center of government in shelling range from a terrorist group ensconced in its own capital. No rational person should need an explanation for why Netanyahu has said, no." Israelis — especially the patriotic settlers — have no intention of cooperating with the terrorists.  READ MORE   THE SETTLEMENTS MYTH by Charles Krauthammer   President Obama has applied his mantra of 'speak softly and carry no stick' everywhere except with America's only friend in the Middle East: Israel. There, he behaves like the medievel rulers in Europe who set absolute limits on how many Jews could live in a town, or even in the state. Obama, Charles Krauthammer writes, has ordered Israel to cease all ordinary population growth in the Territories — and this includes eastern Jerusalem. If a baby is born, Israel is forbidden to provide him with new shelter. This Obamian pharonic decree amounts to: thou shalt have NO new babies. As Krauthammer writes, "No 'natural growth' means strangling to death the thriving towns close to the 1949 armistice line, many of them suburbs of Jerusalem, that every negotiation over the past decade has envisioned Israel retaining." It also means that the Arabs will understand they need make no changes in their mission to destroy Israel. "Blaming Israel and picking a fight over 'natural growth' may curry favor with the Muslim 'street.' But it will only induce the Arab states to do like Abbas: sit and wait for America to deliver Israel on a platter. Which makes the Obama strategy not just dishonorable but self-defeating."  READ MORE   TEAR DOWN? NAW...NOW, MORE THAN EVER, IS THE TIME TO BUILD! by Arlene Peck   In her inimitable style, Arlene Peck reminds us that the Palestinians have used American money to bring in arms for terrorist attacks; they teach their children to hate Jews; they desire to annihilate the Jewish state. But what Prez Obama and Sec.of State Clinton consider as the major obstacles to peace are the Jewish settlements. Peck writes: "[what] All Israel should be listening to is the Bible and following Jewish history. All of Israel is entitled to 'natural growth.' Hey, if the love of Israel is racist, then call me one too, as I am definitely a Zionist and Zionist I shall remain!"  READ MORE   OUTPOSTS: RULE OF LAW, OR LAW WITHOUT RULES? by Moshe Dann   Thanks to the groundwork laid by Peace Now and others like them, descendants of Jewish settlers of European stetlach and Christian descendants of settlers of the Wild West are convinced that Israeli settlers of the Territories are in violation of the Law. The lowly outpost is perceived as particularly evil, perhaps because it is easier to demolish than Ariel, a settlement city of some 20,000. So the outpost — often a single trailer or two — has come to stand as a symbol of all Israeli building on supposedly Arab land. Moshe Dann points out that when the State shows bias to Jewish Israelis, "when government officials don't apply the law equitably, the authority of the state is undermined." His examination is particularly appropriate when one realizes that Arabs are taking over land and building illegally with enormous help from the European Union and without a murmur of disapproval from a cowed Israeli government.  READ MORE   WHY DO PEOPLE CONDEMN HINDU NATIONALISM? THE ANSWER MAY BE CONNECTED TO A DISDAIN FOR ZIONISM by Seth J. Frantzman   We are accustomed to essays that emphasize the importance of an Israeli and India connection based on their both being democracies surrounded by Moslem countries, many of them virulent. Then too, they both have bent over backwards — to the detriment of their majority population — to cater to the minorities. And in both cases, yielding land to appease the Moslems has failed. In this essay, Seth Frantzman makes a novel connection: both are by nature nationalist — Israel is the only Jewish country in the world; India is the only Hindu country in the world. And both are condemned as nationalist Muslim countries are not.  READ MORE     THE OTHER REFUGEES In an article in the Wall Street Journal, André Aciman, himself a Jew born in Egypt and one of the 800,000 Jews forced to flee the Arab countries, leaving behind their houses, factories, books, art and religious artefacts, said in reference to President Obama's Cairo speech, "... for him to speak in Cairo of a shared effort 'to find common ground ... and to respect the dignity of all human beings' without mentioning people in my position would be like his speaking to the residents of Berlin about the future of Germany and forgetting to mention a small detail called World War II." This set of essays focusses on two sets of Jews refugees in Israel: the Jews who fled from Arab countries, when the Arabs made it clear they planned their own Holocaust for the Jews because Israel was born. The other refugees are the Jews of Gush Katif, Gaza, patriotic and productive citizens of Israel, who were made refugees in their own land when they were thrown out of their homes and businesses by Government decree in 2005. They are slowly reconstructing their lives largely by their own initiative, because the Government had carefully planned how to expel them but had little in place after the expulsion. We keep up by posting essays by some of these refugees. THE MYTH OF THE MIZRAHIM by Lyn Julius   "Six hundred thousand Jews flooded into the struggling Jewish state in the 1950s: penniless Jewish refugees housed in leaky tents with insufficient food." They were Sephardic Jews, forced to flee Arab countries, where some of them had lived well before the Arabs came into the area. Lyn Julius brings us up to date on the integration of Ashkenazi and Mizrahi in Israel — intermarriage is running at 25%. Thousands are using their knowledge of Arabic by working in Israeli media and universities, But they retain memories of their unhappy history: "the oppression of the Jews by Arabs" over the centuries followwed by the "the destruction of their ancient, pre-Islamic communities" when they were expelled.  READ MORE   THE JEWISH NAKBA: EXPULSIONS, MASSACRES AND FORCED CONVERSIONS by Ben-Dror Yemini   Everyone knows about the Arab refugees, victims of the Arab-Israeli war in 1948. Few know about the Jewish refugees, a much greater number, who fled the Arab states in realistic fear of their lives as Israel became a state. They left behind large amounts of real estate and personal property. Ben-Dror Yemini details how "...the massacres, the pogroms and the great expulsion of the Jews was a continuation of their suffering under Muslim rule." Contrary to the rosy picture painted of Muslim and Jewish amity through the ages, from Mohammad's time, the Jews were second-class citizens, dhimmis who were expected to show they understood they were inferior to the Muslim. Included as an addendum is a precis of Yemini's 2-part article on (1) Arab genocidal attacks on Arabs and other Muslims compared to Jewish killing of Arabs and other Muslims and (2) the number of refugees and population transfer this past century globally.  READ MORE   BRENDEL; MISERY HATES COMPANY by Moshe Saperstein   Moshe Saperstein comes out with more astute political observations as asides than most political observers can manage in endless columns. He is right on target when he describes the self-hating destructive Israeli intellectual who provides the justification to hate and destroy Israel for the less verbally talented. And the cats are back. Saperstein includes a tale he wrote in 1974, when he was still in Rehab, learning to live with one arm. He has a chance to go to a concert that he knows he will enjoy, but he isn't quite up to a large crowd of strangers. He decides to go. The evening turns into a nightmare — but Moshe's description of his misery is magnificant.  READ MORE   PALESTINIANS AND PALESTINE We are reassured that the PA state is a dazzling solution that needs no examination. Create it and as sure as the day follows the night, peace will come. We owe it to this suffering people, who have lived under Jewish rule for nigh onto 60 years. Yet if one examines factually who the Palestinians are and the (non)history of Palestine, it is surprising that so many people have been persuaded that there ever was a Palestine and that Israel is occupying Palestinian land. But the Arabs, using a simple, compelling message, the image of suffering Arab refugees, lots of money, a supportive media and the fertile soil of anti-Semitism have done an excellent job of creating a worldwide urgency to help the po' Palestinian regain his homeland. So, while the foundation for creating another Arab state is non-existent, the demand is real. This section examines who the Palestinians are and what their "homeland" is. THE ARABS IN THE HOLY LAND — NATIVES OR ALIENS? by Dr. Harry Mandelbaum   This is a much-amplified version of an essay first posted in March 2003. Using information from various sources, many of them Arab, this essay makes clear that the Palestinians are not native to Palestine. They are not an ancient people. They are not a people. Advertised as the original natives of a (never-existant) state of Palestine, they are the most successful scam the Arabs have ever run in their obsession to destroy Israel.  READ MORE   THE MYTH OF "OCCUPIED" TERRITORIES by Boris Shusteff   Boycotters and all those who sympathize with the po' Palestinians because Israel is "occupying" Palestine should read this essay by Boris Shusteff. In simple terms, he makes clear that the Land of Israel belongs to the Jews. It never was Palestine because there never was a Palestine. And lest you are about to say that it doesn't matter what the area was called, this was the ancient home of the natives now called Palestinians, don't. The vast majority of them — or their (grand)fathers and (grand)mothers — never entered into Israel or the Territories until the 20th century. The League of Nations "gave" the Jews the part of the Ottoman empire that encompassed ancient Israel, just as they "gave" the different Arab States all the rest of the part of the Ottoman Empire that we call the Middle East.  READ MORE   JEW-HATRED OR STUPIDITY OR BOTH? by Professor Paul Eidelberg   This essay by Paul Eidelberg is a gem. Written in crib-sheet style, it says it all. The Arabs don't want a separate state. Even if they did, it is geostrategically impossible — it would dissolve into a dozen rival clans reinstating their murderous medieval culture. Whatever keeps the idea of a Palestinian state going? Is it plain stupidity or a generalized disease called Jew hate?  READ MORE   PEACE COMPLETE WITH TERROR Have we forgotten that the "Peace Partners" are a group of terrorists, proud of what they do, who teach their children to hate Jews (and Christians and Buddhists and Hindus and all Westerners) and expect with good reason that their children will carry on their tradition when they themselves explode into Paradise. THE THREE TYPES OF JIHADISTS by Ryan Mauro   As the title indicates, Ryan Mauro distinguishes between three kinds of jihadist, differing in style and technique and area of operation. But their goals are the same. Mauro suggest that the Al-Qaeda model is the most flamboyant and best known. It advocates global jihad, but it is probably the least of a threat. The second group focuses on local jihad rather than world-wide terror — Hamas, Fatah, Hezbollah are examples. The third type, such as the Muslim Brotherhood, "favors cultural jihad, infiltrating and hijacking institutions, and bringing about Sharia law and Islamization from the bottom up and inside out." The Muslim Brotherhood's methods are more insidious and less flamboyant, but that doesn't make them moderates, even if that's how they like to present themselves.  READ MORE   FORGOTTEN COVENANTS by Alex Rose   Western Middle East "experts" urge us to start "dialoguing" with Hamas. With more boldness than brains, such political luminaries as Jimmy Carter, Paul Volker and Brent Scowcroft urge that we recognize Hamas. More circumspectly, the Obama administration flipflops on identifying Hamas as a terror group. At stake is whether Hamas will openly acquire the windfall money the USA is giving the Palestinian arabs. Hamas has acted as the spoiler, refusing to recognize Israel as legitimate, while offering a truce with a 10-year expiration date, providing that Israel first settles the millions of Arabs who claim descent from the original 420,000 Arab refugees. The PLO appears to be more accomodating to Western views, but basically it is just as vicious as Hamas. In this essay, Alex Rose reviews two fundamental Palestinian documents: the charters of Hamas and the PLO. Hamas's Charter, which says that its mission is to eradicate Israel, is phrased as a religious compulsion, and hence can not be revoked. The PLO charter is a political document, which has often been said to have been revoked — but never has. Both make clear that the Palestinian arabs regard the destruction of Israel as their mission, and they continue to steadfastly affirm this intent both in word and deed. This will not change, no matter how much the West denies reality or trivializes their core value.  READ MORE   HAMAS: THE TERROR ELITE by Steven Plaut   Steven Plaut puts Hamas in perspective with his opening sentence, "It is one of the oddities of the global war on terrorism that while al-Qaeda is almost universally condemned, its Sunni terrorist counterparts in Hamas continue to attract a devoted following." An offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood, Hamas controls Gaza and treats its residents as brutally as does Fatah in Samaria and Judea. Both are dedicated to destroying Israel. This is a valuable reference work.  READ MORE   LAWRENCE OF PALESTINE by Marc Prowisor   Back in 1995, the Palestinian Authority (PA) already had 4 times the number of policemen per 1000 residents as did Israel. The PA no longer is in Gaza. Yet, as we write, Americans are engaged in training Fatah personal to shoot better and attack more efficiently. And we are doing this at our own expense. Marc Prowisor raises a point few seem to think about. They are to be used, it is said, in the forthcoming PA state. "The simple fact is," says Prowisor, "that this force is charged at keeping Abbas in power." Such is America's plan. But is it realistic in the unstable Palestinian environment? A few questions? Who will run the planned State when things shake down? Fatah terrorists or Hamas terrorists, especially when the people favor Hamas? Or a still-hungry splinter group, beholden to Iran or to establishing a Caliphate or just out to feed their own Swiss bank accounts. Who will these "police" be law-and-ordering? The local Arabs? Rival gangs? Hamas? Israel? Westerns? Are we creating the next generation's Osama bin Ladins? Perhaps the only saving grace: if they continue to perform as they have been — a 10-hour standoff by 3,000 PA troops against a handful of Hamas fighter and the suspicion is that it was the American trainers that finally knocked off the Hamas (May 31, 2009) — then in the words of Carl of Jerusalem, they will be more of a farce than a force. More likely, they will revert to type and kill Jews however they can.  READ MORE   NEGOTIATING WITH TERRORISTS by Andrew C. McCarthy   Andrew McCarthy writes about how America is dealing with Iran, a major threat to the stability of the entire Middle East. By saying nothing to help the election protesters, President Obama is throwing away "the best chance in 30 years of dislodging an implacable American enemy." Even worse, ignoring a longstanding policy of not exchanging prisoners for hostages, "Obama is neck-deep in terrorist-for-hostages negotiations with Iran-backed killers who have American blood on their hands." These terrorist prisoners had brutally murdered five American soldiers in 2007. "Where," McCarthy asks, "where is Congress?" Where are the media?  READ MORE   THE JEW, AS SEEN IN ISLAMIC RELIGIOUS LITERATURE by Harold B. Reisman   It is possible that Barack Hussein Obama is an accurate interpreter of Islamic thought. He did attend Muslim (religious) school during his childhood. But I suspect Harold Reisman has compiled a more accurate picture of how Islam sees the Jew as revealed by Muslim clerics and mullahs and the bedrock of the Muslim belief system — the Koran.  READ MORE   A RECESSION IN TERRORISM FINANCE? by Rachel Ehrenfeld   Saudi income has decreased because of the downturn of the global economies, but, as Rachel Ehrenfeld notes wryly, the present crises has provided the Saudis "with an opportunity to practice da'wa (Islamic missionary outreach) through donations in the name of Islam. Such donations, including financial bailouts of cash-strapped Western institutions and businesses, have helped directly and indirectly to spread Islamism globally." Hamas is a major benefiary. Terrorist groups also benefitted from drug trafficking, smuggling, and other criminal activities. The financial crises has eased the way for more reliance on sharia'a banking — its available cash making it particularly attractive these days. Ehrenfeld points out that Sharia'a banking can easily launder terrorists' criminal gains and transfer them to the terrorists.  READ MORE   THE PROBLEMS WITH ANOTHER PALESTINIAN STATE CREATED BY CARVING UP ISRAEL AND ITS UNILATERAL WITHDRAWAL In previous issues, we considered the impact on Israel of giving up Samaria and Judea. It would need to take in some 300,000 to 600,000 Jews, made homeless and dependent on a State that has not been able in 4 years to settle the 10,000 Jews it expelled from Gaza. It would allow another State to sit on a major aquifer, knowing how the Arabs destroyed the Gaza aquifer when they were given it to control. It would see more of the Jewish Holy Places treated like Joseph's Tomb — the Arabs promised to care for it but vandalized it, ripped up Torah scrolls, and decorated it with feces and graffiti. Here we ask, if it weren't the Jews who were being pressured, would the world be pushing for a Palestinian state? Are they ready for statehood? What are the benchmarks for readiness? ISRAEL'S STRATEGY OF UNILATERAL WITHDRAWAL by Shmuel Even   This essay by Shmuel Even — based on the analysis of Israel's actual previous experience with unilateral withdrawal and their outcomes — puts to rest the excuses and rationalizations for unilateral withdrawal from the Territories. The thinking now is that any evacuation would need to be on "the basis of a stable agreement." That would clearly preclude giving up land to a non-functional group like the Fatah run by an ineffective leader who has no power to lead. Giving it up directly or indirectly to Hamas is a non-starter.  READ MORE   SO WHAT'S YOUR SOLUTION? by Moshe Arens   Moshe Arens examines the two-state solution by setting down some reasonable axioms that should underlie any reasonable way of implementing a two-state solution. But before any plan can be pursued with any hope of success, there is a necessary precondition: an end to Palestinian Arab terrorism. It can not be bypassed.  READ MORE   PALESTINIAN ARABS READINESS FOR STATEHOOD: FOLLOW THE EU BENCHMARK by Eli E. Hertz   The surge is on for Palestinian statehood, despite the facts that the Palestinian arabs have since Oslo become adept at creating terror and havoc, not the tools of government. Even though there is no peaceful and legitimate "Peace Partner" in the lot, Israel is pressured to sign on to creating a Palestinian state with unseemly haste. Eli Hertz makes an excellent suggestion. Let's slow down and pace ourselves, testing the degree of progress the arabs make toward peaceful coexistence and self-government according to the set of benchmarks the Europeans are using before they accept Turkey into the European Union (EU). No timeframe. No foregone conclusion. To qualify for membership in the EU, "the candidate country must have achieved stability of institutions guaranteeing democracy, rule of law, human rights, and respect for and protection of minorities." And that's just the first step. Moreover, this pattern must be convincingly stable and sufficiently long-term to insure the candidate has internalized these important principles. Given the example how the arabs behaved when they gained full control of Gaza, "the yardsticks of judging readiness should be at least equal, if not more stringent for Palestinians."  READ MORE   LAND FOR PEACE, AMERICAN STYLE by Rob Miller   Rob Miller has written a parody of what America is urging on Israel. In this version, America has given California, Texas, New Mexico and Arizona, to the Aztlan organization. Still to be done: the freeing of the Aztlan prisoners and ceding historic US sites such as the Grand Canyon, the Alamo and Yosemite. Of course, other groups are waiting in the wings with further demands. This is a parody, not a fantasy; there really are groups seriously advocating splitting up the U.S.A and returning the land to Mexico. Groups such as MEChA, the Brown Berets of Aztlan and La Raza and others are growing and attracting new members. Judge Sonia Sotomayor is — or was until recently — on the National Council of La Raza.  READ MORE   SOLVING THE PALESTINIAN PROBLEM The first essays in this set encourage Israel to take hold of its own destiny. The others suggest transferring the Arab refugees to Jordon or distributing them among the Arab countries in the region. LAMENT IN OSLO by Elena Bonner   Elena Bonner, wife of Andre Sakhorov, both strong advocates of human rights, is an amazing woman, with an indomitable spirit, and, a reader put it, "a clearly articulated moral clarity." She and Sakhorov have insisted on Israel's "right to existence within safe borders." She asks why human rights advocates actively protest the treatment of the Guatanamo prisoners, but are unconcerned about Gilad Schalit. She quotes Sakhorov saying "All wars that Israel has waged have been just, forced upon it by the irresponsibility of Arab leaders"; "With all the money that has been invested in the problem of Palestinians, it would have been possible long ago to resettle them and provide them with good lives in Arab countries." As one reader remarked, "How eloquent she remains, and her end quote should be clipped and posted by all who care about the world retaining its essential proclivity toward decency, respect for Life and Freedoms. Both she and her husband were — are — beacons of light and courage for freedoms of conscience. They belong to the rare breed who retain their human dignity regardless of circumstances and through their actions and words dignify the Human Race."  