THINK-ISRAEL features essays and commentaries that provide context for current events in Israel. The war Islam is waging against Israel and the West is top priority. We report on global anti-Semitism, Islamism and creeping Sharia.We aim to make sense of what's going on.
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What we are talking about in the January–February 2011 Issue
If, in your way of thinking, the opposite of dictatorship is democracy, then what's happening in the Middle East is wonderful. The ice floe didn't crack slowly; it all melted magically. To use imagery Al Gore would believe: it was as if a zillion people suddenly vented CO2-filled breaths in synchrony.
And vent they did. In Iran. In Tunisia. In Egypt. In Libya. In Lebanon. In Yemen. In Jordan. In Algeria, Bahrain, Djibouti. In Iraq. In Kuwait, Morocco and Sudan. Even in Saudi Arabia. Thanks to our media, we have learned that it is youth yearning for jobs and the poor yearning for bread and everybody yearning for democracy that caused it to happen.
It's true there are in Egypt and Iran and maybe in some of the other countries many young people who truly want to live under a western-style democracy. Considering how much Middle Eastern dictators oppress the people, everyone should be eager for democracy, freedom, tolerance and the ability to decide one's one lifestyle. We forget that in an organized Islamic political system based on sharia law, rulers and the majority of their subjects share in common certain values, similar hatreds and biases. Given the intense religious conditioning even in more secular Muslim countries, it is not surprising that as long as basic needs for food and shelter are met, dictators and mullahs can easily incite the populace against foreigners and people of other religions. But the same conditioning traps the rulers. Were they to declare they want to come to peaceful terms with those Islam sees as enemy, the people would likely shift their allegiance and the rulers would soon be replaced by an even more dedicated and brutal gang. In recent history, the people seem always to pick –– or end up with –– a government that is more wicked, more vile, most committed to monstrous acts of violence. The Iranians threw out the Shah and now we have Ahmadinejad. The Palestinian Arabs picked Hamas when given free choice. With the current imminent changes in regime in so many Middle Eastern countries, we might ask, in the immortal words of Tom Lehrer talking about countries wanting the bomb: "Who's next: Who's next?"
SOME VIEW the uprisings in the different countries as unrelated. Our current president, Barack Hussein Obama –– perhaps determined to wrench the title of "American President Most Damaging To The USA" from Jimmy Carter's jaws –– has been selective in which ones he supports. Doing a fast catch–up, he praised the Egyptian rioters whereas he sat on his hands when Iranians took to the streets desirous of regime change. He is most circumspect and hesitant about Libya but he was untroubled that Hizbollah was taking over Lebanon. He seems to believe that the source of global evil and upheaval is Israel and so his biggest worry is that a Jewish family might enlarge its living quarters to give the kiddies another bedroom.
Nevertheless, the uprisings and demonstrations happened so quickly and smoothly, there does seem to have been at least some coordination. One might think the labile hordes of the Middle East had been drummed into action by the Muslim Brotherhood's Yusuf al–Qaradawi just as he had orchestrated the riotous outrage at the Danish cartoons back in 2005. One could almost believe that the small surges and outrages these past few years have been fire drills to test how to pump up the response in different parts of the orchestra, where to send different factions to amplify the noise, how to select the soloists who would speak to the press, how to create the photo opportunities and reward trustworthy media people. And where to place the potties. Even true spontaneity can be put to use. Good ideas can come from anyone anywhere, but it takes intelligent social engineering to turn the idea to effective use.
As Joseph Farah of World Net Daily
http://www.wnd.com/index.php?pageId=257677. 31Jan11
put it,
"...there is a global Islamist revolution under way...
"With revolts going on in Egypt, Tunisia, Pakistan, Yemen, Lebanon and
Jordan, most of them clearly orchestrated from Iran, it's easy to
believe these are unrelated, disconnected uprisings."
[Actually,] "this is the
work of the Muslim Brotherhood (MB), with the aid and encouragement of
Tehran. And the ripple effect of what we're seeing is hard to
overstate. As the leader of Jordan's powerful Muslim Brotherhood,
Hammam Saeed, warned over the weekend [29Jan2011], the unrest in Egypt will spread
across the Mideast and Arabs will topple leaders allied with the
United States."
