Tuesday, July 31, 2012

Romney and the Palestinian Culture of Destruction


Bruce Thornton On July 31, 2012 @ 12:44 am In Daily Mailer,FrontPage
 
Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney is under attack for speaking an important truth about the Arab-Israeli conflict. At a fundraiser in Jerusalem on Monday, Romney made the obvious, even banal, point about the economic disparity between nations. Speaking of Israel and the Palestinian-run West Bank, Romney said, “Culture makes all the difference.” Rejecting the geographic determinism that claims geography, climate, and species distribution account for the greater power and wealth of the West, Romney added, “you look at Israel and you say you have a hard time suggesting that all of the natural resources on the land could account for all the accomplishment of the people here.” Romney’s point was part of a larger discussion of global economic disparity that he has brought up previously in numerous speeches and in his book No Apology, and that scholars like David Landes and Thomas Sowell have developed in their work.

"Doing Something Right"



Mitt Romney held a fundraiser in Israel while he was here -- the first time ever for a presidential candidate.  And he raised over a million dollars.  That, surely, tells us something.
 
~~~~~~~~~~
 
So does the response of spokesmen for the PA.  The Palestinian Arabs are not a happy group at the moment.  They are distressed that Romney didn't visit Ramallah during his trip here, and didn't meet with Mahmoud Abbas.
 
One Fatah official, cited by Khaled Abu Toameh in the JPost, called this "unacceptable," and said that Romney "apparently does not recognize Abbas as the elected president of the Palestinians."
 
Well, I have a flash for this official: While he functions as if he is, Abbas in fact is not elected president of the PA.  In January 2005, he was elected president as the replacement for Arafat, who had died just weeks earlier. According to PA law, the presidential term is four years and thus should have expired in 2009. But Abbas, in a political slight of hand, argued that since the election for president would not have taken place until 2006, had Arafat not died, his four year term would really be over in 2010. 

About That Special Relationship

 Sultan Knish

Romney has landed in Jerusalem and Obama is threatening to visit Israel in his second term. This seems like good news for Americans, but presidential and pre-presidential visits are often bad news for Israelis.


Romney's trip itinerary covering the UK, Israel and Poland is a clever road map critique of Obama's foreign policy. Kerry and Obama both campaigned on a promise to fix America's broken relations with its allies. Romney is subtly doing the same thing, paying a visit to allies alienated by the last three years.

When Obama first visited Israel the contentious Democratic primaries had just wrapped up and Jewish voters and organizations had thrown their support to Hillary Clinton. Obama had Jewish leftists, but he didn't have more middle-of-the-road Jewish Democrats. And additionally paying a visit to the home of the Little Satan was a way of dispelling suspicions about his Muslim roots.

American Islamist Groups Shape Arab Revolutions


by David J. Rusin On July 31, 2012 @ 12:42 am In Daily Mailer,FrontPage

Illustrating that the jihadist enterprise transcends all borders, American Islamist groups typically preoccupied with remaking the U.S. have been leaving their fingerprints on the campaign to exchange secular authoritarianism for religious authoritarianism in the Middle East. As these organizations labor stateside to nudge the governing class to embrace Arab Islamists at the expense of liberals — prompting Egyptian intellectual Essam Abdallah to lament that “the most dramatic oppression of the region’s civil societies and the Arab Spring … is led by the powerful Islamist lobbies in Washington” — several of the groups’ past and current officials have emerged as key players in the Middle East’s new political landscape. The connections underscore that Islamists everywhere are united by a single goal: the imposition of Shari‘a.

One of the prominent figures to embody these ties is Bassem Khafagi, who in March announced his intention to run for president of Egypt on behalf of the Freedom and Justice Party (FJP), an arm of the Muslim Brotherhood, which seeks to resurrect the caliphate and achieve “mastership of the world.” He failed to get the nod, but his back story is intriguing nonetheless. Jihad Watch’s Robert Spencer has pointed out that Khafagi once worked for the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) and is among its most notorious alumni. While serving as CAIR’s community affairs director, Khafagi was arrested in 2003 as part of a terrorism support and recruitment probe targeting the Islamic Assembly of North America (IANA), of which he was a founder. The government deported Khafagi after he pleaded guilty to bank and visa fraud.

America's Middle East Delusions

MARK SILVERBERG July 31, 2012
When Samuel Huntington wrote his 1996 book The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order, politicians considered it to be off the wall - that is, until a beautiful Tuesday morning in New York City on September 11, 2001. Today, it appears they have still not learned its lessons.
We in the West know what we desire, so we project that desire onto others who come from an entirely different culture and mindset - and to make matters worse, we develop policies based on these delusionary paradigms. That's what we've done vis-à-vis the Arab world, and especially the so-called "Arab Spring" that has revitalized pan-Islamism with the ultimate goal of restoring the caliphate.
As products of the European Renaissance, we assumed that the vast majority of the Arab world wanted liberal democracy and all the many freedoms that derive from it - freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom of assembly, freedom of religion, gender equality, and the like. The reality however is quite different. As Martin Peretz notes in The New Republic: "Countries that have no satisfying process of systematic mediation turn out to be tyrannies". Claude Moniquet an expert in the field of regional conflicts and terrorism and the director of the European Strategic Intelligence and Security Center, in a recently published book the Arab Spring, an Unhealthy Spring went further: "... democracy must include respect for the rights of women, youth, labor, and the right to freedom of expression. When that is all there, you can proceed to the election process. To do the opposite is like building a house from the roof down." That is, quite simply, you can't build a democracy without a foundation.