READ MORE   DRIVING OUR OWN DESTINY by Howard Teich   Like an unhealthy ghost that won't stop flapping, the "peace process" is back. Its backers, perhaps suffering from the affliction so many politicians have — a loss of long-term memory — again see negotiation for a 2-state solution as the magic nutrient for force feeding peace to a reluctant Israel. That Oslo and giving away Hebron as well as the aquifer in Gaza — and indeed, all of Gaza — almost killed the patient is ignored. Pressure is again applied and Israel's choking gasps are taken as signs that the treatment must be working. It isn't. The "peace" treatment is the problem. Howard Teich suggests we ignore Obama's rhetoric — it won't be his children who suffer and die if he is wrong. "[I]t's time, he states, "for American Jewish leaders to take their heads out of the sand and forcefully and loudly support a strong and effective future for Israel on its own terms." It's time for Jews to put aside fashionable ideologies and commit to their own survival.  READ MORE   THE BLIND ISRAEL by Ari Bussel   Ari Bussel makes the point that Obama's America no longer sees Israel as an asset. "Moreover, we [Israelis] have blundered in our pursuit of 'peace' to completely misinterpret what peace means to our enemies." Meantime, the enemy grows louder and more confident — "The intention is to bring the final harm to the patient, all in the name of some convoluted, 'all merciful and benevolent moon god.'" To stop further damage to the Jewish state, Bussel insists "[i]t is time for Israel to disengage from all the rhetoric, act and assign a steep cost for failure to comply. Jerusalem is as divisible as Israel itself — remove a vital organ, be it the liver, the heart or the brain, will the body continue to exist?" But just reacting to hostility is insufficient. Israel must act boldly to save itself. It can not continue to rely on Arab outright expressions of hate and hostility to deter Israel's "friends" from chopping it up immediately.  READ MORE   A TWO STATE SOLUTION — ON BOTH SIDES OF THE RIVER JORDAN by Victor Sharpe   In this essay Victor Sharpe reviews the history of how the small piece of land intended as a Jewish state was twice reduced in size. Now, the shouting is for a third cut that would remove Biblical Israel from the Jewish state. This so-called 2-state solution is not a recipe for peace. Sharpe suggests that Jordan, which is already a Palestinian state — it is in Mandated Palestine and the majority of its population considers themselves Palestinian — become the homeland of those who call themselves Palestinian.  READ MORE   THE SUN ORBITS THE PALESTINIAN STATE by Arieh Eldad   Dr Arieh Eldad states very clearly that there can only be one state on the land of Israel: either the only Jewish state on earth or yet another Arab state. Two-states won't work, even with the proviso that the Arab state be demilitarized because there'd be no way to control the Palestinians readying for more war any more than the West could stop Germany, demilitarized after WW1, from preparing for war. The reality is that "Moslems are enjoined from recognizing rule by heretics — Jews or Christians" — in what is Israel. He recommends settling the arab refugees in Jordan, which is already largely filled with Palestinians. This won't solve what is fundamentally a religious conflict, but it is a humanitarian thing to do and perhaps the Palestinians can over time be weaned away from teaching hatred and terror.  READ MORE   A MULTI-STATE SOLUTION: AN ALTERNATIVE TO FAILURE by Moshe Dann   In Part I, Moshe Dann examines the "occupation of the Territories, land associated with Judaism from Biblical times on". In Part II, he points out that given Palestinian Arab culture, religion and what they consider acceptable behavior, imposing an Arab state on Israel is doomed to failure, no matter how hard Israel works to make it a success. "An alternative involves freedom from the obsession of Palestinian statehood and sovereignty. A new regional approach to resolving the conflict anchors national identity and political rights in already existing Arab, Muslim states. This would ensure a humanitarian solution to the 'Palestinian problem.'"  READ MORE     HOW ISLAM IS IMPACTING THE USA THE "ETHICS" OF OFF-SHORING OUR COLLEGES OVERSEAS: Sovereign Wealth Funds, And The Lessons Of Shariah-Compliant Investments by Marion DS Dreyfus   In the educational field, outsourcing — bringing the teacher to the foreign student — seem a reasonable way to make money especially during this period where so many areas suffer from financial meltdown. Marion Dreyfus points out some of the problems of assuming the generality of our ways of interacting when the locale is the Middle East, which has with different rules and gender bias. She provides us with examples where the disparity between normal-for-us behavior and what is tolerated in the host country was almost fatal to the teachers. More pernicious is the constant censorship by sharia "scholars", who hamper "meaningful intellectual inquiry." To go along with these restrictions ultimately will compromise our own educational standards. She also raises the problem of the impact of the far-left professor, who is assumed to be a voice for American values.  READ MORE   THE MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD IN AMERICA Jamie Glazov interviews Dave Gaubatz   The Muslim Brotherhood has invested a great deal of effort and money to convince us they are centrist, moderate and reasonable. Jamie Glazov interviewed Dave Gaubatz who discusses how their material promoting Islamic terrorism is widely distributed to mosques. A Brotherhood manual "is very specific on how the youth are to become martyrs through physical Jihad in order to meet the objectives of the Muslim Brotherhood, specifically how to implement an Islamic Ummah (Nation) under Sharia Law worldwide." Far from being moderate, the Brotherhood teachings are violent and anti-American, encouraging "lone Muslims to carry out single and seemingly isolated murders across America which will seldom make the headlines of any news organization."  READ MORE   PERILOUS EUPHEMISMS by Susanne M. Reyto   In the previous issue, Daniel Pipes discussed the difficulty the West was having in deciding what to call the Muslims that declared war against it. The terms acceptable to Governmental agencies seem deliberately neutered and imprecise. In this essay, Susanne M. Reyto expands on the significance of downgrading terminology and thereby destroying meaning. As she points out: "Language is critical. It shapes our thinking and determines our action. The enemy's perilous intensions cannot be blurred. If we do not name them, we cannot confront them."  READ MORE     ISLAM IN EUROPE Islam accomodation in Europe has reached the point where not just individuals but entire countries have adopted a dhimmi attitude, even if they themselves see their accomodation to Islam as just being reasonable, just being fairminded, just avoiding trouble... In Mark Steyn's words, "Long before Muslims are a statistical majority, there will be three permanent members of the Security Council — Britain, France, Russia — for whom the accommodation of Islam is a domestic political imperative." A DHIMMI, JOANIE DE RIJKE, EXHIBITS PRE-CAPTIVITY STOCKHOLM SYNDROME by Thomas Landen   This article by Thomas Landen describes the circumstances surrounding the capture and ransom of a Dutch journalist. It is of interest in its own right. It also illustrates the mind set of the upper class Western dhimmis. They are politically correct, forgiving to those who put them in danger and treat them like toilet paper. They vent their anger at those who see Islamism as a growing danger to the host country.  READ MORE   ISRAEL TODAY, THE WEST TOMORROW by Mark Steyn   As Europe becomes more accomodating to Muslim whims, wants, needs, preferences and demands, anti-Semitism increases and is manifested in physical violence while European nationalism and national icons are devaluated. Condemning Jews and Israel as the reason for Muslim emnity will not save Europe. As Mark Steyn writes, "It may be some consolation to an ever-lonelier Israel that, in one of history's bleaker jests, in the coming Europe the Europeans will be the new Jews."  READ MORE   WHY MUSLIMS LIKE HITLER, BUT NOT MOZART by Fjordman   We could argue minutiae of religious differences between the West and Islam forever without ever seeing the enormous gap between us. We could ecumenically ignore differences and accentuate our religious communality with Islam — we are all monotheists — and still never see what separates us. Because it isn't just a religious difference. It is a difference in big things and small: how we expect other people to behave and why our musical tastes differ. In this essay, Fjordman explores why Islam doesn't take kindly to Western music. It isn't because our music is forbidden in the Koran. It is because the Koran fostered a mindset that is unresponsive to it.  READ MORE   ISLAMIZATION OF EUROPE AND POLICIES TO PREVENT IT, PART 11 by No Sharia   No Sharia is the nom de plume of an ex-Muslim living in Europe. To date, in a series of articles, he has been evolving a detailed plan to fight Sharia in Europe. Usually moderate applied to the muslim is a binary term — the muslim is regarded either as a moderate or an extremist. This latest essay is particularly important for formulating policy in that it grades moderate muslim by degree of adherence to the traditional interpretation of Islamic doctrine, thus helping to predict how the various categories of "moderate" will behave in the host country. It is the beginning of his treatment of national identitites and cultures.  READ MORE     JEW HATE These are some sources. Jew hate is propagated by the media, by academics and by Marxist Jews. NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC STOOPS TO JEW-HATE by Mike Finch   Mike Finch documents National Geographic (NG) joining the "It's all the fault of the Jooz" club, no matter what it is. Their latest issue featured a story on the Christians leaving the Middle East, and if NG is to be believed, it is mostly Israel's fault. Oh sure, regional violence and bad economic conditions contribute a tad, BUT, using a Palestinian Christian family living in the outskirts of Jerusalem as example, the main problem is the "horrible life they are forced to live. Israeli law, checkpoints, the 'Wall', permit papers, have made their life unbearable." It's just too too claustrophic. In Lebanon, "[t]he fall of the Lebanese Christians has nothing to do with Syria and Iran and their proxy, Hezbollah..." No, siree, it was the Jooz. And in Syria, the NG is about as informative as the State Department, which wrote that "Christians are influential in the cities, professions, politics and the armed forces, but their percentage of the population is shrinking due to a high rate of emigration to the Americas and Africa." (State Dept Religious Freedom Report, 2007). The State Department doesn't tell us why such a successful group is leaving the country, although it does mention that the government watches meetings held by religious groups and monitors sermons. I can't wait for NG to do another number on Israel, showing how they are responsible for the miserable lives the Egyptian Copts lead.  READ MORE   PREJUDICE AND DEMONIZATION IN THE SWEDISH MIDDLE EAST DEBATE DURING THE 2006 LEBANON WAR by Mathan Ravid   In the July-August 2007 Issue, talking of his experiences as Israeli ambassador to Sweden from 2004-2004, Zvi Mazel concludes that "Sweden remains the most anti-Israeli country in the European Union and also the most pro-Muslim one." In this issue, Mathan Ravid examines in detail how Swedish newspapers reported the second Lebanese War. It appears that, despite the degree to which Sweden has been taken over by Sharia law, or perhaps because Sweden has been taken over by Sharia law, Sweden's nasty attitude towards Israel has not improved. Ravid analyzes the subtle differences in how Swedish newspapers expressed their hostility to the Jewish State.  READ MORE   ISLAMIC SPEAKERS BUREAU BACKED BY RADICAL PROFS by Jonathan Schanzer   The California-based Islamic Networks Group (ING) "dedicated to 'teaching about Islam & Muslims' at U.S. high schools and college campuses features a board of advisors that is stacked with some of the most controversial activist professors in the field of Middle Eastern studies today." As Jonathan Schanzer points out, "The imprimatur of these scholars may signal a troubling shift toward the support of [Islamic] proselytizing efforts and the further unraveling of Middle East Studies in America." ING makes classroom visits — at no cost to the host — and distributes written material for grade schoolers. ING's professors are not objective; they are apologists and proselytizers for Islam. Let the listerners beware.  READ MORE   CLARITY FOR THE DENIERS by Michael Gerson   Holocaust denial isn't just a bizarre aberration — totally illogical in light of the open and available facts available in the newspapers of the time, the recollections of the survivors even today, and, perhaps just as important, the proof of non-existence of relatives and friends who had never left the Old Country. It is most heard today from the mouths of those who hate Jews enough to hope for, and in many cases actively work towards, a second Holocaust. To them, Israel's statehood rests on the "lie" of the Holocaust. When they deny the Holocaust, they simultaneously deny the legitimacy of Israel's statehood. As Michael Gerson notes, President Obama made one incisive point in his flawed and foggy Cairo speech: Holocaust denial was baseless, ignorant and hateful. He didn't, however, seem to recognize that the deep anger which accompanies Holocaust denial in the Arab world may be resistant to his brand of diplomacy. As Gerson puts it, "Perhaps some don't merely wish to deny the Holocaust but to finish it."  READ MORE   THE "FACTS-DON'T-MATTER" CAMP by Petra Marquardt-Bigman   This is a portrayal of the Jewish anti-Jew, the intellectual who can float above the facts, consistently and constantly blaming Israel no matter what the details, and become indignant when he is accused of being anti-Israel. Specifically, Petra Marquardt-Bigman writes about the antics of Antony Lerman, who is certain that "whatever the Palestinians do is legitimate resistance against a cruel and inhuman occupation." Whatever happens is Israel's fault. As Marquardt-Bigman observes: what interests intellectuals like Lerman are not the boring facts but the (s)weeping drama of victim turned victimizer. Unfortunately Lerman is not a rarity. As watchdog groups such as the Israel Academia Monitor have demonstrated, there exists a large group of intellectuals and academics who have strong anti-Zionist convictions firmly planted in fantasy.  READ MORE   FROM AMOS ELON TO URI AVNERY: ODYSSEY OF SELF-HATE by Seth J. Frantzman   Seth Frantzman writes about the intellectual leftist Israeli elite, which by now has produced four generations of elitists, who actively work at destroying the Jewish state. Most of them or their parents were born in Europe and are wealthy, They "spend their lives supporting the terrorism that murders the poor among them. They seek to colonize Israel with European and foreign ideas." It is ironic that coming to Israel from countries with non-Jewish majorities, they now work to transform Israel into a state without a Jewish majority. They hate the Jews from Arab countries, who they consider useful only as grunt labor to be dumped in development towns, but they love the Bedouin and elite Muslims, imitating their 'exotic' style of furnishing, architecture and music. The symptoms are observable; the reason for their hate of Israel is puzzling. And troubling.  READ MORE     HISTORY Going counter to their Mandate, England cut off the free immigration of European Jews in the mid 1930s. Jabotinsky's son helped smuggle them in until World War 2 began. In 1948, the Arab states immediately invaded the brand new state of Israel. Egypt conquered Gaza and held it to 1968. Playing local politics, Ben-Gurion had a ship bringing arms to Israel destroyed. ERI JABOTINSKY'S RACE AGAINST DEATH by Rafael Medoff   Eri Jabotinsky was a Betar leader, Irgun activist and son of Vladimir Ze'ev Jabotinsky, the founder of Revisionist Zionism. In 1937, the Irgun sucessfully smuggled Jews from Europe to Palestine. To appease the Arab leaders, England had started denying Jews the right to immigrate to Palestine, despite the fact that England was given the Mandate to Palestine to help Jews settle there in anticipation of developing the Jewish state. It was the start of an operation that, as Rafael Medoff tells us, "would bring tens of thousands of Jews to safety during 1938-1940, just as the Nazi inferno was starting to engulf Europe." Altogether, some 20,000 were saved during this period. During the War, Jabotinsky's efforts to save Jews were thwarted by the Nazis, the British and even American "mainstream Jewish leaders, who were reluctant to anger America's ally Great Britain." The more things change ...  READ MORE   WHEN EGYPT WAS IN GAZA by Eliezer Whartman   Eliazer Whartman was eye witness to how Egypt governed the Gaza Strip, when it was under Egyptian control, from the first Arab invasion of Israel in 1948 up to the second Arab invasion of Israel in 1967. Conditions for the local Arabs were brutal; they were impressed into the Egyptian army, unemployment was high, education consisted mostly of indoctrinating hate of Israel, and the refugees were forcibly kept in vile condition "as an open sore, as a weapon against Israel." Interestingly enough, it was only when Israel captured the territory in 1967 and started providing the local Arabs with medical care, jobs and real education that the Arabs began complaining and demanding autonomy.  READ MORE   A BURNING SHIP ON JERUSALEM BEACH by Meir Zamir   When Israel became a state May 14, 1948, it did not have a unified military; it had several volunteer armies that differed in politics and how much they would compromise on Jerusalem. On June 22, 1948, five weeks after the Arab invasion of the new state of Israel, while the several Israeli armies were still in the process of integrating, the acting Prime Minister, David Ben-Gurion, ordered Colonel Yitzhak Rabin and his Palmach troops to fire at the Altalena, anchored off the beach in Tel-Aviv. The ship was carrying 940 passengers and an assortment of arms from the French to the Irgun, led by Menachem Begin, Ben-Gurion's political rival. In this essay, Meir Zamir focuses on the shadow war between England and France to control Jerusalem and how that impacted on the actions of the Israeli political rivals.  READ MORE   READERS' BLOG-EDS   This is where our readers get a chance to write opinions and editorials and share articles they find informative. The Blog-Eds page for the month is updated every few days. A Blog-Ed page has a quick list of the articles from which you can access any of the articles immediately. To go to the list, click the "Blog-Eds List" box in the Blue Strip on the top of the Blog-Ed page. May 2009 BLOG-EDS    READ MORE June 2009 BLOG-EDS    READ MORE

March-April, 2009 What we are talking about in the March-April 2009 issue: EDITORIAL: A THIRD WAY THE PEACE PROCESS, 2-STATE SOLUTION AND ISRAEL'S IRREVOCABLE RIGHT TO THE LAND (Sultan Knish, Belman, Grief, Beres, Sharpe, Singer, Kedar, Beres) ISRAELI PROBLEMS (Faitelson, Frantzman, Sapersteins, Sugarman, Thornton, Sherman, Berlyn) CHARACTER STUDIES OF MUSLIMS (Phares, Zubry, Rubin, Erlich, Hamid) SHARI'A IS GAINING GROUND GLOBALLY (Plaut, Gaffney, Samson, Guitta, Bawer, Bensman, Rubin, Ibrahim, Pipes, Scruton) USEFUL IDIOTS, FELLOW TRAVELLORS (Barron, Honest Reporting, Doron, Mossad, Eidelberg, Williams, Rabinowitz and Mayer, Frantzman) HISTORY SECTION (Kramer, Zamir, Grobman) BLOG-ED PAGES (March, April)