Frank Salvato, Director of Terrorism Research for BasicsProject.org, has characterized the MB this way: "The Muslim Brotherhood is a world–wide Sunni Islamist movement, which has spawned several religious and political organizations in the Middle East, including al Qaeda, Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, dedicated to the jihadi credo: 'Allah is our objective, the Quran is our Constitution, the Prophet is our leader, struggle is our way, and death for the sake of Allah is the highest of our aspirations.'"
Do I believe the unrest is being manipulated by the Muslim Brotherhood, that beloved and benevolent group favored by our State Dept and our Director of National Intelligence, by the academics who sit on Saudi–established academic chairs and the media who now doesn't have to worry about job security? Just because the terrorists sponsored by the MB say they are out to kill off Israel and America, do I feel the MB is a menace? Do I worry just because they have been major establishers of front groups in the West? Certainly not.
I don't think it's the whole MB. I think there's a small cadre of them –– in my mind I call them the MBC, the Muslim Brotherhood Cadre. They have spent the last 90 years establishing mosques, stocking them with clerics who preach the need for Islam to be supreme and who are skillful at igniting idealists and psychopaths with the desire to join in this most worthy mission. They are the teachers, the tacticians, the trainers, the script writers, the spine stiffeners. They believe in their way–of–life and their love–of–death. They believe that to live a proper Islamic life, they need only model themselves on the thoughts and actions of that perfect man, Mohammed.
Their unswerving dedication melts resistance in those of other religions who have less zeal and dedication. Mainstream Protestants and Reform Jewry have turned their organizations away from spiritual yearning and the contemplation of how to live in social harmony in a complex society to the simpler goal of social betterment for mankind, where implementation depends on the goal of the month –– multiculturalism, achieving parity in monetary distribution, even academic and job quotas to prove we have no quotas. Islam may have very different ideas on how to achieve the Glory of a UniThink society than its Western allies but it is very strong, clad in the armor of its original, rigid 7th–Century mentation.
Make no mistake about it. The MBC isn't looking to fit into other groups. It isn't interested in tolerating alien ways of thinking or alternative life styles. It wants the world run by Sharia law. And you simply can not have a robust sharia framework within western law, any more than the sun can shine in the middle of the night. If the sun is shining, it isn't night, no matter what the clock says. There really are binary situations. Not all matters are gray.
Sharia brings with it foul-mouthed anti–semitism, an expectation that women, children and servants will be politely subservient and that dhimmi politicians and academics will continue to restructure society to convenience Muslims. There will be no reciprocation. Putting foot baths in college bathrooms and closing traffic on busy streets to accommodate Muslim prayers will not be followed by Muslims spending money on tread mills and soccer balls for all high schoolers. In fact, the dhimmis will be expected to keep a low and respectful profile towards their betters, the followers of Mohammed.
THIS SECTION presents some analyses of what's happening in general and in specific countries.
We westerners are apt to see the dynamics in simple terms: are we witnessing the start of a process that will introduce democratic regimes into the Middle East? Or not? It is assumed that if they dissolve tyrannical regimes and vote democratically, they will become like us –– reasonably tolerant of other groups and willing to live in peace with non–Muslims.
Unfortunately, the situation is trinary, not binary. The role of the Islamists needs to be factored into the tug between dictatorial regimes and democratic rule. As Barry Rubin put it: (How Many Dictators Can Stand on the Head of a Policy? February 4, 2011) "What are we going to do –– watch friendly regimes fall to become anti–American, terror–sponsoring Islamist dictatorships for the rest of eternity because we don't want to protect allies and instead watch Islamists taking over every political system in the Middle East?"
The first essays below explore the concept of democracy as applied to the demonstrations and agitation. Later ones examine activity in context of several particular countries. The final segment examines the Muslim Brotherhood, the group most likely to take control in the long run.
To ask again: are we witnessing the start of a process that will introduce democracy into the Muslim Middle East? I can sum up the general conclusion of this section in the words of the then Ass't Sec–of–State Edward Djerejian in reference to an earlier Civil War: Algeria, 1991 –– 'One Man, One Vote, One Time.'
