Assad: "The summary of what is happening in Egypt is the fall of what is called political Islam"

Jihad Watch

If only. "Syria's Assad says political Islam being defeated in Egypt," from Reuters, July 3:

BEIRUT (Reuters) - Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, fighting to crush a two-year-old uprising against four decades of rule by him and his late father, said on Wednesday the upheaval in Egypt was a defeat for political Islam. "Whoever brings religion to use in politics or in favor of one group at the expense of another will fall anywhere in the world," Assad was quoted as telling the official Thawra newspaper, according to an official Facebook page.
"The summary of what is happening in Egypt is the fall of what is called political Islam."
Relishing the possible downfall of one of Assad's most vocal critics, Syrian television carried live coverage of the huge street demonstrations in Egypt demanding the departure of President Mohamed Mursi.

Egypt: Persistent Issues Undermine Stability

Analysis

July 4, 2013

A protester carries a poster of ousted Egyptian presidents Mohammed Morsi and Hosni Mubarak in Tahrir Square. (GIANLUIGI GUERCIA/AFP/Getty Images)

Summary

Egypt's crisis goes much deeper than the recent political chaos. With the leader of the Supreme Constitutional Court taking over the presidency at the behest of the military, the new government will likely represent a coalition of interests facing many of the same challenges that brought about Mohammed Morsi's downfall. Egypt's population has grown well beyond the means of the state to support its needs, and even a strong state will struggle to ensure sufficient supplies of basic staples, particularly fuel and wheat.

Analysis

Underlying the question of what political structure will emerge from this week's crisis, the fundamental fact is that Egypt is running out of money. Dwindling foreign reserves point to a negative balance of payments that is sapping central bank resources. At the same time, Egypt's reliance on foreign supplies of fuel and wheat is only growing. Egyptian petroleum production peaked in 1996 and the country first became a net importer in 2007. Government fuel subsidies are an enormous burden on state finances and, throughout the past year, failures to pay suppliers and a shortage of foreign exchange available to importers have caused supply shortfalls and price spikes throughout the country.

The Mindset of the Left: Part III

Thomas Sowell

Editor's note: This is Part III in a series. Part I can be found here. Part II can be found here.
The fundamental problem of the political left seems to be that the real world does not fit their preconceptions. Therefore they see the real world as what is wrong, and what needs to be changed, since apparently their preconceptions cannot be wrong.
A never-ending source of grievances for the left is the fact that some groups are "over-represented" in desirable occupations, institutions and income brackets, while other groups are "under-represented."
From all the indignation and outrage about this expressed on the left, you might think that it was impossible that different groups are simply better at different things.

The Right to Happiness

 Sultan Knish

Revolutions are not unique. Before the fireworks begin bursting in showers of life over American skies, they fall sparkling over the crowds of Tahrir Square to commemorate another revolution.

Some countries have revolutions all the time. After a while revolution becomes a national sport. In banana republics, the overthrow of one dictator to make way for another gives everyone a day off from work. But these revolutions, no matter how they are cloaked in the familiar rhetoric of liberty, are nothing more than tyranny by other means.

What made the American Revolution unique was that its cause was not the mere transfer of power from one ruler to another, or one system to another, but a fundamental transformation of the nature of rule. Every revolution claims to be carried out in the name of the people, but it's never the people who end up running things.

The Declaration of Independence did more than talk about the rights of the people. It placed the people at the center of the nation and its government, not as an undifferentiated mass to be harnessed for whatever propaganda purposes they might be good for, but as individuals with hopes and dreams.

Al Dura Show Trials End Badly

Nidra Poller
An apparent victory for state-owned France Télévisions network and Jerusalem correspondent Charles Enderlin in the long legal battle they initiated against French citizen Philippe Karsenty may turn out to be the last stage in a cascade of strategic errors... by the broadcaster.  On June 26^th the 11^th Chamber of the Appellate Court convicted citizen Karsenty of slander and ordered him to pay €7000 in damages for publicly declaring that the al Dura news report broadcast from Netzarim Junction in the Gaza Strip on September 30, 2000 was a hoax.
The video at the heart of the controversy was said to depict in real time the killing of a Palestinian youth, identified as Mohamed al Dura, and the wounding of his father Jamal, "targets of gunfire from the Israeli position." None of this is visible in the video shot by cameraman Talal Abu Rahmah--less than one minute of an essentially static scene. The action and the accusation are superimposed by Enderlin's voice-over commentary and elaborated in an enveloping narrative constantly repeated over the years. The incendiary effects of the broadcast were instant and long-lasting while, in other quarters, doubts were immediately raised about its authenticity. 

Morsi out! Good news for the World, the US, Israel and the Jews, I think?

http://israel-commentary.org/?p=6933

(It is hard to believe that anything, other than the Islamic Brotherhood, will be an improvement)jsk http://israel-commentary.org/?p=6933 Redacted From the New York Times Online Edition By the NY Times International Staff

 CAIRO — Egypt’s military on Wednesday ousted Mohamed Morsi, the nation’s first freely elected president, suspending the Constitution, installing an interim government and insisting it was responding to the millions of Egyptians who had opposed the Islamist agenda of Mr. Morsi and his allies in the Muslim Brotherhood. The military intervention, which Mr. Morsi rejected, marked a tumultuous new phase in the politics of modern Egypt, where Mr. Morsi’s autocratic predecessor, Hosni Mubarak, was overthrown in a 2011 revolution. The intervention raised questions about whether that revolution would fulfill its promise to build a new democracy at the heart of the Arab world. The defiance of Mr. Morsi and his Brotherhood allies raised the specter of the bloody years of the 1990s when fringe Islamist groups used violence in an effort to overthrow the military government.