EDITORIAL: A THIRD WAY For years there has been a strong though unexamined belief that the Arab refugees who came to be called Palestinians could not live anywhere except in Palestine. And not even in all of Mandated Palestine, which includes the hefty chunk the Brits "gave" to the Jordanian Hashimite King. (Please don't tell me 80% of the Jordanians are "Palestinian." It isn't part of the mythology.) No, they can only live as a people in the small part called Israel. Like the rare orchid that can only be pollinated by a particular type of bee or the snaildarter fish that can only live in the Paint Rock River in East Tennessee, the Po' Palestinians are kept in refugee camps in several Arab countries — fed, educated and medicated as charity cases — because UNRWA, their U.N. nanny, asserts they could only take root in their homeland, now called Israel. Total bullshit, of course. Every other refugee group this century has been resettled and within a few years is well into starting a new life. This group was not allowed to do so. They were sequestered into camps and exploited as victims of Israel. Supposedly Israel was occupying their land — and that includes the state of Israel. With the help of a sympathetic media they have sold this belief to the world. To make this work, the actual facts were ignored. Here's one: 95% of them and/or their daddies never came into Palestine until after 1900. Their ranks were swollen by Arabs living near the refugee camps whose standard of living took a big step upward when they declared that they too were refugees. But for many people, especially Bumstead Westerners, it was a Fact that the Palestinian could only thrive in his Homeland and this fact was the foundation of the demand that all the Palestinian refugees, now swollen from a few hundred thousand to several million, must be allowed to live in Israel. The fact that the Palestinian is not different than the generic Arab in language, religion, taste in food, or social mores hasn't discomforted the Arab and U.N. propagandists. In fact, it is part of the argument that it is important that they be returned to Israel. The tautology is: they are in the refugee camps because they can only live real lives in Israel. It is proof that Israel is their only habitat, because in no other way are they different from other Arabs. Because they are never examined simultaneously, the single-niche habitable environment "fact" lives comfortably next to some real facts that are totally incompatible. According to their own story, the Arab refugee and the others who call themselves Palestinian are kith and kin. So the same rules of appropriate environment apply to them — that is, they, too, can only take root in Israel. But except for the display Arabs languishing in the camps, it seems Palestinian arabs can make good lives for themselves elsewhere. Some of this made the news quite accidently. When Kuwait was liberated in the Gulf War, the Kuwaitis kicked out some 400,000 Palestinians, who had been working in Kuwait and had sided with the invader, Saddam Hussain, to make the Kuwaitis lives miserable. We learned the surprising fact that they constituted some 40% of the people living in Kuwait, owned many of the businesses and had been living there comfortably for well over a decade . When Jordan took in Arafat and his people years before the Gulf War, they busily began shooting at neighboring Israel, acting as a quasi-government in the areas where they lived, and plotting King Hussein's overthrow. He killed some 10,000 of them to retain his monarchy, and no one thought less of him for doing so. They massacred Christians during Lebanon's civil war, and set up a state within a state — they collected 'taxes' and 'protected' businesses; they left garbage collection to others. Where ever they go in bulk, they become violent and thuggish when the opportunity arises. But the point we are making here is that they can live and thrive outside of Israel. Other facts have begun filtering out. When the Gazans broke through the barriers to Egypt, many tried to escape and make their way into Egypt. Polls made it clear to those who would hear that a very large number of Palestinians were eager to leave and go live elsewhere. Any elsewhere. Palestinian Arabs have taken available money and happily took off for Europe and America.   OVER THE YEARS, THOSE WHO CONTROL THE DOMAIN OF ARGUMENT asserted that it was an either-or. Either there would be a single state of Israel that was no longer Jewish. Or there would be two states, one Jewish which — thanks to the Jewish State's medical and welfare benefits — contained a burgeoning Arab minority. The other state (or statelets) — that was next to, inside of, cutting through and wedged against Israel — would be totally Arab, with no Jews allowed. Even so, more and more people began to wonder why apartheid Jordan couldn't be declared as the Palestinian state — the local Arabs (AKA "Palestinians") were already some 70-80% of the population. Or, considering that the Arabs owned 99.9% of the Middle East, why destroy the single Jewish state that contributes so mightily to advancement in medicine, science and technology, when there's enormous amounts of land where the Palestinians could be relocated? And these thoughts came out, whenever the subject of a Onesie or a Twosie state came up, as shown by unrestricted readers comments to articles in the Jerusalem Post, and even in Haaretz. The Inquiring Mind wanted to know: Why couldn't the Palestinians be transferred to land owned by their oh-so-sympathetic Arab cousins? Of course, they are sympathetic. Haven't they been telling us that the Arab states can't make peace with Israel, while their po' afflicted Palestinian cousins languished in refugee camps? Most all of the media weigh in on the side of the "2-state solution." Operationally, the 2-state solution will disSOLVE Israel slowly, long enough for the diplos to declare a victory and get the hell out. The one state solution is more like the instantly-acting Jonestown CoolAid poison. It is hard for the Third Way to be heard, when the No 1 and 2 solutions clog the airwaves. The third way? Why give up land that belonged to Israel by right of Bible, by history, by devotion, by living there through bad times and worse times throughout the centuries, by international law, by irrevocable trust and by conquest when Israel was attacked by the Arab countries? Why give up the Land and, if Sec-State Rice's doctrine is still doctrine, still need to feed and medicate the Arabs. The Third Way? Keep the land and give up the Arabs A sensible solution. The Palestinian is capable of viability outside of Israel. He can be transferred to another spot in Arab Land. It would be like moving from Boston to New York. The set-aside land could be 5 times the size of Israel, 10 times its size and it still would be a drop in the bucket of the available land the Arabs control. But admittedly, there wasn't sufficient mass to congeal such an idea into a SHOUT-IT-OUT fact. Until now. Now, there is a new voice that says loud and clear that a Palestinian can thrive outside of Israel. This new voice is even willing to put his money — actually, your money, but not let's quibble — where his mouth is. Who is this man? His name is Barak Hussein Obama, and he has set aside some 20 Million dollars to be used for the "purpose of meeting unexpected and urgent refugee and migration needs" of the Palestinian arabs of Gaza. So, unlike UNRWA, he doesn't think they are hot-house fleurs that can only thrive on land that belongs to Israel. Admittedly, he hasn't come right out and said that Palestinians are omnihabitable (new word. And, listen up, Mr. Webster, I want the credit for it.) but obviously he wouldn't be wasting our money if the Palestinians couldn't root themselves outside of Israel, or as they quaintly call it, Palestine. Well, they would call it Palestine, if they could pronounce the P.   THE PALESTINIAN PEOPLE WAS FABRICATED AS A MISSHAPEN GARGOYLE whose only purpose was and is to smash Israel. But why would any Westerner want to destroy the current first-line of defense to protect us from becoming dhimmis? So, let's all become adherents of the third-way: give the Palestinians a large tract of Land in Arab Land. Fence it in. Help them farm if they wish. Help them set up colleges, if they wish. Spend the money that now goes on wasted business startups and fences in Israel and UNRWA salaries and terrorist training camps on helping the Palestinians truly learn how to run a state. And if they prefer terror and murder and adding nails dipped in rat-poison to their explosives, let them do it to themselves. Their choice. The Peace Process. Dissolving Israel in a 2-State Solution. The peace process is back. It's the same old plan from the brain of the State Dep't and the mouth of the Saudis: give up historic and strategic parts of your land, Israel. Let us flood your land with Arabs, and we will normalize relations. It's the same old, except that it has solved one knotty problem. As the diplomats so quaintly put it, Israel has no peace partner. Years ago, she was negotiating with the Arab countries, then with the "Palestinians", and finally with one man: Mahmoud Abbas, who is unlikely to win the next election — should the Palestine Authority decide on having one. Moreover, he has already repudiated the idea of agreeing to Israel's continued existence. If they don't have elections, Hamas will take over, anyways. So the new catchy phrase is: concentrate on establishing a Palestinian State in Biblical Israel with a land bridge to Gaza and the Arab States will normalize relations. It's not clear if they will "normalize relations" as most of the world understands the term — be friendly to your neighbors, exchange ambassadors, trade, visit each other's countries — or do they mean what seems to be normal for Islam — take over the other country as soon as you can. However it is phrased, splitting off any of Samaria and Judea and Gaza is a violation of Israel's irrevocable right to Mandated Palestine in international law.   WHO NEEDS A PALESTINIAN STATE? by Sultan Knish   Who needs a Palestinian State, Sultan Knish asks and answers it this way: aside from the Administration in Washington and the European Union, it's "the dictators of a dozen Arab states who agree that the only thing that will fix the region is adding another Arab dictatorship to the place, and subtracting the area's one democracy." That's it in a nutshell. As it is, the diplomats are pressing harder for a state than are the Palestinians themselves. A state doesn't particularly appeal to those Cultists of Death — the fabricated Palestinian people — whose unity derives from their common source of support, charity from various world governments, and the pride they take in their talent for killing.  READ MORE   WHITHER THE "PEACE PROCESS"? by Ted Belman   Ted Belman summarizes the latest thinking on the Peace Process — creating a Palestinian state in Biblical Israel. Israel believes she can hold firm until the Palestinians do what they've committed themselves to but have never honored: stopping their violence. The American Administration believes it can make magic happen: two states in the Middle East, one of them Muslim, "living side by side in peace and security." The Arabs believe they can force Israel to accept the Saudi peace plan that will destroy Israel by flooding it with Palestinians; a Palestinian state is unimportant to them. All ignore that by international resolution, there is "the irrevocable right of Jews to settle in the area of Palestine..."anywhere between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea. The land is Jewish — all of it including the West Bank — by irrevocable legal trust conferred by the League of Nations and continued by the United Nations. In 1922 it was also confirmed by a unanimous endorsorsement by both Houses of Congress, So, as Belman writes, "... it lies ill in the mouth for the U.S. to now deny Jews the right to settle the lands. It is the settlement freeze that's illegal, not the settlements."  READ MORE   THE QUESTION OF THE APPLICABILITY OF THE FOURTH GENEVA CONVENTION ON OCCUPATION TO JUDEA, SAMARIA AND GAZA by Howard Grief   Howard Grief makes clear why applying rules from the Fourth Geneva Convention (FGC) to Israel's ownership of Judea and Samaria (the "West Bank") and Gaza rests on dubious and incomplete interpretions of FGC. Briefly, the IDF can not be considered a "hostile army" occupying Judea, Samaria and Gaza because these areas did not belong to Jordan or Egypt. By irrevocable trust, the land belonged to Israel. He also overturns the myth that Israel is an occupier of Arab land, because Mandated Palestine was never Arab land. This is an important paper. We have included appendices on some basic documents that indicate that the Peace Process and the Two-State solution violate Israel's irrevocable right to Mandated Palestine.  READ MORE   ON TWISTED HIGHWAYS TO "PALESTINE" WHY "OCCUPATION" IS STILL A LIE by Louis Rene Beres   Louis Beres provides clearly-stated facts and long-term contextual history that makes it clear that "the so-called 'Palestinian Territories' are not occupied by Israel." They are Israeli. The context enriches the legal discussion on Israeli's right to Mandated Palestine by Howard Grief (see above).  READ MORE   FORCED TO CONCEDE A BIRTHRIGHT? by Victor Sharpe   Victor Sharpe points out in this essay that tearing off pieces of Israeli land supposedly for peace is not new. And the result has been greater Arab hostility, not peace. The objective now is to hack Biblical Israel out of tiny Israel. It has begun by Arabs creating facts on the ground — building illegally in Samaria and Judea — while the Israeli government devotes its time to harassing the Jews in Samaria and Judea who understand it isn't enough to own the land legally; Jews have to hold the land physically. Sharpe asks, "How long before the majority of politicians in the Knesset finally accept that Jews have returned to their ancestral and Biblical land, a land which presently stretches from the Mediterranean Sea to the Jordan River." Until they themselves are persuaded, how can they communicate the facts to outsiders?  READ MORE   WHY TIME IS ON ISRAEL'S SIDE: A LONG-TERM PERSPECTIVE ON ISRAEL'S SECURITY CHALLENGES by Max Singer   Max Singer succinctly summarizes Israel's major political and security problem: "... the Palestinians are determined to destroy Israel, and no concessions or improvements in our treatment of them will induce them to give up their goal." He argues that democracy is globally on the rise, and so long as Israel can continue to keep terror attacks at what he calls "tolerable levels", then within a decade, Israel can count on America to stifle the jihadist threat to the West. I wish he had given voice to how to handle related problems: as long as Israel continues a defensive minimalist policy, the morale of her citizens will continue to drop, while foreign diplomats, seeing Israel as an easy mark, will likely demand more and more concessions from her. Then too, what if, while Israel waits, Iran does just what she says she will. There is also the nightmare possibility that America will become a much weaker country, a weak reed to rely on.  READ MORE   THE ROLE OF RADICAL ISLAMIC GROUPS IN ISRAEL: IMPLICATIONS FOR ISRAELI-ARAB COEXISTENCE by Lt.-Col. (res.) Dr. Mordechai Kedar   As Mordechai Kedar writes, "The core question is to whom does this country belong? According to the Arab narrative, this has been an Arab Islamic state since the days of Omar, the caliph who conquered the country in the seventh century. According to the Islamic approach, since Islam began in 622 CE, all of history before that time has no meaning or significance." Nor do they accept that modern Israel holds the land because it overcame Arab invasions of Israel. Nevertheless, many of the names of the resident Arabs reflect the fact that they are not native to Israel but came originally from Egypt or Syria or Jordan or Lebanon or Iraq. And not that long ago. It is true that Islam insists that "land can only go one way, to become Islamic, and it can never go the other way," but why ever should we sane Westerners accept this Islam-centric view?  READ MORE   BASIC THOUGHTS FOR THE NEW PRIME MINISTER by Louis René Beres   In this essay, Louse René Beres astutely advices the new prime minister of Israel to move cautiously. Some fundamental questions need to be answered: for example, for Israel's viability, is any form of diplomacy indicated? He notes that in its eagerness for peace, Israel has been too quick to follow directives from the "civilized world." As a result, it has yielded up Israeli land in return for nothing. Yet the Jews continue to hope for a negotiated peace while the Arabs speak plainly and truthfully that it is their "irremediable intention to annihilate the Jewish state." "For both Palestinian insurgents and Iran's president, conflict with Israel is always an all or nothing proposition [...] On the Palestinian and Iranian side, Oslo and 'Road Map' expectations have never been seen as anything more than a cost-effective method of dismantling Israel." If Israel is to survive, it must cast off some of its deepest-held fantasies, peace-seeking strategies and fallacious assumptions because it is dealing with Arab realists who know just what they want. They may on occasion need to slow down and may occasionally agree to negotiate, but they are never deviated from their goal — the destruction of Israel as a prerequisite to attacking the West. There is no middle ground and Israel should not be frittering away valuable time trying for measures — like a demilitarized Palestinian state — that look good but that have no substance. Beres' advice is both obvious and sensible: abrogate the Oslo Accord. It was a terrible and deadly mistake.  READ MORE   As the previous set of essays report, Israel has a poor record in defending its political integrity. Even though the facts favor Israel, it has maintained a minimalist position. It responds to Arab distortions well past the time the Arab lies have gained ground. This set of essays discuss some additional Israeli problems: some of them internal, some the consequence of not being pro-active, some the result of poor judgment, some the consequence of a Marxist secular elite running many of the country's institutions. POLITICS OF PALESTINIAN DEMOGRAPHY by Yakov Faitelson   Yoram Ettinger, who writes on the assesment of demographic data for Jews and Arabs, says about this essay by Yakov Faitelson: "Faitelson refutes Demographic Fatalism and documents Demographic Optimism. Faitelson highlights critical errors committed by demographic fatalism: understating Jewish fertility rate; overstating Arab fertility rate; ignoring the potency of annual Jewish Aliya (immigration) since 1882; overlooking the high Arab emigration; attributing to Jews West normative European demographic patterns, while Jewish demographics — and Jews in general — have been non-normative; accepting Palestinian Bureau of Statistics numbers without scrutiny, while these numbers have been inflated dramatically." Faitelson's essay is an excellent summary of actual demographic trends in Israel and the Territories.  READ MORE   USING THE PRESENT TO FABRICATE HISTORY; USING HISTORY TO FABRICATE THE PRESENT by Seth J. Frantzman   A major reason Israel has communication problems is that the Arabs do so well fictionalizing history. This goes over well with an ignorant media. It is a truism that we see the present in terms of our history. Seth Frantzman makes the case for the converse: we see historical events in terms of our present biases. "... western slavery is seen as the greatest evil while Muslim slavery, which began earlier and murdered more people, is seen as positive and tolerant, all because we have a common view of the Old South as evil and Modern Islam as tolerant and diverse." Similarly, the PLO's new image as "moderate" is projected backwards. "People forget its role in Lebanon and Jordan, its mass murder of Olympic Athletes or its bombing of synagogues in Europe. People even forget that it was founded long before 1967, along with Fatah, and that its original goal was not the liberation of Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza, but the opposite, only the destruction of Israel inside the Green Line." Part I presents a grotesque example of how the past is imagined as a doppelganger of the present in a book by a Holocaust survivor, who loathes Israel and blames America for the botchup in the Middle East. Part II describes the reality of life in Iraq in the 1920s. Despite our projected-backwards belief bolstering the assertion that modern-day Islam is tolerant, minorities in Muslim countries — Egypt's treatment of the Copts is an egregious example — were and are actively discouraged from maintaining their identities, until in many cases, they dwindle away. Part III gives us insight into at least one reason why Muslim countries are said to be tolerant and benign — their treatment by journalists as amplified in the Main Stream Press.  READ MORE   PESSACH COMES by Moshe and Rachel Saperstein   Moshe Saperstein is in top form, his black humor at split-second timing as he records what he sees as his deteriorating body — which, all things considered, doesn't bother him as much as the soupy-headed ideas of much of the Israeli administration. in one essay, Rachel Saperstein writes of Aryeh Eldad — surgeon, politician and defender of the Jews of Gush Katif, when they were senselessly ripped out of their homes in Gaza — and his father, who she never met. She makes us wish that we too knew both father and son.  READ MORE   THERE'S ROOM AT THE 'TREE' FOR YOU by Catriel Sugarman   Catriel Sugarman provides us with a brief but clear history of the Christian need to convert Jews. In modern times, this urgency has spawned Messianic Judaism. Initially conceived as a ruse to entice Jews into Christianity, it has — as do all social engineeering projects — had unintended consequences. It has mostly attracted Christians, some of whom try to live more or less "Jewish" while they acknowledge Jesus as the Messiah, some of whom see themselves as the real Jews and are increasingly hostile to Judaism and some of whom have used it as a half way house to Judaism or Noahidism. It has also helped galvinize Jewish groups such as Jews for Judaism, Chabad and Aish HaTorah to work to stem the tide of Jews moving out of Judaism out of indifference, ignorance or amorphous spiritual longings. To date, missionaries of whatever stripe have been more of a problem in America, but Israel is also being targetted. A fascinating essay.  