Return to Feature IndexThese essays examine the relationship of the ongoing chaos, revolution and violence to democracy. In fact, they ask, what is democracy? Some use the uprising in Egypt as a point of reference -- Egypt is an influential Arab state and was prominent in getting the protests established.
Return to Feature IndexEdward Cline points out that democracy has a dark side even in the West. We rightly appreciate the freedom our political system gives us for exercising our individuality, and we ignore that democracy run wild has produced mob rule and the ghastly images of the French Revolution. Actually, the U.S.A. is a republic, with built-in checks against mob rule. When used to assess the political structures of the Arab states, the occasional "free election" is overrated as an indicator of freedom for the individual. The people of most Arab countries actually want Sharia law. So democratic elections mean the majority will not be thwarted in their wish to make their state sharia-abiding. They can then begin their inherently undemocratic mission of forcing others to accept the blessings of Sharia law, whether they want it or not.
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For those who believe that most Arabs ache for democracy, Nidra Poller points out that "we have, in Europe, a living laboratory of Arab-Muslim citizens living in a democratic system." Some avail themselves of the privileges of citizenship to lead productive lives. Others "despise the educational system, belittle alternate job training programs, blame their failures on the host country, perpetuate tribal attitudes and retrograde cultural practices like excision (FGM), polygamy, forced marriage. They wrap women in niqab, hate infidels, attack Jews, defy law and order... and express their discontent by looting, torching, smashing, shouting hysterically..." And that's how they behave "where democratic institutions are solidly established."
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Seth Frantzman wonders if people believe that the degree of Sturm und Drang is indicative of the degree Egyptians want democracy. He points out that "[j]ust because people riot or protest for something doesn't mean they are democracy-loving moderates." And even if they were, chaotic rebellion often leads to tyranny, not democracy.
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Raymond Ibrahim makes the point that the end point of turmoil and revolution ought not to be democracy but what democracy can produce: "freedom and universal rights." In this way of thinking, the question should be: how do we achieve the desired end? Consequently, "[t]he U.S. should support whoever and whatever form of government is best positioned to provide for the overall good of a people," not necessarily the one that labels itself democratic.
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The first essay in this section is a brief summary of the reactions in some of the countries in the second half of February 2011. The next two discuss some important commonalities between the separate uprisings. The rest examine some of the countries now reacting against their governments and demanding regime change. Differences in expression of dissatisfaction are often understood better when the country's history and/or degree of conformity to its interpretation of the Koran are taken into consideration.
Return to Feature IndexAs Hillel Fendel writes: "Arab countries throughout the Middle East and North Africa are experiencing unrest." Fendel briefly reviews "what's happening with the Arabs — and the Jews — in the various states."
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Mudar Zahran asks why the traditional Jew-hatred in Jordan that was called anti-Zionism for the 60 years of Israel's existence is now openly anti-Jewish. The Jordanian government uses anti-Semitism and anti-Americanism to distract the Palestinian Arabs who are the majority of the population. More generally, Arab regimes find ranting against an American-Jewish alliance useful as a way to redirect the people's anger. "It also helps them convince their Western allies that there is a serious trend of fundamentalism" so they should support the current Arab government. I would guess that what is happening in the Middle East is that the masses have retained their traditional hatred of non-Muslims while disengaging from their current rulers and becoming enamored of Islamic supremicists such as bin Ladin and the Muslim Brotherhood.
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Andrew MacKillop provides us with an economic rather than political understanding of the current unrest in the Middle East. He points out there may be similarities in political idealism between today's youth-led protests in Arab countries and the 1968 student revolts in Europe and the USA. But today's world is very different, what with its integrated communications, its huge additional population, and its much increased demand for oil. In 1968, the green revolution could solve famine, at least temporarily. It wouldn't work today. "The world had an average of nearly 1 hectare of arable land per person in 1968, but today has less than 0.25 hectares per person." Connect this with the fact that "Egypt, Algeria, Saudi Arabia and Morocco ... import more than 45 percent of world total wheat export supply," you don't need political conspiracy theories to predict regional instability. In today's world, economics and food and job shortages will power anti-regime revolutions. But I suspect that political groups in the Islamic supremacist movement can be counted on to take advantage of the tumult.