Western leaders should not have been surprised when the Arab Spring turned out to be an Arab Winter. It was always a fantasy that secular politics would triumph in the Arab world. That's because elections, for better or for worse, are determined by demographics and in Egypt, the demographics and popular thinking were clear long before its parliamentary and presidential elections. Either we just weren't listening or, we were blind to the ramifications.

Oops! Yet Another Turn for the Worse: CBO's Re-score of the 2010 Health Care Law

FRANK HILL July 31, 2012
This sobering report is from Chuck Blahous, a good friend of ours who worked in Senator Alan Simpson's office, the 1994 Entitlement and Tax Reform Commission set up by President Bill Clinton, the Bush White House on Social Security and entitlement reform and is now a Trustee on the Social Security/Medicare Committee.

(We apologize for the number of articles we have been producing lately but everyone seems to be figuring out that this Obamacare legislation is not turning out to be the 'deficit-cutting' machine President Obama and the Democrats said it was when passed in 2010.)

Chuck Blahous is a 'big brain' and he has 'been there/done that' when so many casual observers and yappers on TV, quite honestly, 'haven't'.  That is just the plain truth.  He knows what he is talking about.

If Bibi Could Vote In November

GEORGE E. BIRNBAUM July 31, 2012
Recently on FOX News Sunday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu adroitly sidestepped host Chris Wallace's question about Israel's interest in the upcoming American presidential election. And rightly so. Whatever the outcome of the election here in the United States, the long-standing relationship Israel maintains with this country is of singular importance that has a direct bearing on Israel's safety and security. And while the values and principles shared by the people of both countries will continue to be all important, it doesn't mean that Israelis don't have a preference, but that preference might be better for the sake of the long term relationship remain unstated. The hypothetical question then of how Bibi Netanyahu might vote if he were a US voter is one that's interesting to ponder for in effect, it is a question that also speaks to how the Israeli polity feels about the United States at this point in time.

Romney under Palestinian fire for unflattering remarks, but UN research backs him up

Leo Rennert


Before leaving Israel and heading to Poland, Mitt Romney threw diplomatic caution to the wind with remarks that prompted outrage from Palestinian leaders.

First, by declaring that Jerusalem is the capital of Israel, Romney put himself at odds with President Obama, whose White House spokesman Jay Carney had no answer when reporters asked him to name the capital of the Jewish state.  Obama wants to leave his options open to push for a division of Jerusalem.  Romney flatly rejected any such option.

Letter to the Editor Exposes Obama’s Ikhwanization of the Mideast

creeping 

The Ikhwan is the Muslim Brotherhood and since the Middle East has always been radical we used the term Ikhwanization for the title of this post. via Letter to the Editor: Did Obama Help Radicalize the Mideast?.
Angry Egyptians recently pelted Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s motorcade. Her reaction: “I want to be clear that the United States is not in the business, in Egypt, of choosing winners and losers, even if we could, which of course we cannot.”
However, is this true? According to Investor’s Business Daily, the Obama administration did, as it picked and colluded with the Muslim Brotherhood. Furthermore, the administration favored Islamists over secularists, and helped overthrow Mubarak, the reliable U.S. ally, who had outlawed the terrorist Muslim Brotherhood and honored the peace pact with Israel.

Giuliani: Obama as Israel-Ally 'Biggest Joke' He's Ever Heard


By Rachel Hirshfeld
First Publish: Arutz Sheva -

Rudy Giuliani
Jason Bedrick

Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani recently called President Obama “the least supportive president of Israel” in history and claimed the idea that Obama is a friend of the Jewish state to be “the biggest joke” he’s ever heard.

In a video published on YouTube this week, Giuliani is asked a number of questions regarding the president’s record on Israel, including Obama’s remarks that negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority should be based on pre-1967 boundary lines.

“That would be ridiculous if they had to go back to those territorial lines,” Giuliani said. “They’d be in such jeopardy with what’s going on in the volatile Middle East right now. As a prime minister of Israel, you couldn’t possibly agree to what President Obama is talking about.”

Asked what he believes to be the significance of Obama having not traveled to Israel during his entire term in office, Giuliani simply responded by saying that he believes that “President Obama has not been very favorable to the state of Israel.”

Monday, July 30, 2012

Golan Druse man indicted for passing info to Syria

YAAKOV KATZ
07/30/2012 

Shin Bet says Dr. Iad Johary gave info on IDF deployments, training, border security to Syrian intelligence for several years; Johary was arrested in early July at Quneitra Crossing between Israel, Syria.

Golan Druse in Majdal Shams watch Sunday's brawls. Photo: Oren Kessler
A Druse resident of Majdal Shams in the Golan Heights has been arrested for allegedly passing on intelligence information on Israeli military positions to the Syrian intelligence, it was revealed for publication on Monday.

According to the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency), Dr. Iad Johary admitted that between 2005 and 2008 he was in touch with various officials in Syrian intelligence agencies and was also in touch with him during his medical studies in Syria.

