Egyptian Cleric Threatens Egypt's Copts with Genocide

Raymond Ibrahim

"The day Egyptians…feel you are against them, you will be wiped off the face of the Earth." — Dr. Wagdi Goneim

Islamic leaders continue to portray the popular protests against President Morsi and his recently passed Sharia-heavy constitution as products of Egypt's Christians. Recently, Muslim Brotherhood leader Safwat Hegazy said in an open rally, as captured on video:

A message to the church of Egypt, from an Egyptian Muslim: I tell the church — by Allah, and again, by Allah — if you conspire and unite with the remnants [opposition] to bring Morsi down, that will be another matter…. our red line is the legitimacy of Dr. Muhammad Morsi. Whoever splashes water on it, we will splash blood on him."

Israel Redefines Victory in the New Middle East

Yaakov Lappin

Senior Israeli officials have indicated this month that any round of future fighting with Hezbollah will make last month's Gaza conflict seem minor by comparison. Offense, not defense, is still preferred.

Israel is redefining its concept of military victory in a Middle East dominated by terrorist organizations turned quasi-state actors.
Once, decisive, unmistakable victories, accompanied by conquests of territory that had been used to stage attacks against Israel, provided all parties concerned with a "knockout" image. Victory was seen by the Israel Defense Forces as a clear-cut event, which ended when the enemy raised a white flag. Today, however, the IDF considers this thinking out of date in the 21^st century battle arenas of the region, where a terror organization such as Hamas will continue firing rockets into Israel right up until the last day of a conflict, and claim victory despite absorbing the majority of damages and casualties.

What Do Abbas's Latest Threats Really Mean?

Khaled Abu Toameh
December 31, 2012

Why doesn't Abbas consider the possibility of handing the "keys" to another Palestinian? Abbas apparently believes that if he cannot lead the Palestinian Authority no one else should — that if he comes down, then the entire Palestinian Authority should also collapse. A changing of the guard is something that the US and the EU, the major funders of Abbas and his associates, could play a major role in bringing about.

Mahmoud Abbas has once again threatened to dismantle the Palestinian Authority which he heads in the West Bank.
This time he chose to make his new old threat in an interview with the daily Haaretz.
"If there is no progress [in the peace process] even after the election I will take the phone and call [Prime Minister Binyamin] Netanyahu," Abbas said. "I'll tell him…Sit in the chair here instead of me, take the keys, and you will be responsible for the Palestinian Authority."
Abbas's threat was made shortly after he met in his Ramallah office with Meretz Party chairwoman Zehava Gal-On ahead of the January 22 election in Israel.

COP: Are We Helping Poor Americans?

Jennifer Marshall

December 31, 2012

At the end of the year, many people take time to make charitable donations. But caring for those in need is a year-round responsibility—and when it comes to public policy, conservatives have an important opportunity to articulate an effective response to poverty and social breakdown in America.
A half-century into the War on Poverty, liberals can hardly declare victory. But they can claim the dominant anti-poverty narrative: Fight poverty by spending more, by starting another federal program.

Americans seldom look to conservatives for policy answers to the problems of poverty.

That’s not to say we don’t have answers. To the contrary, we’ve had important policy successes. The 1996 welfare reform rises to the top. School choice, which allows low-income parents to get their children out of failing and often violent public schools, is another a vital example of a policy that can help lift those in poverty and give them a chance at a different future.

But we’ve made precious few attempts to string these single notes of success together into something larger. We have yet to popularize a competitor to the prevailing tune about how to meet the needs of our neighbors.

It’s time to change that—first and foremost in the interest of our neighbors.

Hmmm...4 Out of 5 US Ambassadors Killed in Line of Duty Were Slain by Muslims

December 31, 2012 by creeping
Muslims are working hard to add another to their list.

Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Penninsula (AQAP) has offered a reward of $160,000 in gold for the death of America’s ambassador to Yemen or any US soldier stationed in the country.

Daniel Greenfield, who has been on a mission lately, writes that 4 Out of 5 US Ambassadors Killed in the Line of Duty Were Slain by Muslims.

In the last 40 years, five US ambassadors were killed in the line of duty. 4 out of 5 were killed by Muslims.

Adolph “Spike” Dubs was murdered in Afghanistan in 1979 during an attempted Soviet rescue around the time that the puppet regime had gone to hell.

Francis E. Meloy Jr was kidnapped and murdered by the Palestinian Front for the Liberation of Palestine in Lebanon.

Reality re: religion of Peace in the ME

Syria rebels 'beheaded a Christian and fed him to the dogs' as fears grow over Islamist atrocities

• Christian Andrei Arbashe, 38, was kidnapped and beheaded by rebel fighters in northern town of Ras Al-Ayn on the Turkish border
• News came as pro-government forces celebrated their victory against rebels near Aleppo Airport

By Nick Fagge
PUBLISHED: 19:41 EST, 30 December 2012 | UPDATED: 04:50 EST, 31 December 2012

Syrian rebels beheaded a Christian man and fed his body to dogs, according to a nun who says the West is ignoring atrocities committed by Islamic extremists.
The nun said taxi driver Andrei Arbashe, 38, was kidnapped after his brother was heard complaining that fighters against the ruling regime behaved like bandits.
She said his headless corpse was found by the side of the road, surrounded by hungry dogs. He had recently married and was soon to be a father.

Volatile fighting: The news of the kidnapping and beheading of Mr Arbashe came as pro-government forces celebrated their victory against rebels at the Air Defence Base in Tal Hassil near Aleppo Airport last night

Sister Agnes-Mariam de la Croix said: ‘His only crime was his brother criticised the rebels, accused them of acting like bandits, which is what they are.’

There have been a growing number of accounts of atrocities carried out by rogue elements of the Syrian Free Army, which opposes dictator Bashar al-Assad and is recognised by Britain and the West as the legitimate leadership.