READ MORE   THE SYRIAN FOOL'S ERRAND by Bruce Thornton   A major problem for the new Israeli administration is an American president who has not shown good instinctive judgment. He appears to have no familiarity with the major problem besetting the globe — if anything, he has ignored the global Islamic insurgency and put all his eggs in the 'let's reason together' diplomacy basket. In this essay Bruce Thornton points out that Washington's last attempt at engaging Syria in diplomatic talks is but the latest of a long sequence of fool's errands. We've been there, done that. Again and again. It doesn't work. Why? The basic reason is simple but always ignored by diplomats and other fantasists: the Arab countries refuse to have a non-Muslim state in the Middle East. As a result, as Thornton writes, "We in the West assume that the Arab countries really want peace and coexistence with Israel, if only the Palestinian Arabs get their own state and the 'occupation' is ended. So ... we pressure Israel into making concessions and offers, the offers are turned down ..., and then the whole process ends with Israel excoriated on the world stage for her stubborn recalcitrance, and the U.S. condemned for not putting enough pressure on Israel to make a deal." Can diplomacy work? It depends on the objectives. Hitler and Ahmadinejad of Iran have found diplomacy an excellent delaying tactic while building a war machine. It works particularly well when the other side is a western fantasist.  READ MORE   A REALITY CHECK ABOUT GAZA by Martin Sherman   The IDF fought in a disciplined fashion in Gaza, but they were hamstrung by the politicians, who feared a bad press. The IDF wasn't allowed to finish the job — to destroy the sources and resources that continue to enable the Gazan terrorists to lob missiles at Israeli cities. In consequence, Hamas can, and does, claim victory. As Martin Sherman writes, Israel suffered a "calamitous diplomatic defeat" and "its international standing and image suffered." Sherman suggests the root cause of the poor showing in 2007 in Lebanon and now in Gaza is "a loss of faith in 'Victory' both as valid cognitive concept and as an attainable military objective... the real victor in both campaigns was in fact the myth of the 'The Impossibility of Victory.'" Israel needs to understand it will continue to be harassed by foreign politicians and local arabs until it is willing to "inflict a degrading defeat" on the radical Arabs and by military means make them understand that their "path can — and will — only lead to disgrace and dishonor."  READ MORE   THE FAITHFUL CHILDREN by Patricia Berlyn   In the previous article, Martin Sherman indicated that convincing the politicians to change their belief structure is a major Israeli problem. In this essay, Patricia Berlyn writes of the IDF soldiers, who are disciplined and moral and more than willing to fight for their country. She writes about three of these soldiers and how they behaved during the Gaza campaign. Despite their discipline and compassion, the world press still managed to demonize them. And their politicians made sure they will have to fight again to finish Hamas' war from Gaza.  READ MORE   These are studies of some Muslims and how they live. Pirates. The ordinary folk that were transformed into a Palestinian people. Moderate terrorists. Islamic clerics and their unusual ideas of how to utilize mosques. And oh yes, a suggestion that the clerics might consider leading the Muslim masses into the modern world. JIHADI PIRATES ON HIGH SEAS: WHAT'S THE DRIVING FORCE BEHIND THEM? by Walid Phares   An American ship was recently hijacked by Somali pirates. The captain, Richard Phillips, acted heroically in protecting his crew as did the Navy snipers who took out the pirates. As reported in the Main Stream Media (MSM), Prez Obama got the credit. Actually the initiative came from the on-the-scene commander (see here.) while an indecisive Obama was still averaging out the advice from his multiple advisors. Further, the MSM ignored the fact that the pirates were Muslim and Jihadist. Walid Phares explains the significance of the episode thus: " [The pirates are] in fact part of a regional Jihadi apparatus ... [that] is not limited to the pirates but involves hostile forces from the mid Red Sea to East Africa. The Somali pirates are merely one facet of this grand circle."  READ MORE   BARAKA by Boris Zubry   Boris Zubry has drawn on his experiences working in Saudi Arabia in several previous stories. In this one, he writes about a man named Baraka, an illiterate Muslim, a good observer, a philosopher of sorts. In our society he'd be called a homeless person. In his environment, he blends in. In this soliloquy he muses on a life filled with ugliness, abuse and death. Orphaned in Turkey he is routed to Gaza, where he and other immigrants from the Ottoman Empire "the refuse of the great empire, would" he writes, "claim this territory as our own. Who could say back then that they would teach us to hate the Jews more than the Turks?" He has been transformed into a "Palestinian." He has become member of a welfare group supported by the world and a useful weapon to club the Jews, but he is never allowed to be his own person.  READ MORE   PALESTINIAN MODERATES WANT PEACE — WITH HAMAS, NOT ISRAEL by Barry Rubin   Months, if not years, of western and Israeli propaganda went out the window when Smiling Abbas — the Good Terrorist, Israel's 'peace partner' — announced he doesn't accept the Jewish state. Another assertion — that the PLO-PA moderates want to live in peace with Israel — was also punctured, as Barry Rubin demonstrates, when a leader of the moderates, Muhammad Dahlan, made it clear he seeks peace with Hamas, not with Israel. And the two are mutually exclusive.  READ MORE   THE USE OF MOSQUES FOR MILITARY AND POLITICAL PURPOSES BY HAMAS AND OTHER TERRORIST ORGANIZATIONS AND ISLAMIC GROUPS by Reuven Erlich   The Western mind doesn't see churches or synagogues as places to store and launch weaponry so it has difficulty believing Muslims have a different attitude towards mosques. Reuven Erlich provides us with detailed evidence that terror groups and their clerics find it acceptable to use the mosque for military purposes. Interestingly enough, this is not a recent innovation. As Erlich notes, "A commonly held view by Muslim religious scholars is that a mosque is more than just a place of worship and can have military and political uses, because in Muslim tradition Muhammad himself used the mosque for such purposes." What needs to be emphasized is that when a mosque is used to store explosives, launch missiles and train terrorists, it can not claim "the special protection afforded houses of worship [by international law] and may become legitimate targets for attack."  READ MORE   ISLAM SHOULD PROVE IT'S A RELIGION OF PEACE by Tawfik Hamid   Geert Wilders' film FITNA links actual footage of violence committed by Islamists to quotes from the Koran. In consequence, Wilders has been accused of hate crime, and disrespect to Islam. Tawfik Hamid cut through the nonsense and asks the right question: "[is the] blame with Mr. Wilders, who simply exposed Islamic radicalism, or with those who promote and engage in this religious extremism." Phased thus, the answer is obvious. Hamid suggests it's time that Muslim scholars reinterpret the Koran to eliminate barbaric practices and the denigrating of other religions. These practices have no place in modern civilization. A fine idea but I'm not holding my breath.  READ MORE   Sharia is gaining ground. Globally. Making alliances that are non-intuitive — like hooking up with Marxism and extreme Leftists. Making inroads into Europe by playing the downtrodden victim — although there's some hope that some people have had enough. Making inroads into America by frightening us into redesigning our terror vocabulary Orwell-style. The last essay of the set suggests why it is that Islam is gaining in the West and what we need to do to regain our sense of nationhood. WHAT IS MARXISM? by Steven Plaut   Nowadays, Communism seldom commands front-page headlines and "You're a Communist" has ceased to be a dreaded exclamation of disapprobation, So many a younger American haven't a clue to what Communism is. Marxism, the parent of Communism, unfortunately, is still very much with us and nicely sums up the ideology common to extreme left-wingers, socialists, communists, power-to-the-peoplers, wealth-distributors, welfare-staters, nanny-staters, radical judicial activists, illiberal liberals, identity-politicians and radical theologians. Steven Plaut defines Marxism for us in clear terms. It is particularly necessary, now that the new administration in Washington seems to have embarked on yet another version of Marxism.  READ MORE   SHARIAH'S BROTHERHOOD by Frank Gaffney, Jr.   Given Pres. Obama's new policy of showing Islam unreserved (and perhaps undeserved) respect, the command centers of current-day Islamism are having an easier time in attempting to make Sharia law universal. In the latest scheme, the United Nations is urged to criminalize Islamophobia. Islamophobia is an odd term — it doesn't mean an irrational fear of Islam. It means in practice any word or deed that will upset a Muslim. "The demand that no criticism of Islam be permitted is the preeminent feature of the Muslim Brotherhood's efforts in the West." As Frank Gaffney, Jr. points out "the 1990 Cairo Declaration on Human Rights in Islam ... concludes with the caveat that, 'All the rights and freedoms stipulated in this Declaration are subject to the Islamic Shariah.' Translation: Liberties enshrined in the UN's foundational Universal Declaration of Human Rights are largely rendered null and void." You are urged to contact the White House and speak against this threat to American freedom of speech.  READ MORE   WARFARE THROUGH MISUSE OF INTERNATIONAL LAW by Elizabeth Samson   Previous articles on Lawfare — waging war by using the muscle of the legal system — have focussed on specific cases and countries. In this article, Elizabeth Samson points out lawfare has acquired a global reach, using three legal manipulations: involving the International courts; "misus[ing] legal terminology to manipulate international institutions and the public"; and the "prosecution of foreign nationals in domestic courts for military and civilian action." Consequently, as she points out, "...the rule of law, a weapon designed to subdue dictators and tyrants is now being misused to empower the very same, and being manipulated to subvert real justice and indisputable truth. That is not the purpose the law is designed to serve." Lawfare is a particularly effective tool for Islamists to use because as Samson writes, "Lawfare is exponentially effective because one lawsuit can silence thousands who have neither the time nor the financial resources to challenge well-funded terror financiers or the vast machine of the international judicial system."  READ MORE   SHARIA'S INROADS AROUND THE WORLD by Olivier Guitta   Olivier Guitta reviews the latest inroads Sharia law is making globally. In Pakistan, Sharia law has been imposed in the Swat valley. In Europe, it has made significant advances in the judiciary of several countries — Italy, France and Denmark — where the courts have ignored the laws of the land and have ruled in accordance with Islamic law. In England, many Englishmen are enthusiastically in favor of adopting portions of Sharia law. They may eventually find that just as it's impossible to be a little pregnant, it is impossible to adopt a portion of sharia law.  READ MORE   EUROPE'S RIGHT TURN by Bruce Bawer   Bruce Bawer, an American who has lived in Europe for many years, is an astute observer of western Europe's changing political and social mores. Once proud of putting their socialist idealism into welfare practice, Europeans are finding that they can no longer afford the huge influx of Muslims living on their benevolence while attempting to subvert them to Sharia law. As one consequence, their socialized health and education systems are broken. As another, political alliances are in turmoil: while many voters are reacting to the deterioration of their countries by turning politically to the right, the entrenched political establishments are reacting by ignoring the Muslim threat and focussing on demonizing right-wing politicians. The U.S.A. should take warning.  READ MORE   IRAN SETTING UP SHOP SOUTH OF THE BORDER by Todd Bensman   Iran doesn't just rant and polish her nuclear skills. It looks like she's taking advantage of a naive administration in Washington to infiltrate into Mexico. It's possible, of course, that Iran is lonely and just wants to chat with a fellow oil-producer. But we know that Muslims — Hezbollah included — come in from Mexico, blending in with the Mexican illegals, and occasionally leaving prayer mats at the border. It will certainly be nice for the Iranians to have America ignore them while they explore business opportunities with Mexican politicos and maybe even important Mexicans like the ones that run the drug cartels.  READ MORE   NAIVETE KILLS by Barry Rubin   Barry Rubin writes of the arrogance and self-delusion of the ignorant reporter. He writes, "It never ceases to amaze me that people who know nothing about the Middle East, in this case Roger Cohen but many other names come to mind, can suddenly proclaim themselves experts and make the most elementary errors involving the lives of other people. It also never ceases to amaze me that people can visit a country, especially a dictatorship, be wined and dined, handed a line and believe it so thoroughly that their mind is closed ever after." They return and praise dictators, explain how justified the terrorists are and whitewash the Muslim Brotherhood. Unfortunately, too often, they write for influential newspapers that help certify they are to be taken seriously. They act in this generation as the notorious Walter Duranty did in the 1920-30s when he assured New York Times readers the Soviet dictatorship — which was busy starving millions of Kulaks — wa benevolent, doing a fine job and was just right for the Russian people. Rubin suggests reasons why "the gap between reality and perception [is] so much wider on the Middle East than on other subjects or areas of the world."  READ MORE   TEXTBOOK LIES ABOUT ISLAM by Raymond Ibrahim   Raymond Ibrahim discusses the treatment of Islam and Muslims in textbooks used to educate our children, noting that "key subjects like jihad, Islamic law, [and] the status of women are whitewashed." Textbooks mislead "by projecting Western interpretations onto Islam." As Ibrahim writes, "... necessary knowledge is not merely ignored, but not even acknowledged as real in the first place. When American universities [or high schools] fail to teach Islamic doctrine and history accurately, a flawed epistemology permeates society at large. And since new students and new professors come from this already conditioned — towards — Islam society, not only do they not question the lack of accurate knowledge and education; they perpetuate it." So it is that while textbooks in Muslim countries openly teach hatred and hostility for non-Muslims, or infidels,..." in this country, "the government is now pushing to ban Arabic words connotative of Islamic ideology from formal analysis..." Ibrahim asks, "if children are sheltered from ugly truths today, how can they ever be expected to confront them as adults tomorrow?"  READ MORE   THE VOICE OF AMERICA SILENCED ON RADICAL ISLAM by Daniel Pipes   It is a telling point that almost 8 years after 9/11 we still don't have agreed-upon terminology to label the Muslims who declared war against the West, America and Israel in particular. In fact, as Daniel Pipes makes frighteningly clear, the situation has deteriorated from an inability to decide whether all Islam was resurgent or only a small percentage — say 150 to 200 million Muslims — was on the rampage. Now, in both England and U.S.A., the trend among our leaders is never to use terrorist and Muslim or Islamist and fundamentalist in the same breathe. In Orwellian fashion, we will soon have no vocabulary or only a neutered vocabulary to name the enemy. This is the thinking in the Administration in Washington, the State Department, Homeland Security, the National Counter Terrorism Center, and many in the media. Islamic terrorism is now considered as 'anti-Islamic activity', as if the ones suffering are the Muslims, not us.  READ MORE   ISLAM AND THE WEST: LINES OF DEMARCATION by Roger Scruton   In this thoughtful essay, Roger Scruton asks why radical Islam is so successful in the war they initiated against the west. True, they are dedicated to jihad, and confident they will succeed, but a major reason for their gain is that, unfortunately, the West is not confident. Scruton fears we may be at a point "in which the legitimate claims of our own culture and inheritance will be ignored or downplayed in an attempt to prove our peaceful intentions." Scuton undertakes to "spell out some of the critical features of the Western inheritance which must be understood and defended in our current confrontation." He stresses that we can not succumb to the debilitating belief that we are to blame for Islam's behavior. "... our enemies' hatred of us is entirely unjustified; and ... their implacable enmity cannot be defused by our breast-beating." An important essay. Read it carefully.  READ MORE   What shall we call the people who help resurgent Islam, sometimes unknowingly, but more often out of some conviction that makes them think their activities are the right thing to do? Fellow travellors? Useful idiots? Lobotimized peaceniks? They are overrepresented in the universities and the media. But they also pop up in American Jewish organizations and synagogues. FOLLOWING THE HERD by Barbara Barron   In the last issue of Think-Israel, Steven Plaut discussed the politicization of the Lancet, a prestigious British medical journal. In this essay, Barbara Barron writes of other professional journals in England that have succumbed to one-sided politics, publishing inaccurate and unprofessional pro-Palestinian articles that indulge in attributing all Palestinian ills to the machinations of the Zionist entity. As Barron points out: "The deliberate use of a professional body's publication to promulgate personal political views, especially when many of these are based upon lies and misconceptions, is unethical as well as immoral. Any professional body which actively encourages this by publishing it is in gross dereliction of its duty."  READ MORE   EXPOSED: HOW PALESTINIAN FIXERS MANIPULATE THEIR MEDIA BOSSES by Honest Reporting Staff   There's a problem when foreign journalists need to depend on locals to translate and smooth the way, especially when the locals have a third-world political agenda and no sense of fairness or professional ethics. The locals "can be selective with the information they feed the journalist or, at worst, mistranslate the words of the interview subjects." In Israel and the Territories, far too often the Arab fixers and translators "encourage journalists to report exclusively on the 'evils' of the Israeli occupation, rather than on the lack of democratic freedoms or human rights abuses in the West Bank and Gaza." This becomes the 'news' fed to the newpaper's readers. This essay by Honest Reporting Staff presents a case study of one such betweener — Nidal Rafa, who is both committed to the Palestinian 'cause' and a presumably-impartial employee of CNN and NPR. She was often the gatekeeper for what got through to the final reader; and she didn't let professional standards and ethics stand in the way of obscuring the facts in favor of the image she wanted to project. She was finally outed when she indulged in an unprofessional tirade during a talk given by Danny Ayalon, Israel's ex-ambassador to the United States — and this was caught on tape..  READ MORE   POISONING THE AMERICAN MIND by Daniel Doron   This is an interesting case study on NPR's anti-Israel stance by Daniel Doron. NPR promotes the notion that Palestinian Arabs are a noble folk with a noble mission — to win back their homeland, occupied by Israel, who has no business being in the Middle East. They aren't indoctrinated with hate; no, of course not. The Palestinians resort to terrorism because they are weak and poor and have few resources. Israel is excoriated if — despite trying to avoid the human shields the terrorists cynically use — they hit one child. The Arabs, of course, are given a free pass, no matter how many Jewish children they deliberately kill. A noble mission is a powerful excuse. Just as interesting is the indignation shown by those who deny NPR's obvious bias. Doron records one such letter and his response.  READ MORE   WHO WAS IT THAT DEMOLISHED THE WORLD TRADE CENTER (WTC)? by Ron Mossad   Ron Mossad takes on the conspiracy theorists who are sure it was the Jooz that attacked the World Trade Center. This time it's a chemistry teacher that's sure nano-thermite was the method used to ignite the buildings to a high enough heat to destroy the structure. What remains a mystery is how, when the culprits are known — the Saudis who learned to fly a plane but not how to land it — and the planes crashing into the building were witnessed by anyone owning a TV set, it is still the Jews who are blamed. But why stop there? In conspiracy-think, there was no Holocaust. Or it was greatly exaggerated. And the recent stock market and housing market crash? Maybe you think it was the politicians who forced the banks to lend to people who couldn't afford the homes they bought. Maybe you think it's groups like ACORN that used "the people" to persuade the politicians to insist the banks make risky loans. Maybe you think it was the bankers who saw a way to make a lot of money. The conspiracy theorists know better — they know it's the Jews.  READ MORE   A METAPOLITICAL VIEW OF USEFUL IDIOTS by Professor Paul Eidelberg   For the last 30-35 years, Israel's leaders have pursued a monomaniacal policy of "land for peace," despite the fact that the Arabs continue to say openly — and demonstrate — that they wish to destroy Israel, not make peace. When Israel showed the Arab countries she could rebuff direct attack, they started following a phased peace-and-war strategy — taking over in stages. Unfortunately, Israel's wrongheaded policy is reinforced by useful idiots in the Administration in Washington, who believe that, unlike all who have previously tried their hand at a two-state solution, they will succeed. They won't.  