Even Secular Jews Need Shabbat

Shabbat is the most important day of the week for Jews, because it is a day on which Jews remember that God created the world and everything in it in six days, but on the seventh day, on Shabbat, He rested, and, like Him, we also rest on Shabbat

Nurit Greenger

----

Even Secular Jews Need Shabbat

Uri Heitner wrote an article in Israel Hayom he named Why secular Jews need Shabbat (http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_opinion.php?id=4845).

I have my own take on it.

Shabbat is one of Judaism's greatest contributions to mankind, sanctifying the seventh day of the week and commanding it for rest. It is a day when we should not work, we should not earn a living, we should not conduct business and/or add to our wealth. A day that must be totally devoted to family, to community, to leisure, culture, learning, the soul and the spirit, as one chooses.

Shabbat does not only belong to observant Jews but to all Jews, to all of us, the nation of Israel. It is in everyone's interest that Shabbat will not be like any other day of the week, a regular day.

Branding Terror

The Logotypes and Iconography of Insurgent Groups and Terrorist Organizations

by Artur Beifuss and Francesco Trivini Bellini
Merrell Publishers, 2013. 336 pp. $34.95

Reviewed by Dawn Perlmutter

FrontPageMagazine.com

http://www.meforum.org/3547/branding-terror

Branding Terror, The Logotypes and Iconography of Insurgent Groups and Terrorist Organizations is a new book that claims to present an objective analysis of terrorist symbols. The authors, Odessa-born German Artur Beifuss, a former United Nations counter-terrorism analyst, and Italian professional graphic designer Francesco Trivini Bellini, produced a beautiful but biased reference guide for members of the intelligence and law enforcement communities. Merrell, the book's publishing company, specializes in art, fashion and gardening books, which should be the first clue that the information in this counter terrorism reference guide is problematic. The book's 60 beautifully illustrated emblems, accompanied by a symbolic analysis and description of each group's ideology, have a decidedly anti-American, anti-Israel and pro-Palestinian liberal bias that only serves to perpetuate the propaganda issued by the very terrorist organizations that are included in the book.

Palestinian terrorist group symbols in the book Branding Terror that have a map of Israel in their logo. The map of Israel is identified as an outline of Palestine in the new book.

Beifuss and Bellini are more fascinated with the branding, marketing and visual communication of the terrorist groups than with the ugly realities of what these symbols represent.

American Islamists Rally Behind MB Amid Egypt Protests

John Rossomando
IPT News
July 2, 2013

Millions of Egyptians are in the streets demanding the ouster of President Mohamed Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood regime in Egypt for their totalitarian theocratic policies. But many of America's leading Islamists are sticking by Morsi and condemning the protesters on social media.
"Only in Egypt, Mubarak supporters, military rulers, anti-Islamists, confused leftists, anarchists, & some well-meaning activists undo a democratic election," Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR)-Los Angeles Executive Director Hussam Ayloush wrote on his Twitter feed Saturday, linking to a longer post on his Facebook page. "This is not about how successful of a president Morsi is, it is about understanding democracy and accepting its outcome as the choice of the majority. A strong opposition is needed to have good checks and balances, but through legitimate and non violent means only. Do you really believe that fulools [remnants of the Mubarak regime] are seeking democracy?"

Egyptians know

Some incredible photos from Egypt -- which are not showing up in mainstream media and should be seen by Americans -- can be found here (I'll probably put them in my next posting):

 

http://directorblue.blogspot.co.uk/2013/07/15-photos-from-tahrir-square-protests.html

 

Photos like this: 

 

 

And this:

 

 

But this last one blew me away.  Have no clue if this is pure coincidence or not (it may be), but wow...

Untreated Palestinian Sewage Contaminating Israel's Groundwater

Zafrir Rinat

Almost 90% of sewage from Palestinian towns in the West Bank flows into the environment untreated, contaminating the groundwater and 162 km. of streams, according to a report prepared by the Israel Parks and Nature Authority. Israel has tried to cope with the problem by building treatment plants near the Green Line separating Israel from the West Bank and treating the contaminated water once it enters Israel.

It’s on: Muslim Brotherhood influence rejected in two nations

 http://theoptimisticconservative.wordpress.com/2013/07/03/its-on-muslim-brotherhood-influence-rejected-in-two-nations/#more-2947

It’s a little early to predict the exact outcome of the Morsi-military smackdown underway in Egypt.  (Update as this goes to press:  the Egyptian military says Morsi has been removed.)  But one thing is certain: Egyptians are mounting a broad-scale rejection of the Muslim Brotherhood.
Qatar too?
On the same day, the emirate of Qatar, hundreds of miles away in the Persian Gulf, may be doing substantially the same thing.  Unconfirmed reports in Arabic and French-language media indicate that the new emir of Qatar, who took over from his father last week, has ordered Yusuf al-Qaradawi to leave the country.  Qaradawi, spiritual leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, is an Egyptian who has made his home – and operated an Islamist institute – in Qatar for years.  According to the Algerian news site Reporters.dz (link above; my translation):

Morsi Removed, Muslim Brotherhood Down…but is it out?

Frank Spano
IPT News

http://www.investigativeproject.org/4072/morsi-is-out-muslim-brotherhood-downbut-is-it-out

After millions of Egyptians took to the streets to protest the Muslim Brotherhood's Islamic rule, the Egyptian military, under the command of General Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, removed Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi from office Wednesday. In his place, the army's transition plan calls for Chief Justice of the Egyptian Supreme Constitutional Court Adly Mansour to take over until new elections can be held.