A resident of Majdal Shams, Johary was arrested at the Quneitra Crossing between Israel and Syria earlier this month. Johary left Israel in 2002 for medical studies in Syria and returned every summer up until 2008 when he remained in Syria to complete his exams, his cousin and lawyer Kisah Johary said at the time.

In 2009, he met a Druse woman from Syria and they decided to marry. The couple then decided to return to Majdal Shams where Johary planned to open a family medical practice.

Pay attention western World

Germany Tackles Islamic Radicalization

Soeren Kern
July 30, 2012 

The Ramadan Olympics and Islam's "Law of Necessity"

Mark Durie
July 30, 2012 

Former Critic of ‘Islamophobia’ Calls Michele Bachmann ‘Courageous’

  on Jul 30th, 2012 
 

Reprinted from Breitbart.com.
Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) is receiving support for her recent statements on the Muslim Brotherhood from an interesting source: Eric Allen Bell, a former supporter of an Islamic mosque who did a 180 degree turn after research convinced him that reality of Islam is quite different than it’s portrayed by the left.

In an interview, Bell called Bachmann “unbelievably courageous” and said he believes that “the Islamization of the West is the defining issue of our time.”
 
Eric Allen Bell is one of today’s most outspoken voices on the dangers posed by Islam’s war on the West, but the Los Angeles based filmmaker actually began his journey planning to expose “Islamophobia.” Bell used to be a hero of the left, garnering praise from Michael Moore and DailyKos for his film project that set out to show that opposition to a proposed Mega-Mosque in Murfreesboro, Tennessee was coming from conservative crackpots.

UPDATE : Huma Abedin’s Familial Muslim Brotherhood/Sisterhood Tree Gains Another Root


Huma Abedin’s unwavering cheerleaders, back benchers, damsel-in-distress rescuers, and otherwise immovable supporters just keep digging themselves further into a hole. May they bury themselves into quicksand.
When average folks dig in their heels, regardless of the facts at hand, they can quietly fade into the woodwork when the crap hits the fan, but those in positions of national trust can ill afford to do so. Not only are their careers – as well as elected seats of power – at stake, but some may even be held legally liable for aiding known terror-tied individuals. This is particularly the case when they were given due diligence notice of said (terror) links. Feigning ignorance will not wash. Their just desserts can’t come quick enough. Faster…faster.
Thus, with each new root inextricably tying and binding Huma Abedin to The Muslim Mafia the case against her, as well as her supporters (particularly the elected officials), becomes more severe.
Here is the latest familial linkage via Walid Shoebat , a reformed PLO terrorist, and a former Brotherhood member  too -

Saudi Students Flood In as U.S. Reopens Door

creeping
This past school year, Saudi Arabia sent 66,000 students to U.S. universities, four times the number before the 2001 attacks…
Terrorism works. via Saudi Students Flood In as U.S. Reopens Door – WSJ.com. h/t DP
WASHINGTON—Dressed in caps and gowns, the college students packing a graduation ceremony in suburban Washington, D.C., acted like excited graduates anywhere in the United States.

Except, perhaps, when the men broke into tribal line dances. Or when the women, wearing headscarves, burst forth with zagareet, soaring trills of their tongues, in celebration.
The more than 300 graduates gathered at a hotel overlooking the Potomac River were all from Saudi Arabia, part of a massive government-paid foreign study program to earn bachelor’s, master’s and doctorate degrees and return home to help run their country.

“You are the best of the best, and the future of our country,” Saudi Arabia’s cultural attaché, Mohammed al Issa, declared at the May event.

In the years following the security crackdown on Arab travelers after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks—in which 15 of the 19 hijackers were Saudi Arabian—tough restrictions kept most Arab students away from the U.S. In 2004, only about 1,000 Saudis were studying in the U.S., according to the U.S. State Department.

Pakistani Owner of Swanky Santa Monica Hotel: “Get the [expletive] Jews out of my Pool”

Lori Lowenthal Marcus
The Hotel Shangri-La in Santa Monica, California.
The Hotel Shangri-La in Santa Monica, California.
Photo Credit: Promotional image.


An upscale hotel on a Santa Monica, California, beach is an odd place to be singled out from a crowd and removed because you are Jewish, but that’s what happened to 18 young professionals who are telling their story to a jury in a discrimination trial taking place in Santa Monica Superior Court this week.

Ari Ryan is the grandson of a Ukranian Jew who lost most of his family in the Holocaust and narrowly escaped death at the hands of the Nazis.  Ryan’s grandfather moved to Israel in 1942 and served as a captain in the Israel Defense Forces.

Seventy years later Ryan says he got a small taste of what his grandfather lived through, but rather than in the forests of the Ukraine, it took place at an upscale hotel in Santa Monica.  Ryan and more than a dozen others have brought a lawsuit alleging anti-Semitic discrimination against them by a multi-millionaire Muslim American hotel owner.

Presidential Candidate Mitt Romney Captures Jerusalem

Barry Rubin

http://pjmedia.com/barryrubin/2012/07/29/presidential-candidate-mitt-romney-captures-jerusalem/
Speaking to an often-cheering group of about 400 people in Jerusalem, Governor Mitt Romney gave a speech less notable for what he said but because the audience believed he was sincere in saying it.