PM Netanyahu Convenes Discussion on the Issue of Work Infiltrators from Africa

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, this afternoon convened a discussion on the issue of progress in the process of repatriating illegal work infiltrators to their countries of origin. Hagai Hadas, who is responsible for repatriating infiltrators to their countries of origin in Africa, reviewed the progress that has been made on the issue.

Prime Minister Netanyahu said at the start of the discussion:
"We have succeeded in blocking the entry of infiltrators from Africa to Israel. After having faced the threat of the entry of hundreds of thousands, this month, not one infiltrator entered Israel's cities. We have been achieving this result for several months and next month we will complete the construction of the fence along the border with Sinai. Now we are moving on to the second stage, that of repatriating the infiltrators who are already here.

I have appointed Hagai Hadas as my special representative. He is holding contacts with various African governments and our goal is to repatriate tens of thousands of infiltrators who are in Israel to their countries of origin.

The Values Economy

Sultan Knish
There are two types of things that we put money into; the things that we need and the things that we don't. The former represent our physical needs and the latter our spiritual needs. Food for the body and food for the mind. We need to eat, but we don't need to see a movie. We need a house to live in, but we don't need a house of worship. We need a car to get to work, but we don't need a painting on our wall once we get there.

Culture isn't a luxury, even the poorest of the poor have it. It doesn't mean a night at the opera, it can just as easily mean sitting under a tree while the village elder explains where fire came from. But it is optional in the sense that we choose where to put our money or pine cones and those choices are our values economy.

The values economy consists of the culture you support. It's the books you buy and the movies you see, it's the paintings on your wall and the house of worship you attend. It's the concerts and games you buy tickets to and it's the colleges you attend. It's all the intangible investments in the intangible things of aesthetics, faith and cultural knowledge.

Are You Poll Fooled?

My Right Word

Fooled by this poll*?

Poll: Most right-wing Israelis would support Palestinian state, division of Jerusalem

The principles of the agreement as presented to respondents were for two states - Israel for the Jewish people and Palestine for the Palestinians, with Palestinian refugees having the right to return only to their new country.

____*
BTW, Molad, the group behind this latest left-wing progressive poll, is a regurgitation other Israel-bashing bullies such as Breaking the Silence, Sheikh Jarah Solidarity, et al. with Avrum Burg which 'merits' the worship of Haaretz providing their headline status.
_____

But didn't we just read that 67% of Israelis won't divide Jerusalem?  
And didn't we read this:

JCPA poll of Israelis: 76%:22% Full withdrawal will not bring peace

Poll- PA Can’t Be Trusted to Keep a Deal

By David Lev

A new poll by the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs shows that the vast majority of Israelis are opposed to an Israeli withdrawal from Judea and Samaria. The poll, taken in November, showed that 76% of all Israelis (83% of Israeli Jews) do not believe that a withdrawal to the 1948 armistice lines will bring Israelis a secure peace.

The Palestinian Authority has repeatedly declared that it will not compromise on its demand that Israel withdraw from all land liberated in the 1967 Six Day War. In addition, the PA is demanding that Israel compensate it for its losses, and admit hundreds of thousands of Arabs to Israel, so they can return to homes their ‘ancestors’ abandoned in the 1948 War of Liberation.

Draft of new (sharia adherent) U.S. Army handbook must be scrapped

creeping
via Washington Times.
A recent Wall Street Journal article described the U.S. Army’s final-draft handbook, which indoctrinates our military personnel heading to Afghanistan in how to be sensitive to and accept Muslim and Afghan 7th-century customs and values — or possibly be killed by our Afghan partners.
Unbelievable. This is being done to prevent the so-called “green-on-blue” attacks, which have cost 63 American lives this year.
According to the Army’s Combined Arms Center at Ft. Leavenworth, Kan., it is our military’s ignorance and lack of empathy for Muslim and Afghan cultural norms that is the basic cause for our Afghan military partners to react violently and kill our troops.
For example, if our military personnel hear or witness an Afghan soldier sodomizing a young boy, the handbook tells U.S. service members to voice no objection, accept it or ignore it, or they could be killed. If an Afghan beats, rapes or kills a woman in the presence of a U.S. serviceman, they are not to interfere or stand up for women’s rights or else they might be killed.

Arabs Ignoring High Court Ruling,Dumping Artifacts off Temple Mount

The Waqf, a Jordanian Muslim religious body entrusted with the management of the Temple Mount, has been renovating the site for years.

By: Aryeh Savir, Tazpit News Agency

Published: December 30th, 2012

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A tractor working on the Temple Mount, Dec. 24th.
Photo Credit: Yitzchak Dvira

A demonstration was held last Wednesday (Dec. 26) at the northern entrance to the Temple Mount, in protest of the Waqf’s continued destruction of archeological artifacts on the holy site. The demonstrators, led by MK Aryeh Eldad, called on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to intervene and to stop the obliteration of these priceless antiques by the Waqf.

The Waqf, a Jordanian Muslim religious body entrusted with the management of the Temple Mount, has been renovating the site for years. In the process, they have been moving mounds of earth off the mountain. These piles contain numerous archaeological artifacts from many centuries. In 2004, the High Court of Justice passed a ruling prohibiting the removal of the dirt from the Temple Mount to other locations until the contents are combed for artifacts.

John Kerry at State: A Disaster for Israel

Moshe Phillips, AFSI

Moshe Phillips is a member of the executive committee of the Philadelphia Chapter of Americans for a Safe Israel / AFSI. The chapter's website is at: www. phillyafsi. com and Moshe's blog can be found at phillyafsi. blogtownhall. com.

The view that Israel and the Palestinian Arabs equally share blame for the continuation of a decades old conflict is part and parcel of Kerry's troubling perspective.

http://[http://www.forward.com/articles/104489
President Obama's decision to nominate Senator John Kerry as his next Secretary of State will prove to be a disaster for Israel.