The Mindset of the Left: Part II

Thomas Sowell | Jul 03, 2013

Editor's Note: This column is part II in a series. Part I can be found here. 
 
The political left has long claimed the role of protector of "the poor." It is one of their central moral claims to political power. But how valid is this claim?

Leaders of the left in many countries have promoted policies that enable the poor to be more comfortable in their poverty. But that raises a fundamental question: Just who are "the poor"?

If you use a bureaucratic definition of poverty as including all individuals or families below some arbitrary income level set by the government, then it is easy to get the kinds of statistics about "the poor" that are thrown around in the media and in politics. But do those statistics have much relationship to reality?

Obama Administration Middle East Policy: See What I've Been Trying to Tell You?

Barry Rubin

A self-interview First, I want to apologize that I have often used intemperate language to describe U.S. policy and the people making it in the last 4.5 years. Perhaps I have put off some of you who would otherwise have been persuaded that something is very wrong. Therefore, I have tried to do another version of this approach. Remember, I'm not responsible for the way the questions are phrased here. Q: How can the United States become the ally of the Muslim Brotherhood, a one-time Nazi collaborator which has never changed its political line since; a movement to impose Sharia states and restore the caliphate; a movement that is genocidal against Jews, and is also anti-Christian, anti-Shia (all Shia, not just the Islamists), wants to kill gays and make women into second-class citizens? A: Pretty amazing isn’t it? Can Americans really not realize this? Q: How can the United States—the very same politicians—oppose support for the pro-American Nicaraguan Contras against the pro-Communist Sandinistas but now support with arms the ant-American Syrian rebels—Brotherhood and worse? A: Pretty amazing isn’t it? Can Americans really not realize this?

"American Guarantees": Foolish Offers

Shoshana Bryen

If a independent Palestinian state is born believing that the Mediterranean Sea is its proper western border, it cannot coexist with the State of Israel. That is the problem that needs to be resolved.

How much territory does Israel need to be secure in the absence of peace with its Palestinian neighbors? Is that different from how much security Israel is entitled to under that circumstance? Who decides? And why is an American general trying to find out? These are not trick questions -- they should be.
General John R. Allen, USMC (ret.) has been made a "special advisor" to both Secretary of State Kerry and Secretary of Defense Hagel, ostensibly to determine Israel's security requirements. But in fact, his mission is yet another attempt to determine what American or international security guarantees would induce Israel to withdraw from territory in the absence of a durable Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement. According to a source in The Washington Post, "The rationale behind reaching understandings on U.S. security guarantees at this point is to render certain Israeli security demands from the Palestinians moot and thus remove them from the negotiating table." The Post added, "Allen's team was dismayed by the initial Israeli discussions, which participants described as less substantive and less cooperative than U.S. officials were expecting, given that Allen's job was created to address Israeli security concerns."

American Islamists Rally Behind MB Amid Egypt Protests

John Rossomando
IPT News

http://www.investigativeproject.org/4068/american-islamists-rally-behind-mb-amid-egypt

Millions of Egyptians are in the streets demanding the ouster of President Mohamed Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood regime in Egypt for their totalitarian theocratic policies. But many of America's leading Islamists are sticking by Morsi and condemning the protesters on social media.
"Only in Egypt, Mubarak supporters, military rulers, anti-Islamists, confused leftists, anarchists, & some well-meaning activists undo a democratic election," Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR)-Los Angeles Executive Director Hussam Ayloush wrote on his Twitter feed Saturday, linking to a longer post on his Facebook page. "This is not about how successful of a president Morsi is, it is about understanding democracy and accepting its outcome as the choice of the majority. A strong opposition is needed to have good checks and balances, but through legitimate and non violent means only. Do you really believe that fulools [remnants of the Mubarak regime] are seeking democracy?"

Riots in China's Xinjiang region kill 27: Xinhua

AFP

Police shot at “mobs” who had attacked police stations, a local government building and a construction site, the Xinhua news agency said, citing local officials.— File Photo by

BEIJING:  Riots in China's ethnically divided Xinjiang region on Wednesday left 27 people dead, according to state media which said police opened fire on “knife-wielding mobs”.

It was the latest spasm of violence to hit the troubled western region, which is about twice the size of Turkey and is home to around nine million members of the mostly Muslim Uighur ethnic minority.

Police shot at “mobs” who had attacked police stations, a local government building and a construction site, the Xinhua news agency said, citing local officials.

“Seventeen people had been killed... before police opened fire and shot dead 10 rioters,” it said.

Jihad in America: The Grand Deception

Lauri B. Regan
American Thinker
July 2, 2013
http://www.investigativeproject.org/4067/jihad-in-america-the-grand-deception

Steve Emerson and The Investigative Project on Terrorism's documentary Jihad in America: The Grand Deception is a powerful film that should be shown across America -in high schools, on college campuses, in our houses of worship, and most importantly, throughout the state and federal governments. It turns the concept of political correctness that has dominated our learning institutions, government bureaucracies, and media and entertainment organizations on its head as the viewer is left in wonderment at the self-induced and resulting indoctrination that has overwhelmed American culture.

What Now in Egypt? Informed Speculations

Barry Rubin

A.  Rough quotes from the Army Ultimatum:

Based on its history and national responsibilities, the Egyptian Army will be a major factor in any future when it comes to protecting the security of the nation."

"The [Egyptian Army] will not be an agent of political bodies/organizations or branches government it will only answer to the genuine democratic will of the people."

"The events taking place are an extreme threat to national security due to all of the events going on."