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Joshua Goodman was in Cairo when the protests/demonstrations/riots broke out this January. Early on, university-educated young men and women in western clothes were prominent as were the police that kept them contained. As tension grew, the dynamics changed -- the crowd became more turbulent, the police switched to hosing the crowd with water to disperse them. Both were uncoordinated. He records the arrival of the Muslim Brotherhood (according to other sources, they are identifiable by their trim beards), but doesn't credit them with organizing the activities. Nor did he hear the anti-Semitic chanting by the crowds others have reported. Over the next days, unrest spreads, Mubarak's promises aren't believed, the crowds become more determined, more unruly. Curfews are ignored, tires are burned, shops are looted, people are shot by the police. Gradually, things simmer down, at least on the surface; the universal panacea is applied -- as Goodman puts it, "[e]veryone is finding ways to blame Israel." His take on the happenings is his own, and it's an interesting one. {witnessed from the start till mon jan31 when he was evacuated.}
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Counter to all the hype that street demonstrations mean the people are pushing to gain freedom, Andrew C. McCarthy asks the simple question: do the protesters want democracy? Or are they after something else. Or many something elses. McCarthy deals with the complexity of diverse groups of Egyptians with major differences in life style and attitude toward Mubarak. He also discusses the probability of the Muslim Brotherhood taking control. He sees them taking over by stealth, revealing their real agenda slowly -- much as the AKP did as it gained control in Turkey.
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John Rosenthal focuses on the large amount of visual and verbal anti-semitism expressed by Egyptian protesters. He notes wryly that "[s]uch images are to be found in video and photographic material from virtually every major Western news organization present in Egypt. This fact is all the more significant when one considers that the reports published or broadcast by these very same news organizations have as a rule outright ignored any anti-Semitic or anti-Israeli sentiment among the protesters." We include some additional information on the Latest Pew Poll on Egyptian attitudes on democracy, sharia law and terrorist groups.
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As Joshua Teitelbaum writes, in Saudi Arabia, differences in religious practices between the minority Shiite Muslim population and the majority Sunni Muslims translate into chronic tension that occasionally breaks out into violence. As Teitelbaum points out, "[t]he Shiites are not numerous enough to constitute a threat to the regime, but they do constitute an actual and potential arm of Iranian influence." The problem is exacerbated by Iran's increased prestige in the region and its challenging the Saudis' position as leader of world Islam.
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Marion Dreyfus recalls visiting Tunisia last year when Tunisia's longtime president, Ben Ali, seemed very popular with enlightened ideas about work for women and industrial privatization. "I was impressed in Tunisia by the level of education for even the middle class, and I was unaware of the apparent high rate of unemployment," Dreyfus writes. Now in the wake of the "Jasmine Revolution" Ben Ali has fled to Saudi Arabia, schools are closed and the tourists don't come. Modern trappings aside, Tunisia " is still just...an Arab country."
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This is a neutrally-worded examination by José Stemmann of the state of the state of Jordan, an Arab state created by Britain illegally from 78% of the land destined to be the Jewish state. Renamed the Hashemite Kingdom of (Trans)jordan, Jordan is a monarchy with a placebo parliament; a growing economy still dependent on handouts and services from U.S, the Gulf monarchies and Israel; high unemployment and unrest when subsidies are reduced; and restrictions on political openness. The Palestinian Arabs, many of who live in refugee camps, are officially some 30% of the population (50-60%, possibly even 70%, is the more likely figure). They are considered unreliable and have been excluded "from sensitive posts in the army and administration," but a younger group of Palestinians is beginning to be more active in the economy and politics. "... [T]he Islamist movement has played a key role in political life almost since independence," with Jordan's Muslim Brotherhood (IAF) having much influence and Al-Qaida associates becoming more and more active attempting to promote a radical uprising, often using food shortage and price as the issue.
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Elliot Jager describes Qatar's survival policy. On the one hand, she
throws Israel a bone or two, which Israel politicians inflate all out of
proportion as meaning that Qatar is becoming democratic in its outlook.