At a beautiful outdoor setting with the Old City in the background, Romney declared his strong support for Israel, using phrases often heard from American presidents. He also proclaimed his view that Jerusalem is Israel’s eternal capital. The difference, of course, is that those listening were less inclined to think that when President Barack Obama said similar things to AIPAC meetings he was describing his own views and policies.

Clearly, Romney was restrained by the American principle that partisan politics stopped at the water’s edge, that no politician should criticize a president or U.S. government while abroad. Thus, Obama’s name—or even his specific policies—were never explicitly mentioned.

What Romney did do, however, was to scatter among the assertions of U.S. support for Israel’s security and a strong belief in a U.S.-Israel alliance some subtle references that many viewers and much of the mass media are likely to miss. Here are the key ones, which give some hints over Romney’s future campaign and possibly his presidency:

--Not allergic to Israel’s center-right. Romney quoted former Prime Minister Menahem Begin twice and referred to “my friend, Bibi Netanyahu.” Obama wouldn’t have cited either man and is known to loathe Netanyahu. Romney and Netanyahu have known each other for years. The Begin quotes were significant: that Israel will never again let its independence be destroyed (a reference perhaps to Israel’s need not to be completely subservient to America’s current president) and that if people say they want to destroy you then believe them (an explicit reference to Iran’s nuclear weapons’ drive).
--“The reality of hate.” This phrase used by Romney struck me as very significant. It occurred in the context of speaking about how many Arab and Muslim forces feel about Israel. It shows that he is aware that the desire to destroy and injure Israel goes beyond pragmatic considerations or that it is something people will be talked out of trying to do. It is enormously important for an American president to understand that there are those in the Middle East who hate the United States and Israel, being impossible to appease or befriend them.
--He also said that Israel “faces enemies that deny past crimes against the Jewish people and intend to commit new ones.” This was a reference to Iran but also reflect his understanding about the depth of the conflict and the incredible difficulty of resolving it, a contrast to Obama’s at least initial stance.
--A real comprehension of terrorism, not mitigated by attempts at “balance” or rationalization. Romney referred both to the Munich Olympics attack—significant given the ongoing Olympics and his own experience running the games—and the tenth anniversary of a bombing at Hebrew University that, he noted, killed both Israeli and American students.
-- While spending much of the speech declaring his commitment to stopping Iran from getting nuclear weapons—a position that Obama also takes in his rhetoric—Romney also mentioned Iranian dissidents, recalling their repression by the regime. A knowledgeable listener would recall that Obama refused to help the dissidents. The threat to Israel comes not from the Iranian people but from a regime that oppresses them,” Romney said.
--Of tremendous importance was Romney’s hint that the weakness of the Obama Administration has encouraged extremists to become more aggressive and Iran to be bolder. He never said this directly but mentioned, “The ayatollahs in Tehran testing our moral defenses” to see if the West would abandon Israel. Perhaps the speech’s most important line was this one:
“We cannot stand by while others criticize [Israel] and certainly not join them because this emboldens Israel’s adversaries.”
This is a critique of Obama’s argument that he would persuade the Arabs to end the conflict by distancing the United States from Israel.
--On one point, Romney seemed to echo Obama by saying that the United States should be on the “right side of history.” Yet he added that the United States must make strong arguments to shape the values and systems that prevail in the Arab world. In contrast, Obama’s policy seems more passive, merely accepting whatever prevails in those countries. One could go even further and point to Obama’s backing for Muslim Brotherhood forces on a number of occasions.
References to the Arab world were relatively limited. On Egypt he said that hopefully the new government there understands the importance of respecting minority rights and keeping the peace agreement with Israel. Syria, Romney said, in an outdated phrase, was on the verge of civil war. The civil war has already arrived.
Much of the rest of the speech discussed the threats to Israel, the common interests of the two countries, and other staples of such occasions. Israel, Romney stated, exports technology, not tyranny and terrorism.
What was especially interesting was Romney’s list of five factors that brought together the United States and Israel: democracy, the rule of law, a belief in universal rights granted by our Creator (a reference to the Declaration of Independence and a subtle rebuke to Obama’s frequent omission of that divine attribution), free enterprise, and freedom of expression.
And then Romney added something that might become one of his most important lines in the months to come: Capitalism was the only economic system in history to raise people from poverty and create a huge middle class.




Professor Barry Rubin, Director, Global Research in International Affairs (GLORIA) Center http://www.gloria-center.org
The Rubin Report blog http://rubinreports.blogspot.com/
He is a featured columnist at PJM http://pajamasmedia.com/barryrubin/. 
Editor, Middle East Review of International Affairs (MERIA) Journal http://www.gloria-center.org/

Dubai police chief warns of Muslim Brotherhood threat

creeping


DUBAI (Reuters) – Dubai’s chief of police has warned of an “international plot” to overthrow the governments of Gulf Arab countries, saying the region needs to be prepared to counter any threat from Islamist dissidents as well as Syria and Iran.

The comments by Dahi Khalfan, one of the most outspoken security officials in the United Arab Emirates, follow the detention in the UAE since April of at least 20 dissidents, according to relatives of the detainees and activists.

“There’s an international plot against Gulf states in particular and Arab countries in general…This is preplanned to take over our fortunes,” Khalfan told reporters at a gathering late on Wednesday marking the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

“The bigger our sovereign wealth funds and the more money we put in the banks of Western countries, the bigger the plot to take over our countries…The brothers and their governments in Damascus and North Africa have to know that the Gulf is a red line, not only for Iran but also for the Brothers as well.”

