US Security Interests in Egypt

by Shoshana Bryen

This week, without a murmur of dissent, the Egyptian Government restored the right to declare war to the President with the concurrence of Parliament. Morsi is continuing an evolution that promises to hasten the decline of American influence.

How much recent events have eroded U.S. security interests in Egypt depends on how deeply rooted those interests were in the first place. Although the Mubarak government did some things we wanted it to do, it did other things that were anathema. Mubarak, with U.S. complicity and Israeli acquiescence, fed the growth of a military that could be used for good or ill while he fed the Egyptian people lies about Israel, about war, about Jews and about peace. In the bigger picture, Egypt always saw itself with Arab and Sunni and larger Muslim responsibilities as well as responsibilities to its non-Muslim patron, whether the U.S. or Russia before it.

Ya'alon: US is undermining military threat against Iran

REUTERS, JPOST.COM STAFF

08/31/2012 

Vice premier says mixed messages from foreign powers help discredit the military option against Iranian nuclear facilities.

Photo: Ariel Jerozolimski

Vice Premier Moshe Ya'alon said on Friday he feared Iran did not believe it faced a real military threat from the outside world because of mixed messages from foreign powers, including the United States.

"We have an exchange of views, including with our friends in the United States, who in our opinion, are in part responsible for this feeling in Iran," he told Israel's 100FM radio station.

Migron and the threat to Israeli democracy

Caroline Glick

 

By Tuesday, 50 Israeli families will have been tossed out of their homes in their village of Migron, which is set for destruction. 

They will not be dispossessed because they unlawfully squatted on someone else's property.

The residents of Migron will be tossed from their homes - on the order of the Supreme Court - because Attorney-General Yehuda Weinstein and his associates believe they are above the law. And due to this opinion, Weinstein and his associates refuse to recognize the sovereign authority of Israel's government or to act in accordance with its lawful decisions.

The media have alternatively presented the story of Migron's imminent destruction as a story about a power struggle between so-called settlers and the IDF, whose forces will be called upon to eject them from their homes; or as a struggle between the Israeli residents of Judea and Samaria and Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu; or as a struggle between the radical leftists from Peace Now and its fellow foreign government-financed NGOs, and the residents of Judea and Samaria.

Dempsey says 'won't be complicit' in Israeli strike on Iran

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff warns applying pressure on Iran "could be undone if [Iran] was attacked prematurely" • IAEA report confirms Tehran has continued to expand nuclear program and has nearly 190 kg of higher-grade enriched uranium • 200-250 kg needed for bomb.

Reuters and Israel Hayom Staff

Chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Martin Dempsey warns against attacking Iran. | Photo credit: AP

<< 1 2 >>

U.S. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Martin Dempsey has reinforced Washington's opposition to unilateral Israel military action against Iran, saying "I don't want to be complicit if they [Israel] choose to do it."

Speaking to reporters in London on Thursday, where he was in town for the opening of the London 2012 Paralympic Games as head of the U.S. delegation, Dempsey said he did not know Iran's nuclear intentions, as intelligence did not reveal intentions. What was clear, he said, was that the "international coalition" applying pressure on Iran "could be undone if [Iran] was attacked prematurely." Sanctions against Iran were having an effect, and they should be given a reasonable opportunity to succeed, he said.

Fundamentally Freund: Tyranny begins in Migron

MICHAEL FREUND

What happens today in Migron could very well happen tomorrow in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv or Beersheba.

Photo: Marc Israel Sellem/The Jerusalem Post

 

On Tuesday, a fateful hearing took place at the Supreme Court to determine the destiny of the Jewish community of Migron.

The complicated history of the site, and the legal wrangling surrounding it over the past six years, have left many people wondering where right begins and wrong ends.

But regardless of one’s political views, there is something about the case that should send a shudder down the spine of every Israeli who values liberty.

Standing before the justices, Osnat Mandel of the State Attorney’s Office said that Migron in its entirety should be evacuated within a few days.

Reminder: So Israel's the Bad Guy Here? Really?

• Diana West
  

Phew. We can breathe easier now that the Obama administration has taken a tough-as-scimitars line with Israel, whose existentially threatening architectural blueprints for new housing, the administration says, pose a dire threat to U.S. troops and interests. Or, as Vice President Joseph Biden put it, referring to a new housing project in Jerusalem, as reported by Yedioth Ahronoth: "This is starting to get dangerous for us. What you're doing here undermines the security of our troops who are fighting in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan." In other words, maybe it's not the Muslim-made IED planted in the roads of Helmand Province that's the problem; maybe it's the Jewish-built condo in Jerusalem. Such is the babble of the jihad-blackmailed. And the problem with giving in to blackmail is that it never ends.

Why Obama is Bad for Israel

Aliza Davidovit 

There is an old joke that if you have two Jews in a room you will have three opinions. But thanks to President Barack Obama, he has been able to accomplish what even Moses couldn’t do, create a consensus among Jews, well at least Israeli Jews. They have by a strong majority united on one thing: They don’t like president Obama. A recent poll commissioned by the Begin Sadat Center at Bar Ilan University and the Anti-Defamation League revealed that only 32% of Israelis have a positive view of Obama as compared to 2009, when his likeability among them was at 54%. You see, Israelis tend to be a very action-oriented people, hence their ability to turn an arid desert into a high-tech verdant success in quick time. They know talk is cheap, promises have expiration dates, and words make for poor armament when rockets hit their towns and their buses are blowing up. As such, when the current American President says, “I have Israel’s back,” Israelis are not convinced. With aggressive enemies at every turn they have developed heightened survival skills and have eyes in the backs of their heads, and frankly, they don’t like what they see coming out of this White House. This consensus, among a highly opinionated people, should be the paramount indicator that the current president is not conducive to Israel’s wellbeing.