The Spring unleashed disorder not democracy

Roger Boyes

Published at 12:01AM, July 2 2013

Nobody – women, minorities, the poor – can flourish when Arab states break down

The Arab Spring has failed. Angry crowds ransacked the offices of Egypt’s democratically elected President, Mohamed Morsi, this week just as they once forced their way into the marble palaces of the region’s dictators. The mob set the place on fire and if there had been a statue of the president they would surely have toppled it.

What is happening in Egypt is not just part of a global revolt against austerity or a protest against the yawning gulf between rich and poor. It marks the death of an idea: that greater political choice and free speech could swiftly transform the Middle East. That turns out to have been a Western mirage in the desert. None of the European points of reference, from the uprisings of 1848 to the toppling of communism in 1989, really applied to the modern Arab world, not to the teeming urban poor of Cairo, nor the frustrated medical students of Bahrain nor the warlords of Libya.

We wanted a different outcome.

Yes, They Are Termed "Judea and Samaria"

My Right Word

As I have noted, the correct geo-political names of the regions between the Jordan River and Israel are Judea and Samaria.

They are recorded so in the Bible, the New Testament and other historical documents.

EOZ assists:

From the Report by His Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom to the Council of the League of Nations on the Administration of PALESTINE AND TRANS-JORDAN for the year 1938:

Jerusalem [is] situated in the midst of the hills of Judea, and the principal towns are Haifa, with its modern harbour, in the north at the entrance to the plain of Esdraelon; Jaffa, a second port which lies some 40 miles west- north-west of Jerusalem; Tel Aviv, which is contiguous to Jaffa; and Nablus, the ancient Sichem, in the hills of Samaria.

From UN document A/364, September 1947:

Apart from these inland plains in the north and portions of the desert area in the south, the interior of the country is very mountainous with the hills of Judea and Samaria in the centre and the hills of Galilee in the north....
The proposed Arab State will include Western Galilee, the hill country of Samaria and Judea with the exclusion of the City of Jerusalem, and the coastal plain from Isdud to the Egyptian frontier....

Why is the left so blinkered to Islamic extremism?

Jihad Watch

It is ironic that this article is commenting on a report from One Law For All. The point is sound about how Leftists hate America so much that they will cheerfully align themselves with its enemies, but One Law For All, which is headed by the Communist Maryam Namazie, exhibits the same pathology toward Israel -- as Namazie retails Palestinian jihad propaganda about Israeli genocide. She also cheerfully and unrepentantly libels genuine opponents of jihad as "racists" and "fascists." So it is rich to see her organization going on about others being blinkered.
"Why is the left so blinkered to Islamic extremism?," by James Bloodworth for the Independent, June 28 (thanks to all who sent this in):

...The result, as the report notes, has been an anti-war movement working enthusiastically with those advocating the murder of homosexuals, a left-wing Mayor of London embracing a man who said Adolf Hitler had been sent by Allah to punish the Jews, and a group set up ostensibly to oppose fascism warmly welcoming religious fascists into its own ranks. Because the left doesn’t police its borders in the way that the right has learned to do - social democrats like to pretend the far-left are on the same side as them - extremists regularly sneak into the mainstream on the back of ostensibly progressive front groups.
A good example is Unite Against Fascism.

UNRWA Under the Knesset Spotlight

Palestinian boys raise their hands during one of the first classes of the new academic year at a school in Gaza supported by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), Sept. 5, 2011. Photo: UN Photo/Shareef Sarhan.

http://www.algemeiner.com/2013/07/01/unrwa-under-the-knesset-spotlight/

UNRWA (United Nations Relief and Works Agency), which serves half a million Palestinian pupils in UNRWA schools, now seeks new funding for UNRWA summer camps and for the new school year.

UNRWA received 1.2 billion dollars in donations last year from more than 20 western countries.

The Center for Near East Policy Research, which has examined UNRWA policies over the past 24 years, asks donor nations to place conditions on the funding ….because of the UNRWA curriculum.

The Center, directed by David Bedein, held an informal briefing for foreign diplomats and reporters at the Knesset on June 24th on the subject of the UNRWA curriculum.

Dr. Arnon Groiss, a senior journalist and PHD in Islamic Studies, was the presenter.

Dr. Groiss served as Director of Research for the Institute for Monitoring Peace and Cultural Tolerance in School Education (IMPACT-SE) between 2000 and 2010, during which time he translated textbooks from the Palestinian Authority, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Egypt, Tunisia, and Iran.

Islam's Hatred of the Non-Muslim

David Bukay
Middle East Quarterly
Summer 2013, pp. 11-20 (view PDF)

http://www.meforum.org/3545/islam-hatred-non-muslim

It is accepted as a truism by many liberals and multiculturalists and touted by much of the Western media that the "clash of civilizations" between the West and the Islamic world is a clash of values between a secular, tolerant, post-Christian world and a minority (albeit a large one) of Muslims, fundamentalists, and literalists who pervert the meaning of their faith-traditions. The Qur'anic verse, "There is no compulsion in religion,"[1] is frequently invoked to prove that Islam is not the intolerant, subjugating religion that Islamist clerics like Yusuf Qaradawi or terrorists like Osama bin Laden make it out to be. The belief is that "Islam," as former president George W. Bush said not long after the 9-11 attacks, "is peace."[2]
But what if Bush's statement, along with the mainstream view, ignores the reality of Islam's central tenets? Are the Islamists' beliefs really only a warped minority position or are they a truer reflection of the inherent nature of the Muslim faith-system? Can the West ever reach a modus vivendi with an Islam that by its very nature considers Western civilization an unclean "other" that must be brought into the orbit of Islam through subjugation at best or destruction at worst?