Most of the detainees since April are Islamists, targeted by an official clampdown amid concern they may be emboldened by the rise of the Muslim Brotherhood in other Arab countries such as Egypt.
UAE Interior Ministry officials have not been available to comment on the arrests. Last week, UAE officials announced that authorities were investigating a foreign-linked group planning “crimes against the security of the state”.

I had no idea that there is this large number of Muslim Brotherhood in the Gulf states. We have to be alert and on guard because the wider these groups become, the higher probability there is for trouble,” Khalfan said on Wednesday.

We are aware that there are groups plotting to overthrow Gulf governments in the long term.”

Sunday, July 29, 2012

Understanding Real Israeli Politics

“Can’t anybody here play this game?”  --Casey Stengel, New York Yankees’ manager


Stengel’s complaint is the precise description of Israeli politics nowadays. To a remarkable extent—and this has nothing to do with his views or policies—Bibi Netanyahu is the only functioning politician in Israel today. No wonder he is prime minister, will finish his current term, and will almost certainly be reelected in 2013.

Consider the alternatives. The number one such option is Shaul Mofaz who is head of Kadima. Mofaz was a competent general but is a dreadful politician. He may be the least charismatic man I’ve ever met. Tsippi Livni, his predecessor, was a disaster as leader of the self-described centrist party. Here is a list of her major failures:

--She did not take the opportunity to oust the smarmy party leader Prime Minister Ehud Olmert when the corruption charges against him piled up.

--She mishandled the coalition negotiations when she did become acting prime minister, leading to the government’s fall.

--She barely beat Mofaz in the 2008 party primary.

An Olympic insult to Israel’s murdered athletes

A 12 word exchange tells you all you need to know about the international community and Israel
Robin Shepherd, Owner / Publisher

By Robin Shepherdhttp://www.thecommentator.com/article/1457/an_olympic_insult_to_israel_s_murdered_athletes

“You didn't hear the voice of the world,“ the two ladies exclaimed. “'Yes, I did," he replied. That, according to the Jewish Chronicle, was the exchange of words at a meeting earlier this week between two Munich massacre widows and the president of the International Olympic Committee, Jacques Rogge, who refused their request for a minute’s silence at the opening of the London games.

Let us be clear: he’s right and they’re wrong. The refusal of the IOC appropriately to honour the memory of the 11 Israeli athletes massacred in Munich by psychopathic Palestinian terrorists is most emphatically not a sign of indifference. It is not that they don’t care. It is not that they haven’t thought it through. It is not that they haven’t listened.

They do care. They have thought it through. They have been listening. And here’s the sort of thing they have been listening to. Courtesy of the invaluable work of Palestinian Media Watch (PMW), this is the substance of a letter sent to Rogge by Jibril Rajoub, President of the Palestinian Olympic Committee, expressing Palestinian “appreciation“ for his position:

Lebanon: Fractured Past, Bleak Present

PJ Media interviews William Harris, renowned expert on Lebanon and Syria.
by
Barry Rubin
July 29, 2012
William Harris, professor of politics at the University of Otago in New Zealand, is one of the world’s leading experts on Lebanon and Syria. His new book is Lebanon: A History, 600-2011, which, as the title suggests, narrates the history of that land and country over the centuries. But Harris also follows the contemporary regional events very closely. He is interviewed here by PJ Media Middle East Editor Barry Rubin.



BR: You’ve just written a comprehensive history of Lebanon. What makes Lebanon a unique country and what are its most important special features?

WH: Lebanon contains virtually the full religious diversity of the Arab world in a space the size of Connecticut. Christian, Muslim, and Islamic-derived sectarian communities with histories going back to early Medieval times are the principal identity markers in the country. The balance is unique: Sunni and Twelver Shia Muslims are about 30% each; Christians (all Christian sects) are approximately 35%; and Druze (an offshoot of Isma’ili Shia Islam) are 5%.
 
Nowhere else do Sunni, Shia, and Christians come together in such equivalence, and the demographic standoff is expressed in a unique multi-communal political system of defined shares in government, parliament, and bureaucracy for each sectarian group. The system worked best in the 1960s and has decayed in the subsequent decades of turbulence, but Lebanese remain more accustomed to freedoms than any other Arabs.
 
Lebanon also has the largest and most longstanding global Diaspora of any Arab country. Lebanon, cobbled together as a territorial state by France in 1920 with the Ottoman province of Mount Lebanon as its core, is also a vital little strategic arena in the early 21st century, sandwiched between Israel and Syria and attracting the close attention of both the West and revolutionary Iran.

Muslim Brotherhood: “Yes, We Will Be Masters of the World”

Jihad Watch

During a televised interview earlier this week, Dr. Safwat Hegazy, a popular preacher in Egypt, known for his desire to unify the Arab world into a "United Arab States”—with Jerusalem for a capital—dropped the Western language and made clear what it is the Muslim Brotherhood ultimately seeks: a caliphate and world domination, which even the Supreme Guide of the Brotherhood maintains is the group's mission.