READ MORE   OBAMA AS MUSLIM APOLOGIST: AMERICA "ENRICHED" BY ISLAM by PauL L. Williams with Michael Travis   Dr. Paul Williams takes issue with Pres. Obama's attempt to rewrite history when he said that over the centuries "the United States has been enriched by Muslim Americans." In fact, no Muslim was in the army as late as World War 1 and less than 5000 lived here as late as 1975. His assertion that America "is not and never will be at war with Islam" ignores that even in Washington's time, American ships were harassed by the Barbary pirates, an earlier version of today's Somali pirates. The larger issue, of course, is whether Americans "must deny their heritage as a people for the sake of globalism, multiculturalism, and a New World Order."  READ MORE   U. PENN HILLEL WORKING WITH HAMAS-SUPPORTING MUSLIM STUDENT ASSOCIATION (MSA) by Beila Rabinowitz and William Mayer   Arab student venomous hostility to Jewish students became a front-page issue in 2002 when, at San Francisco State University, they physicaly attacked a group of Jewish students from Hillel, which, ironically, was marching around singing about the joys of peace. But apparently many Jews still refuse to accept that they have been selected as attackable objects of hate by the Muslims. Beila Rabinowitz and William Mayer chronicle a recent example at U Penn, where Hillel has partnered with Muslim Student Association (MSA), a Muslim Brotherhood offshoot, to promote Shari'a law. They should look at Muslim websites, which make it clear that living with Jews in love and peace is not a Muslim goal. By participating in these "sham dialogues" the Jews don't persuade the Arabs to become peaceful. They do lose their self-respect.  READ MORE   IS SELF-HATE A GOD OF THE JEWS? by Seth J. Frantzman   After reading so many books and articles by self-effacing Jews whose hearts go out to the Palestinians, never to the Jews, Seth Frantzman wonders if there aren't really two Judaisms, "one of Jews and the other of 'the Jews'." The first group practices the Jewish religion; the second talks about "being Jewish" and "what Jews should do." They distort the meaning of Jewish symbols and Jewish holidays to gain sympathy for the Palestinians and other causes, always for a group other than the Jews. Frantzman prefers actual, authentic Judaism, where one is instructed to kill one's intractable enemies, to the practise of the Jews in name only, who define "every cause as a 'duty' of Jews and who ceaselessly heap scorn and hate on other Jews because they believe those Jews reflect badly on them."  READ MORE   History. These events took place after World War II and are part of the story of the creation of Israel. WAVES OF FREEDOM by Steve Kramer   Steve Kramer writes of the years just after World War 2 when the survivors of the Holocaust were still languishing in temporary quarters in camps in Europe. The drive was on to bring these survivors to Palestine, despite the illegal and immoral ban the British had placed on Jewish immigration. The English had received the Mandate for Palestine to help Jews build their homeland. They did not honor their mandate, even when Hitler's policy of exterminating Jews made Palestine a desperately-needed haven. They encouraged Arab immigration and made bringing in Jews a hanging offense. After the War, ten American boats were retrofitted to transport civilians to Palestine. Kramer tells the story of one of these ships, HaTikvah. and the American volunteers, Jews and non-Jews, who manned it.  READ MORE   ESPIONAGE AND THE ZIONIST ENDEAVOR by Meir Zamir   What a Eric Ambler plot for a novel! It is 1948 and a secret and very large arms deal between a Swiss company and Egyptian and Jordanian envoys is finalized in the office of the British minister of state for foreign affairs, with Ethopia acting as beard for arms that will actually be shipped to various Arab states. If all goes well, there'd be no chance of survival for the soon-to-be-born state of Israel. Fortunately, French intelligence and the Swiss Government learn of the "Swiss-Ethiopian" arms sale, and it falls through. This isn't fiction; it happened. Meir Zamir traces the ramifications of the transaction for us, with the Hagana and France pitted against England and the Arab states. Subplots include England engineering a crisis in Syria to oust France, France planting a mole in the British Legation in Beirut and the Hagana seizing British diplomatic mail en route to the port of Haifa. It is a fascinating detailed look at a real-life spy thriller with duped diplomats, blackmailable leaders, spies, moles and duplicitous British politicians who schemed to divide Palestine among the Arab countries, not help it become a Jewish state. The underlying theme is the contrast between the actual manipulations by the colonial powers and their official position of neutrality in the Arab-Israel confllict. Scene 1 was soon followed by the invasion of the fledgling state of Israel by the neighboring Arab countries.   READ MORE   REMEMBERING THE MASSACRE OF THE HADASSAH CONVOY APRIL 13, 1948 by Dr. Alex Grobman   Alex Grobman recalls the last days of the Mandate period. Jews fought against the British to take the land already granted them and fought side by side with the British against the Germans. They also provided experts in fighting local medical problems — blood diseases, jaundice, dysentery, exotic fevers and an abundance of disease-carrying insects and poisonous snakes. The local Arabs, led by the Mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Amin el-Husseini, an associate of Adolph Hitler, violently attacked both Jew and Brit. Grobman focuses on the day they ambushed a convoy of non-combatant Jews and massacred most of them, while the Brits, who had promised safe passage, watched and did nothing.  READ MORE   READERS' BLOG-EDS   This is where our readers get a chance to write opinions and editorials and share articles they find informative. The Blog-Eds page for the month is updated every few days. A Blog-Ed page has a quick list of the articles from which you can access any of the articles immediately. To go to the list, click the "Blog-Eds List" box in the Blue Strip on the top of the Blog-Ed page. March 2009 BLOG-EDS    READ MORE April 2009 BLOG-EDS    READ MORE

January-February, 2009 What we are talking about in the January-February 2009 issue: PART I: STAGES OF THE GLOBAL MUSLIM TAKEOVER WHAT THE END-POINT OF A MUSLIM TAKE-OVER LOOKS LIKE (Sultan Knish, Fighel, Guitta, Tibi, Inbar and Kedar, Khalaji, Rubin) MUSLIM SOCIETY (Ibrahim, jasser, Emerson, Hertz, PeoplesCube, Mirza ) ENGLAND ON THE TAKEOVER SCALE (Fjordman, Silverberg, Hove, Plaut, Ceren, Bat Yeor, Wilders) FOISTING MUSLIM IDEOLOGY ON AMERICA (Shorrosh, Shaidle, McLaughlin, Stillwell, Emerson, Pearl, Shulman, Sacks, Merkley)   PART II: ISRAEL BEARS THE BRUNT INSTITUTIONAL ANTI-SEMITISM (Levin, Berlyn, Cotler, Eye on the UN, Tossavainen, Ross, Steinberg, Cravatts, Gerstenfeld, MacEoin, Spiegel Staff) GAZA, HAMAS AND THE GAZA INVASION (Frantzman, Surbeck, McCarthy, Eastman, Harari, Rosett, McLeod, Cohen, Carmon et al, Feder) THE START OF THE CURRENT GAZA PROBLEM: EXPELLING THE GAZA JEWS (Saperstein, Lerner, Shulman) WE NEED NEW THINKING: TIRED NON-SOLUTIONS AND SOME NEW POTENTIAL SOLUTIONS (Grief, Eidelberg, Bingham, Dann, Leder and Greenfield, No Sharia, Sigmund, Carl and Alfred, Sultan Knish, Basch, Shoher, Warren, Freund) HISTORY SECTION (Sharpe, Hertz, Krakow) BLOG-ED PAGES (January, February)

PART I: STAGES OF THE GLOBAL MUSLIM TAKEOVER: We are encouraged to view the various terrorist groups as independents — each with its own set of grievances. But maybe the cartoon riots served an unintended purpose — showing us a commonality. As the essays suggest, the goal is the same. The differences are a function of how far the Islamists have succeeded in infiltrating and overcoming a particular country. David Meir-Levi lists the 10 stages in how to take over a country "peacefully." He considers Bangladesh at Stage 9, the EU and UK at stage 7 ready to move into 8, the USA at around Stages 4 or 5. — (www.FrontPageMag.com, April 26, 2006). Considering how far along once-Great Britain has come, perhaps its ranking should be upgraded. Infiltrate quietly, settling in small numbers near or among the locals' towns and villages. Establish friendly relations, and convince others of the virtues of Islam. Participate in community activities and provide charity for the poor and generosity to all, while encouraging the immigration of other Muslims. Get converts and supporters from the rank and file of the local population, particularly from the poor and disenfranchised of the host society, via the multiple mosques and madrasas and charitable and human rights groups. (Today, in the case of the US and EU, converts come in great numbers from the ranks of criminals, especially imprisoned African-Americans.) Agitate for greater and broader rights and considerations for Muslims, and for protection against real or imagined "Islamophobia". Organize a political party to push for changes in law to permit Muslim-only enclaves and for laws that formalize the host society's accommodation of Muslim religious needs. Institute the divide-and-conquer strategy of making pacts with some anti-establishment or minority government groups, legal (as has been done in the USA with Green Party, National Lawyers Guild) or illegal (KKK, Aryan Nation) so they will help in the following stages. Once you have the power base (some 10-15 percent of the population), then use violence, strikes, street riots, assassination, intimidation and bribery of government officials to destabilize the government. If the host country's government response to the violence is not effective, then there is a de facto green light to start full-blown terrorism which will topple the government and allow Muslim leaders to move up the power ladder with the help of the anti-establishment groups. Once in power, Muslim leaders can use their influence over the agitating Muslim population to quell the violence, thus pretending that they are helping restore order even as they themselves orchestrate the violence. Abandon the erstwhile anti-establishment allies and reign supreme; establish Shari'a, and declare the state to be a new Muslim nation where Shari'a is law and non-Moslems are dhimmi.   The first article in this set explains why the attempt to co-exist with Islam is never static. The other articles examine what the end-point of a Muslim Take-Over looks like — the Muslim countries of the Middle East provide us with excellent examples. Use a big enough magnifying glass and there are many inter-state differences. But there's a sameness that overrides the differences: a lack of democracy, a lack of human and civil rights, a lack of respect for women, an intolerance for differing points of view, ugly treatment of non-Muslims and barbaric punishments for what the rest of the world would regard as non-crimes or crimes worthy only of minimal punishment. In sum, whether voiced openly or when actions do the speaking, there's a willingness to be guided by Mohammad's unrevised teachings.      Perhaps most shocking is Saudi Arabia's godfather role in maintaining terrorist groups. Most disheartening — Turkey has a long history of secularization at least in its government and judiciary but with the election of a strong Islamist party, it seems to be sliding back into the orthodoxy practiced by all the other Muslim countries.

LIVING WITH CANCER, LIVING WITH ISLAM by Sultan Knish   A corollary to seeking accommodation with Islam is the belief that if we fulfill their current demands, Muslim demands for furthering Islam will stop. The situation will become static. It will have reached equilibrium. This is never true. It can't be true, because the thrust of resurgent Islam is what it has always been when not kept down — to become our overlords. Sultan Knish compares this ambition to the growth of a cancer — you can only stop it by drastic measures.  READ MORE   THE SAUDI CONNECTION 1TO THE MUMBAI MASSACRES: STRATEGIC IMPLICATIONS FOR ISRAEL by Col. (res.) Jonathan Fighel   Our friends the Saudis don't get the credit they deserve for playing both ends against the middle and paying off everybody. This essay by Jonathan Fighel examines one of their recent spectacular successes — the slaughter in Mumbai of non-Muslims staying at well-known tourist hotels and Jews staying at the out-of-the-way Chabad house. The deed was done by a local Muslim terrorist group in Mumbai. But the money for the months of training it took to carry out the task faultlessly came largely from the Saudis; their sense of righteousness came from the Saudi-promoted reading of the Koran; and their group coherence came from Saudi techniques of social engineering, which develop social networks for group solidarity and responsiveness to Saudi ideology. As Fighel points out, "The bottom line is that we are seeing the same pattern of global jihad-oriented groups starting to be active in Gaza." Global jihad takes advantage of local hostilities and emotions, but its motive power comes from a well-financed promotion of Islamic ideology.  READ MORE   HOMEGROWN THREAT AGAINST SAUDI ARABIA by Olivier Guitta   Olivier Guitta writes how Wahhabi teachings about hate have come home to Saudi Arabia to roost and kill. This should have been clear right after 9/11. All but a couple of the terrorists were Saudis. They grew up in Saudi Arabia. They got their early education in Wahhabi mosques in Saudi Arabia. Now they wish to rid their homeland of foreign influences. To visualize their brainwashing a couple of decades ago, look at the pictures of young Palestinian Arabs blowing themselves up because they can kill a few Jews that way. Look at the toddlers being taught to hate the Jews and how to murder them. Conversely, we can project what the newer generation will do when they are older. England is already seeing what Wahhabi mosque education can teach in designing a successful bombing. Maybe we in America should start paying more attention to what the kiddies are learning from the Wahhabi mullahs in American mosques.  READ MORE   ISLAMISTS APPROACH EUROPE: TURKEY'S ISLAMIST DANGER by Bassam Tibi   Bassam Tibi talks about the changes in Turkish society and in its attitude towards Europe since the Adalet ve Kalknma Partisi (AKP) came into power. Tibi points out that AKP aims at "... a creeping Islamization that culminates in a Shari'a (Islamic law) state not compatible with a secular, democratic order." And it favors Islamization of Europe. Ironically, AKP is backed by both the U.S.A. and the European Union. Consequently, "in Turkey, the West loses its true friends: liberal Muslims."  READ MORE   EGYPT IS NOT GOING TO STOP THE SMUGGLING INTO GAZA by Efraim Inbar and Mordechai Kedar   It is only in contrast to blatantly anti-semitic, totally off-the-wall countries like Iran that Egypt can be considered a moderate country. It has a veneer of modernity and civility and secularism — if you discount the barbarism with which it treats its religious minorities such as the Christian Copts. And, despite a peace treaty with Israel whereby it regained all the land it lost when it invaded Israel, Egypt can not be considered a good neighbor. Instead, it plays a two-faced game that is overtly helpful or neutral or statemanlike but in actuality is hostile towards Israel. Smuggling by the Gaza arabs through tunnels that exit in Egypt is a case in point. As Efraim Inbar tells us, "Egyptian behavior is intriguing and cunning," designed to keep Israel off-balance and engaged in conflict with Hamas.  READ MORE   EGYPT'S MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD AND IRAN by Mehdi Khalaji   Viewing the Muslim world as engaging in a bitter contest between Shi'ites and Sunnis may be a reasonable generalization for the long run but it's is a poor predictor of local and special-purpose political ties. Shi'ite Iran has long supported Sunni Hamas, which was established by the Sunni Muslim Brotherhood (MB), an organization that has a strong base in Egypt. And Iran helped shape Islamist revivalism in Egypt. Conversely, the fundamentalist MB has helped structure Iran's rigid Islamic ideology, making it the glue in which all of Iran's political, economic and social institutions are set. Mehdi Khalaji examines the ambivalent relationship between MB and Iran, both of which see the West as the enemy they are determined to conquer. Add to the mix the fact that MB has a good chance of governing Egypt when Mubarak dies; add in Iran's bonding with Hamas; add that both Iran and MB are successfully expanding. It could be an explosive mix.  READ MORE   AN OPENING TO IRAN? THEY'VE SOLD US THIS RUG BEFORE by Michael Rubin   Michael Rubin traces the history of how we have tried over the years to reduce Iran's hostility by diplomatic means. He points out that Obama's announced willingness to talk without preconditions with Iran is not new. "Washington and Tehran have never stopped talking; indeed, many of Obama's supposedly bold initiatives have been tried before, often with disastrous results." As example, when the Iranians held our men hostage, Carter's pleas to the Iranians to sit and talk encouraged Iran to make ever more outrageous demands. "In fact, Obama's inattention to timing and target replicates Carter's failure. His outreach to Ahmadinejad" might well make Ahmadinejad a hero and winner of the forthcoming election. Hardly a wish come true.  READ MORE     The previous set of essays looked at examples of states deeply steeped in the compleat Islamic view of how the world should behave in all aspects of life. The essays in the next set of essays look at Muslim society generically: how it is anchored in Koranic teachings and how it functions today, whether it be in control of the government or embedded in a larger society. ISLAM, WAR, AND DECEIT: A SYNTHESIS by Raymond Ibrahim   Raymond Ibrahim has previously written about the Islamic view that waging war against infidels is a continuous process, with only a single acceptable endpoint. He was distressed that the connection between Koranic doctrine and the deceitfulness with which Islam wages war is ignored in the West. (See here.) In this essay, he explores in detail the importance the Koran itself bestows on the use of deceit in war and how seriously modern-day Islamic practioners of war and apologists for Islam take this instruction. As Ibrahim concludes: "...any Muslim who closely observes Sharia law — the definition of a Muslim — ... will always have a 'divinely sanctioned' right to deceive, until 'all chaos ceases, and all religion belongs to Allah.'"  READ MORE   THE PLIGHT OF WOMEN UNDER ISLAMISM: TIME FOR MUSLIMS TO SHED THE DENIAL by M. Zuhdi Jasser   "Wife seeks divorce. Husband beheads her." We'd expect this to be a sensational, long-running news story, with reporters obsessively exploring every facet. Did the husband's religion really gave him permission to murder his wife? Was he was the "moderate Muslim" he claimed to be? It didn't happen. M. Zuhdi Jasser explores an important issue this 'non-story' highlights: denial in both the Main Street Media and in the American Muslim community. As a reader of the story sarcastically commented, "There we go again, wanting to impose our culture on someone else."  READ MORE   'MODERATE' MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD CLERIC IS ANYTHING BUT by Steve Emerson   Steve Emerson writes of Sheikh Yusuf Al-Qaradawi, spiritual leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, a man who can speedily organize mobs when they are needed, a man noted for his organizational and leadership abilities, a man with a ferocious hatred of Jews. Despite his connections to terrorist financing and his fatwas that encourage using women suicide-murderers and murdering homosexuals and apostates, he has a cadre of prominent apologists who insist he's a moderate Muslim — and this lie is often repeated as fact in the Main Stream Media. Of course, within the Muslim milieu, his extremist statements may be moderate. (For additional information on his position in the Muslim Brotherhood, read this and this.)  READ MORE   PALESTINIAN ARAB CHILDREN DYING TO KILL: PURPOSELY SACRIFICING CHILDREN by Eli E. Hertz   Brainwashing is retooling someone's belief system. In a recent example, it's been found the Israelis had to brainwash their soldiers in order to get them to expel fellow Jews from their homes in Gush Katif, Gaza in the summer of 2005. It doesn't seem the right way to describe what the Palestinian Arabs are doing to their children. As Eli Hertz writes, the children are taught from toddler-age to hate and to desire to kill fellow human beings. Maybe we need a new word: the Arabs braindirty their children, so they grow from little monsters to big monsters, with little sense of humanity or decency. This is truly child abuse.  READ MORE   OMS — OFFENDED MUSLIM SYNDROME AND SELF-HELP SUPPORT GROUPS by Red Square of People's Cube   The People's Cube is a very funny website that makes some very serious points. This article highlights the Islamists' talent for playing victim while making pests of themselves. The ability of the Muslim to be offended by almost anything is also noted and cures are thoughtfully provided.  