Despite attempts to reframe the meaning of jihad for Western audiences, as in this ad on a Chicago bus, classic Muslim commentators are clear: Jihad reflects the normal relations existing between the believers and the infidel. Islam sees jihad as the means of creating peace by subjugating all others and enforcing Islamic order. A pax Islamica covering the globe is the aim of jihad, which is thus a just war.

A closer examination of Islam's central tenets is called for, one that gets past the feel-good nostrums of multiculturalism and that engages the Muslim belief-system on its own terms, beginning with one of the most fundamental of those tenets, the doctrine of al-Wala wal-Bara (love and hate for the sake of God).

Egyptian Protesters Criticize MB Rule and Obama Administration

IPT News
July 1, 2013
http://www.investigativeproject.org/4066/egyptians-protesters-criticize-mb-rule-and-obama

Egypt's Islamist government teetered on the brink Monday in the wake of stunning weekend protests against Muslim Brotherhood rule.
"Theocracy failed here," Egyptian blogger Mahmoud Salem, also known as "Sandmonkey," wrote in a Twitter post Monday.
Sixteen people were killed and hundreds were injured during weekend protests that reportedly drew millions of Egyptians to the streets. Many estimated that the protests were larger than the 2011 demonstrations that forced dictator Hosni Mubarak from power. Numerous media accounts describe the broad demographic base of the protesters, from young women to old men, from liberal secularists to conservative Muslims.
Several deaths took place when Muslim Brotherhood members opened fire on demonstrators who attacked, set on fire or looted Brotherhood offices.
Four cabinet ministers – over tourism, parliamentary affairs, environment and communications – resigned from the government Monday in support of the protesters.
Opposition organizers, calling themselves the June 30 Front, are asking demonstrators to wage a campaign of civil disobedience until President Mohamed Morsi resigns, just one year into his four-year term. That includes a continuation of protests, a general strike and other actions.

There are walls and there are ‘Jewish’ walls

Nurit Greenger 

The world hypocrisy and double standard reaches unfathomable magnitude when it comes to Jews and Israel.

There are many walls in the world, please view: un_LES MURS DANS LE MONDE.pps - that were built to mark borders between countries and to defend borders. Israel never had a border wall between her and any of the countries that border with her. That is even though all these countries bordering with Israel are her stanch enemy and are at war with her since Israel was established. 

The United States of Guilt

Posted by Daniel Greenfield @the Sultan Knish blog 

There was once an America that built its shining cities on a hill in the name of virtue. That nation has been replaced by another nation that builds housing projects in the name of guilt. We used to elect the best men for the job, or at least we believed we did. Now we hold elections of guilt, deciding which oppressed minority has been most shamefully overlooked, before casting our vote for a more diverse and equitable society.

Our American exceptionalism now is a small thing that takes place in the shadow of guilt. It is rarely mentioned now without implicit rebuttals of that guilt. Its advocates are forever laboring to get out from under the burden of slavery, segregation and a thousand other hissing sibilant S's that have been used to mark us as an eternally unworthy nation.

Interpreting Muslim Brotherhood Verdicts in the UAE

Lori Plotkin Boghardt

July 1, 2013

Convincing public evidence of criminal activity by defendants in the Brotherhood case would increase foreign and domestic support for future UAE security actions against the group.

On July 2, a United Arab Emirates court is expected to announce verdicts in the trial of ninety-four citizens linked to local Muslim Brotherhood group al-Islah and charged with sedition. If stiff sentences are issued, they should be read not only as an effort to punish and deter political and alleged criminal activity, but also as a reflection of the UAE's genuine anxiety about the Brotherhood as a serious threat, particularly amid ongoing regional uprisings and the Egyptian Brotherhood's perceived drive for total power in Cairo. If Abu Dhabi hopes to secure stronger foreign and domestic support for future action against the group, however, it will need to publicly present solid evidence of the crimes committed by any convicted defendants.

Thoughts to Ponder

The most destructive habit....... ........ ......Worry
The greatest Joy......... ......... ......... ....Giving
The greatest loss..................Loss of self-respect

The most satisfying work......... ........Helping others
The ugliest personality trait....... ….......Selfishness
The most endangered species..... ....Dedicated leaders
Our greatest natural resource.... ......... ......Our youth

The greatest 'shot in the arm'........ .Encouragement
The greatest problem to overcome.... ......... ...Fear
The most effective sleeping pill....... Peace of mind
The most crippling failure disease...... .......Excuses

In Egypt, Army Threatens Coup while U.S. Policy has backed the Regime

Posted: 01 Jul 2013 09:07 AM PDT By Barry Rubin The news that the army has given a 48 hour ultimatum that unless stability returns it will step in has proven the headline of this article correct. Is the one-year-old experiment in Egyptian democracy going to end in the way that could have happened much easier in February 2011--that is a continuity of the regime without Mubarak'? I should be sufficiently cautious to say that it is possible if everyone played nice they will stop BUT why should the opposition leave when they want the army to stage a coup? Surely the generals know that. Let us remember that four years ago Obama gave his Cairo speech sitting the Muslim Brotherhood leaders in the front row. President Husni Mubarak was insulted and it was the first hint that the Obama Administration would support Islamist regimes in the Arab world. Then Obama vetoed the State Department plan for a continuation of the old regime without Mubarak. Then Obama publicly announced--before anyone asked him--that the United States would not mind if the Brotherhood was in government. Then Obama did not give disproportionate help to the moderates. Then Obama pressed the army to get out of power quickly, which the moderates opposed since they needed more time than the Islamists to organize.