PE: Yes, Romney’s Welfare Ad Is Accurate

Ann Coulter

Poor Mickey Kaus. He’s the liberal intellectual (not an oxymoron — he’s the last known living “liberal intellectual”) lefties on TV are usually stealing from, but now that this welfare reform maven has concluded that Romney’s welfare ad is basically correct, liberals refuse to acknowledge his existence.

The non-Fox media have formed a solid front in denouncing Romney’s welfare ad for daring to point out that Obama has gutted the work requirements of the 1996 welfare reform bill.

The New York Times claims that Romney’s ad “falsely” charges Obama with eliminating work requirements. CNN rates the ad “false.” Underemployed hack Howard Fineman says Romney’s ad “is just flat out wrong on the facts” and “that every fair analyst, every fact checker” has said it’s “just factually wrong.”

When a campaign ad induces this much hysteria, you know Romney has struck gold. On closer examination, it turns out that by “every fair analyst,” Fineman means a bunch of liberals quoting one another.

Fact-Checking the Fact-Checkers: Here‘s a Break Down of the Claims Bashing Paul Ryan’s Speech

• by Mytheos Holt

Stay up-to-date on all the convention news by visiting TheBlaze’s dedicated RNC page. Also find out how you can watch exclusive, live reports and analysis on TheBlaze TV here.
–
Paul Ryan’s speech accepting his nomination for the vice presidency of the United States last night has already been widely hailed as a home run national debut by many sources. So it’s no surprise that the Left, which views Ryan’s ideas as the political equivalent of Typhoid Mary, has already pounced on the speech for its alleged inaccuracies, while simultaneously bringing up every conceivable nitpick they can.

"Not Pretty"

Really ugly, if truth be told.  That's the situation in Migron.  The High Court released its decision yesterday:

 

The residents -- all of them, including the 17 who re-purchased the land on which their homes are sitting -- must be evacuated by next Tuesday.  By September 11, all buildings must be razed except for those on the plot of land that had been re-purchased. 

DNC’s Islamic prayer leader keynoted “Jihad Summer Camp” — two weeks before 9/11

creeping 

via The PJ Tatler » DNC’s Islamic prayer leader keynoted “Jihad Summer Camp” — two weeks before 9/11.

The planned Islamic prayer service for this coming Friday as part of the DNC’s 2012 convention has drawn some controversy in recent days, even from some Muslim groups.

One of the points of criticism is that the event is being led by extremist cleric Siraj Wahhaj, who was named by US Attorney Mary Jo White as “unindicted persons who may be alleged as co-conspirators” in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing trial, and appeared as a character witness for the mastermind of the plot, the “Blind Sheikh” Omar Abdel-Rahman (prosecuted by our PJ Media colleague, former federal prosecutor Andy McCarthy).

Back in 2003, Wall Street Journal reporter Paul Barrett highlighted some of Wahhaj’s extremist statements, noting his advocacy of strict shariah law:

Op-Ed: Three Card Monte Happy Dance

Published: Thursday, August 30, 2012

“Three Card Monte” for the Arab refugees is a con game in which the mark (the US tax payer) is tricked into giving aid to “refugees” to split between the dealer and the shills, UNRWA and the Palestinian / Hamas leadership.

Jack Berger writes on a variety of Middle East and Jewish subjects, including politics and the Diaspora in relation to the history of the Jewish people.

The War of Independence for Israel in reality began on November 30, 1947, the day after the United Nations vote for the reestablishment of the homeland for the Jewish people.

Until the U.N. vote, the Arabs and their British allies had been on their best behavior … after the vote the gloves came off.

It should be remembered that the original agreement regarding the reestablishment of the Jewish State was previously confirmed under the provisions of the Balfour Declaration (1917) with the agreement being fully implemented at the conference in San Remo, Italy in 1920, under the powers vested by the League of Nations called thereafter the Mandate for Palestine.

In 1920, the homeland of the Jews was to be “on the banks of the Jordan River…” on both the west and the east banks of the Jordan. In 1922, Winston Churchill, the British Colonial Secretary and Alex Kirkbride, acting Governor of Moab, in disregard of Britain’s obligations under the Mandate, lopped off 78% of the land designated for the National homeland of the Jewish people thereafter calling it Trans-Jordan. … for Britain, one could only say, “agreements were made to be broken” and so the area left for the reestablishment of the Jewish homeland was only 22% of the original Mandate, the areas west of the Jordan river.

Arab Silent War On Israel

August 30, 2012

Nurit Greenger

This is a war the Arabs are winning. Israel is being conquered with full approval of the government of Israel.

In an interview in the Arab daily Al-Sharq al-Awsat on September 1, 2009 Fayyad made his intentions very clear: “Many think that zone ‘C’ areas have become disputed territories rather than occupied territories in the public consciousness. We assert that these are Palestinian National Authority territories where the state will be established.”

Brotherhood taking total control of Egypt

ZVI MAZEL
08/23/2012 03:24
http://www.jpost.com/MiddleEast/Article.aspx?ID=282258


With rise of Morsy, a new dictatorship may be replacing the old while world persists in looking for signs of pragmatism.

PHOTO: MOHAMED ABD EL-GHANY/REUTERS

While the world persists in looking for signs of pragmatism in the Egyptian president, Mohamed Morsy is quietly taking over all the power bases in the country.

Having gotten rid of the army old guard, he replaced them with his own men – officers belonging to the Muslim Brotherhood or known sympathizers. Then he turned his attention to the media, replacing 50 editors working for the government’s extensive and influential press empire – including Al- Ahram, Al-Akhbar, Al-Gomhuria. He is now busy appointing new governors to the 27 regions of the country.

Hosni Mubarak used to choose retired generals he could depend on for these sensitive posts; Morsy is hand picking party faithful. At the same time upper echelons in government ministries and economic and cultural organizations are methodically being replaced. The Muslim Brotherhood is fast assuming total control. For many observers, the deployment of army units in Sinai is more about proclaiming Egyptian sovereignty in the face of Israel than actually fighting Islamic terrorism.

