Sunday, March 31, 2013

If Holland is Becoming Antisemitic Where Else is it Safe?

Barry Rubin

A few years ago in Amsterdam I was shown the most popular manual published in the Netherlands, in Dutch, on how to raise one’s children as proper Muslims. The book included virulently anti-Semitic passages, based on Muslim holy texts. After the Jewish community objected, the authorities forced the publisher to put white tape over the offending passages. The tape could easily be peeled off by purchases so that these words could be read.

Or consider what has just happened. A Turkish-Dutch researcher publicized systematic anti-Semitism among other Muslims in the Netherlands, including a dramatic video that showed teenage boys calling for genocide and praising Hitler.

What happened? The researcher, Mehmet Sahin, had to go into hiding after being accused by others of being a Jew and a Zionist.

The growing anti-Semitism in Western Europe is like that.

Jihadis' Exploitation of Muslim Girls

Khaled Abu Toameh

What is disturbing is that many Arab and Islamic human rights organizations have remained silent about the crimes committed against Muslim women throughout the Arab and Muslim world. By contrast, these organizations are often quick to denounce Westerners for "insulting" Islam by depicting the Prophet Mohammed. If anyone is really insulting Islam, it is the Muslim fundamentalists and jihadis who show no respect for Muslim girls and treat them as sex slaves.
What are the Muslim jihadis in Syria doing when they are not fighting against Bashar Assad's army?
According to reports in a number of Arab media outlets, the jihadis are importing Muslim girls to satisfy their sexual needs.
The sexual exploitation of girls was revealed after several Tunisian families reported that their teenage daughters had gone missing in recent months.
It later transpired that the girls had been dispatched to serve to Syria on "jihad marriages." In other words, the girls had been sent to Syria to satisfy the sexual needs of the anti-Assad jihadis.

Israeli officials hail apology to Turkey as double victory

In unofficial remarks, Israeli diplomat says apology succeeded in preventing Turkish prosecution against Israeli soldiers as well as striking an understanding that Turkey will no longer pressure Israel to lift its naval blockade on Gaza Strip.

"Erdoğan will try to present the apology as a Turkish victory," Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
|
Photo credit: AFP

The True Obstacle To Peace Between Israelis And Palestinians

Asaf Romirowsky and Alexander Joffe
Forbes

 
With the completion of Barack Obama's first Presidential visit to Israel, as expected there was a great deal of symbolism reinforcing the bond between the two allies. Yet still, doves on both sides acknowledge that peace is hardly around the corner.
Understanding the true barriers to a comprehensive agreement is key to knowing where the pressure to compromise will be coming from. Contrary to popular belief, the core of the conflict is not borders, Israeli settlements, or the status of Jerusalem.
An honest look at the relationship between Israelis and Palestinians requires Obama to understand two major things before he attempts to jump-start any peace process. One is that the two state model today is only applicable to Israel and the West Bank; there can be no contiguous Palestine state between the West Bank and Gaza with Hamas in power. This would represent a threat to both Israel and to Palestine.

The Bad Good

Sultan Knish
Others have already pointed out the absurdity that gay marriage is becoming a right in places where plastic bags and large sodas are becoming against the law. This sort of next wave civil rights step is only an expansion of freedom if you aren't paying attention.

All the arguments over the differences between civil unions and marriage are largely meaningless. Once gay marriage is recognized, then marriage becomes nothing more than a civil union. The real casualty is the destruction of the word "marriage", but the left is adept as destroying language and replacing meaningful words with meaningless words.

There was no word in Newspeak for freedom. We can look forward to an English language in which there is no word for marriage. And what does freedom mean anyway in a country where most things are banned, but we are constantly throwing holidays to celebrate how free we are?