Ah Mr. Kerry

Subject: [My Right Word] Mr. Kerry, Tell That to Jonathan Pollard US Secretary of State John Kerry has responded to allegations that the US bugged the offices of its allies, saying its activities were "not unusual" in international relations. ...He continued: "Every country in the world that is engaged in international affairs of national security undertakes lots of activities to protect its national security, and all kinds of information contributes to that." Mr. Kerry, so why is Jonathan Pollard still in jail? ^ -- Posted By YMedad to My Right Word at 7/01/2013 07:02:00 PM -- Yisrael Medad Post Office Box 9407 Shiloh Mobile Post Efraim 4483000 Israel www.myrightword.blogspot.com http://blogs.jpost.com/content/green-lined http://www.israelnationalnews.com/

The Bin Bayyah Bungle

ANDREW C. MCCARTHY July 1, 2013

"Who is a civilian?" The Muslim Brotherhood's chief jurist, Yusuf al-Qaradawi, was asking the question rhetorically. It was 2004 and the sheikh, globally renowned as Sunni Islam's most influential sharia scholar, felt obliged to dilate on Muslim law's distinction between civilians and combatants. After all, a couple of his edicts had caused some confusion.
Two days after the atrocities of September 11, 2001, Qaradawi declared, "We, in the name of our religion, deny the act and incriminate the perpetrator." Although he expressed skepticism that Muslims were behind the attacks on the United States, his pronouncement was taken as an implied condemnation of al-Qaeda.
An apparent rebuke from a figure of such stature elated American progressives, who look upon the Brotherhood as a cure, rather than an incubator, for violent jihadism. For once, the Left could feel comfortable forgetting that Qaradawi is a rabid anti-Semite whose gory enthusiasm for the Brotherhood's Palestinian branch, the Hamas terrorist organization, is most notable for its paeans to suicide bombing - or what the sheikh prefers to call "martyrdom operations."
But the treacle that Brotherhood eminences serve up for voracious Western consumption is rarely repeated in speeches to their core Arabic audience, swelled to the millions by the popularity of media mogul Qaradawi's weekly al-Jazeera program, Sharia and Life. This is the audience to which Qaradawi typically spouts such venom as: "The Israelis might have nuclear bombs but we have the children bomb, and these human bombs must continue until liberation. Calling for peace at this time is treason."

Official PA TV attacks PMW for using word "terrorists"

http://palwatch.org/main.aspx?fi=157&doc_id=9296

by Itamar Marcus and Nan Jacques Zilberdik

The official Palestinian Authority media continues its condemnation of Palestinian Media Watch for exposing that the PA promotes hatred and terror.

The latest PA TV attack comes in response to PMW's recent bulletin exposing that PA TV glorified three Palestinian terrorists who are serving a total of166 life sentences for planning suicide bombings and preparing the bombs that were used in numerous terror attacks.

PA TV host Manal Seif responded as follows:

"Palestinian Media Watch... slandered these heroes and claimed that they are terrorists... if they see all these prisoners as terrorists - we see them as heroes."

Click to view

According to PA leaders and official PA TV, killing Israelis is a positive achievement and therefore Palestinians who murder Israeli men, women and children are "heroes."

Responding to PMW's bulletin, which exposed PA TV's glorification of the three terrorists, the PA TV host defended her program. She referred by name to the three prisoners who are serving 166 life terms for suicide bombings that targeted civilians at Hebrew University, cafes, restaurants, pedestrian malls, and hotels, among others, and emphasized that they are "heroes."

The following is the full text of PA TV's rejection of PMW's use of the word "terrorists":

PA TV host: "I want to tell the Israelis that our prisoners are heroes and not terrorists. What I saw reminded me of an Israeli website called 'PMW', or 'Palestinian Media Watch,' a site that monitors the Palestinian media. Of course every visit that we film for a prisoner gets them angry. I was surprised a week ago that [regarding] brother Ibrahim Hamed, brother Abbas Al-Sayid, and brother Abdallah Barghouti,  they [PMW] objected, they were upset, they slandered these heroes and claimed that they are terrorists. If they see Abdallah Barghouti (67 life sentences) as a terrorist, Abbas Al-Sayid (35 life sentences)as a terrorist, Ibrahim Hamed (54 life sentences) and Nasser Awais (14 life sentences), if they see all these prisoners as terrorists - we see them as heroes... I salute you, all you heroic fighter prisoners, and of course, I always wish you freedom."

[PA TV (Fatah), June 27, 2013]

This verbal attack on PMW is the latest of several attacks on PMW by the official PA media. In an attack on PMW last year, the official PA daily protested the impact that PMW is having in European Parliaments and US Congress. PMW's reports have led parliamentarians and governments to reconsider their funding of the PA or to restrict the PA's use of their money.

"The organization [PMW] published a new report, [From Terrorists to Role Models] a copy of which was sent to the American Congress and to world leaders, in order to incite against the Palestinian Authority and for the adoption of [political] steps against it, because of what it described as PA calls and praise for terror, its inculcation of hatred of Israel, and the glorification of leader and activist Martyrs, whom the organization [PMW] and its [Israeli] government describe as terrorists.

The new [PMW] report stated: The Palestinian Authority has named streets, public squares, and schools after Palestinian leaders and fighters, such as, for example, the Abu Jihad School in Araba, in the Jenin region, and some schools are even named after Salah Khalaf (Abu Iyad)...

The report included some brief background on these leaders, and what it described as the crimes, which they had carried out against Israelis."

[Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, May 8, 2012]

A few months ago following NRK Norwegian TV's story on PMW which showed the PA's hate messages against Jews and Israel, which NRK TV noted was being funded by Norway, the PA Ambassador to Norway attacked PMW. [PA TV (Fatah), Feb. 17, 2013]

These and other Palestinian Authority attacks on PMW are an indicator of PMW's success in creating international awareness of the actual activities, the hate content and the glorification of terror in the official PA world.