Defending America Takes More Than “Hope”

Amy Payne

August 30, 2012

Speaking to veterans at the American Legion conference this week, President Obama said, “Today, every American can be proud that the United States is safer, stronger and more respected in the world.”

That’s quite a statement from a President who has granted legitimacy to extremist organizations like the Muslim Brotherhood and promised the Russians he would be “flexible” toward their demands on missile defense, while slighting American allies like Poland and the Czech Republic.

Heritage defense experts call Obama’s defense strategy “a strategy of hope“: “a hope that big wars are a thing of the past; a hope that America’s allies will do more; and a hope that fewer resources do not jeopardize the lives of American soldiers.”

These are flimsy hopes in the face of hostile nations and terrorist groups that want nothing more than the destruction of America.

Twitter replaces smuggled video as terrorists’ preferred way to communicate

creeping 

Twitter joins Google’s Youtube as a favorite way for Islamic terrorists to communicate. Isn’t there a law against aiding terrorists? via Twitter replaces smuggled video as terrorists’ preferred way to communicate | McClatchy.

In the old days, 10 years ago, jihadists vowed death to Western imperialism on audiotapes that couriers smuggled out of mountain hideouts and passed to satellite TV stations.

The next generation of militants has a much simpler way to proselytize: Twitter.

For years, Islamist extremists have struggled to outsmart the censors in online forums – with their videos yanked from YouTube, their pages flagged on Facebook and their message boards hacked – but Twitter still offers a rare unfiltered space for the groups, according to analysts who monitor militants’ online presence.

On one recent Sunday, for example, the Syrian jihadist group Jabhat al Nusra sent out a flurry of tweets from its official account, joining the Somali militants from al Shabab, Afghanistan’s extremist Taliban, and other hard-line Islamist fighters from Kenya and Yemen on the microblogging service that claims more than 140 million users.

How Important is Israel to the U.S.? Check the Map

David Lev

For those who think that Israel is a $3 billion-a-year strategic liability for the U.S., the cause of Muslim terrorism, Mideast instability, and high gas prices, New York attorney and Israel advocate Mark Langfan has a message: Get a map.

Preferably, the 3D topographic raised-relief map system of Israel that Langfan developed back in 1991, which gives viewers a perspective on Israel – and on the Middle East – that they may not have had before. The map shows just how important Israel is to U.S. interests – how a strong and secure Israel, far from being a strategic liability, is actually the one thing that is preventing the Middle East from falling into complete chaos.

The Humpty-Dumpty Middle East

• Victor Davis Hanson
   

Aug 30, 2012

The United States is backing off from the Middle East -- and the Middle East from the United States.


America is in the midst of the greatest domestic gas and oil revolution since the early 20th century. If even guarded predictions about new North American reserves are accurate, over the next decade the entire continent may become energy-independent, without much need of petroleum imports from the Middle East.


America's diminishing reliance on the Persian Gulf coincides with mounting Chinese dependency on Middle Eastern oil and gas. So as the Persian Gulf becomes less important to us, it grows even more critical to the oil-hungry, cash-laden -- and opportunistic -- Chinese.


After two wars in the Middle East, Americans are as tired of our forces being sent over there as Middle Easterners are of having us there.

The Jewish Struggle for Universal Human Rights

Isi Leibler
August 30, 2012
http://wordfromjerusalem.com/?p=4251

One of the conundrums associated with the enduring nature of global anti-Semitism which has soared exponentially in recent years, is why, having made such disproportionate contributions towards all levels of civilization and left major imprints on science, ethics, medicine, culture and the arts, we Jews continue to act as a magnet for such virulent hatred.

Equally bizarre is the failure of formerly oppressed groups and nations to reciprocate or even acknowledge the extraordinary Jewish contributions in support of their struggles towards overcoming persecution, discrimination, abuse of human rights and achieving independence.

A Party of Trolls

Sultan Knish

With the next four years at stake, the only topic of conversation is the Race Card. The left plays the Race Card and then accuses the right of playing the Race Card. There are dogwhistles in the air that only white middle-aged pundits can hear and arguments over whose diverse lineup truly represents the philosophy of the future and whose is just shameless tokenism.

The media madhouse insists that a half-black man who went from the Illinois State Senate to the White House in 5 years is proof that we are a racist country and that Southern Europeans whose ancestors moved to this continent are an oppressed racial minority. Arguing with this insanity is a sure way to get called a racist. Ignoring this insanity means being charged with privilege. Privilege being the ungodly power to ignore someone else's assertion that privilege through victimization should begin and end every single discussion on every topic, up to and including the moon landing. 

Illegal Arab building defies Supreme Court ruling

By ARI BRIGGS

The illegal “building intifada” being waged by the Palestinian Authority on state lands in Area C of Judea and Samaria has become the latest battleground for the radical Left in conjunction with foreign-funded Israeli so-called human rights NGO’s such as B’tselem and Bimkom.

The illegal “building intifada” being waged by the Palestinian Authority on state lands in Area C of Judea and Samaria, (the West Bank), has become the latest battleground for the radical Left in conjunction with foreign-funded Israeli socalled human rights NGO’s such as B’tselem and Bimkom.

This unlawful land theft is being carried out with the full support of the EU, foreign aid organizations and the UN.

Under the Oslo Accords, Israel was allocated full administrative and security control over Area C. Allocation of final sovereignty in Area C was to be determined in negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority under the Oslo Accords and the Bush Roadmap of 2002.

High Court orders Migron outpost evacuated

TOVAH LAZAROFF

Court rejects Migron residents' petition to delay eviction, demolition of homes; decision delays demolition of homes in "block 10."