On the other, she plays footsies with what are politely called
extremists. She mobilized support for Hamas, when Israel finally went
into Gaza to stop Hamas lobbing missiles at Israeli civilians. She
helped Hizballah take over Lebanon. She has reportedly pays protection
money to al-Qaeda. She reportedly has funneled money to protest leaders
in Egypt.
http://www.redstate.com/ausonius/2011/02/04/the-qatar-connection-to-the-egyptian-riots-follow-the-emir/
She is the home of Al-Jazeera, the pro-Islamist TV network, which has
"played a critical role in setting, or codifying, the notion of
contemporary pan-Arab unrest." It broadcasts the words of wisdom of
al-Qaeda and of Yussuf al-Qaradawi of the Muslim Brotherhood. One reader
of the original article commented that "Those who light both ends of a
candle will eventually get burnt." So far, Qatar's strategy as
deep-pockets silent partner to terrorists seems to be working.
(she's now helping fight libya and gaddafi.)
Most analysis of what is happening in Egypt predict that sooner or later control of the country will be in the hands of the Muslim Brotherhood (MB). This set of essays look at the Muslim Brotherhood and one of its most prominent leaders, Qarawadi. When the MB is compared to Al-Qaeda, the Brotherhood is usually viewed as moderate and reasonable. But as Frank Gaffney says in the essay below, "Al Qaeda and the MB have the same objectives. They differ only in the timing and tactics involved in realizing them."
Return to Feature IndexFrank Gaffney, Jr. tells us why the Muslim Brotherhood, an organization actively promoting sharia law in countries around the globe, is our enemy. Their tactics differ according to the situation and prevailing issues, but their aim is unswerving: to establish Sharia law globally. They first develop a solid infrastructure and then they become more and more public, while establishing networks with important elements of the local society. When they feel strong enough, they become confrontational, and go all out to seize power.
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The Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood (MB) is likely to be part of the transitional government. Jonathan Halevi notes that the MB does "defend the democratic process." It hasn't "accepted the principles of Western democracy," but it can exploit the process "to establish an Islamic regime which will then render democracy unnecessary." For the Brotherhood, sharia is the only true democracy. Their platform states that "the rule in [Egypt] must be republican, parliamentary, constitutional and democratic in accordance with the Islamic Sharia," and that "the Sharia ensures liberty for all." The organization does not accept the principle of the separation of church and state, and the Islamic rule they aspire to is, for them, a realization of democracy.
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Andrew G. Bostom writes of the return to Cairo of Yusuf al-Qaradawi, the prestigious spiritual leader of the Muslim Brotherhood (MB). "Images and actions during his appearance ... should have shattered the delusive view that the turmoil leading to President Mubarak's resignation augured the emergence of a modern, democratic Egyptian society devoted to Western conceptions of individual liberty and equality before the law." The opposite is true. If the MB has anything to say about it -- and they likely will in Egypt -- Egypt will regress to a state where women are chattel and everyone follows sharia law. Bostom asks why the media ignores what the MB itself says and why so many Western intellectuals have abandoned objective truth and won't "acknowledge the heinous consequences of the living, corollary Islamic institutions of jihad war, and Jew/infidel hatred."
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How do we deal with the terrorists who have no fixed identification? The lack of rules of engagement between the lone terrorist and a regular army often make it possible for a few irregulars to win over a large and disciplined fighting force. It is even harder for an individual -- the potential victim -- who has to deal with hit-and-run guerillas on his own. These essays discuss the issue of self-help, which isn't classic vigilantism but which might in the future become more frequent if states don't or can't or choose not to protect their citizens.
Return to Feature IndexBernice Lipkin explores circumstances -- Somali piracy on the high seas and Arab terrorism in Israel -- where the potential victims are often forced to fend for themselves because the State can not, for one reason or another, fulfill its obligation to defend its citizens. This doesn't prevent the State from discouraging the potential victims from defending themselves effectively.
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Peter Pham writes that the Somali pirates "have become increasingly emboldened as they operate ever farther from their native littorals for longer periods, scoring greater successes and winning record ransoms." Just recently they murdered four Americans after hijacking their yacht. The countries that patrol the area are not able to do much to prevent this piracy and most of them prefer to pay large ransoms rather than become aggressive. At the same time, ship crews from many countries are restricted by various national and international laws from defending themselves properly.