READ MORE   WALKING AWAY FROM ISLAM Front Page Magazine interviews Dr. Syed Kamran Mirza   Dr. Mirza was born into a family of devout Muslims in Bangladesh and received a religious education, which didn't include a translation from the Arabic. In this interview, he talks about the events that initially shook his faith but it wasn't until he began studying the Qur'an that he rejected Islam. Speaking about the many terror groups and their ever-changing names, he says, "... their ultimate connection is of course their giant umbrella organization of modern day Islamic Jihad called Al-Qaeda — which is well connected to Islam and Qur'anic teachings." We should take seriously his assertion that Islamic terrorism "...is a more dangerous and deadlier phenomenon than communism." He makes the point that it is not a winning strategy to appease the Muslims or to babble that "[t]errorists are not real Muslims, Islam is a religion of peace." "Remember," he reminds us, "Muslims do believe strongly that Allah is working behind their ulterior plan of converting the entire earth under the fold of Islam; they call it peace or surrender."  READ MORE     England is one of the many countries in Europe that are excellent examples of countries coming very close to the brink. People such as Aude Signoles — a political scientist, an expert on Palestinian communities and decidedly pro-Palestinian — fear that Europe is growing less sympathetic to the Arabs. "Europe fears an Islamist threat, whether internal or external, and this has begun to change the overall views on the Israel-Palestine conflict." Most observers, however, believe that Europe must make a strong assertion of its own identity and very soon, or it will be overwhelmed by Islam within a few years. These essays explore the theme. Several focus on what's happening to Geert Wilders. Is this the start of a reaction to the Muslim takeover or just another indicator that it's happening? MULTICULTURALISM, SELF-INFLICTED DEFEAT OF THE WEST AND THE TRIUMPH OF ISLAM by Fjordman   Fjordman is one of the great essayists of our time, providing us with reasoned analyses of trends others do not perceive until long after he has discussed them. This essay is somewhat different. Oh, he definitely makes the case that Britain is fast being Islamicized, perhaps irretrivably, by the Muslims — and America may not be far behind. But the tone is clearly not dispassionate. He mourns for the England that was and regrets what England — as well as all of Europe — is allowing itself to become.  READ MORE   THE BANALITY OF EVIL by Mark Silverberg   In this essay, Mark Silverberg gives us a good sense of the ominous anti-semitic environment in which English Jews now live. David Dastych, who sent Think-Israel this article wrote, "This is an excellent article showing how dangerous is an anti-Semitism of today and how indulgent are the media and societies of Europe towards islamist radicalism and terrorism. Euroarabia is more and more a reality than a theoretical notion. The anti-Semitic excesses in Europe are nothing but a prognostic of a great danger the Western civilisation is facing now and will be facing in the years to come."  READ MORE   THE CUT-AND-OMIT TV NEWS by Odd Sverre Hove   This essay is a case study of the biased pro-Arab news coverage in Middle East reporting by a particular Norwegian T.V. station, Dagsrevyen. Odd Sverre Hove describes how Dagsrevyen presented the start of the second Intifada in 2000 and the lynching of Israeli reservists in Ramallah, and how, because essential facts were omitted, both accounts differed from the reality. Sad to say, Hove is accurately describing the "normal" state of TV coverage of the Arab-Israeli conflict not only by Dagsrevyen but by most TV news stations in Europe — and for any time period.  READ MORE   THE LANCET'S MISDIAGNOSIS OF GAZA by Steven Plaut   In England, the increase in both insensitive anti-semitism and "sensitivity" to Muslim desires go hand in hand with a corruption in standards of many of England's institutions. Medical journals would seem unlikely candidates for politicizing issues but they, too, have been affected. The leading British medical journal, the Lancet has disregarded scholarly standards for several years now and happily pimps for the Arab cause against both Israel and America. They recently issued a defective monograph on Gaza and Arab health. It has reminded Steven Plaut of some earlier excesses by the Lancet.  READ MORE   I'M GOING TO MISS WESTMINSTER ABBEY by Omri Ceren   Fjordman's essay provided us with a keen summary of how sharia law is gaining power in England and Mark Silverberg focused on the concomitant rise of anti-semitism. This essay by Omri Ceren recounts some significant details that highlight how rapidly England is changing. the Muslims are demanding special treatment almost as fast as officials in the police, the church, the schools and in parliament are picking up the pace in satisfying their demands. The situation is well beyond the amusing bits we've heard about: abolishing piggy banks because Muslims don't eat pork; not allowing Brits to eat lunch openly during Ramadan because their Muslims coworkers are fasting; and changing educational standards to accomodate Muslim students. The much diminished pride in England's Christian and democratic roots is too weak to withstand a resurgent and often violent Islam. The English are responding by adopting practices that arise from Islamic ideology, including a rapidly-growing overt and even violent hatred of the Jews.  READ MORE   GEERT WILDERS AND THE FIGHT FOR EUROPE by Bat Yeor   We should all take to heart Bat Yeor's right-on-target analysis of what the persecution of Geert Wilders really signifies: "In its efforts to defend the 'true image' of Islam and combat its defamation, the Organization [of the Islamic Conference (OIC) ] has requested the UN and the Western countries to punish "Islamophobia" and blasphemy. Among the manifestations of Islamophobia, in the OIC's view, are European opposition to illegal immigration, anti-terrorist measures, criticism of multiculturalism, and indeed any efforts to defend Western cultural and national identities. The OIC has massive funding from oil sources, which it lavishly spends on the Western media and academia and in countless 'dialogues.' It influences Western policy, laws, and even textbooks through pressures brought by Muslim immigrants and by the Western nations' own leftist parties."  READ MORE   WHAT I PLANNED TO SAY IN THE HOUSE OF LORDS by Geert Wilders   What is happening to Geert Wilders, a film maker and a member of the Dutch parliament — Holland is a country traditionally tolerant of deviant life styles — epitomizes the Orwellian world we seem to be living in. Wilders mades a film that is billed as "controversial." It may be distasteful, impolitic, impolite, but how controversial can it be when it is mostly citations from the Koran appropriate to film strips of actual (not reconstructed) events? (See the film here.) He was chastized because he — not the Koran, not Muslim terrorists — is committing a hate crime! What happened to him is a smaller-scale version of what the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) is pushing through the UN — namely that any criticism of Islam is to be treated as a hate crime, while Muslims and their friends will be allowed to continue to foam at the mouth vilifying all other religions. Wilders was then not allowed entry into England. This is the speech he would have given there.  READ MORE     These next essays chronicle some institutions and groups that provide a home for foisting Muslim ideology onto America. The pressure is more subtle than in countries where Islamic ideology has sway. In his new book, Robert Spencer calls it Stealth Jihad, an apt term, which, as he writes, is subverting America without guns or bombs. Saudi Arabia and the Muslim Brotherhood are sources of money, ideology and organizational tools; and the Saudis, in particular, can pay for a lot of help. We look now at Middle East Studies programs and the media, churches and disaffected Jews. To add to our problems, governmental organizations help introduce Islamic ideology — the Treasury Department giving courses in Sharia banking, as an example (see previous issues). The essay on the U.S. Army War College and Hamas is about another infiltration. And the prisons have for years proven to be a ever-renewable source of converts to Islam. Some oddities about the associations that Islamists have formed are hard to explain. The joining together of white Marxists, black liberation theologists and Islamists, who still view slavery as acceptable, is real but not explicable in strict ideological terms. Homosexuals march for Palestinians and feminists excuse the treatment of women in Arab countries, but neither of these groups thrive in Koran-dominated countries.   TWENTY-YEAR PLAN FOR USA: ISLAM TARGETS AMERICA by Dr. Anis Shorrosh   This is a reposting of an article that first appeared in the May-June 2004 issue. This was the introduction: "It is commonly believed that at the moment, Islamists are focused on ridding the Middle East of Jews and other 'foreigners'. The battle for America is to come later. Dr Anis Shorrosh disagrees. He believes Islamists have already begun an intensive attack on America. This is his checklist of what they have already begun to do."  READ MORE MUSLIMS IN AMERICA by Kathy Shaidle   This is the start of a series of articles on how far and on how many fronts radical Islam has infiltrated America. It is interesting to compare Kathy Shaidle's Overview to Shorrosh's steps in an Islamic takeover (see above). Viewed as separate events, the trend is easy to ignore. It is only when the various encroachments are put in context does a pattern begin to emerge. In this issue, Shaidle examines the American prisons, where so many prisoners have been recruited into Islam.  READ MORE   SCARY COURT CASES by Tom McLaughlin   Tom Mclauglin discusses two impossible-to-believe current court cases: one against the American, Roger Barnett; the other against the Dutchman, Geert Wilders. In the National Review, Bat Yeor writes that Wilders persecution was an instant of a ever-growing problem — in criminalizing "Islamophobia," Europe is trashing its own culture to appease Islamists (see Bat Yeor's article above). The Barnett case is equally outrageous — illegals running the border are suing Barnett for stopping them. (I wonder how they knew what lawyer to hire and where did they get the money to do so?) Are we playing catch-up with Europe in succumbing to Islamist coercion?  READ MORE   HAMAS'S ACADEMIC CHEERLEADERS by Cinnamon Stillwell   Wouldn't you think that all the Middle Eastern Studies departments still led by the ghost of Edward Said would make some sheepish apology because their wise words and predictions about the Middle East became part of the 9/11 meltdown? Or why don't they just shut up. But judging from Cinnamon Stillwell's citations, they are still out there making bizarre assertions, demonizing Israel, making saints of the Arab murderers. As she says, "The next time one of these 'experts' purports to educate the masses on this most crucial of conflicts, consider the source."  READ MORE   U.S. ARMY WAR COLLEGE PUBLISHES APOLOGIA FOR HAMAS by Steve Emerson   Ever since George Bush declared Islam was a peaceful religion soon after 9/11, we've been in the nightmarish position of promoting the ideas of the enemy who declared war on us. Steve Emerson writes about a particularly bizarre example: our Army War College — those are the people that educate the people in charge of making major decisions in fighting our wars — has just issued a monograph that "is more accurately described as an apologia for Hamas" and that "consistently demonizes Israel and its legitimate defense of national sovereignty under international law." What a far cry from World War 1, when Americans renamed sauerkraut — with its German association — Liberty cabbage.  READ MORE   DUST OVER CAMPUS LIFE: UCLA AT A CROSSROAD by Judea Pearl   A recent "symposium, organized by UCLA's Center for Near East Studies (CNES), was billed as a discussion of human rights in Gaza." It of course was nothing of the sort — it was a prolonged one-sided mendacious rant against Israel. What made it particularly poisonous is, as Judea Pearl notes, that it was written up in the campus newspaper as "Scholars Say Attack on Gaza an Abuse of Human Rights," to which the good name of the University of California was attached..."[emphasis added] This trend of appropriating the power of a passive University will continue to happen as long as Jewish academics are too timid or too imbued with a "live and let live" mentality when they are confronted by a group of agressive pro-Arab academics, who are determined to demonize Israel, Zionism and Judaism. Aside from the tarnished name of the University, which preaches 'free speech' but doesn't make sure it isn't suppressed by intimidation, the other victims were the Jewish students, who saw that their elders were too timid to create a unified front to defend academic freedom — and them. Judea Pearl believes things may be going to change. Let's hope this isn't wishful thinking.  READ MORE   ANTI-ZIONIST PROPAGANDA TECHNIQUES: TWO JOURNALISTS AND AN ACADEMIC by Richard H. Shulman   Richard Shulman examines several prop-ed pieces, two from major newspapers and one by an academic in an internet group. The reputation of the newpapers and the academic standing of the writer do much to persuade the reader he is receiving impartial, in-depth information about the particular story. There is some background information, there are the details that make the story interesting and there is a sizing up of the alleged "important issues", all in an easy-to-swallow capsule. There is also, unfortunately, intemperate bias, distortions, omissions and misinformation, which may condition the reader to come to a particular conclusion but, unfortunately, they prevent him from acquiring an understanding of what is really going on.  READ MORE   THE PREDICTABLE PALESTINIAN PROPAGANDA PLOY by Leslie Sacks   Fox News is constantly being demonized by the more leftist press because it doesn't automatically condemn Israel. Yet it too has its staunch pro-Muslim advocates, the dramatic though seldom accurate Geraldo Rivera, and its guru when there's a crisis, Hanan Ashwari. As Leslie Sacks writes, "[Ashwari] harangues the audience with emotional and outrageous untruths, with nary a criticism. The interviewers, it seems, go mute in the face of such passionate, well-spoken English from the West Bank." Surely, there are better ways for Fox to be fair and balanced in its reporting.  READ MORE   JIMMY CARTER, ISRAEL, THE CHURCH, AND THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY by Paul Charles Merkley   Paul Merkley writes that "[a]s an evangelical Christian, Jimmy Carter knows that most fellow-evangelicals regard the coming-into-existence of Israel ... as a proof of the validity of the Word of God..." But over time he has moved away from his stated commitment to this view to a "Palestinian counter-historical narrative — how the Canaanites became the Arabs." "To enter into argument with this counter-history is a hopeless task, as it stands entirely on re-iterated fantasy." Merkley points out that "Carter attributes his reformed perspective" to the urgings of Anwar Sadat, who has written "The assassination of Arab brethren like Goliath, by Jewish sheep-herders like David, is the sort of shameful ignominy that we must yet set aright in the domain of the occupied Palestinian homeland." By now, Carter has gone "...beyond classic replacement theology [God has shifted his promises to the Jews to the Church] to also include the Muslims. He could be considered just another hard-working apologist for the Palestinian Arabs, defaming both Jews and fellow-evangelicals who disagree with him, but given his stature, he has opened up yet "another front of intra-Church conflict."  READ MORE     PART II: ISRAEL BEARS THE BRUNT Through no fault of its own, Israel has been thrust into the front lines of fighting back Islamism. It couldn't have happened at a worse time. Her Marxist citizens — who control the media — are so intent on pleading the claims of the Palestinian Arabs to the Land of Israel, they ignore the predictable endpoint: if they are successful, they will be massacred. While the American administration was ambivalent, Israel frittered away the opportunity to solidify her irrevocable claim to all of Israel — including the Territories — and reduce the strength of her enemy's proxies — Hezbollah, Hamas, Fatah and friendly Egypt. Now she confronts an American administration which is starting to act as if ideologically committed to a Muslim/Marxist view of the world. The outline is clear. Israel is not willing to be submerged into Islam. Despite its weak leadership and Marxist media, it hasn't knuckled under. So big non-military guns are trained on it by respectable institutions within the United Nation and/or affiliated with it. The Catholic Church, which never deviated from its fight against Communism, has shown an uncharacteristic timidity in confronting Islam. Europe, which has few allies to help it resist being taken over by Islam, has manifested bizarre behavior. Instead of fighting Islam, it fights a proven ally — Israel. Moreover, Israel has an internal enemy: Marxist Jews embedded in its universities are so cocooned in their ideology, they also fight Jews, not Arabs. We also discuss the recent war in Gaza and Gaza's overlords, Hamas. We remind the reader that many of the problems are directly traceable to the unfathomable decision to herd the Gaza Jews out of Gaza in the summer of 2005, leaving a unmonitored area for the Palestinian Arabs to do what they wanted. What they did was to toss missiles, lob bombs and do their suicide-murder shtick. The final sections are on why it's time the Jews asserted what is true: they own the Land of Israel. And that includes the Territories. We discuss some non-solutions and present some solutions that are currently being tossed around in the media and think-tanks.   The essays in this set mostly deal with non-Islamic (or putative non-Islamic) institutions that display in-your-face anti-semitism. Institution-sponsored anti-semitism comes from the U.N. and its affiliates. The media and academics are active players as are a minority of the Protestant Evangelicals. And we are hearing again from unmuzzled bishops of the Catholic Church. Shades of Father Coughlin! But, as Kenneth Levin points out, Israel's major problems stem from poor decisions it has made — i.e., accepting the Oslo Accord and sticking to it long after it was obviously not working and then making Gaza judenfrei — to accomodate its enemy at the expense of its own citizens.   IS ISRAEL DOOMED by Kenneth Levin   Kenneth Levin writes that "[i]n addition to the animosity of the Arab world, Israel is faced with much hostile sentiment in Europe, fed by traditional anti-Semitism, by leftist anti-Americanism and association of Israel with America, by perverse, ahistorical leftist twisting of the Israeli-Arab conflict into Israeli colonialists brutalizing the supposedly indigenous population, and by the European media being house organs for anti-Israel bigotry of all these pedigrees." Add in the hate exhibited by various organs of the United Nations, peace-at-any-price Israelis, radicalized Israeli Arabs, estranged diapora Jews, the threat of nuclear annihilation and the constant barrage of rocket fire. That's a lot of ill-will directed against a tiny country. Yet its major problems seem of its own making: suffering Hezbollah attacks for years and then attacking without real preparation; expelling the Jewish residents of Gaza; and most stupidly, its pretending it had peace partners, when all these partners wanted was to destroy Israel. It needs to get over its "desire to propitiate its enemies, to see salvation in concessions and self-reform and to ignore the nature and the dimensions of the threat." This is a very wise assessment.  READ MORE   PERVERSE CHILDREN by Patricia Berlyn   Patricia Berlyn provides us an insightful look at the "self-hating" Jew. She points out that for these perverse children, "[i]t is not enough for them to cast off a Jewish identity and merge into the mainstream; they must take on the identity of the most Judeophobic elements of that mainstream." Their talent for inventing reasonable-sounding but spurious arguments have provided the Judeophobes and the recently-invented people, the "Palestinians", some of their best material.  READ MORE   MAKING THE WORLD JUDENSTAATREIN by Irwin Cotler   Irwin Cotler describes the rise of a new type of anti-semitism. "... classical or traditional anti-Semitism is the discrimination against, denial of or assault upon the rights of Jews to live as equal members of whatever host society they inhabit. The new anti-Semitism involves the discrimination against the right of the Jewish people to live as an equal member of the family of nations — the denial of and assault upon the Jewish people's right even to live — with Israel as the 'collective Jew among the nations.' Judenstaatrein applies to the Jewish state as judenrein does to jews. Cotler describes some characteristics of Judenstaatrein anti-semitism: it is overtly proposed by states; it is unabashedly proclaimed in terror-state proxies: the terror organizations of Hamas, PLO, Hizbullah, etc.; it has the weight of Islamic clerics and media behind it. Classic anti-semitism used the language of racism; this brand uses the benign words of humanism and civil rights. This article suggests that we can no longer pretend that those who want to destroy Israel are not gunning for Jews everywhere. This article needs to be taken seriously.  READ MORE   PLANNING FOR DURBAN II — A CONFERENCE ON RACISM SCRIPTED BY RACISTS by Eye on the U.N.   