Migron residents called on their supporters Wednesday to protest the same day High Court of Justice ruling that all 50 families in the West Bank outpost evacuate their homes no later than September 4.

The court’s decision appears to mark the end of Migron residents’ long legal battle to retain their homes.

It was issued in the evening, as the sun set over the small outpost in the Binyamin region of the West Bank. Men were reciting the evening prayer in the synagogue and a few small children played in the adjacent parking lot.

Four Migron residents and Binyamin Regional Council head Avi Ro’eh held a brief press conference in the community’s small kindergarten classroom, decorated for the start of school with the words, “A sweet beginning.”

President Obama Can Stop Iran

by Alan M. Dershowitz

It is now become clear that neither diplomacy nor sanctions will halt the Iranian march toward nuclear weapons. Iran is today stronger diplomatically than it has been in years, as evidenced by the meeting of the nonaligned nations in Tehran. Iran is neither isolated nor alone in a world in which nonaligned nations form a majority at the United Nations.
The sanctions, while hurting the Iranian economy and making life more difficult for the average Iranian, are having zero impact on the Iranian nuclear program, which according to objective intelligence reports, is gathering steam and moving even more quickly toward its ultimate goal of a nuclear weapon that will be a game changer. An Iranian nuclear weapon will end any dream of nonproliferation. It will protect Iran's surrogate terrorists, such as Hezbollah, under a formidable nuclear umbrella. And it will make an eventual nuclear war more likely. That is why President Obama rightfully took the containment option off the table and put the preventive military option squarely on it.

Europe's Imminent Revolution

Malcolm Lowe

If the political traditions of Greece and the Netherlands are undergoing the same upheaval, it cannot just be due to economic distress. German politicians should reflect that if the revolution against the old regime is not stopped in Greece, it may turn up on their own doorstep.

After Greece's second parliamentary election this year (June 2012), there was a collective sigh of relief in Europe. The political parties that negotiated the bailouts of Greece in 2010 and 2011 had secured a majority in the new parliament and formed a government that was committed to avoiding a Greek default. Europe's political leaders could now hasten to damp down the next brush fire in the Eurozone, the crisis of the Spanish banks. What those political leaders overlooked was that the Greek political scene has undergone a revolution.

To be precise, the conservative New Democracy party (ND) had narrowly defeated SYRIZA, the leftist alliance, and formed a government with the Panhellenic Socialist Movement (PASOK), its old rival, and the Democratic Left. By contrast, SYRIZA had campaigned for repudiation of what Greeks call "the memorandum" (to mnimonio), that is, the program of drastic financial measures to which the preceding Greek governments had agreed in exchange for the bailouts.

CAIR's Next Generation Radical

IPT News

http://www.investigativeproject.org/3730/cair-next-generation-radical

Zahra Billoo may be one of the more refreshing new faces among Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) officials.

Rather than following her organization's habit of engaging in doublespeak, she speaks in plain, and often hyperbolic and conspiracy-minded language. For that, she is the subject of the Investigative Project on Terrorism's latest profile.

Billoo, executive director of CAIR's San Francisco office, recently describing herself on Twitter as an "American, Pakistani, litigious, feminist, hippie, anarchist, outspoken, rebellious, socially conscious Muslimah."

She's a prolific poster on Twitter, appearing to revel in being provocative:

"What do Saddam Hussein, Osama Bin Laden and Muammar Gaddafi all have in common? They were funded by the US," she wrote in June. She didn't mention that her bosses at CAIR solicited money from Gaddafi in 2009.

The Bashar al-Assad I know

August 29, 2012  

By David Lesch*

High expectations are both a blessing and a curse. They are the former in that usually something worthwhile about someone has raised the expectations in the first place. They are the latter when someone fails to meet those expectations. Heightened, maybe even unwarranted, expectations were a serious problem for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad from the very beginning of his rise to power in 2000 following the death of his father, Hafiz al-Assad.

As I noted in Middle East Policy Council a couple of years back, I half jokingly told Bashar the first time we met in 2004 that I thought he had made a mistake in letting the media know that he enjoyed Phil Collins’ music. This anecdote fed into an emerging narrative of the relatively unknown al-Assad that he was a pro-West modernizer who was very different from his father. Indeed, Bashar was also the chairman of the Syrian Computer Society and was actually a bit of a geek himself.

The Order for Beatings Came From Abbas's Office

Khaled Abu Toameh
August 29, 2012 

If Abbas endorses the findings of the Palestinian commission of inquiry and takes action against the officials who ordered the beatings, he will send a message to his constituents which reassures them that no one is above the law, and that he cares about freedom of media and human rights. But any attempt to sweep the findings under the carpet will show that the talk about transparency and accountability in the Palestinian Authority is not serious and will play into the hands of Hamas.

A Palestinian commission of inquiry into the beating of Palestinian journalists and demonstrators in Ramallah has found that top officials in Mahmoud Abbas's office had ordered the assault.

The discovery did not come as a surprise to many Palestinians, who have long been accusing the Palestinian leadership in the West Bank of waging a campaign of intimidation and terror against journalists, bloggers and political opponents.

Lawyer for Corrie family on PA TV in July: Nazi Germany's founding was legal but Israel's founding was theft

Lawyer Abu Hussein:

"Nazi Germany was a state based on the rule of law
for a short while... the State of Israel was founded
from the start on robbery and theft"

 

Israel is a "giant monster... we all want to step on its head,

but talking is not enough" 

http://palwatch.org/main.aspx?fi=157&doc_id=7296

by Itamar Marcus

Yesterday, an Israeli court ruled that Rachel Corrie's death was a "regrettable accident," but that Rachel Corrie "chose to put herself in danger." Rachel Corrie was killed when she was run over by an Israeli army bulldozer in Gaza, at a time when Israel was working to curb terrorist activity in the area. Corrie's family sued Israel for "wrongful death." The family's Israeli Arab lawyer, Hussein Abu Hussein, said in a statement to the press:

"It's a black day for activists of human rights and people who believe in values of dignity. We believe this decision is a bad decision for all of us - civilians first of all, and peace activists."  [NY Times, August 28, 2012]

Palestinian Media Watch is releasing a statement made by the Israeli Arab lawyer last month that shows his attitudes towards Israel in general.