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This article is satire -- it isn't a brochure for a real cruise. In the real world, we are still talking about allowing ships to 'fight back' and defend themselves from pirates on the high seas. We talk about allowing the crew to store adequate firepower but at the same time there is the urge to limit the use of the firepower by forcing the crew to observe all sorts of rules and regulations. This article is an exaggeration of a possibly effective method of wiping out piracy. We might call it "fight forward." in that it takes the fight to the pirates rather than waiting until attacked.
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This section deals with Muslim sustained determination to acclimatize their host society to fit their needs and desires. They must occasionally delay showing their true colors. Chesler's essay on Muzzammil Hassa, who beheaded his wife, reminds us he was the model moderate up-to-date Muslim until then. Ohri writes of the way the Muslims in India and Pakistan talk peace but continue to bomb and terrorize Hindus to back up their demands for Indian land. Fjordman's article is a superb summary of what moderate and reform actually mean. Is it wishful thinking on my part that it might wake up an ecumenically-minded rabbi and minister or two?
Return to Feature IndexTwo years ago, Muzzammil Hassan, an immigrant from Pakistan and a prominent businessman who was often touted as a model of the moderate, adaptable Muslim, protested his wife's demand for a divorce by murdering her and decapitating her. From the first, savvy observers of the Muslim community such as Dr. M. Zjudi Jasser (see here) noted that the media ignored what was an incredibly dramatic story, allowing apologists to whitewash the role Islam played in conditioning Hassan's behavior. In this essay, Phyllis Chesler also sees Hassan as a model -- of the distorted view that Islamic societies instill: that men should dominate women and women must have no will of their own. Hassan views himself not as a chronic wife-beater turned murderer, but as the victim of his wife's provocation. Similarly, suicide-murderers are only doing what they do because Israel won't give up what Arabs are sure is their property. Hassan has carried over the predominant view in his native land that a man's honor is defiled if his women don't behave properly, so she must be punished for "bringing food late, for talking back or for undertaking forbidden trips." Yet, thanks to Sharia law, the same man can have sex with women he marries by the hour as well as with his multiple wives. Hassan's behavior and his views are not acceptable in our society, no matter how much the media would like to excuse them by placing the blame on environmental factors.
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After examining the general economic and social consequences of rapid increase in the size of the Muslim community in host countries, in Chapter 8, R.K. Ohri explored the consequences of the Muslim attitude that the only acceptable laws are those conforming to the Koran and Sharia, which are themselves considered immutable. In Chapter 9, Ohri discusses the large number of terrorist attacks in India by Muslims –– many of them Indian Muslims; many trained in Pakistan. Peace talks between India and Pakistan occur but -- in a deal breaker reminiscent of the Arab unwillingness to accept that Israel exists and is a Jewish state –– they will continue to break down unless "Pakistan accepts the Line of Actual Control (the LOC) as the international border between the Indian Kashmir and the Pakistan-occupied Kashmir." As another point of similarity, just as the Arabs are obsessed with destroying Israel, "[t]he Pakistani establishment has a single point agenda: to destabilize, debilitate and balkanize India at any cost."
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Westerners involved in ecumenism or true believers in multiculturalism will occasionally admit that when a Muslim community feels strong enough -- which often translates into having enough of them in one place -- they come on a bit strong and uncompromising. As example, they decided to pray on the streets. They didn't back down because the traffic is awful enough in NYC and Paris as it is. The streets were closed. Ecumenists suggest that doesn't mean Muslims are fanatics. it's a question of life style. It's the way they are accustomed to interacting in dictatorial regime. Just give them time. In this essay, Fjordman examines two articles of faith held by Western friends, colleagues, aiders, abetters, enablers and paid flunkies of Islam: (1) there are moderate Muslims and (2) reform of Islam is possible and will solve all the problems of blending a belligerent community into Western civilized ways. The first is yet to be experienced, despite all the opportunities "moderate" Muslims have had to speak up. And as a reader said about reform, "Islamic reformation is already underway -- and it's called things like 'Hamas', 'Islamic Jihad', 'Jamaat Islamiya', 'al Qaida', 'Hezbollah', or Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and Iran for short."