The choice of the American Jewish establishment to vehemently protest the expected nomination of former Senator Chuck Hagel while granting Kerry a free pass for his anti-Israel behavior follows their longtime pattern.

The real source of anti-Muslim bigotry

 Jihad Watch
The Islamic supremacist/Leftist propaganda machine is in high gear tonight, blaming Pamela Geller and me, along with other freedom fighters, for the act of an insane woman in the New York subways:
"Woman charged with murder in NY subway shove," from CBS News, December 29:

NEW YORK A woman accused of pushing a man to his death in front of a subway train was charged Saturday with murder as a hate crime. Police arrested Erica Menendez on Saturday after a passer-by on a street noticed she resembled the woman seen in a surveillance video.
A spokeswoman for Queens District Attorney Richard A. Brown said Menendez told authorities she hates Hindus and Muslims.
Subway shoving victim Sunando Sen was from India, but it's unclear if he was Muslim or Hindu.
Sen, who lived in Queens and ran a printing shop, was killed Thursday night. Witnesses said a muttering woman pushed him on the tracks as a 7 train entered a Queens station and then ran off....

Egypt seeking to forge "tight" relations with jihad terror group Hizballah

Jihad Watch

Egypt's peace treaty with Israel increasingly becoming a paper fiction under the Muslim Brotherhood regime.
"Egypt to pursue relationship with Hezbollah," from the Jerusalem Post, December 29 (thanks to Block Ness):

In shift from Mubarak-era policy, Egyptian ambassador to Lebanon says Brotherhood-dominated Egypt will engage terror group. In a dramatic policy shift, Egypt will seek to forge "tight" relations with Hezbollah, Egyptian Ambassador to Lebanon Ashraf Hamdy revealed in a candid interview published Saturday in Lebanon's Daily Star.
“You cannot discuss politics in Lebanon without having a relationship with Hezbollah," Hamdy was quoting as saying, before describing the terror group as a "real force on the ground" with "big political and military influence."

First Plane Out Of Benghazi

 Sultan Knish
It took some 22 hours for American help to arrive in Benghazi after all the t's had been crossed and the i's had been dotted, and the body of America's ambassador to Libya had been dragged through the streets by "rescuers" stopping along the way to pose for cell phone pictures with his corpse.

By way of comparison it takes about 16 hours for a boatload of Libyan illegal immigrants to row to the Italian island of Lampedusa. Support for the Americans under fire in Libya would have arrived sooner if a few former members of the Harvard Rowing Team had gotten in one the many rowboats beached on the shores of Lampedusa and pushed the oars all the way to Benghazi.

It says something about the current state of asymmetrical warfare that not only can Al Qaeda throw together a coordinated string of attacks on American embassies around the region without anyone  being the wiser for it, but boatloads of migrants from Libya can reach Europe faster on muscle power than American forces can reach a mission under attack while equipped with jet power.

A surprising process of 'Israelization' is taking place among Palestinians in East Jerusalem

Along with the nationalist radicalization, widespread support for Hamas and widespread clashes, less predictable dynamics are afoot.

By Nir Hasson 

 

A year ago, for the first time, the Jerusalem Municipality and the Israel postal service established a post office in the village of Isawiyah, which lies below Mount Scopus, within the municipal boundaries. Along with the opening of the new branch − part of a plan to improve postal services in East Jerusalem − the village streets were given names and the houses received numbers. These developments followed a petition to the High Court of Justice, submitted by residents with the aid of the Association for Civil Rights in Israel. But the municipality could not find a site for the post office, since most of the buildings in the village were illegal structures, so their future was thus in question.

On the weaponizing of Lethal Narratives: An analysis of Bin Laden’s Recruiting Video

Richard Landes   


Working again on the Al Durah affair (which goes to court again on January 16, 2013, I came across this article which I had saved but forgotten. It offers a fascinating insight into the skill displayed by al Qaeda in turning Palestinian lethal narratives into weapons of Jihad. I’ll bet that all the key footage (including, according to most, but not all those who have viewed the available evidence, the al Durah footage) belongs to the “Staged” category of Pallywood.

His grasp of spin is chilling . . .
(Filed: 16/11/2001)
Few Westerners have seen Osama bin Laden’s recruitment video in full. So what did Julia Magnet, a young Jewish New Yorker, make of it?
THE Third Reich may have honed a formidable propaganda machine, but even Hitler might have drawn the line at flashy music videos. In that respect, at least, Osama bin Laden has topped the Fuhrer.

EDITORIAL: The student debt explosion

http://israel-commentary.org/?p=5573

By The Washington Times Wednesday, December 2012

President Obama and members of Congress have spent so much that the federal debt is headed toward $16.4 trillion. Those lawmakers must be using budgetary skills they picked up in college, as undergrads around the nation are racking up red ink at a record pace. Student loan debt jumped $42 billion last quarter, the New York Federal Reserve reported last week, bringing the total owed to about $1 trillion.

That’s more than Americans owe on automobile loans or credit cards, and school bills have become so large that many have found themselves unable to pay. The official student loan delinquency rate hit 11 percent, which is higher than any other category of consumer debt. The official rate doesn’t include loans that are deferred or in their forbearance period, so the depth of the problem could be far greater.

Religion of Peace?

Half to two-thirds of Christians in Middle East fled or killed over past century

creeping

via Christianity at risk of wipe-out in the Middle East, warns new Civitas study h/t Blazing Cat Fur – the blog whom Muslims in Canada are trying to shut down.

Christianity is in serious danger of being wiped out in its biblical heartlands because of Islamic oppression, according to a new report from a leading independent think-tank.

But Western politicians and media largely ignore the widespread persecution of Christians in the Middle East and the wider world because they are afraid they will be accused of racism.

They fail to appreciate that in the defence of the wider concept of human rights, religious freedom is the “canary in the mine”, according to the report.