Fool Me Twice, Shame on Me

But, Obama claims that he is the best President for Israel ever…
Don
by Naomi Ragen 

Obama has managed to do so much harm while taking more vacations and playing more golf than any other president in US history.

I have never felt more challenged than I did four years ago when I did my best to enlighten my American list-members to some of the dangers of hopping on presidential candidate Barack Hussein Obama’s bandwagon. But nothing swayed his Jewish supporters: not the fact that he had radical left-wing political mentors, nor his Islamic heritage and education, nor even his close 20-year relationship with the virulently anti-Semitic Reverend Jeremiah Wright. They weren’t even worried about his anti-Israel advisers, like Zbigniew Brzezinski, Simon Malley and Samantha Power, who once suggested the US invade Israel.

In fact, the response of my staunchly pro-Israel list to these revelations astounded me: “As a Jew, I am offended by what you have written about Barack Obama… You are tedious and unwelcome in the lives of Americans who are hopeful for the change that is due us,” wrote Susan.

“We wish no harm to our homeland, but we live in another country,” wrote Judi. “We too have issues of importance. I cannot believe for a moment that Senator Obama would place Israel in a position of harm.”

“This is my home first, and if I don’t protect my back yard I will lose my ability to further support Israel. You need to do a reality check,” wrote Robert.

Normalization of Islam

David Rushton  

This article may seem a little long and, to some, boring history; but a basic understanding of how Islam began in war and violence will help the reader understand the threat of Islam today to The United States, Canada, and Europe. Far from being a religion of peace Islam is, and has always been, a cult of war. And today Islam controls most of the world including the United States and Europe. I have condensed my original essay down to one sixth of what I originally wrote.

50 years ago Islam was referred to as Mohammedanism.  Politicians worldwide ignored it or treated it as an unruly little boy who should be gently controlled but mostly ignored. Governments determined to continue to use Islamic oil and reap great profits for Multi-National Oil companies. Christian teachers taught it as a cult in which its status was on the same level as Buddhism, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Mormons, Shintoism, Hindoism, and perhaps even Seventh Day Adventistism. Today it is thought of as one of the three great religions, Christianity, Judaism and Islam. 
 
But Islam cannot be ignored. Muslims believe the Koran teaches them to take over the world by force if nations and individuals do not comply.

Why is EU refusing to label Hezbollah as terrorists?

BENJAMIN WEINTHAL
07/29/2012 

Analysis: Dutch appear ready for ban on Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps, while Germany, France have showed no appetite for one.

Hezbollah’s Martyrs’ Day in south Beirut Photo: Sharif Karim/Reuters
BERLIN – Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman’s diplomatic push last week in Brussels to convince the EU to designate the Lebanese-based Hezbollah group as a terror entity was met with robust resistance.

Liberman sought to inject new life into the drive to outlaw Hezbollah because of the murders of five Israelis and a Bulgarian bus driver on July 18. Israeli and US intelligence agencies believe Hezbollah carried out the suicide bombing.

Cypriot Foreign Minister Erato Kozakou-Marcoullis, whose country heads the 26-member EU presidency, said there is “no consensus among the EU member states for putting Hezbollah on the terrorist list of the organization,” and claimed there is “no tangible evidence of Hezbollah engaging in acts of terrorism.”

Counter-terrorism blogs and experts on both sides of the Atlantic were immediately awash with reactions that quickly mounted overwhelming evidence to refute Kozakou-Marcoullis’s contentions.

Saturday, July 28, 2012

Interview with Jerry Molen, producer of “2016”

Scott W. Winchell, Editor-in-Chief, Stand Up America
Gerald R. (Jerry) Molen, Oscar-winning Hollywood co-producer for “Shindler’s List” and producer of a host of other great films such as: “Jurassic Park” and, “The Lost World: Jurassic Park”, “Twister”, “Minority Report”, “Hook”, and “Rain Man”, to name a few, is now producing a film with a much different aim. This new project is not for entertainment, but rather, for education. Educating America about who Obama really is.
This new project is a documentary entitled “2016”. It is based on the book from noted writer, Dinesh D’Souza entitled: “The Roots of Obama’s Rage” with additional input from a new book coming out in August titled, appropriately, “Obama’s America”. The film is due for release on July 27th and distribution will be wide; you will be able to see it in your local theaters. The project was co-written and co-directed by Dinesh D’Souza and John Sullivan.
The interview:
I met Jerry and his wife Pat many years ago, through MG Paul Vallely, founder of Stand Up America (SUA). Over the years, we have enjoyed many good times together over meals, on a cruise with family, and we have had many discussions regarding the status of America and its decline from what the founding fathers originally intended. This is something of major concern to Jerry and we here at SUA. When I heard of this new project, I knew we had to ‘talk’ once again.

Why the IOC will never memorialize the '72 Munich massacre

 Guri Weinberg

Recently, new information about the Munich Massacre at the 1972 Olympic Games was released by German police as a result of pressure from German investigative reporters. It was reported that the “Black September” terrorists were helped by a Nazi group in Germany to get fake IDs, weapons and access to the Olympic Village.

This was not too shocking, as the head of the IOC in 1972 was Avery Brundage, a Nazi sympathizer and anti-Semite. His protege, Juan Samaranch, eventually served the second longest IOC term as president, but his support of Nazis and the Spanish dictator Francisco Franco was kept a dirty secret. Most IOC members knew the truth but stayed silent because he organized a regal lifestyle for them -- with money diverted from sport.