COP: Top 3 Small Business Struggles

Amy Payne

August 29, 2012

Small businesses are getting a lot of focus from politicians, because they are a key engine of job creation—which has stalled in the U.S. economy. A Republican National Convention theme of “We Built It” continued the political debate over the economy yesterday.

A survey by the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) in July revealed that small businesses’ top three concerns were taxes, regulations, and poor sales. A quick look at these top three small business struggles shows they have every reason to be demoralized.

Rachel Corrie Lawyer: Israel worse than Nazi Germany

If you believe the media, then Rachel Corrie was just a naive idealistic woman who wanted to fight for Palestinian rights. If you believe her parents, then she was killed by an Israeli government conspiracy. If you believe her lawyer, then Israel is worse than Nazi Germany.

Rachel Corrie’s parents knew exactly what they were doing when they chose Hussein Abu Hussein to represent them and their case. They chose a radical who says, “Israel is a “giant monster… we all want to step on its head, but talking is not enough” and “Nazi Germany was a state based on the rule of law… for a short while… the State of Israel was founded from the start on robbery and theft.”

The truth about Rachel Corrie and her family and her supporters is that they are extremists. They are not interested in justice. All they care about is continuing the struggle to destroy the Jewish State that Rachel Corrie enlisted in.

Did Rachel Corrie get college credit for joining the ISM? (updated)

Elder of Ziyon 

There is an interesting detail in this 2003 article from a local Olympia, Washington newspaper that profiles a number of Evergreen College students who traveled to Rafah along with Rachel Corrie:

Rafah is one of the most dangerous places in the Gaza Strip--"a combat zone," according to Captain Jacob Dallal, the Israeli army spokesperson.

...My Jewish ass has been to Israel several times, but never to Gaza, and I am a bit scared. I have been told not to use any of my Arabic, lest I be suspected of being an Israeli spy. Above all, I have been told not to mention my religion.

[Corrie's] cohorts at ISM Rafah were an international group, with members from both Europe and the U.S. It was a young group--most people were under 30, and many were closer to 20. And it was a group that held the potential for romance--a Swedish ISMer named Stefan Villkatt would soon become Rachel's boyfriend.

Everything is Fake Now

Sultan Knish

“Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn’t go away,” Philip K. Dick said, when asked to define what reality is. Dick was a Science Fiction writer and that seems appropriate enough we are living in a Science Fiction world where there is no reality anymore, because the real goes away, but the unreal does not.

Virtual reality, it turned out, was not some complicated gizmo that made you look like a blind skier and allowed you to enter into another world, instead it was an unreal world being comprehensively overlaid on top of our own. The lines between the real and the unreal haven't blurred because the unreal has gotten so much more sophisticated. The unreal is more fake than ever, but discerning that has become more difficult now that the real has gone away.

The Rich Don't Pay Enough?

• Walter E. Williams
   

Aug 29, 2012

 

 

If you listen to America's political hacks, mainstream media talking heads and their socialist allies, you can't help but reach the conclusion that the nation's tax burden is borne by the poor and middleclass while the rich get off scot-free.

 

Stephen Moore, senior economics writer for The Wall Street Journal, and I'm proud to say former GMU economics student, wrote "The U.S. Tax System: Who Really Pays?" in the Manhattan Institute's Issue 2012 (8/12). Let's see whether the rich are paying their "fair" share.

PE: Why Liberals Hate E Pluribus Unum and the Great Seal

Mike Gallagher

8/29/2012

 

If you asked a team of expert psychologists and sociological researchers to come up with a design that was sure to infuriate and offend liberals in America, they’d probably come up with what we call the Great Seal.

The Great Seal has got it all—everything liberals despise is there, front and center.
In the first place, you’ve got your eagle, holding arrows. What good could those arrows possibly serve, aside from celebrating the violent blood lust that liberals see in Americans? It doesn’t matter to them that in the eagle’s right talon he’s clutching the olive branch of peace—making the visual point that Teddy Roosevelt made 150 years later with the words “Speak softly and carry a big stick.”

Liberals don’t think we need those sharpened arrows.

Where Are the Muslim Anti-Islamists? They’re the People Battling and Being Murdered by the Islamists

Barry Rubin

A reader asks: where are all these tens and even hundreds of millions of Muslim anti-Islamists.

I wrote an entire book about the liberals and moderates called The Long War for Freedom. There are a number of scholars who have written such books, even analogies of moderate Muslim writings. Oh, yes, and then there is every book and article written by non-Islamist Muslims over decades.  

The problem today is that we are caught between two lies. The mainstream Western lie is that Islam is a religion of peace full stop. There is nothing at all militant in its texts. A small fringe of extremists have misinterpreted it or are even heretics. So all Muslims are moderates pretty much, either moderate moderates or moderate Islamists. And anyone who says otherwise is an Islamophobic racist.

That is a lie.

Robert Spencer in the Los Angeles Times: Islam's critics won't be silenced

Jihad Watch

The Los Angeles Times has just posted my response to Nathan Lean's nasty hit piece that ran the other day. You can find my fuller response here. And one last question: Osama bin Laden praised Noam Chomsky. Does that make Noam Chomsky responsible for Osama's bloody jihad, including the murders of 3,000 Americans on September 11, 2001? By Nathan Lean's logic, Chomsky would indeed be responsible. But you will never hear Lean saying that -- and that in itself exposes his real agenda.