The refusal of young Christians in the West to become “radicalised” and mount violent protests against the attacks on their faith also helps to explain the “blind spot” about “Christianophobia” in influential liberal Western circles.

'Carnage in Schedule Two'

Shoshana Bryen

Author Lela Gilbert, a Christian who lived for years in Israel, spoke for many of Israel's supporters when she said she finds the international community's attacks on the Jewish State "puzzling, especially when atrocities are taking place every day in Syria" and elsewhere in the Middle East.  In an interview in The Daily Caller, Gilbert doesn't discount anti-Semitism, but thinks some of it is also ideological.  "Israel is categorized as a pariah state, a 'colonial' outpost in a post-colonial world, or an infidel trespasser in pan-Islamic utopia."

Or, perhaps, Israel is simply a "schedule one" country.  In 1982, The Guardian (U.K.) ran an odd -- and currently timely -- short piece called "Carnage in Schedule Two," an adjunct to a story on Hafez Assad's massacre of Syrians in the Muslim Brotherhood stronghold of Hama.  The Guardian posited:

New Video of Fatal Shooting at West Bank Checkpoint Shows Officer’s Final Shot

ROBERT MACKEY

Security-camera footage of a shooting at a checkpoint in the West Bank city of Hebron this month, provided to Israel’s Channel 10 by the Israel Defense Forces.

 

Sarit Michaeli, a spokeswoman for the Israeli human rights group B’Tselem, wrote to The Lede on Thursday to draw our attention to the fact that more video of a fatal shooting at a checkpoint in Hebron this month has been posted online.

Bibi – this is how we will stop the assimilation!

The issue of assimilation and a statements made by Rabbi Rick Jacobs, President of the Union for Reform Judaism (URJ) that North American Jews believe Israel does not reflect their core values is a great concern to me and should be to every Jew. In my opinion, the Reform of Judaism Movement is stripping Judaism down, so there is nothing Jewish left but behavior. Another opinion of mine, which I expressed time and time again, is that we MUST keep Israel strong, because there is no guarantee for the safely of a Jew anywhere, including Israel, but if God forbid there is any new Haman, or Hitler, somewhere, Jews can defend themselves in Israel and if things become uncomfortable and unsafe in any country, as it is in France and other parts of Europe today, a Jew always has a home in Israel to go to.

I picked up the article below, its origin is Makor Rishon (meaning, First Source) newspaper in Israel through the printed edition of Shavua Israeli (http://israeliweek.com/), which I found to be a very responsible move on the part of the Netanyahu government. I translated it from Hebrew so I can share it with all of you. (I could not find the link to the Hebrew article- it is not on line). ~~NuritG

COP: Tackling Fairness and Justice

Linda Chavez

12/29/2012

 

The last year has been a tough one for conservatives. The hope that four years of failed policy would be enough to repudiate the liberal/progressive ideology of the Obama administration ended when the majority of the American public voted to maintain their entitlements -- so long as someone else paid for them. And the conservative response to the debacle has been for the various factions within the movement to declare war on each other.

It's time for conservatives to give serious thought to what they believe and how they can make a more persuasive case that conservative principles offer the best path for America. Conservatives have to do more than invoke small government, lower taxes and protection of the family. They have to explain the principles on which such policies are based and why those principles are more likely to fulfill the promise of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness on which the nation was founded.

Liberals always argue for their policies on the basis of fairness and justice. It's only fair, they say, that those who have the most share what they have with those who have less. The whole basis of the progressive tax system rests on this principle -- and it is at the heart of the Obama tax message even now.

Cashing In

Sultan Knish

The left's plan has always been very simple. Find a grievance or create a crisis, in whatever order, and then cash in on it. Whether it's the economy or the murder of children, the left's response to any tragedy is to find a way to shamelessly try and cash in.

Recently a woman was charged with falsely raising money by claiming to be setting up a fund for some of the dead children of Newtown. This is the sort of thing that's illegal if you're an ordinary person, but perfectly acceptable if you happen to run the American Red Cross which raised a ton of money on the backs of hurricane victims, another fund that raised money for the victims of the Batman shootings and then decided not to give it to them, and Bill Clinton who has claimed another success in Haiti.

In Mali: "This Is In The Koran. That's Why We Do It.

From The New York Times:

Islamists’ Harsh Justice Is on the Rise in North Mali

By ADAM NOSSITER

BAMAKO, Mali — Moctar Touré was strapped to a chair, blindfolded, his right hand bound tight to the armrest with a rubber tube. A doctor came and administered a shot. Then Mr. Touré’s own brother wielded a knife, the kind used to slaughter sheep, and methodically carried out the sentence.

“I myself cut off my brother’s hand,” said Aliou Touré, a police chief in the Islamist-held north of this divided nation. “We had no choice but to practice the justice of God.”

Such amputations are designed to shock — residents are often summoned to watch — and even as the world makes plans to recapture northern Mali by force, the Islamists who control it show no qualms about carrying them out.

After the United Nations Security Council authorized a military campaign to retake the region last week, Islamists in Gao, Mr. Touré’s town, cut the hands off two more people accused of being thieves the very next day, a leading local official said, describing it as a brazen response to the United Nations resolution. Then the Islamists, undeterred by the international threats against them, warned reporters that eight others “will soon share the same fate.”

DEFINING AND UNDERSTANDING THE LEFT

The origins of the modern left can be traced back to the famous passage in Rousseau’s Discourse on the Origin and Foundations of Inequality, in which he condemned the institution of private property:

“The first man, who after enclosing a piece of ground, took it into his head to say, ‘this is mine,’ and found people simple enough to believe him, was the real founder of civil society.”

Added Rousseau: “How many crimes, how many wars, how many murders, how many misfortunes and horrors, would that man have saved the human species, who pulling up the stakes or filling up the ditches should have cried to his fellows: Beware of listening to this impostor; you are lost, if you forget that the fruits of the earth belong equally to us all, and the earth itself to nobody!”