'I want all of you to lose your jobs and be replaced by real Olympians who care about the athletes and believe in the Olympic charter.' 
-
Another interesting fact is that Abu Iyad, one of the co-founders of the PLO, has said publicly that the reason “Black September” chose the 1972 Olympics as the stage for their hostage plot was because the PLO's request to the IOC for inclusion of the Palestinian delegation at the Olympic Games was completely ignored. This snub from the IOC came at a time when tension was at a boiling point in the Middle East. Yet, having incited the PLO, the IOC denied the Israeli government's request for security for the athletes.

London Bridge is Falling Down

Sultan Knish

ROMNEY IN LONDON

This entire mini-affair is an example of the rules we are playing by. Scandals will be manufactured and transformed into narratives in the blink of an eye.  A Republican candidate either has to be completely robotic or so charismatic and natural that no one cares about any of the attacks made against him.

The narrative is that Romney's London trip is full of gaffes. The reality is that Romney simply commented on actual events. The same events being covered widely in the same British newspapers playing up the story.


"It's hard to know just how well it will turn out," Romney told NBC. "There are a few things that were disconcerting. The stories about the private security firm not having enough people, the supposed strike of the immigration and customs officials… that obviously is not something which is encouraging."

Obviously when you have to dispatch thousands of soldiers to fill in for a hole in your security that is not a good sign and there's a long list of problems with the London Olympics.

For that matter here's a story from the Washington Post from ten days ago hitting on the same theme.

“Ten days to the Games — what could go wrong?” a sarcastic headline in Britain’s Guardian newspaper asked Tuesday. The answer, as this Olympic host nation has discovered, is: Quite a lot.

Even as athletes begin arriving in London for the 2012 Summer Games, Olympic organizers are coming under fire over bungled security staffing and other issues that have prompted the British media and opposition lawmakers to already declare the event a “fiasco.”

This is much stronger language than Romney used.

COP: If You Can't Win on the Facts ...

I am normally very understanding of the need for Presidential vacations, Presidential weekends off, or even Presidential naps.

It's a tough job and there is always someone, somewhere doing something illegal, dangerous, and/or stupid somewhere on the planet that demands your attention.
Having written that, I am becoming increasingly irritated with the fact that the total Obama campaign strategy is: Destroy Romney personally.

There is an old saying that goes something like:
"If you can't win on the facts, argue the law. If you can't win on the law, call your opponent names."
The Obama campaign can't win on the facts; The economic situation is what it is and it is not good. They can't win on the law; about the only thing they've gotten passed is Health Care and you know how popular that is.

So, they are reduced to the third option: Calling their opponent names.

State Department Won’t Say Jerusalem Is in Israel

UPDATE: The State Department has altered an official communication to erase the fact that it had referred to Israel and Jerusalem as separate entities.
---
Time to put a stop to all this!!!
Before you listen to the pathetic, but enlightening, YouTube videos from Washington, consider this:

BREAKING NEWS: The Obama Administration of the United States of America agreed to immediately vacate Washington D.C. and relocate their operation to Novar, Montana, following the final status of negotiations with the Supreme Council of the Native Indian-American Chiefs.

In a heartfelt statement, the President was quoted saying, "Actually, Israel has a far more legitimate historical claim to Jerusalem than, we, Americans, have to Washington D.C.. So to be consistent, I initiated a withdrawal from Washington D.C. to an area that is acceptable to our indigenous leadership. Yes we can!"

Shameful Washington State Department and White House
Carney Refuses To Identify Capital Of Israel Twice In White House Press Briefing: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dGEn1TZtEmQ&feature=player_embedded
Obama State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland Won't Say If Jerusalem Is The Capital Of Israel: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eSBh6C5eZgc&feature=player_embedded

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t8jra_mPKXQ&feature=player_embedded&lang=e

appeasement of Hezbollah now EU policy?


Arsen Ostrovsky

In rejecting Israel's request to blacklist Hezbollah as a terror group, the EU has missed a golden opportunity to strike at the heart of Iran's empire of terror

In the wake of last week’s terror attack against Israeli civilians in Bulgaria, the European Union has refused Israel’s request to blacklist Hezbollah as a terror group, citing a lack of “tangible evidence” it was engaged in terrorism.

The attack, which claimed the lives of five Israelis and a local Bulgarian man, has been widely attributed to Hezbollah and the Iranian regime, under whose orders it was carried out.

In an interview on Fox News this past Sunday, Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said, Israel knows "with absolute certainty, without a shred of doubt, that this was a Hezbollah operation," citing it had “rock solid evidence” the terror group was responsible.

Lawsuit demands bin Laden burial records

'I suspect the Obama administration is embarrassed by the ceremony'

Amid the secrecy of the Barack Obama administration in Washington, somewhere there are the details of the U.S. Navy Seal raid in Pakistan and the subsequent burial at sea of Osama bin Laden.
Ever wonder what really happened?

Now officials at Judicial Watch have gone to court to pry that information loose.
The organization that monitors government actions and prosecutes misbehavior said yesterday that it has filed a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit against the U.S. Navy for records showing “any funeral ceremony, rite or ritual” for bin Laden before he was buried at sea.