"Islam's critics won't be silenced," my piece in the Los Angeles Times today:

Nathan Lean wants "society" to take action against those who stand for freedom and human rights against jihad, Sharia and Islamic supremacism, for we "must be stopped." This is a veiled but clear call for restrictions on our freedom of speech. By publishing it on its Aug. 26 Op-Ed page, The Times is working against its own interests. For my opinions are certainly politically incorrect today, but if Lean succeeds in getting them criminalized, editors at The Times might find one day that they too hold an opinion unacceptable to those in power. 

The president would rather be loved than feared. He is neither

BRET STEPHENS 

A few days ago there occurred one of those telling little episodes that captures the essence and folly of the Obama administration's approach to foreign policy. The meeting of the Non-Aligned Movement is being hosted this week in Iran, and the administration had urged United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon not to attend as a signal of displeasure at Tehran's serial violations of U.N. Security Council resolutions.

Of course Mr. Ban is going.

The administration’s response to Mr. Ban’s decision was “muted,” according to the New York Times, evidently out of sympathy for his delicate position: Most U.N. member states are also members of the Non-Aligned Movement, and it’s customary for U.N. secretaries-general to attend the meetings. There’s also hope Mr. Ban will make a public stink in Iran about its leaders’ nuclear bid or their calls to wipe out Israel. And maybe he will.

Still, there’s no overlooking the central point of this tussle: In the global popularity contest between Barack Obama and Ali Khamenei, the ayatollah is winning.

The Role of Hamas in the Formation of Global Jihadi Networks in Sinai

 

Israel Resource Review

 

The Role of Hamas in the Formation of Global Jihadi Networks in Sinai

By Jonathan D. Halevi

jcpa.org

http://jcpa.org/article/the-role-of-hamas-in-the-formation-of-global-jihadi-networks-in-sinai/
Vol. 12, No. 18

• After the Rafah attack, it was noticeable that the Egyptian government refrained from condemning the terrorists’ plan to carry out a mass-casualty attack in Israel. Indeed, senior Muslim Brotherhood figures pointed an accusing finger at Israel, claiming it was behind the attack in an attempt to create a rift between Egypt and Hamas.

• Apart from the anti-Israel propaganda line, the investigation of the attack by Egyptian intelligence found tracks leading in the direction of Gaza. Security sources in Egypt told the Egyptian newspaper Al-Youm al-Saba that the Palestinian organization Army of Islam was responsible for the attack. They said that the day before it occurred, there was a meeting in one of the homes of the Army of Islam’s leader in Rafah; about 35 activists participated, and it was decided to carry out the attack.

No, USA media isn't "in the bag" for Obama

MSNBC Omits All Coverage From Minority Speakers at "Racist" RNC Convention

Matt Vespa | August 29, 2012 | 00:27

A funny thing happened on race-obsessed MSNBC tonight. The liberal network failed to give viewers coverage of the speakers who happen to be member of racial minorities.  As Francesca Chambers, Editor of Red Alert Politics, reported on August 28th:

When popular Tea Party candidate Ted Cruz, the GOP nominee for Senate, took the stage, MSNBC cut away from the Republican National Convention and the Hispanic Republican from Texas’ speech.

COP: Navy SEAL Ad: I Fought So I Never Had to See My President Bow to Anyone

Maggie
I see a lot of conversation around the blogosphere about the propriety of Military rank-and-file speaking out about this administration. Getting to the general topic of the Military must NEVER criticize their Commander-in-Chief, and the long and honored history of that creed, we must face the fact that we have allowed a President to release classified information for political gain, more than once, while being so absent of leadership that the troops in the field are not allowed to protect themselves. See the video below.

California Assembly resolution urges California colleges and universities to fight anti-Semitism

Calif lawmakers denounce anti-Semitism in colleges – San Jose Mercury News



By HANNAH DREIER Associated Press
 

Posted: 08/28/2012 03:03:50 PM PDT August 29, 2012 12:55 AM GMT Updated: 08/28/2012 05:55:45 PM PDT

SACRAMENTO, Calif.—An Assembly resolution urging California colleges and universities to squelch nascent anti-Semitism also encouraged educators to crack down on demonstrations against Israel, angering advocates for Muslim students.
 

With no debate, lawmakers on Tuesday approved a resolution that encourages university leaders to combat a wide array of anti-Jewish and anti-Israel actions.

“California schools need to recognize that anti-Semitism is still a very real issue on college campuses around the state—it did not disappear with the end of World War II,” said Assemblywoman Linda Halderman, R-Fresno, the resolution’s author.

"On Hold"

s this is written, nothing has transpired yet in Migron.  Nor has the Court delivered a finding on the matter.