We present excerpts from Eye on the U.N. Reports on the Planning Committee as recorded by Anne Bayefsky. The President of the Planning Committee is Libya; Iran is a Vice-President and non-countries like the Palestinian Delegation can help set the agenda. The Arab Bloc dominated the discussions, while the delegates from European Union bobbled their heads in agreement. What is disheartening is that the American Administration sat silent while the 'Zionism is Racism', the 'Arabs are victims of islamophobia', 'the Palestinians need protection', and 'the Holocaust might have happened, maybe' themes were locked in so that there can be no discussion about them at Durban II — the media can already write the pronouncements that will be coming out of the April Durban II Conference. It is also disappointing that the American Jewish Committee didn't kick up a storm, just a polite rejoinder. Yeah, that will work.  READ MORE   THE HOLOCAUST IN ARAB PUBLIC DISCOURSE: HISTORICIZED POLITICS AND POLITICIZED HISTORY by Mikael Tossavainen   The Planning Committee for Durban (see above) is dominated by the Arab/Muslim countries that are imposing their views concerning the Holocaust, Zionism and the Arab-Israeli conflict on the documents that will be issued as the opinion of the United Nations. Mikael Tossavainen examines attitudes towards the Holocaust as expressed in the Arab media by Arab scholars, clerics and politicians. The Iranian leadership has frequently issued statements denying the historicity of the Holocaust and/or believing the Jews were responsible for the evil done. This is, of course, well-known. What is not usually recognized is that most of the Arab world, thanks to their leaders, has the same opinion. The result is the paradox that the Arabs and Iranians both deny and praise the Holocaust; they allege that the Zionists created the Holocaust "myth" while asserting that the Holocaust happened but it was a collusion between the Nazis and Zionists. They are sure the Holocaust wasn't as bad as the Jews paint it but the Jews are behaving like Nazis to the Palestinian Arabs. Gifted in fantasy, many of the Arab "thinkers" have created elaborate stories out of whole cloth, such as the theory that the Nazis moved to Israel — which nicely ignores that some Nazis did indeed move to Arab countries. Unlike the Europeans, who are reexamining their history, they seem eons away from examining their complicity in the Holocaust — how the Grand Mufti Haj Amin al-Hussein actively encouraged Hitler to murder Jews as the only solution and how he recruited men to fight with the Nazis against the Allies.  READ MORE   IT'S ALL THE ZIONISTS' FAULT by Doug Ross   If you believe the theme of the Doug Ross's photo essay below — that it's all the fault of the Zionists, the JOOZ — you're in good company. People who read the Times (almost any large-sized Times will do) or listen to BBC or CNN do, if they believe their news media. The Mainstream Media are terrified of calling a terrorist a terrorist; and seldom are the words Muslim or Islam written or spoken within 50 words of even the unkindest cut the wordsmiths can think to use — militant. The Media aren't about to put themselves in jeopardy by stating the obvious fact that most of the terror in the world today is created by Muslims. But you gotta blame someone. The Jews are a good choice. They aren't into beheading people who insult them.  READ MORE   RIGHT OF REPLY: WAR, HUMAN RIGHTS AND DEMOCRACY by Gerald M. Steinberg   The New Israel Fund NIF) purports to have Israel's interest in mind. In practice, as Gerald Steinberg points out, much of their funding goes "to the leaders of anti-Israel campaigns in the media, the United Nations and other venues" — and to an active program of covering up some of this questionable support. Supporting Arab minority rights, in practice, has meant funding places such as Adalah, which joins other Arab groups that loudly deny Israel's right to defend itself — to do so is considered bloodthirsty — but they have never condemned Arab missile attacks against Israeli civilians. Steinberg doubts that "this is what most NIF donors expect — particularly those who give through their local Jewish federations."  READ MORE   'LAWFARE:' ANOTHER WEAPON IN THE JIHAD AGAINST ISRAEL by Richard L. Cravatts   Winning in the courtroom isn't exactly like playing poker, where the guy with the most money has a huge advantage — but it doesn't hurt to have the money to sue anyone you want to, however flimsy the grounds. After a while, people will not criticize you for fear of a possible lawsuit. This tactic has been used by Muslims in English and American courts against western media and academic critics and has come to be called Lawfare. As used by U.N.-affiliated non-governmental agencies (NGOs), it is used mostly against Israel. As Richard Cravatts concludes, "In an inverted moral universe where enemies of the Middle East's only democratic state regularly seek its destruction, the tactic of lawfare — with its once-meaningful language of genocide, international human rights, and war crimes — is now being used, by state and non-state actors alike, as an alternate, but equally dangerous, weapon in the unrelenting jihad against Israel."  READ MORE   CHRISTIAN FRIENDS AND FOES OF ISRAEL Interview by Manfred Gerstenfeld of David R. Parsons   In an essay above, Paul Merkley wrote about Jimmy Carter and his changed position from a Christian Evangelical who supported Israel to one who adheres strictly to the Arab position. In this article, David Parson generalizes the concepts and describes both the impact of the Holocaust on theological thinking and the major differences between the binary split between points of view. Parsons says, "As adherents of biblical Zionism, we support political Zionism, as the Jewish people need a homeland and safe haven, but we add the element of divine purpose. This sets us entirely apart from the anti-Israeli camp that believes the election of the Jewish people no longer stands. In their theology the Jews are now fair game for criticism and worse. This is the key distinguishing factor between Christian friends and foes of Israel — whether or not you believe the Jews still have an enduring covenantal relationship with God."  READ MORE   THE BISHOP AND THE HOLOCAUST by Denis MacEoin   Richard Williamson, a bishop of the Catholic Church, who was excommunicated two decades ago, was recently brought back into the fold. Denis MacEoin writes, "As an unbeliever who respects the Church as a bearer of moral values, it shocks me, not only that Williamson has been restored to communion with the Church with the sins of racism and the concealment of genocide on his hands, but that representatives of the Church have tried to put blue sea between the bishop's views and his reinstatement." Judging from the Bishop's recent statements, he isn't rehabilitated; and genocidal assaults against Jews aren't ready to be relegated to the past tense.  READ MORE   LOSING TOUCH by SPIEGEL Staff: Stefan Berg, Christoph Schult, Alexander Smoltczyk, Michael Sontheimer and Peter Wensierski   This article by members of the Spiegel Staff is an excellent summary of the strained relations between the Vatican and Jewry following the Pope's revoking the excommunication of a notorious Holocaust denier. His action compounded the damage done by statement such as the one he issued in January just as the IDF entered the Gaza strip. "War and hatred are not the solution to any problem." He had ignored that Arab terrorists routinely seek out Jewish women and children to murder. He had not spoken out during the years Hamas bombed Israel without retaliation. See here for Rabbi Gerald Skolnik's view of the controversy: "I just Don't Understand... Pope Benedict and Holocaust Denial."  READ MORE     This set of articles is about Gaza, Hamas in Gaza and the Gaza Invasion. Andrew McCarthy makes the reasonable proposal that what is necessary is that Israel be allowed to finish off the terrorists — the U.N. or the U.S.A or the E.U. routinely stop her before the job can be completed. The hands-on testimony of a soldier who fought in Gaza suggests that there is also the problem that the Israeli leadership forces the IDF to pull its punches, signal its moves and allow Hamas leaders escape paths. The politicians are more interested in good press than in protecting Israel's citizenry by letting the IDF fight to win. Other essays detail the interaction between Hamas and governmental bodies such as UNRWA; between Hamas and other Gaza terror groups; between Hamas and Iran; and between Hamas and the media, which accepts each new lie from Hamas as truth. THE GAZA WAR 2009: HISTORY AND PERSPECTIVES by Seth J. Frantzman   Seth J. Frantzman first presents the background to the recent invasion of Gaza by the IDF. He then discusses the logic and illogic of concepts important in the discourse about the invasion. There is first the difference between the European view that humanity prefers peace to war and the Islamic view that there is to be constant turmoil until the entire world belongs to Islam — this had consequences in the inappropriate solutions the interfering Europeans proposed. Israel's supposed disproportionate force received a lot of media censure; and it is true that relatively few Israelis died from the rocket attacks, but that was not for lack of trying on the part of Hamas. Then there is the media's disproportionate fixation on Israel and its disregard for "more bloody conflicts, rage elsewhere in places such as Kashmir, Sri Lanka and Sudan." As Frantzman writes, "The question should not be why the international community, which is to say western people, care so much about what happens in Gaza, but why they have so rarely cared about what happens to other people in the world."  READ MORE   ISRAEL, GAZA AND INTERNATIONAL LAW by Jean-Jacques Surbeck   This article was occasioned by a newpaper op-ed piece that falsely asserted that Israel was legally at fault when it invaded Gaza. The article also flaunted a flaming red herring that implied that Israel was reckless in its military action: "Defenders of Israel's military actions sometimes counter that Israel cannot afford to abide by international humanitarian law when it is endangered by a ruthless enemy" is a poor description of Israel's meticulous avoidance of civilian casualties, a difficult job considering that the terrorists waged war from ordinary civilian houses, hospitals and schools. Jean-Jacques Surbeck, an attorney specializing in International Humanitarian Law provides us with the actual legal facts. War crimes there were. Hamas committed them.  READ MORE   BREAKING THE WILL OF THE PALESTINIANS: NO POLITICAL OR LEGAL PROTECTION FOR HAMAS by Andrew C. McCarthy   Andrew McCarthy argues that what Israel needs from America in its fight against Hamas is to be allowed to finish the job of destroying their ability — and even their desire — to terrorize Israel. For America, this means recognizing that the "Palestinians" aren't inflicted with Hamas — they chose Hamas. Hamas doesn't just represent them politically. Hamas represents their aspirations and their ideology. America needs to give up on the "fantasy that the Palestinians are legitimate actors worthy of statehood and its privileges." Neither Hamas or Fatah or any other group seeking power is willing to seek "peaceful coexistence with Israel." Were they to do so, they'd lose the support of the populace. We can also help Israel by making sure the U.S.A. doesn't join the 1977 Protocol I to the Geneva Conventions, which were "designed for the benefit of terrorist organizations, national-liberation movements, and third-world tyrannies." We need to understand McCarthy's clear definition of Protocol I and its implications — it attempts to subordinate military actions to inapplicable legal standards. "On the matter of who is a civilian, Protocol I is a humanitarian disaster." Like Lawfare, it can do much harm to Israel, and to us.  READ MORE   HOW ONE SOLDIER SURVIVED THE WAR IN GAZA by Joshua Eastman   Joshua Eastman is a young American who made aliyah, a religious Jew, and, for more than a year, a soldier in the IDF. In this essay, he shares with us his experience participating in the Gaza invasion, his observations and his emotions, from the first tense, rumor-filled days before the invasion through the time he saw action. He writes about the bravery and the pain, the strength he drew from his faith in God and the cold bodily fear he endured every time he "squeezed the trigger, every time a missile landed nearby." He wasn't allowed to fire on civilians but, as he writes, "I saw the twelve year olds with missiles and RPGs strapped to their backs. I saw that it was with sadness and great anger Israeli troops recognized the need to fire on people who crossed the red line, the danger zone which meant they saw us, and knew where we were. Old people mined with bombs, children armed with detonators, tunnels that opened in the ground to swallow our soldiers." This is an awesome essay.  READ MORE   A VIEW FROM THE TARGET ZONE by Haim Harari   Doctor Haim Harari is a trained observer. In this essay he enlarges on the details — the level at which most reporters stop — so we understand what has been happening in Gaza. He makes some important points. While Israel is scourged for every civilian it kills inadvertedly, no one complains that Hamas terrorists routinely target Jewish civilians, especially children. The rockets shoot randomly — so "they could not possibly be aimed at military or strategic targets." At home, Hamas — and Fatah is no different — uses women and children as shields. It's win-win. The world will complain should Israel hits a shield to get at a terrorist and Hamas gains sympathy; and, as is more likely, if Israel doesn't shoot because of the shields, the terrorists are safe. Since 2005, when Hamas took over the Gaza strip completely, it has had the option of constructing a functioning pre-state entity or waging war on Israel. It chose war. ".... rockets were now stored in mosques, schools, hospitals and normal apartment buildings. ... Schools financed by the UN were used in order to launch mortar shells and missiles." Harari also writes of UNRWA, which, almost single-handedly, has perpetuated the Arab refugee problem since 1948. Commenting on the various lies and hoaxes in which Hamas indulges, he says, "That the Hamas murderers use these tactics, lies and methods, is not at all surprising. That the international community, with all its investigative reporters, swallows these lies so eagerly, without exposing them, is something which demands an explanation."  READ MORE   GAZA BEDFELLOWS: UNRWA AND HAMAS by Claudia Rosett   Claudia Rosett puts the essential facts about the Gaza populace bluntly, "In the current violence of Gaza, we are seeing the fruition of one of the most bizarre creations of modern diplomacy: a UN-supported welfare enclave for terrorists." and "Hamas has been running Gaza as a territory reduced to basically two industries: aid and terrorism." Strip out the fantasy that Hamas is mostly a beneficent social services agency. Strip the cunning propaganda that there's something so unique about the "Palestinian" Arabs that, unlike any other group of refugees in the world, they are never to be resettled anywheres but in the land they claim as their own and until then they are entitled to the services of an entire U.N. agency just for them. Strip out diplomat language that tries to hide that the United Nations has been corrupted. And you are left with the essentials Rosett states so well. Instead of being a force to encourage civility and human rights, the U.N. has become another forum for promulgating Arab propaganda and bankrolling terror.  READ MORE   QANA'S GREEN HELMET GUY NOW WORKING FOR HAMAS? by Judi McLeod   The Arabs have acquired a well-deserved reputation for inventing or wildly exaggerating damage they suffer. For months Hamas's leaders were photographed sitting in chambers lit only with candles to prove that Israel was chintzy with supplying Gaza with electricity. It would have been more effective if sunlight hadn't peaked through gaps in the closed curtains. A more complex hoax in Qana in the 2006 Lebanese War was exposed by internet bloggers: in an Arab version of street theatre, Hezbollah personnel rushed from one photographer to the next while holding long-dead children as if they were rushing them to medical care. These photos received extensive exposure on the internet. So it is surprising that one of the more notorious photos from Qana has resurfaced with a new caption — this time the child is said to be a Gazan and its death is attributed to IDF action. Judi McLeod tells us how the latest hoax was discovered and some of the aftermath.  READ MORE   JIHADIST GROUPS IN GAZA: A DEVELOPING THREAT by Yoram Cohen   Just to add another level of complexity, Hamas isn't the only terror group engaging the loyalty of the Palestinian Arabs in Gaza and even in the West Bank. Just as we were sure we knew the players — good terrorists (Fatah), bad terrorists (Hamas) — along come newer, maybe even nastier, splinter groups — who share Al-Qaeda's ideology and imitate their style. Yoram Cohen writes about several of the newer groups operating in Gaza. They are all dedicated to restoring the Caliphate and imposing sharia law universally. They regard Hamas "as insufficiently aggressive in conducting terrorist attacks" and target not only Israel but foreigners, Christians and anything that smacks of unIslamish western influence. Once, Hamas was willing to work with them, but now they are winning recruits from Hamas and gaining the loyalty of the locals. So much for the myth of the po' Palestinians, who want peace but have an evil government.  READ MORE   AN ESCALATING REGIONAL COLD WAR: THE 2009 GAZA WAR by Yigal Carmon, Yael Yehoshua, Ayelet Savyon and H. Migron   Yigal Carmon et al put the Gaza Invasion into a larger context: the regional rivalry between Iran and Saudi Arabia, with Hamas acting as proxy for Iran. They suggest that the Iran-Saudi conflict is key to understanding the Middle East in the 21st century. The "conflict is rooted in Iran's aspirations to regional hegemony — both geostrategic and religious — which pose a threat to Saudi Arabia" and has been sustained with more or less tension since the Iranian Revolution 30 years ago. "Iran's attempt to position itself as a regional military superpower," and its attempts to extend its power into the Arab world after Saddam Hussein's regime fell are additional irritants. The Iran-Syria-Qatar-Hizbullah Axis is mainly Shi'ite but includes Sunni groups that oppose the Saudis. and it is trying to win over Turkey. The Sunni Saudi-Egypt group is trying to win over some of Iran's Sunni allies. Saudi Arabia complains that Iran is interfering in internal Arab affairs and causing dissension; Iran rebuts that Saudi Arabia and Egypt collaborate with America (AKA The Great Satan). The Gaza War "ended with Hamas defeated on the ground" and thus should count as a victory for the non-Iranian camp; i.e., the Saudi-Egyptian side. But Iran boasts of its help to a victorious Hamas and the pro-Saudi camp "accuses Hamas of serving Iranian and Syrian interests rather than those of the Palestinians." Carmon et al suggest the way the two sides are reacting to Israel is moored in the Iran-Saudi struggle, with Iran denouncing any sort of accomodation with Israel as collaboration, while Saudi Arabia wants to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict (on its own terms), to take it off the table.  READ MORE   GAZA IS THE FACE OF A PALESTINIAN STATE by Don Feder   Don Feder in his own inimitable way sums up the facts we know about the Gazan Arabs and their Hamas overlords and the West Bank Arabs and their Fatah/Hamas overlords and draws the right conclusion. This is not a group of people that is ready to set up a state, especially not in Israel's heartland. Not now. Not in the forseeable future. And maybe never.  READ MORE     Lest we forget, we have essays on the Settlers, those driven from their homes in Gaza by their disaster-wreaking government and those who live in Samaria and Judea and eastern Jerusalem — the Territories — who are threatened with the same fate suffered by the Jews of Gaza. What we call the Territories is where Abraham and Sarah lived and were buried, where David was crowned King, where the Jews lived in Biblical times. There was no Tel-Aviv. To briefly review recent history, Jews began settling in the Territories — Gaza, Judea and Samaria (what Jordan called the "West Bank") — after 1967 when Israel was invaded by her Arab neighbors for the second time, fought them back successfully and took back the Territories. Within a few years, the Jews of Gush Katif, Gaza, had developed innovative agricultural techniques and were contributing significantly to Israel's prosperity. By their very presence, they acted as an early warning of impending Arab terrorism. Palestinian Arab terrorism was given a tremendous boost when, in August 2005, the Israeli government exiled the Gazan Jews. Since their expulsion, Gaza has become a safe haven for the Arabs to train various local and foreign terror groups, teach their own children to kill Jews and to manufacture and store huge supplies of deadly armaments. The Sharon-Olmert Kadima continued to harrass the Jewish settlers, in the unswerving belief that it would be able to give this Land to the Arabs in return for peace. Given the history of gross bureaucratic incompetence — most of the 10,000 Jews from Gaza are yet to be resettled in permanent housing (see Fendel, here) — an Israeli government that booted out some of the more than half-million Jewish "settlers" of Judea, Samaria and eastern Jerusalem, is unlikely to be able to cope with additional Jewish political refugees in what is left of Israel. Nevertheless, the war against the settlers continues, by stealth, by harassment, by cutting water and electricity from farmers who keep sheep and goats and grow plants, by treating them unfairly in the courts and in the press. This policy is pursued almost as strongly as the Arabs continue to insist by word and by nasty deed that their objective is to destroy the Jewish State. I for one believe them. THE GAZA WAR REACHES US by Moshe and Rachel Saperstein   Moshe and Rachel Saperstein are essayists who have recorded their experience from the time they lived in Neve Dekalim, Gush Katif, Gaza and since they, with all the other Jews who lived in Gaza, were expelled and given still-temporary housing. Moshe views this war as a pre-election ploy by the Kadima candidates, Barak and Livni, "to erase their wimpish images and be seen as Tough Protectors of the People." The Gaza excursion has no point if Israel leaves without disarming the terrorists, thus allowing them to rebuilt. The Sapersteins live through the sirens, the explosions of missiles and bombs from Gaza, the fear, the overeating of comfort food, the rumors, the interviews with closed-mind reporters, But there's also the miraculous escapes from death and friends. They had felt particularly vulnerable because their temp home is without air raid shelter. Moshe has developed grudging respect for the Government's on-the-fly use of concrete sewer pipes as shelters — which can, at least, withstand shrapnel. Included is the speech Rachel gave at this year's Jerusalem Conference.  