The Sharia Threat to America

Fred Grandy

There is a great deal of misinformation circulating with regard to sharia and the threat it poses to America and Western Civilization.

Some misinformed observers and members of the Muslim Brotherhood liken concerns over sharia to prejudice and bigotry, but the facts say otherwise.

Terrorism experts in the law enforcement, military and intelligence communities have cited sharia as the Jihadists' enemy threat doctrine in an intensive study called "Shariah: The Threat to America," a scholarly, 352-page book based on authoritative sources of sharia, or Islamic law. While sharia does include "prayer and fasting" and "worship," sharia is also an all-encompassing legal and political code that covers aspects of life that have nothing to do with religion.

Perhaps most importantly, unlike other forms of religious law, such as canon law and Jewish law, sharia is the only form of religious law extant that is also meant to apply to people of other faiths, i.e. non-Muslims.

The threat from sharia has nothing to do with prejudice or bigotry. The threat from sharia is real and multifaceted.

The Israeli Constituent – Realism over Wishful Thinking

Ambassador (ret.) Yoram Ettinger, "Second Thought: a US-Israel Initiative”
"Israel Hayom”, December 28, 2012, bit.ly/V8NQRj 
 
On the eve of the January 22, 2013 Israeli election, the Israeli constituent demonstrates more realism than Israeli politicians.  Israelis highlight security imperatives when responding to reality-driven polls, which pose questions based on the stormy Arab Winter and not on the mirage of the Arab Spring.

Increasingly, Israelis recognize that – in the Middle East - bolstered security constitutes a solid base for survival and for the pursuit of peace.  They realize that the pursuit of peace, by lowering the threshold of security, could jeopardize survival, as well as the slim chance for peace.

Notwithstanding the overwhelmingly dovish Israeli media and academia, most Israelis – Right, Center and Left - have concluded that security-driven peace supersedes peace-driven security. 

CAIR Protests Saudi Radical's Exclusion From U.S.

IPT News

http://www.investigativeproject.org/3864/cair-protests-saudi-radical-exclusion-from-us

The head of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) vows to complain to U.S. Department of Homeland Security officials after they blocked a radical Saudi cleric from entering the country this week to attend a national Islamist conference in Chicago.
Sheikh Ayed al-Qarni was scheduled to speak twice during the Muslim American-Society (MAS)/Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA) national convention Dec. 22-25. But a statement released during the convention expressed "the unpleasant and saddening news" that al-Qarni had been removed from his flight from Saudi Arabia despite having a visa from the U.S. embassy, and that he appears to be on the U.S. "no-fly list." Al-Qarni is described as "one of our great speakers" and as someone known "for his logical discourse and balanced views, he promotes understanding and collaboration between all people, regardless of their faith, background, or language."
Al-Qarni has advocated jihad in the past and his preaching on the subject has been described as influential among al-Qaida followers.

COP: The 10 Worst Regulations of 2012

James Gattuso and Diane Katz

December 28, 2012

It seems that no aspect of American life can escape government regulation. In the past year, regulators drafted rules that addressed everything from caloric intake to dishwasher efficiency.
Most of these rules increase the cost of living, others hinder job creation, and many erode freedom. Not all regulations are unwarranted, of course, but increasingly, the rules imposed by the government have less to do with health and safety and more to do with whether government or individuals get to make basic pocketbook and lifestyle decisions that affect them. And it is not just the regulators who are to blame. Congress writes laws that give unelected bureaucrats the broad powers they wield.
Today we bring you 10 of the worst regulations from 2012:
1. HHS’s Contraception Mandate
The Department of Health and Human Services on February 15 finalized its mandate that all health insurance plans include coverage for abortion-inducing drugs, sterilization procedures, and contraceptives. To date, 42 cases with more than 110 plaintiffs are challenging this restriction on religious liberty.
2. EPA Emissions Standards
The EPA in February finalized strict new emissions standards for coal- and oil-fired electric utilities. The benefits are highly questionable, with the vast majority being unrelated to the emissions targeted by the regulation. The costs, however, are certain: an estimated $9.6 billion annually.

'We will respond to any threat'

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addresses Syria and Iran saying Israel's long arm will deliver devastating blow to those who try to harm the country • Syrian media: Assad changes bedrooms each night, guards test his food before he eats it.

Shlomo Cesana and Daniel Siryoti

Israel will strike anyone who tries to harm it no matter how far: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. | Photo credit: AP

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sent a message to both Syria and Iran on Thursday saying that the long arm of the Israel Defense Forces will strike a strong blow against anyone who attempts to harm the country. Speaking at a pilot graduation event at the Hatzerim air base, Netanyahu addressed the current crisis in Syria as well.

"We all see what's going on in Syria. Syria's air force is striking hundreds of citizens and has no problem using any means at its disposal. Israel is monitoring the situation there closely and will do anything necessary to protect itself from a Syrian threat or any other threat. Israel extends its hand in an offer of peace to anyone who wants peace, but those who threaten us should know that our long arm will deal devastating blows to protect the country."

Muslim Population of Britain Doubles

December 28, 2012 by creeping
Just as the Muslim population doubled and the Number of mosques in US grew 74% since 9/11.
via It’s Official: Muslim Population of Britain Doubles :: Gatestone Institute.

The strange thing about this “multicultural” society is that it can celebrate every imaginable culture except the one that allows all these cultures to co-exist alongside each other — and all the time with enthusiasm from pundits and politicians, busy trying to pretend that this is all the most wonderful result imaginable.

The national census for England and Wales has come out, and, as usual, this once-a-decade event has had all of its most significant points overlooked.

"I shall gather you from all the countries and bring you into your own land…"

Nurit Greenger| December 28, 2012

I maintain that if Jews were not killed by the millions, during the 2000 of exile since the time when they were expelled from their homeland, the nation of Israel would have been over 100 Million members strong.