The government has reported that after the May 2, 2011, Navy Seal Team Six raid that led to bin Laden’s capture and death, the al-Qaida leader reportedly was transported by the USS Carl Vinson and then buried at sea “in accordance with Muslim law.”

Contentions Why is WH Meeting With Iran Apologists?



In a demonstration of the Obama administration’s eagerness to build and sustain relations with the Iranian-American community, top officials yesterday hosted the first ever Iranian-American Community Leader’s Roundtable at the White House.
The day-long roundtable was attended by National Iranian American Council staff, as well as individual community leaders and representatives of national organizations, including Iranian Alliances Across Borders and Public Affairs Alliance of Iranian Americans. …
The officials on hand were eager to listen to the interests and concerns of the Iranian-American community and to determine ways to better serve and inform the Iranian-American community about important policies and programs.  All of the officials made clear that there would be a sustained effort to engage with Iranian Americans going forward.  “This is not good-bye,” many of the officials repeated, “this is hello.”
The fact that this meeting took place the day after five Israeli tourists were killed in what is believed to be an Iranian suicide attack in Bulgaria is a slap in the face to the pro-Israel community.

The Muslim Brotherhood's American Defenders

 
On Wednesday, John Brennan, US President Barack Obama's assistant for homeland security and counterterrorism, made a quick trip to Israel to discuss Hezbollah's massacre of Israeli tourists in Burgas, Bulgaria last week.

Hopefully it was an instructive meeting for the senior US official, although his Israeli interlocutors were undoubtedly dumbstruck by how difficult it was to communicate with him. Unlike previous US counterterror officials, Brennan does not share Israel's understanding of Middle Eastern terrorism.

Brennan's outlook on this subject was revealed in a speech he gave two years ago in Washington. In that talk, Brennan spoke dreamily about Hezbollah. As he put it, "Hezbollah is a very interesting organization."

He claimed it had evolved from a "purely terrorist organization" to a militia and then into an organization with members in Lebanon's parliament and serving in Lebanon's cabinet.

Brennan continued, "There are certainly elements of Hezbollah that are truly a concern for us what they're doing. And what we need to do is find ways to diminish their influence within the organization and to try to build up the more moderate elements."

Barack Obama's Creepy Connection To Judaism's Saddest Day



http://yidwithlid.blogspot.com/2012/07/barack-obamas-creepy-connection-to.html
This Saturday evening begins Tisha B' Av (the 9th of the Jewish month of Av). Since the time of Moses and the exodus-through modern times, horrible things have happened to the Jewish people on or around the 9th day of Av. Generally not recognized is the fact that the President of the United States, Barack Obama has a eerie connection to this sad day.

Tisha B' Av is one of only two full day (27 hour)  fasts on the Jewish Calendar, the other being Yom Kippur.  Yom Kippur is considered a happy fast, Tisha B'Av is a sad mournful fast. You see, this is a day of great tragedy. While the day centers around the loss of the two Temples. they are only two of the horrible things which have occurred on Judaism's saddest day.

As a kid I would cry at the drop of the hat, my mom would tell me that if I continued to cry she would give me something real to cry about.  My Mom however, wasn't the first to use that phrase, it was God who invented it, and he invented it on Tisha B'Av

When Moses sent twelve spies into Canaan, ten of them came back with a report that the land was unconquerable and the fledgling Israeli nation could never defeat those Canaanite giants. This report caused cries throughout the Israelite settlement, they begged Moses to take them back to Egypt.

Friday, July 27, 2012

Are Muslims taught to be Insecure and Intolerant?


The research and writings of Nicolai Sennels may have crucial, albeit exceptionally controversial and politically incorrect implications for understanding both the likely similarities as well as possible crucial differences between many Muslims and Westerners as far as politics, economics and religion are concerned. It is also important to include these postulations (even if clearly only imperfect generalizations) in any discussion as to how these cultural implications, where relevant, would affect the chances for a Muslim Reformation and the evolution of Islamic moderation.

Nicolai Sennels is a Danish psychologist who developed an unorthodox therapy at Sønderbro, the Danish youth prison. He taught the young prisoners about mindfulness meditation and developed a special program on anger management, focusing on teaching criminals with a low understanding of emotions and empathy, how to take responsibility for their own behavior. In 2008, the prisoners of Sønderbro voted the facility as the best prison in Denmark.

Why Did the IOC Refuse to Honor the Munich Victims?

 Benjamin Weinthal
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) flatly rejected a minute of silence at today’s opening ceremony in London to mark the 40th anniversary of the murder of eleven Israeli athletes by Palestinian terrorists at the 1972 Munich Games.

Why exactly is the IOC opposed to a rather modest attempt to commemorate the victims of terror? According to Ankie Spitzer, the widow of Israeli fencing coach Andre Spitzer, who was murdered by the Palestinian Black September group in 1972, IOC president Jacques Rogge capitulated to the 46-member bloc of Arab and Muslim countries because of the threat of Arab countries to boycott participation in the Games.

Spitzer, who jumpstarted an international campaign to garner a minute of silence at the London games, reported that Rogge told her that “his hands were tied” by the influence of the 46-member group.

Her rejoinder to Rogge: “No, my husband’s hands were tied, not yours.”