 

~~~~~~~~~~ 

 

Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi, before going to the Non-Affiliated Movement conference in Iran, gave a press conference.  Not referring to Israel directly but clearly alluding to Israel, he said:

"Egypt is practicing its very normal role on its soil and does not threaten anyone and there should not be any kind of international or regional concerns at all from the presence of Egyptian security forces."

The military campaign, he declared, was in "full respect to international treaties."

Well, I rather doubt that the military campaign fully respected Egypt's treaty with Israel. And I note his reference to a "very normal role on its soil," which implies -- erroneously -- that Egypt can proceed as it sees fit in Sinai.

What I believe we do have here, however, is a statement that no Egyptian hostilities are intended beyond the border of Sinai.

Resurrected: The Rachel Corrie Libel

http://davidandgoliathbook.wordpress.com/2012/08/28/resurrected-the-rachel-corrie-libel/

It was a horrible tragedy. In March 2003, Rachel Corrie, a 23-year-old American, was hanging out in Gaza, trying her hand at “pro-Palestinian activism.” One day, as an Israeli bulldozer was dismantling tunnels used by Gazans to smuggle weapons, Corrie decided to protest. She positioned herself in a trench, in a spot invisible to the Israeli bulldozer driver, and was accidentally crushed to death.

Testifying under oath, the bulldozer driver said he did not realize he had run over Corrie until he heard what had happened over the radio network.

Pro-Palestinian activists seized the opportunity to promote Corrie’s death as a blood libel, accusing Israel of intentional murder. As George Rishmawi, director of the group that sponsored Corrie’s stay in Gaza, told the San Francisco Chronicle (July 14, 2004): Placing American students in danger is good for the Palestinian cause because “if some of these foreign volunteers get shot or even killed, then the international media will sit up and take notice.”

Envoy to Germany: Awardee ignores terror on Israel

BENJAMIN WEINTHAL, JERUSALEM POST CORRESPONDENT

08/28/2012 1

Hadas-Handelsman joins Jewish groups in denouncing Frankfurt's decision to award US prof. Judith Butler with Adorno Prize.

Photo: Wikipedia
 

Israel’s Ambassador to Germany Yakov Hadas-Handelsman criticized on Monday the decision of the city of Frankfurt to award the Adorno prize to US professor Judith Butler.
Hadas-Handelsman pointed to the fact that Butler previously described Hezbollah and Hamas as "progressive organizations,"  which he said showed ignorance towards their "participation in terror against civilians and the attitude of these organizations to religious pluralism and equal rights between men and women and between people of different sexual orientations.”

PE: How Obamacare Robs Medicare and Hurts Seniors

 Amy Payne
 

The rhetorical Medicare wars have heated up this week, after President Obama declared in his Saturday radio address that his proposed reforms “won’t touch your guaranteed Medicare benefits. Not by a single dime.”

This is incorrect. Obamacare cuts $716 billion from Medicare over the next 10 years, according to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), and uses these “savings” from Medicare to fund other entitlement expansions mandated by Obamacare. Medicare becomes a cash cow for Obamacare, and the Medicare “savings” from payment cuts are not put back into making Medicare solvent. Such massive payment cuts do impact Medicare benefits, as well as seniors’ access to those benefits.
Heritage’s Alyene Senger explains how this hurts America’s seniors:

The impact of these cuts will be detrimental to seniors’ access to care. The Medicare trustees 2012 report concludes that these lower Medicare payment rates will cause an estimated 15 percent of hospitals, skilled nursing facilities, and home health agencies to operate at a loss by 2019, 25 percent to operate at a loss in 2030, and 40 percent by 2050. Operating at a loss means these facilities are likely to cut back their services to Medicare patients or close their doors, making it more difficult for seniors to access these services.

Jeffrey Goldberg persists with his double-standard

 Yisrael Medad

Tuesday Aug 28, 2012

I have elicited a response from Jeffrey Goldberg (who interviewed my previously but I didn't make it into to his "settler" profile) to my remarks on the charge of a “two-tiered” system he accuses Israel of promoting.

 

Let’s be clear, a two-tier system is taken to be a type of payroll system in which one group of workers receives lower wages and/or employee benefits than another and Goldberg extends that to include the situation of Israel in Judea and Samaria. I railed against that portrayal at this post: Two-tiered is a Double Standard.

Goldberg proceeds to disassemble my arguments, well, he thinks so, and it is my pleasure to return the favor.

First, he attacks my argument that since "Arabs living in Judea and Samaria are not citizens of Israel, they can't vote" and maintains that is equivalent to someone justifying South African Blacks being denied the right to vote.

The Cheesemaker Occupation Must End

Sultan Knish

(As Daniel Greenfield was otherwise occupied today, we instead present this editorial from 'The Independent" by renowned English poet and human rights activist Tim Paulin)

I have seen many news reports about the murder of a settler family by an unknown intruder, but none of these reports have made note of the real tragedy in this case. That of the knife. Jewish children are a dime a dozen. One can hardly walk through Jerusalem without being able to throw a stone in the direction of half a dozen of them. But knives are a vital part of Palestinian culture. A good throat slitting knife may be handed down through the generations.

Corries lose lawsuit; Israel-haters pretend verdict was fixed

Elder of Ziyon

from JPost:

The Haifa District Court on Tuesday ruled against the family of Rachel Corrie, the American pro-Palestinian activist struck and killed by a bulldozer in Gaza.

In the verdict, Judge Oded Gershon invoked the principle of the combatant activities exception, noting that IDF forces had been attacked in the same area Corrie was killed just hours earlier.

Reading a summary of his 62-page decision, the judge described Israel's investigation into the incident as appropriate and said it had no mistakes.

The Forgotten Rachels

Jameel @ The Muqata at 8/28/2012 
 

With Rachel Corrie in the news today and trending on Twitter, it's time to remember some of the other Rachels who were murdered by Palestinian Terrorists (you know, the friends of the ISM) who didn't get a day in court. You can read about each of them in the enclosed hyperlinks.

Some of the forgotten Rachels: 

Rachel Levy (aged 17, blown up in a grocery store)

Rachel Levi (19, shot while waiting for the bus)

Rachel Gavish (killed with her husband, son and father while at home celebrating a Passover meal)

The Muslim Brotherhood's Egypt

Mudar Zahran
August 28, 2012 

"They said the constitution is their Quran; I say the Quran is our constitution." — Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi

Egypt's new president, Mohamed Morsi, using an alleged terrorist attack in the Sinai Peninsula as a pretext, has been able to fire senior army generals, increase extensively his presidential power and send troops into the Sinai Peninsula in direct contravention of what the peace treaty with Israel permits.

Egypt's state-run TV reported that Islamic fundamentalists from the Sinai and the Gaza Strip were suspected of carrying out the attack, but why would Islamists do that? Logically, Islamist fundamentalists would be supportive of the Islamist president Morsi, who made his pro-Islamist agenda clear during his campaign: he wants Sharia law for Egypt .

At the same time, when the Muslim Brotherhood official website blamed the Israeli intelligence agency, the Mossad, for the attack, Morsi never dismissed the Brotherhood's allegations, thereby allowing the terrorist act to be used to spread more anti-Semitism and radical views against Israel.

The "Pro-Palestinians"

Hisham Jarallah
August 28, 2012 

Once again, it has been exposed that Americans and Europeans who claim to be pro-Palestinian are actually just Israel-haters. For them, the Palestinian issue is just a vehicle for vomiting their hatred for Israel, and most likely all Jews. They are closer to Hamas and Islamic Jihad than to moderate Arabs and Muslims. The Palestinians need support from people who promote democracy, moderation, accountability and co-existence with Israel.

Some 100 "pro-Palestinian" activists from different countries arrived in Jordan during the past few days on another anti-Israel mission.
The activists did not come to Jordan to:

Iran Ramps Up Its Genocidal Rhetoric

Vol. 12, No. 20    28 August 2012

• Each year since the 1979 revolution, the Iranian regime marks international Jerusalem (Quds) Day on the last Friday of the month of Ramadan. As in previous years, the Iranian leadership called for the destruction of Israel and of “world Zionism,” as demonstrating masses shouted: “Death to America” and “Death to Israel” during rallies and addresses by the leadership.  

• For Shia Iran, the struggle against Israel and its Western allies is almost its sole common denominator with most of the Sunni Arab domain. Now, with the rise of Islamist regimes – especially in Egypt, which Iran views as having broken the taboo on peace accommodations with Israel – Iran is making enhanced use of the Palestinian issue and denial of Israel’s right to exist, in order to win the hearts and minds of Muslims across the Middle East and beyond. 

Profile of The Army of Islam, a Salafist organization affiliated with the global jihad operating in the Gaza Strip.

http://www.terrorism-info.org.il/en/index.aspx

1. The Army of Islam is one of the Salafist jihadi terrorist organizations operating in the Gaza Strip. It is considered a dominant organization, having the highest operational capabilities of all the global jihad networks in the Gaza Strip. The Army of Islam splintered off from the Popular Resistance Committees at the beginning of 2006, and is headed by Mumtaz Dughmush, who comes from a powerful clan centered in the Sabra neighborhood of Gaza City. The Army of Islam has close ties to Hamas, which allows it to operate in both the Gazan and Egyptian arenas, despite its Salafist jihadi identity.

2. The Army of Islam collaborated with Hamas in the abduction of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit in the Kerem Shalom area in June 2006. In October 2010 it planned to abduct Israelis and/or foreign nationals in the Sinai Peninsula in collaboration with the Gazan Hamas, but the plans were prevented from being carried out. The Army of Islam has also carried out attacks against Western figures in the Gaza Strip and the Egyptian authorities have accused it of carrying out attacks in Egypt (including the mass-casualty suicide bombing attack at the Coptic church in Alexandria in January 2011).

'Region becoming less stable, more Islamist'

YAAKOV LAPPIN

Military Intelligence head Maj.-Gen. Aviv Kochavi says region will face crises and be more prone to unexpected eruptions.

Photo: Screenshot
 

Israel will face a more unstable, tense, and Islamist environment than in the past, Military Intelligence head Maj.-Gen. Aviv Kochavi told IDF Chief of Staff, Maj.-Gen. Benny Gantz on Monday.

The comments were made during a presentation of an annual Military Intelligence evaluation.

“It will be an environment that deals with a series of crises, regional and internal, which raises the level of sensitivity of all players, and which could lead, without prior planning, to an eruption,” said Kochavi.

Interfaith Crisis on the Borderlands of Burma (Myanmar), Bangladesh, and India

Irfan Al-Alawi

The new outbreaks of anti-Muslim violence in Burma, and Muslim radicalism in India, are, as in so many cases, manufactured or magnified by manipulated rage, for political ends.

The Organization for Islamic Cooperation (OIC), based in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, disclosed at its summit, on August 16, that it would take the question of violence against Rohingya Muslims in Burma (Myanmar) to the United Nations. Previously, Saudi King Abdullah announced a donation of US$50 million for relief of the Rohingyas.

Myanmar permitted an OIC delegation to visit the country, and will allow the Organization to coordinate relief efforts for Rohingyas displaced within Myanmar. The OIC action came as the global Islamic body suspended Syria from membership because of the widening bloodshed in that country.

In June 2012, Rohingya Muslims were attacked in Rakhine State (formerly Arakan State) on the western Myanmar frontier with Bangladesh, by the local Arakanese and Bamar (Burman) Buddhist majority. The crisis followed rumours that a Buddhist woman had been raped and murdered by Rohingyas.

Germany: Turkish Muslims Hope for More Muslims Than Christians

Soeren Kern

Integration may even be unattainable if the younger generation of Turkish-Germans increasingly continues to embrace Islam.

Nearly half of all Turks living in Germany say they hope there will be more Muslims than Christians in Germany in the future, according to a new survey of Turkish-German mores and attitudes.

The study also shows that Islam is becoming an increasingly important component of the value structure of Turks in Germany, especially among the younger generation of Turkish-Germans, who hold religious views more radical than their elders' views are.

The findings have filled many Germans with a sense of foreboding and are certain to contribute to the ongoing debate (here, here and here) about Muslim integration (or, rather, lack of it) in Germany.

Sinai tribe hands its weapons to army - not clear if Egyptian Army active now in Sinai‏

The Barahma tribe in Sinai handed a significant number of weapons and 
ammunition over to the Armed Forces on Monday, said the Interior Ministry.
 
The move is a response to Defense Minister Abdel Fatah al-Sisi’s initiative 
to control unlicensed weapons in Sinai, and is intended to as an example to 
other tribes in the region to take similar steps in order to secure the 
stability and security of the peninsula.
 
The Interior Ministry said on 10 August that the authorities have seized 
over 20,000 weapons in Sinai over the past months, in addition to a high 
number of heavy arms and ammunition.