In light of what is taking place in Israel these day, it is worthwhile reading this entire chapter 36 of the book of Ezekiel (http://etext.virginia.edu/etcbin/toccer-new2?id=KjvEzek.sgm&images=images/modeng&data=/texts/english/modeng/parsed&tag=public&part=36&division=div1) with emphasis on the following sentences:

How Obama’s Policies Led to Benghazigate

Daniel Greenfield On December 28, 2012

It took some 22 hours for American help to arrive in Benghazi after all the t’s had been crossed and the i’s had been dotted, and the body of America’s ambassador to Libya had been dragged through the streets by “rescuers” stopping along the way to pose for cell phone pictures with his corpse.

By way of comparison it takes about 16 hours for a boatload of Libyan illegal immigrants to row to the Italian island of Lampedusa. Support for the Americans under fire in Libya would have arrived sooner if a few former members of the Harvard Rowing Team had gotten in one of the many rowboats beached on the shores of Lampedusa and pushed the oars all the way to Benghazi.

It says something about the current state of asymmetrical warfare that not only can Al Qaeda throw together a coordinated string of attacks on American embassies around the region without anyone being the wiser for it, but boatloads of migrants from Libya can reach Europe faster on muscle power than American forces can reach a mission under attack while equipped with jet power.

Weekend Essay: Biblical Lessons on Foreign Policy and Statism

Barry Rubin

Whatever your view of religion, the Bible is a terrific source for history and political analysis, often in the passages least quoted today. Here are two examples.

1. Statism

When the Israelites asked to have a king, the prophet Samuel (Chapter 8) told them, at divine direction, that a king would make their sons:

“Plow his fields, reap his harvest, and make his weapons and equipment for his chariots. He will take your daughters as perfumers, cooks, and bakers. He will seize your choice fields, vineyards, and olive groves, and give them to his courtiers [crony capitalism!]. He will take a tenth part of your grain and vintage [far lower taxes than today!] and give it to his eunuchs and courtiers [entitlements? Crony capitalism?].”

In short, he would make the people “work for him…and you shall become his slaves. The day will come when you cry out because of the king whom you yourselves have chosen [elections!]; and the Lord will not answer you on that day.”

West Longs for Jew-Free Zones in Jerusalem

P. David Hornik  Israel plans to step up the building of residences within the settlement blocs and—drawing particular ire—in parts of Jerusalem that were under Jordanian occupation from 1949 to 1967. The Jerusalem plans include housing for both Jews and Arabs. In this holiday season, those plans should be cause for rejoicing instead of heightened rebukes. The city’s status as a hub of three religions, and also of tolerance, pluralism, and across-the-board demographic growth, is being strengthened. Instead, official Western reactions have been harshly critical (reports here, here, and here).

"Politics"

Israeli politics, that is.  A balagan (confusion).  But it's time for me to take a look at what's happening.  Especially as part of the Israeli electoral circus has made press in the US.

Naftali Bennett is the new Chair of the Habayit Hayehudi (The Jewish Home) party -- which has been strengthened via a list merger with National Union (Tekuma faction).

Credit: Wikipedia

He has brought new energy to the party, which traditionally has a religious, nationalist base; with broader outreach, he has been showing well in polls.  Although I think Netanyahu fashions his party as somewhat centrist, a good percentage of the Likud faction is solidly nationalist/rightist.  And it has been assumed that Habayit Hayehudi would be a natural in the coalition that presumably will be formed after the January 22nd election by a victorious Binyamin Netanyahu. 

San Diego Muslim woman sentenced for bankrolling Islamic terrorists

creeping

Yusuf suggested that America was responsible for the 9/11 attacks and expressed hope for an even greater catastrophe in the future: “Oh. It will be happening again. Trust me, more this time it will be double…triple their deaths. [Laughter.]”

via San Diego woman who financially supported terrorists sentenced | FOX5 San Diego. h/t Money Jihad

A San Diego woman who conspired to provide material support to a terrorist organization based in Somalia was sentenced Tuesday to eight years in federal prison.

As part of her guilty plea, Nima Yusuf, 25, admitted that she conspired with four others — identified in court papers as Mohamed Abdullahi Hassan, Abdisalan Hussein Ali, Cabdulaahi Faarax and Abdiweli Yassin Isse — to provide support to al-Shabaab in the form of money and personnel to work under the direction of the terrorist organization.

Yusuf was arrested in November 2010. She admitted sending $1,450 to the men, who were then fighting in Somalia for al-Shabaab, and to lying to federal agents about her financial support for the fighters.

How to Use American Influence

Shoshana Bryen

The U.S. and its allies could not, similarly, overthrow the Soviet Union or liberate its colonies. But we did not pretend that we were their friends, and we surely did not give them aid or political support. The best of the Cold Warriors spurred the United States staunchly to defend its political beliefs as "better;" defend its friends militarily; guard as much as possible against communist expansion into free countries; and let the "captive nations" know through Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty that we were on their side. That would translate today into support for human rights civil rights, minority rights and capitalism; support for our allies; guarding against al Qaeda and the Muslim Brotherhood; denouncing attacks on Christians; and the expanded use of social networks for the many people who want to be on our side.

Colonial powers – France, Britain, Belgium and Russia, in particular – believed there was no substitute for their own armies and officials to ensure that their colonies stayed in line. Instead of colonial occupation forces, the U.S. takes its money, arms, training and agenda abroad. It is a specifically American conceit that people in other countries and other societies want our social and governmental blueprint as well as our money, medicine and weapons.

COP: 10 Facts on the Fiscal Cliff, Debt, and Spending

Romina Boccia

December 27, 2012

Budget policy in 2012 was characterized by deficit spending, major increases in the national debt, and a heated debate over the fiscal cliff.