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We'd dedicate this section to the memory of Herb Zweibon, President of Americans for a Secure Israel (AFSI). He was always clear-eyed but willing to try to reason with Israeli officials, whose compass for steering the ship of Israel was the wishful conviction that the Arabs would respond to benevolence. This section urges corrective action to prevent the Ship of State from sinking.
The more Israel tries to appease the world by declaring she is willing to share her small land, the more the world believes the Arabs who assert forcefully they are the rightful owners of the Land of Israel. Because she is willing to compromise, she is harassed by the U.N., Western politicians and much of the global media. She is being encircled by extreme Islam and terrorists. Iran is building a bomb to destroy her. Too many Israeli Arab citizens have thrown in their lot with the Palestinian Arabs. How is the Israeli government handling it? It offers to amputate some of her land and it has redefined the enemy -- it is the patriotic Jewish pioneers, the Jewish citizens who live in Biblical Israel -- Samaria and Judea. (This area is called the West Bank by the ignorant or by those with a pro-Palestinian bias.)
Israel's real enemies are gathering but with the Middle East in flux, her local enemies will likely have their hands full with more personal matters tomorrow. This is certainly not the time for preemptive moves to surrender parts of Israel. If anything, now is the time to assert Israel's legitimate claim to Mandated Palestine and annex Samaria and Judea, the Golan and Gaza.
Return to Feature IndexHerb Zweibon was unique. He didn't cut his words to fit prevailing opinions or the op-eds in the New York Times. He didn't worry that he didn't fit the mold of most Presidents of American Jewish organizations. Thank God! He was polite and friendly but rock solid in his intuitions and his arguments. It is discouraging that he has been proven correct in rejecting the notion that tiny Israel would find peace by allowing parts of her to be cut away, and yet his is still not the attitude of the majority of American Jews, who feel uneasy if they stray too far from the teachings of what passes as liberalism in America. Helen Freedman provides us with a personal portrait of Herb.
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David Isaac describes precisely how Israel's Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, is handling the corrosive attacks on Israel." "Netanyahu's answer to the difficult situation? Preemptive surrender." Reacting as a coward against Israel's enemies, as Isaac points out, "Perhaps because Netanyahu is not willing to fight against the erosion of Jewish sovereignty in Judea and Samaria he becomes cruel towards those who do."
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Thanks to the American administration's ineptitude in the Middle East, we've recently seen a humiliation hierarchy among some of the major players, wherein the Palestinian Authority humiliates the Obama administration, which, in turn –– while ignoring the real problems of the region –– makes Israel cower. Caroline Glick suggests a simple way to relieve Israel's distress. Israel doesn't need American's yearly contribution. It's costing her too much politically and is inhibiting the development of some industries. I should think Israel would gain more respect and make much more money charging the USA for her intel and technological contributions to America's safety.
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The articles in this section point out some major problems with Israel's ability to make her case, even though she does have truth and the facts on her side. Recent events have underscored her right to her land. They have also shown that Israel is not the core problem in the Middle East. Arab countries are concerned about Iran's bomb building, not Jewish home building.
Return to Feature IndexThis is an important article that describes Israel's flapdoodling attitude towards Judea and Samaria, flipping from encouraging Jewish development of their land, then flopping and encouraging the Arabs to create another Arab state in Biblical Israel. As Moshe Dann asks rhetorically -- in full knowledge that the Territories are Jewish legally by international law, by conquest, by history, by Bible, and by unswerving devotion over the centuries -- "If the areas of settlement in Judea and Samaria don't belong to us, what are we doing there?" Ironically, many of the readers' comments prove that Israel has not told the world in a forthright manner that the Land is hers. They accept without hesitation that only the nouveau people -- the Palestinian Arabs -- have claim to the land. They have no quarrel with a bald misstatement of the Balfour declaration. (num19)
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The previous essay focused on negating Arab false claims on owning Samaria and Judea. This essay by Martin Sherman addresses the larger issue: the Arabs have the ear of the majority of the press, which uncritically broadcasts the Arab lies and distortions. Moreover, they are protected by an egocentric use of political correctness -- it isn't polite to rebut the stories told by the Po' Palestinians, even if they are either total lies or just distortions and/or half-truths. Sherman rebuts a typical Hanan Ashrawi fantasy, and suggests that -- because Israel has historic and legal truth on its side -- it make the received wisdom authentic by rewriting it "on the basis of historical realities, not political distortions; on the basis of prevailing realities rather than fabricated fantasies; on the basis of events as they actually occurred, not as they are deceitfully contrived. "
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Anchored in information in Amnon Lord's books, Aryeh Tepper has written a thoughtful essay about Uri Avnery, one of the leading lights of the extreme leftist Israeli Marxists, who are still influential in the media and in academia. Avnery helped convince Israelis to accept the Oslo Accords, because in doing so, they were supporting human rights. He is of course revered by Israel's enemies and is called a peace activist and humanitarian. In his case, as is common when Marxist praise other Marxists, being called a peace activist and humanitarian translates to being someone who tries with all his being to bring death to Israel, not peace.