Is The Arab-Israeli Conflict Really About Economics?

Alexander H. Joffe and Asaf Romirowsky
Forbes

http://www.meforum.org/3544/arab-israel-conflict-economics

Is the Arab-Israeli conflict really about economics? U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry recently claimed "People in Israel aren't waking up every day and wondering if tomorrow there will be peace because there is a sense of security and a sense of accomplishment and of prosperity."
This was echoed by New York Times reporter Ethan Bronner, who recently took Israelis to task for their economic success; they have "moved on" from the conflict with the Palestinians which still looms like an "iceberg" in front of their "Titanic."

The Arab Spring in Europe

Anat Berko
July 1, 2013 

It is not difficult to portray Western women as licentious whores. For Muslim men, the West has no honor whatsoever. Even if immigrants try to adopt the culture of their new countries, the cultural and religious indoctrination breeds only the rejection of all the values of the host countries. What we are witnessing is not multiculturalism; it is a violent attempt by guests to devour their hosts, along with their houses, property, culture and legacy.

In a 1996 interview, Hamas founder and leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin stated that "every Arab rule that does not rule by the law of Allah and his religion is to be rejected." That was 17 years ago, long before the so-called Arab Spring, the terrorist attacks in the United States and Europe and the "days of rage" declared by Muslim rioters worldwide; now the breathing spaces between the attacks get shorter, and turn into years of rage.

One would expect that Muslim immigrants, whose children were born in the West, would adapt, become part of the Western society and partake of its freedom -- otherwise, why did they immigrate? What we see, however, is the opposite.

Islamism’s Tactical Advantage

July 1, 2013 By Joseph Puder 

America and the democratic West faced the European-based totalitarian ideologies of Nazism (National Socialism), Fascism, and Communism, and triumphed over them all.  Another totalitarian ideology has arisen in recent decades, this time not in Europe, but the Muslim Middle East, called Islamism.  It is a political perversion of Islam, albeit it is rooted in Islamic traditions and scriptures.  What makes this 21^st Century Islamist totalitarian ideology different from the other destructive ideologies of the 20^th century is the adoption of multiculturalism and political correctness (PC) in the democratic West that have tied the West’s hands in combatting this evil.

During World War Two, the Western allies did not mince words about the Nazi (German) and Fascist (Italy and Japan) enemies they faced.  American G.I.’s knew exactly who the enemy was, and so did the home front, which supported its fighting men and women. The American government helped define the nature of the enemy to the general public.  The British and Commonwealth governments did the same.

In the cultural sphere, Broadway and Hollywood, as well as the existing media (printed press and radio), supported the war efforts and helped define the enemy America was fighting.  And although the leftist influence in academia was growing as early as the 1940s, the culture in general respected patriotism, religious values, and traditions.

Jews From Muslim Lands: The Forgotten Refugees

July 1, 2013 By Noah Beck 

June 20 was World Refugee Day, dedicated to nearly 60 million people worldwide who were forcibly displaced by conflict or persecution. One group of refugees rarely acknowledged is the Jews who were indigenous to Muslim lands but compelled to flee around the time that the State of Israel was established.

A Google search for “1948 refugees” produces about 6 million results. All but a few (at least through page six) are about the Palestinian Arab refugees, as if they were the only refugees of 1948. But it is estimated that from the beginning of the 1948 Arab–Israeli War through the early 1970s, up to 1,000,000 Jews fled or were expelled from their ancestral homes in Muslim countries. 260,000 of those refugees reached Israel between 1948 and 1951 and comprised 56% of all immigration to the fledgling state. By 1972, their numbers had reached 600,000.

In 1948, Middle East and North African countries had considerable Jewish populations: Morocco (250,000), Algeria (140,000), Iraq (140,000), Iran (120,000), Egypt (75,000), Tunisia (50,000), Yemen (50,000), Libya (35,000), and Syria (20,000). Today, the indigenous Jews of those countries are virtually extinct (although Morocco and Iran each still has under 10,000 Jews). In most cases, the Jewish population had lived there for millennia.

Israeli stamps in US passport get student deported from UK

Chip Cantor, persona non grata in the UK

I’ve recently written that Israel’s greatest enemy in the future will not be Iran — which I predict will soon have its fangs pulled — but Western Europe.
I’ve also noted a recent sharp increase in anti-Jewish expression in the UK (see also here).
The incident reported below in a Kansas City Jewish newspaper (h/t Caroline Glick) may represent a new low in British behavior, unless there is something very significant that is left out.

It is here now-in their own words

Tennessee imam: Jews and Christians filthy, their lives and property can be taken in jihad by the Muslims


Note also his words about jihad, quoting Muhammad: "I have been commanded to fight the people until they testify la illaha illa Allah [there is no god but Allah]."

And Qadhi says: "The life and property of a mushrik [one who worships others besides Allah] holds no value in the state of jihad....which means if they don't say la illaha illa Allah, their lives and property are halal" -- that is, permitted to be taken by the Muslims.

IRS Targeted 292 Conservative, 6 Liberal Groups

http://www.newsmax.com/newsfront/irs-targeting-conservative-groups/2013/06/27/id/512269

By Lisa Barron

Russell George, the Treasury Department official who detailed the IRS targeting of conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status, says liberal groups faced far less scrutiny from the agency.

George, the Treasury inspector general for tax administration, told Democratic Rep. Sandy Levin of Michigan in a letter that just six progressive groups were targeted compared to 292 conservative groups, reports the Washington Examiner.