With just days left for President Obama and lawmakers in Congress to avert a major tax hike, sequestration, and other major policy changes, today we bring you a list of the top 10 facts on federal spending in 2012:

1. Four years of trillion-dollar-plus deficits. Fiscal year 2012 concluded with a $1.1 trillion deficit, marking the fourth year of trillion-dollar-plus deficits. Too much spending is the root cause of the federal government’s deep and sustained deficits. At 23 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) in 2012 and on track to rise further, federal spending is growing at a dangerous pace.


2. National debt hit $16 trillion. On September 4, the U.S. national debt hit the $16 trillion mark. We owe more on the national debt than the entire U.S. economy produced in goods and services in all of 2012. Sixteen trillion dollar bills stacked one on top of the other would measure more than 1 million miles high, which would reach to the moon and back more than twice.

Blasphemy as a National Security Threat

Sultan Knish
Spain has begun deportation proceedings against Imran Firasat, a Christian refugee from Pakistan, for making a documentary about Mohammed and thereby threatening the national security of Spain. If Firasat is deported back to Pakistan, he will face the death penalty proving that it's a short step from the Spanish Inquisition to the Pakistani Inquisition.

The United States has a man sitting in prison for making another blasphemous movie, which the government spent weeks blaming for worldwide attacks on American embassies. And he isn't the first man persecuted or prosecuted for offending Islam. Offending Islam has become a national security issue involving all levels of government.

When Bubba the Love Sponge, a Tampa DJ, proposed to burn a Koran, the commander of the Afghanistan war contacted his girlfriend, who would later be stalked by Petraeus' girlfriend, to contact the Mayor of Tampa to keep Bubba from burning a Koran. Instead of explaining how the American system works to the Lebanese temptress and her four-star general, the mayor wrote back that the city was working on it.

The Cognitive War Against Israel in the Settlement Debate

Richard L Cravatts

No sooner had retired Israeli Supreme Court Justice Edmund Levy issued an 89-page legal opinion that seemed to confirm the legality of West Bank settlements, than the Obama administration chimed in with a well-worn criticism of the report’s findings, the long-held view that the presence of Jewish residents in Judea and Samaria violates international law. Levy’s committee had found that “Israel does not meet the criteria of ‘military occupation’ as defined under international law” in the West Bank, and that claims that they exist in violation of international law are baseless.

But Secretary of State Hilary Clinton’s office wanted no part of the report’s findings. “We do not accept the legitimacy of continued Israeli settlement activity and we oppose any effort to legalize settlement outposts,” said her spokesman, Patrick Ventrell.  And, he added, the State Department was “concerned about it, obviously.”

Free speech in higher education

KENNETH L. MARCUS

When students or professors challenge campus orthodoxies, administrators find a way to silence them. But when speakers take positions that are comfortable to the campus Left, administrators turn on a dime, suddenly posing as First Amendment purists.

PHOTO: REUTERS/NIR ELIAS

Nothing is more clichéd in higher education than the selective invocation of freedom of speech. When students or professors challenge campus orthodoxies, administrators find a way to silence them. But when speakers take positions that are comfortable to the campus Left, administrators turn on a dime, suddenly posing as First Amendment purists.

Greg Lukianoff, president of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) and a liberal, observes that “you are far more likely to get in trouble on campus for opposing, for example, affirmative action, gay marriage and abortion rights than you are for supporting them.”

Since support for Israel is now increasingly viewed as a conservative issue, just about anything goes when it comes to Israel-bashing.

A minority constitution for a minority of extremists

By ZVI MAZEL

Egyptian president, Muslim Brotherhood conduct illegal campaign that sets the stage for new confrontations.

Photo: REUTERS

Without bothering to wait for official results, the Muslim Brotherhood hastened to declare itself the victor in the referendum on a constitution solidly grounded in Shari’a and Islamic values.

The Brothers can now boast of having conquered the allegedly “democratic” elections – the last bastion in their steady takeover of all power points in Egypt.

The problem, of course, is that there was nothing democratic about the process. The constitution was drafted in a matter of days by order of President Mohamed Morsi, after six months of endless bickering in the constitutional assembly composed mainly of the Brotherhood and Salafists – in blatant violation of the transitional constitution.

Most non-Islamist members and delegates of the Coptic minority had resigned in protest.

COP: Climate Change Hysteria, Obama Clean Air Hypocrisy, CO2 peril all debunked in Wall Street Journal

http://israel-commentary.org/?p=5483
Evidence points to a further rise of just 1°C by 2100. The net effect on the planet may actually be beneficial.
By MATT RIDLEY
Wall Street Journal

Forget the Doha climate jamboree that ended earlier this month. The theological discussions in Qatar of the arcana of climate treaties are irrelevant. By far the most important debate about climate change is taking place among scientists, on the issue of climate sensitivity: How much warming will a doubling of atmospheric carbon dioxide actually produce? The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has to pronounce its answer to this question in its Fifth Assessment Report next year.
The general public is not privy to the IPCC debate. But I have been speaking to somebody who understands the issues: Nick Lewis. A semiretired successful financier from Bath, England, with a strong mathematics and physics background, Mr. Lewis has made significant contributions to the subject of climate change.

For young Holocaust refugees, early El Al trip proved love at first flight

Despite an emergency landing, the airline’s inaugural trip from London set a lifelong romance on its path to takeoff

By Sharon Kanon | December 27, 2012

A couple who met and fell in love on the first El Al flight from London to Tel Aviv recently relived the journey — this time without the emergency landing. Ralph Gartenberg, who was 24 at the time of the December 1949 flight, had a one-way ticket. “As I got ready to board, I noticed that most of the passengers were middle age or older,” he recalls. “There was only one pretty young woman on the flight.”
Rose Kraemer, 20, spotted the eligible young man as soon as she entered the El Al lounge in London. “I would like to get to know him,” she remembers thinking.
Kraemer was traveling back to Israel after a two-year course in orthoptics, a type of eye care, which had taken her to Leeds. Upon her return, she became the first professional in the field in Israel.