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Jonathan Rosenblum writes that the Wikileaks State Dept emails and al-Jeezeera's release of alleged P.A. documents "have done much to buttress Israel's narrative of the Middle East." They are a windfall for Israel. They confirm that while Western leftists and the American Administration may be obsessed with the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, the Middle East states are concerned about Iran and her increasing nuclear capability. What a wonderful opportunity to use this information to maybe make a dent in the Arab narrative --- i.e., that Israel is the core problem in the Middle East. And if she'd make peace -- on Arab terms, of course -- the Middle East would magically become stable and have no civil wars and no fights between neighbors. Israel didn't utilize this information.
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Mark Durie presents some beliefs and conditioned ways of thinking that make it difficult for us to analyze Islam's structure and objectives clearly. So many of them were designed to make us more tolerant, which is fine when we are trying to gain acceptance for groups that want to participate in our culture but haven't been allowed entry. They become dangerous when they prevent us from recognizing that Islam doesn't want in; it wants to take over.
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Omer Bartov reviews the published diary maintained by Edmund Kessler, a Polish Jewish attorney who survived the Holocaust. A lesson for our time is how little effort it took for the Nazi conquerors and the local clergy to encourage people to manifest barbaric behavior toward the Jews -- perhaps in part because the populace was already inculcated with a strong prejudice against the Jews. A few of the local gentiles behaved nobly. For the majority, as Bartov writes, "ugly and brutish behavior was triggered by the overwhelming presence of the German occupation and the growing realization that the new rulers were determined to use, abuse, and ultimately murder the Jews. ... the specifics of how, and how quickly, this awareness translates in mob violence are described succinctly and insightfully in Kessler's terrifying text."
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We usually think of European anti-Semitism and Islamic anti-Semitism as independent of each other. In recent years, the details of the close coordination between the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem Hajj Amin al-Husseini and Hitler, who had the mutual desire to kill Jews, have become known. In this article Edwin Black traces the background and history of one of their creations: the Ustasha was a partnership of Bosnian Muslims and Catholic Croatians, who terrorized and murdered Jews and Gypsies in Yugoslavia. They became notorious for their brutality even among the Nazis.
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Rafael Medoff writes the recollections of three people now living in Jerusalem, who as students in the United States at the beginning of World War 2, participated in trying to fight Britain's disgraceful and illegal attempts to block Jewish refugees from entering Mandated Palestine. They were part of a larger effort by the Bergson group to make America aware of the Holocaust happening in Europe. Just as the media today soft pedals the extent of Islamic destructive infiltration into the U.S.A., Europe, the Middle East and India, so then they barely mentioned the growing number of reports of large scale Nazi murder of Jews. And many American Jews - just as today -- were silent. They reserved their anger for those sounding the alarm.
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This is where our readers get a chance to write opinions and editorials and share articles they find informative. The Blog-Eds page for the month is updated every few days.
There is a separate file that is the index for the articles on the Blog-Ed page. You can access an article immediately from this index by clicking on the item in the index.
To access the Index, click the "Blog-Eds List" box in the Blue Strip on the top of the Blog-Ed page.
January 2011 BLOG-EDS
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February 2011 BLOG-EDS
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