In Wednesday's letter to Levin, the top Democrat on the House Ways and Means Committee, George also said that 100 percent of conservative groups seeking tax-exempt status were scrutinized, compared to 30 percent of progressive groups. 

3 Inspiring Stories of Our Newest Pilots

idfspokesperson

Last week, on June 27, the 166th graduating class of the Israel Air Force's Flight Academy marked the conclusion of three years of intensive training. The graduation ceremony was attended by the President of Israel Shimon Peres, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Minister of Defense Moshe Ya'alon, Chief of the General Staff Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz, and Commander of the IAF Maj. Gen. Amir Eshel.

Here are the unique stories of three of our newest pilots.

1. Lt. B – born and raised in New Jersey – earned his place among the 166th graduating class of the IAF Flight Academy.

COP: Patriotic Integration

The immigration bill elevates the pluribus over the unum.

By John Fonte

 

Within the next day or two, the U.S. Senate will pass a 1,100-page immigration bill that weakens border security, provides amnesty to 11–12 million illegal immigrants, and doubles low-skilled immigration while making no serious provisions for promoting the patriotic integration of immigrants. In fact, the concept of patriotic integration has disappeared from the vocabulary of immigration “reform.”

Interestingly, the flawed Senate immigration bills of 2006 and 2007 did contain a section that explicitly called for the “patriotic integration” of immigrants. It made La Raza nervous, as the Washington Times reported at the time: In an internal e-mail, La Raza’s director of immigration policy wrote that a patriotic-integration amendment offered by Senator Lamar Alexander (R., Tenn.) was “very problematic” because, “while it doesn’t overtly mention assimilation, it is very strong on the patriotism and traditional american [sic] values language in a way which is potentially dangerous to our communities.”

Analysis: Despite what Kerry says, launching talks is the easy part

HERB KEINON

07/01/2013 

The difficulty in launching talks is only a skeleton of the difficulties that emerge once talks are launched. Barak and Afarat, Olmert and Abbas were able to get into the talks. Reaching an agreement is the problem.

President Shimon Peres, US Secretary of State John Kerry and PA President Mahmoud Abbas. Photo: World Economic Forum / Benedikt von Loebell

For the last 20 years, Israeli-Palestinian negotiations have broken up on the shoals where the most Israel feels it can offer falls short of the minimum the Palestinians feel they can accept.
It happened in 2000 at Camp David and later at Taba, where Yasser Arafat came up against a Center-Left Israeli prime minister in Ehud Barak and found that the most Barak could give him – which was 100% of Gaza, about 97% of the West Bank and a formula for Jerusalem whereby what was Jewish would remain in Israel, and what was Arab would go to the Palestinian state – did not meet his minimum requirements.

A Season for Treason

Sultan Knish


Set aside all the politics over the War on Terror and then ask what Bradley Manning, Julian Assange and Edward Snowden have in common.

All three are arrogant and unstable men filled with aimless grievances and animated by the sense that they never received the things that they really wanted out of life. They are in short exactly the sort of people that foreign intelligence agencies recruit when trying to spot weak links in the security chain.

Foreign intelligence agencies look for people with security clearances who go through a lot of money in short periods of time, who simmer with grudges and grievances, who are rootless and dissatisfied. Those descriptions adequately cover Edward Snowden and Bradley Manning; two men who should never have been given any kind of clearance whatsoever on personality alone.

Germany Faced with "Loudspeaker Jihad"

Soeren Kern

"First there was no mention of a muezzin when the mosque was inaugurated; then on Fridays only; then three times a day, now five times a day." — Interview in Die Zeit

A Turkish mosque in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia has begun sounding public calls to prayer from an outdoor loudspeaker system mounted on the roof of the edifice.
The mosque is one of a growing number of Islamic institutions in Germany (and other parts of Western Europe) publicly calling the Muslim faithful to prayer -- five times a day, seven days a week -- with cries of Allahu Akbar ("Allah is Greater").

Observers believe a precedent has now been established, and that many of the other 3,000 mosques in Germany will soon begin jumping on the muezzin loudspeaker bandwagon.
The sonorous prayer calls (known as adhan in Arabic) can be heard from great distances when amplified through electric loudspeakers; some German towns and cities are actually beginning to evoke the sounds and images of the Islamic Middle East.

Shias: The Arab Spring's Latest Victims

Raymond Ibrahim
June 25, 2013

http://www.meforum.org/3543/shias-arab-spring

The U.S.-sponsored "Arab Spring" continues to expose itself as a Sunni supremacist takeover. While the indicators are many—from the al-Qaeda Benghazi consulate attack to the ongoing persecution of Christian minorities—attacks on Shia Muslims are also on the rise.
In Syria, where foreign Sunni jihadis, supported and armed by the United States, are attacking all non-Muslims—Christians are prime and obvious targets, and reports of church attacks, abductions of Christians, and their slaughter are many—Shias, who are seen as "false Muslims," are naturally also under attack. For example, Salafi Sheikh Yasir al-'Ajlawni recently issued a fatwa saying that those Muslims fighting to topple secular president Bashar Assad and install Sharia law are free to "capture and have sex with" all non-Sunni women, specifically naming President Assad's sect, the Alawites, as well as the Druze and other Shia branches.
Days ago, popular news outlet, Syrian Truth, posted a photo of a toddler living in the Deir ez-Zor Governate in eastern Syria, along the Iraq border, who was reportedly tied with chains to a fence from where she witnessed the killing of her Shia mother and father at the hands of the Sunni jihadis making the ranks of the "Free Syrian Army." Syrian Truth correctly describes them as takfiris, that is, Muslims who, like al-Qaeda, accuse—and slaughter—other Muslims, in this case, Shias, for not being "true" Muslims.