US Arming Muslim Brotherhood

Steven Shamrak

 Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood government is set to receive more tanks and fighter jets from the US. These include 200 M1A1 Abrams battle tanks and "a squadron of F-16 Falcon" fighters. Egypt's military buildup presents risks for Washington and Israel - with the growing influence of the Brotherhood, whose overriding goal is to establish Shariah, or Islamic, law worldwide. ( Against which country - if not Israel - does the US think that Egypt is planning to use those fighters and tanks? Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood is still receiving billions of the US tax payers' dollars, but no anti-Semitic bigots suggest stopping the flow of funds to Egypt, at least until democracy take roots!)

Obama, 'Friend of Israel', is Arming Islamic Enemy

The US approved 20 F-16 fighter planes for Egypt, part of a $1 billion foreign aid package, Tuesday, 11 December, the day scheduled for massive rival demonstrations against President Mohamed Morsi's referendum on an Islamic, anti-democratic constitution.

Food for Thought by Steven Shamrak

Arabs rejected the UN resolution 242 in 1947! The Oslo Accords, which envisaged autonomy only - not another Muslim state - and has expired several years ago, required negotiations in order to establish peace between Israel and so-called Palestinians. The PA has never really complied with any agreements it signed with Israel: it continues anti-Israel propaganda, cancelled negotiations and never stopped terror attacks on Israel.

The Benghazi White-Out

by creeping

via Diana West’s The Death of the Grown-Up
Home – Benghazi White-Out.
The “independent” Benghazi Report has concluded the White House remained in the dark.
—
The Benghazi Report is out and it’s official: President Obama, SecState Hillary Clinton, CIA Director Petraeus all had nothing to do with the US government response to the attack on the US mission in Benghazi. Indeed, the names Obama, Clinton, Petraeus, Panetta, Rice do not appear anywhere in its 39 pages. DoD — Panetta? — however, is singled out for having deployed unarmed drones that, for example, “provided visual surveillance during the evacuation.”
Hooray?
The red flags didn’t go up over this so-called investigation for nothing. The White House isn’t just whitewashed in the report, it’s whited-out.

Disproportionate Criticism

Jonathan Rosenblum
Jerusalem PostDecember 12, 2012

http://www.jewishmediaresources.com/1576/disproportionate-criticism

Prominent among these new metrics is the comparison of Israeli casualties to those of the civilian population from whose midst the enemy fights. As soon as the casualties on the other side exceed those suffered by Israel – usually within hours of an unprovoked attack on Israel and without any cessation of fire from the other side -- Israel's response is labeled disproportionate.Israeli military actions are consistently judged and found wanting by metrics that are applied to no other army or conflict. Application of these standards is designed to render Israel incapable of defending its citizens.

The Washington Post's ombudsman Patrick B. Pexson, for instance, recently dismissed the overwhelming majority of rockets fired from Gaza as "like bee stings on the Israeli bears behind." By which, he presumably meant that they only kill a few Jews.

Muslims kill 12 in Christmas attacks on two churches in Nigeria

creeping

via 12 killed in attacks on two churches in Nigeria – CNN.com.

At least 12 people died in northern Nigeria when attackers raided two churches during Christmas Eve services, police said.

One assault occurred at the Church of Christ in Nations in Postikum, in Yobe province. Gunmen attacked worshipers during prayer, killing six people, including the pastor, and setting the building on fire

Worshipers also were attacked at the First Baptist Church in Maiduguri, in Borno state. A deacon and five church members were killed.

They were the latest strikes against Christians in the region. More than 30 people died in a wave of Christmas Day attacks in the north last year, blamed on Boko Haram, a militant group that has targeted Christians and Muslims it considered insufficiently Islamist.

Someone Else Will Pay

Sultan Knish
From 1977 to 1980, BBC One ran "Citizen Smith", a TV comedy about an aspiring young revolutionary who wore a beret and a Che T-Shirt and did his best to create a Communist Britain while heading up the Tooting Popular Front, consisting of six members, by virtue of shouting "Power to the People" and making up lists of the people he would put up against the wall on the day of the glorious revolution.

This is finally Citizen Smith's time where the lazy and cowardly aspiring revolutionary can create his own Tooting Popular Front, camp out in a public park for a few months, and earn generous media coverage. And for those too lazy to camp out in the spring and summer, there's always hacktivism, the truly lazy man's revolution, download a denial of service program, aim it at a site and watch it go down for a minute, an hour, or perhaps even a day or two.

Social media is full of Citizen Smiths, dressing up in Che avatars and shouting their "Power to the People" slogans in 140 characters or less. And these Citizen Smiths are taken seriously by their older peers in the media who have had their own days of pretending to be Che and now just pretend to be journalists. While the Citizen Smiths create their fake revolution, the grown-up Citizen Smiths show up to cover it, in the great battle for a Communist Britain, America, Australia and also all the rest.

Why are Christians leaving Bethlehem?

Though Bethlehem is enjoying unprecedented financial and tourism growth, the city's Christian residents are emigrating abroad in droves • Cultural and religious suffocation in a mostly Muslim city, persecution and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict are only some of the reasons • Christians feel like they are trapped in a cultural and religious ghetto.

Nadav Shragai

"A religious ghetto." Christian clergymen attending a rally in Bethlehem. | Photo credit: Reuters

A falafel costs five to ten shekels in Bethlehem (in Tel Aviv the average is around 15 shekels). Hotel rooms are also substantially cheaper than hotel rooms in neighboring Jerusalem: only $25 per night. Even the Christmas product industry has managed to maintain low prices thanks to imports from the Far East. Many of the prayer beads, shell ornaments and carved wood figurines, on sale here for 10 to 15 shekels, are manufactured in China. But the tourists don't care. They come in droves. In recent years, Bethlehem and its 32,000 residents have seen a financial renaissance, mainly thanks to a big tourism boom.