READ MORE   DEMONIZED ISRAELI SETTLERS by Barbara Lerner   The inhuman Mumbai terrorists who brutally tortured and massacred foreigners and resident Jews and whose agenda includes imposing Islamic law on the whole world get a better press that the law-abiding, patriotic and gifted citizens of Israel who live in Biblical Israel (the West Bank), who are collectively known as "the Settlers." (pronounced with a sneer in the mainstream media.) In Israel, as Barbara Lerner points out, the government turns "an increasingly blind eye to growing Arab violence against Jews" while routinely taking "... a hyperaggressive, hyperpunitive stance, then responding to nonviolent settler protests with the kind of brutality that would outrage most Americans if the victims were members of any other group anywhere." The settlers do indeed support ideas that the successive suicidal Israeli governments and the pro-Arab "Jewish" groups such as Peace Now do not appreciate. "Settlers claim a right to buy land and live and work on it, anywhere in the Biblical triangle between the River Jordan and the Mediterranean, and between the Red Sea and the Golan Heights, and they act on that right by building and living in communities in places like Hebron, East Jerusalem, Gaza, and Amona." How shocking! They wish to live in the Jewish State as Jews! Lerner also reminds the reader that the "Palestinians" are not the natives, the Jews are not the invaders. Anyone who knows his history and geography knows it is the other way around. But it does make sense for Islam and its adherents to attempt to destroy the Settlers — they are a powerful defense against the Islam's war against Israel — and the West.  READ MORE   A PERSONAL VISIT TO JUDEA by Richard H. Shulman   Richard Shulman's visit to Israel included a tour of Judea, where some of the "Settlers" make their home. He describes accurately the discrimination the Settlers encounter from their own government, which favors the Arab in the law courts and in encounters between Arab and Jew. It hardly seems credible that in the Jewish state, the Jews can be intimidated by the local Arabs. But the Arabs have learned that the Israeli government literally lets them get away with murder and, instead, punishes the Jews who fight back. Some of the bigger happenings make the papers — when police came unexpectedly in the middle of the night and destroyed the home of a Jewish activist in Hebron; or when Jewish girls in their teens were thrown in jail to await trial months away for legally protesting the Gaza expulsion. But Arabs hassle Jews, shoot at/stone/beat up Jews and steal their crops, animals and cars all the time and these "incidents" seldom make the news. Shulman describes examples of "Israeli government complicity with terrorism." And of Arab contempt at Jewish attempts of appeasement.  READ MORE     The Arab states invaded Israel for a second time in 1967. Israel turned the tables and reclaimed Samaria and Judea (Jordan named them the West Bank when it held them from 1948 to 1967) and Gaza. Reclaimed is accurate. The land is Jewish by international law. The Israeli government fears the Jewish state being overwhelmed by a Arab population in the Territories, which has grown, thanks to legal and illegal immigration from the Arab states and generous internal welfare and medical benefits. So the problem is usually stated as an either-or: (1) take over the Territories and become a single state that is likely eventually to lose its Jewish character, given the impressive ability of the Arabs to breed when someone else is footing the bill; or (2) create an (almost certainly hostile) Arab state in the Territories that wedges Israel on both sides and is intertwined with it in Jerusalem. Actually, neither option will bring peace, because the Palestinian Arab leaders, proxies of Iran and Saudi Arabia, continue to plot to destroy Israel, not live in a Jewish State or next to it. In recent years, more and more people realize there is another solution. Why give up Biblical Israel and still be saddled with and/or surrounded by hostile Arabs? Why not transfer the Palestinian Arabs to some part of the vast domain the Arabs own — and keep the Jewish land? The essays in this set make the point that new thinking is essential. The first essay is foundation: the Jews own what was Mandated Palestine and no amount of distortion in the media can change that fact. The next essays make clear that mouthing nonsense that peace depends on creating another Palestinian state makes no sense and could lead to a disaster that would have global impact. They examine essential flaws in the argument that the Arab war against the Jews can be swayed by concessionary negotiations and analyze the misrepresentations made about the Jewish settlements. The rest explore solutions that may be unfamiliar and may be incomplete. But they show promise and stimulate thinking. (See also Martin Sherman's proposal here.) LEGAL RIGHTS AND TITLE OF SOVEREIGNTY OF THE JEWISH PEOPLE TO THE LAND OF ISRAEL AND PALESTINE UNDER INTERNATIONAL LAW by Howard Grief   We are reprinting the article from the July-August 2005 Issue. The introduction read: "In this essay, Howard Grief brilliantly fulfills his objective 'to set down in a brief, yet clear and precise manner the legal rights and title of sovereignty of the Jewish people to the Land of Israel and Palestine under international law.' This paper should be part of your armamentarium for the next time you are told that Resolution XXX of the U.N. guarantees the rights of the Palestinian Arabs to YYY." You can read more about Israel's right to all of Jerusalem and Biblical Israel (AKA West Bank) by reading Howard Grief's articles such as this one. For other essays on international law that states that biblical Israel is a trust in perpetuity for the Jewish people and can not be given away, read Part I of Yoram Shifftan's "A Legal Challenge." and his essay on Gifting. Use the Google box at the top of this page to search on Howard Grief, Yoram Shifftan, legal, mandate and population transfer.  READ MORE   MONOTHEISTIC PAGANISM AND ITS CONSEQUENCES by Professor Paul Eidelberg   A fairytale of our times is that any two groups can come reason together and work out their differences in civility. In this set of essays, Paul Eidelberg explores differences in attitude toward life, living and religion between Jew and Arab that are irreconcilable. Muslims do not see free-will and striving for human development as coming from God — as part of what it means to be made in His image. As Fackenheim has it, the Muslim God — the underpinning of their approach to life — demands "absolute idolatry." It isn't two views of the same God at all. Differences in fundamentals lead to differences in life style. Eidelberg points out that we practice democratic diplomacy, "[which] regards negotiation between adversaries as a means of conciliation requiring mutual concessions leading to lasting agreement and peace," whereas the Arab regards diplomacy as warfare that might be disguised with a veneer of friendliness and an apparent willingness to compromise, but it can end only when he gains his objective. The peace process is a type of negotiation where it is mistakenly assumed the quarrel is over land. It follows that reconciliation can come about if the Jew give up some of his Land for the Arab's promise to discontinue waging war. But, as Eidelberg reminds us, the "21 Arab League countries have 500 times more land than Israel" — they are larger than the U.S.A. Adding all of Israel and the territories won't increase the Arab holdings by a single percentage point. Nor are the Arab leaders interested in the diversified economic prosperity Israel can offer them. "Whereas these bellicose Arabs have no peace of their own to give Israel, peace-loving Jews have no land they can safely and rightly give Arabs." The peace process is a fraudulent ploy to deprive Israel of the small amount of land she has.  READ MORE   A NEW BROOM by Walter Bingham   President Obama has appointed George Mitchell as Middle East envoy to resurrect the dead "peace-process." Mitchell has a reputation for seeming even-handed. In his first hop into the Arab-Israeli arena in 2001, he issued blanded down statements on Arab terrorism while reacting with horror at perfectly legal Israeli settlements. He had faith in the notion that if the Palestinians were given a state, they would become responsible citizens, ensuring Israel's security — a fantasy Hamas in Gaza has securely laid to rest. Walter Bingham is pessimistic that Mitchell's acumen has improved. His activities are unlikely to support Israel's viability, considering the blinkered emphasis his boss places on good relations with Muslims.  READ MORE   REVIEW OF LORDS OF THE LAND: THE WAR OVER ISRAEL'S SETTLEMENTS IN THE OCCUPIED TERRITORIES, 1967-2007 by Moshe Dann   Moshe Dann reviews a recent book on the settlements, which expands on the notion — also promoted by Peace Now — that Jewish settlements are the primary cause of the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians. The authors argue the settlements "have undermined the rule of law, have subverted the democratic decision-making process in Israel..." and are illegal in that the land belongs to the Palestinians. The first two arguments are easily refuted: "All Israeli governments have supported settlements — which were permitted by the Oslo Accords, the only negotiated agreement — because they have been a national, bipartisan effort reflecting Israeli consensus and, at least initially, backed by UN and US resolutions." The notion that the Jews stole Palestinian land has been applied to the current settlements but also to the settlements starting in the late 19th century that led to the rebirth of the Jewish state. The Arabs have certainly charged that Israel itself is illegal. Unfortunately for the Arab claim, there never was a Palestine, or for that matter, a Palestinian people. Historically, from the 1500's, the entire Middle East belonged to the Ottomans. The area that is now Israel, Jordan and the Territories was underpopulated, unsanitary, dirt poor, with no economic resources. It was as neglected — in David Gelernter's words (Weekly Standard, 19Jan09) — "as a rat-ridden empty lot in a burnt-out neighborhood in the middle of nowhere, in the suburbs of nothing. The Jews gradually got possession of an arid stony wasteland ... complete with the odd picturesque, crumbling, dirty town; and they loved it. They turned it into a gleaming, thriving modern nation, not only a military but an intellectual powerhouse." During the Mandate period it was assigned to become a Jewish state, just as the rest of the Middle East was to become an Arab state. Immigrants who had poured in from nearby places and with various ethnic backgrounds were declared to be a people — the Palestinian people — by Arafat in 1964. Their sole purpose was to serve as claimants to Jewish land. I am always amazed when Israeli leftists such as the authors of the book under review are willing to distort the facts to support the Arabs' attempt to destroy Israel. Do they believe they are immune from rampaging Arabs, should the Arabs succeed?  READ MORE   IS A TWO-STATE SOLUTION A ROADMAP TO DISASTER? by Frederic Leder and Ricky Greenfield   Frederic Leder and Richy Greenfield warn Israeli Jews they need to shed some habits learned over two thousand years living in various hostile environments as the underdog and powerless. Jews survived by "using compromise to buy another day or postpone imminent destruction." The environment may still be hostile, but their knee-jerk defensive posture of accomodation has to go, if they wish to survive. The two-state solution which will give Israel's heartland to a noxious, angry people desirous of destroying Israel, is deadly. Israel has first to secure its borders boldly by itself — and that means holding the land from the Mediterranian Sea to the Jordan River. When this is established, she can deal with the secondary problem of how to handle the Arabs within.  READ MORE   A LIKELY SCENARIO FOR THE MIDDLE EAST CONFLICT by No Sharia   In a series of articles, No Sharia has been evolving a detailed plan to fight Sharia in Europe. In this essay, he asks the unthinkable: under what circumstances would Israel be forced into a strategy that could be called Mutual Assured Destruction In The Middle East. He makes the case that given the indifference — if not downright hostility — of so many countries, Israel may be forced into a position where the unthinkable becomes a possibility.  READ MORE   ZIONISM AND WHY BILL MOYERS IS RIGHT ABOUT THE JEWS by Sigmund, Carl and Alfred   This is an updated version of the Sigmund, Carl and Alfred 2006 article entitled "Idiots Guide to Zionism" and was in part "inspired" by Bill Moyers' risible preaching that Jewish violence is a genetic affliction. Click here and here for background on Moyers' remarks.) Zionism has always been about redeeming the Jewish homeland and is part of the daily prayers. This essay talks about the concept as formulated by the Zionists who started coming back to Eretz Yisrael in the late 1800's. As one of the authors' citations point out: "In creating the modern State of Israel, the refugees from a smoldering Europe went on to build a modern, democratic state, with world class educational facilities, institutions and a vibrant economy. The Israelis did in 50 years what the obscenely oil rich Arab nations could not do in 2,000 — make the desert bloom."  READ MORE   HOUSEBREAKING ISLAM by Sultan Knish As a reader of this article by Sultan Knish wrote: " An outstanding take on how the West needs to deal with the Islamic invasion by blogger Sultan Knish. His clear and unambiguous analogy of training a dog with a newspaper and teaching Muslims their limits in Western society is a gem." Yes, indeed.  READ MORE   MORE ACCURACY AND DEPTH NEEDED by David Basch   David Basch proposes that any scheme that means Jews withdrawing from its land is wrong. It may seem necessary in order to separate from the Arabs. But it also "creates Jewish refugees and enable the Arab enemy to transform Israel's eastern territories into Gaza platforms for rocketing Israel's nearby cities." A better strategy is the one advocated by Meir Kahane. Basch suggests that, rather than reflexively labeling Kahane a racist, we should acknowledge that Kahane "recognized early the since proven implacable nature of the Arab enemy and advocated their relocation while retaining the strategic Jewish territories..." In sum, "Israel's survival depend[s] wholly on Israel's strength rather than on insane reeducation programs for these enemies of Israel ... Reeducation is no more a doable program with the Arabs than it would have been for the Nazis. The latter required total defeat to accomplish and no one should imagine the reality is different for Israel's enemies."  READ MORE   THE CASE FOR JUDEA by Obediah Shoher   Obediah Shoher's book Samson Blinded: A Machievellian Perspective On the Middle East Conflict is as claimed: machievellian. His ideas most certainly are not conventional. But considering that conventional political thinkers continue to waste time promoting nice-sounding but disasterous ideas — like creating a bloodthirsty Palestinian State in Israel's heartland — this book is worth exploring for new ideas. In each segment, Shoher's astute observations become the basis for non-dithering procedures to solve some currently sticky problem confronting Israel. In one section of his book, he suggests making Jordan, where Palestinian Arabs are 75% of the population, the Palestinian Arab state. In the segment we present here, Shoher has observed that a religious state can make politically incorrect laws that would be frowned on in a democratic or socialist or dictatorial secular state. From this he argues that the split between the religious Jews and the secularists could be eased by creating a religious state named Judea in Judea and Samaria.  READ MORE   WHEN DEALING WITH PUNKS, THERE'S NO TIME TO BE A LIBERAL by David Warren   When Rudy Giuliani became mayor of New York City, he decreed that ignoring graffiti, small vandalism and petty theft would hence not be ignored by the police. It seemed initially a silly focus, given the city's very large problems. But it worked wonders. In this essay David Warren makes much the same point in reference to Gaza: "...the leading cause of anti-social behaviour is permission. People, and young punks especially, will do things that even they know are malicious because no one will stop them." He writes of the synergy between Hamas, the punks who control Gaza, and UNRWA staff, local Arabs, often Hamas members, who aid Hamas and enable terrorism by generously lending them UNRWA facilities and equipment. UNRWA controls a network of camps in the Territories and in the neighboring Arab countries where successive generation of refugees are provided with an education, medical care, room and board but no jobs. It is no wonder that in Gaza alone, the population is 7 times as large as it was 60 years ago — although it is likely some of the growth is because local Arabs signed up as refugees because the benefits are so good. The "refugees" are raised to believe that they can not live permanently anywhere but in Palestine, which Israel is occupying — so becoming a murderer for the cause is an easy step.  READ MORE   REBUILD GUSH KATIF by Michael Freund   Michael Freund writes, "With Israeli forces back in Gaza, now is the time to right the historical wrong of Ariel Sharon's 2005 Disengagement plan and to reconstitute the exiled Jewish communities of Gush Katif." This would say to the Jihadists: — "... The more you try to kill us, the more we will rebuild. For every Palestinian act of destruction, Israel will undertake an act of reconstruction. For every rocket that has been fired against us, let another Jew return to Gaza to rebuild." For the Arabs who are fed on the beauty of death, seeing their actions result in more Jews thriving in Gaza may be a greater threat than just killing them.  READ MORE     HISTORY SECTION GAZA'S RICH JEWISH HISTORY by Victor Sharpe   Victor Sharpe provides us with some little-advertised facts about Gaza and its role in Jewish history. The association didn't end with Samson's getting his hair and strength clipped. Jewish communities in Gaza were periodically destroyed but Jews came back there over the centuries, during which a succession of foreign powers captured and ruled over Gaza — the latest takeover by Hamas was only made possible because of the folly of the Sharon-Olmert government. Contrariwise, there is no historic association between modern-day Palestinian arabs and the ancient Philistines. The Philistines had disappeared well before Islam came to the area the Arabs who call themselves Palestinians claim as their homeland.  READ MORE   PALESTINE IS A GEOGRAPHICAL AREA, NOT A NATIONALITY by Eli E. Hertz   Eli Hertz points out that Palestine is the name applied from time to time to a geographic area. There is not now and there never was a Palestinian nation. There is not now and there never was a Palestinian country. There is not now and there never was a Palestinian state. The Palestinians are Arabs, 95% of whom — or their great-granddaddies — entered "Palestine" after 1900 for economic opportunities. Hertz recounts some recent history of Philistia.  READ MORE   THE BLOCKADE: HOW THE BRITISH PREVENTED RESCUE by David Krakow   The anniversary of the sinking of the Struma is the 24th of February. David Krakow writes about the attempt by Jews to flee the Holocaust by setting out in a boat, the Struma, to try to run the British blockade and reach Palestine. "British obstruction of rescue ranged from the official level — pressures exerted on the governments of countries through which the Jews had to pass — to an army of intelligence agents who pointed out the 'fugitives' to RAF and Royal Navy reconnaissance and interdiction, even in international waters." Krakow concludes, "It was a long time ago, but some of us can recall that we then quoted Giuseppe Mazzini: 'Without a country of your own you have neither name, voice, nor rights, nor admission as brothers in the fellowship of peoples. You are the bastards of humanity.'"  READ MORE   READERS' BLOG-EDS   This is where our readers get a chance to write opinions and editorials and share articles they find informative. The Blog-Eds page for the month is updated every few days. A Blog-Ed page has a quick list of the articles from which you can access any of the articles immediately. To go to the list, click the "Blog-Eds List" box in the Blue Strip on the top of the Blog-Ed page. 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