Saturday and Sunday in the Holy Land

Israel, Christianity, and peace
 
 
‘With one voice, the massive crowd responded, Alithos Anesti! Risen Indeed!”
In her book, Saturday People, Sunday People: Israel through the Eyes of a Christian Sojourner, American writer Lela Gilbert writes of the miracle of the calming of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre at Easter, a reflection of the peace she’s found living in the Holy Land. She talked about the land, the people, and the peace she’s found, as well as the challenges, with National Review Online’s Kathryn Jean Lopez.
KATHRYN JEAN LOPEZ: Aren’t Christians leaving the Holy Land? Why would you do the reverse?
LELA GILBERT: Actually, Israel is the only country in the Middle East where the Christian population is growing. This doesn’t include the Muslim-majority territories under the Palestinian Authority where — as in the rest of the Middle East — Christians are leaving. I am not, of course, part of Israel’s indigenous Christian population, which is comprised primarily of Eastern Orthodox and Catholic Arabs (there are a few Evangelicals but not many). That comprises an entirely different group of believers than the various Western Catholic and Protestant individuals who live and work in Israel for various reasons and for a limited time. As for me, I’ve made many remarkable friendsand it is going to be painfully hard to leave them.
Elder of Ziyon
Miftah has responded to my exposé of their anti-semitic article last week:
The Palestinian Initiative for the Promotion of Global Dialogue and Democracy, MIFTAH strongly denounces the smear campaign being carried out against it and, by association, its founder Dr. Hanan Ashrawi. The obscure pro-Israeli website “The Elder of Ziyon” has wrongly accused MIFTAH and Dr. Ashrawi of promoting Jewish blood libel during Passover through its publication of an Arabic-language article that briefly addressed the subject.
The disclaimer at the opening of the “News and Analysis” section clearly states that, “The views represented in [News and Analysis] are solely those of their authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of MIFTAH, but rather fulfill its mandate for open dialogue.” For the record, to avoid further misunderstanding, Al Zaru’s article has been taken down from MIFTAH’s website.

Israel Hits Course to Energy Independence at 4 PM Saturday

The use of the gas will commence within 24 hours.

The Israeli Tamar drilling rig, 56 miles off shore. The Israeli Tamar drilling rig, 56 miles off shore.
After about four years rife with many delays, and after great difficulties in obtaining funding for the Tamar drilling platform, at precisely 4 PM Saturday natural gas began to flow from the site, 56 miles off shore, to the Yam Tethys reservoir in Ashdod.
The first injection was supposed to be done the day before, on Friday, but was delayed due to disagreements with officials at the Ministry of Energy, who tried to add last minute additional conditions before issuing the final permit to let the gas flow to Israel.
The use of the gas will commence within 24 hours.

New ad: “This is Islamic Apartheid”

creeping
The truth – the new hate speech – hurts.
6a00d8341c60bf53ef017d42513fc8970c
More at “This is Islamic Apartheid”: New AFDI Ad Campaign to Launch in NYC to counter blood libel by American Muslims – Atlas Shrugs.
(The Maldives constitution banning citizenship for non-Muslims is another idea for an ad)

Florida: Mega church pastor partners with former CAIR chairman to oppose “anti-sharia” bill

creeping
via floridafamily.org
Dr. Joel C. Hunter, senior pastor of the Northland Church in Longwood, Florida, asked Atif Fareed, former Chairman of CAIR Florida, to read Hunter’s statement opposing SB 58 Application of Foreign Laws in Certain Cases to the Florida Senate Committee on Governmental Oversight and Accountability on March 21, 2013.
Mega church senior pastor of 15,000 evangelical Christians partners with Islamist to oppose anti-Sharia bill in Florida Legislature.Perhaps you can educate Dr. Hunter with facts regarding Islam, Jihad, Islamists, CAIR, Sharia and Taqiyya.
joel.hunter@northlandchurch.net

Dr. Joel C. Hunter
Northland Church
Dr. Joel C. Hunter, senior pastor of the Northland Church in Longwood, Florida, asked Atif Fareed, former Chairman of CAIR Florida, to read Hunter’s statement opposing SB 58 Application of Foreign Laws in Certain Cases to the Florida Senate Committee on Governmental Oversight and Accountability on March 21, 2013.
Atif Fareed told the committee:
But I want to read something very important to you today.  I am a Muslim, but a senior pastor of an evangelical church, the Northland Church, Dr. Joel C. Hunter, he sent me an email yesterday afternoon and he wanted me to read this to you.  And this is how his letter goes exactly word by word:

Time for Obama to give Israel a "good will gesture"


Pollard was indicted and convicted on only one charge - one count of passing classified information to an ally - without intent to harm the United States.
By  Mark Silverberg, Ariel U. Policy Research Center   27/03/13 12:52
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/Controls/SendFriend.ashx?print=1&type=1&item=13055
 
During the course of President Obama’s recent interview with Israel’s
Channel 2 on March 21st, in response to whether he would consider commuting the life sentence of former civilian American naval intelligence analyst and convicted Israeli spy Jonathan Pollard, he remarked: “As president, my first obligation is to observe the law here in the US. I need to make sure that every individual is treated fairly and equally.”

March 24, 2013 Obama undid his Cairo speech

 http://www.israpundit.com/archives/53699

What lies behind Obama’s Jerusalem sycophancy?
Abdel Bari Atwan, Editor in Chief of Alquds Alarabi Newspaper
Never in my life have I seen a US President beg for the approval of the
Israelis while demeaning himself in the process quite like Barack Obama
has done during his current trip. This is all the more remarkable given
his immense historical significance as the first non-white candidate to
win the American presidency.

People expected this president to be different from his predecessors,
precisely because he belonged to a group of people who have suffered
persecution over the centuries. Obama used to speak about the
humiliating racial segregation his grandparents and other relatives
faced in Chicago when they were banned from sitting with white people on
buses.

Busing with Jodi

My Right Word



Jodi Ruderon took a trip to ... Ramallah, on a bus:
...about four dozen [Israelis]...made an unusual recent pilgrimage to Ramallah, one of several Palestinian cities that have been officially off-limits to most Israeli citizens for more than a decade...organized by the Israel Palestine Center for Research and Information [from their FB: IPCRI - Israel Palestine Center for Research and Information shared a link.Wednesday Our Breaking Down Walls tour is featured in the New York Times!]...contacts between the two peoples have dwindled. Fewer Palestinians work inside Israel. Dialogue groups have broken up. Camps connecting children are harder to find. The communities increasingly function as if in alternate universes.

...“Israelis crave to meet Palestinians and to go to the West Bank,” said Goldie Orlan, who is managing the project, which also takes Israelis to Jericho and Bethlehem. “They just want to walk the streets and talk to normal people about their daily lives.”

But they had to settle for walking through a sales center at Rawabi, a city-to-be of high-rises and homeowners’ associations being erected in the empty hills. As for talking, it was mostly to their guide, Husam Jubran, whose liberal mix of opinion with fact led some to describe it as a “propaganda tour.”

Israelis may pay 3% more for electricity to cover unpaid Palestinian bills‏


IEC mulls rate hike to cover Palestinian's NIS 730m debt. The chances that IEC will collect the debt fell after the Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu released tax money to the Palestinian Authority.28 March 13 20:33, Amiram Barkat Globes
http://www.globes.co.il/serveen/globes/docview.asp?did=1000832905&fid=1725
 
Israel Electric Corporation (IEC) (TASE: ELEC.B22) is considering raising electricity rates to Israeli consumers to cover the debts of Palestinians, after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu decided to release tax money owed to the Palestinian Authority, which Israel had withheld, in part to pay its debt to the IEC.
 
Israel currently supplies all electricity needs to the West Bank.
Palestinian customers receive the electricity through the Palestinian
Authority and the Jerusalem District Electricity Company Ltd., each of which operate in different cities in the territories. The two entities' aggregate debt to IEC currently totals NIS 730 million. Each month, IEC sends a warning letter about the debt, and it is in talks with the Palestinian Authority and the Jerusalem District Electricity Company, but no agreement has been reached on payment.

Saturday, March 30, 2013

Senseless & spineless: Speaking truth to power

MARTIN SHERMAN, JPOST
Into The Fray: Israel’s abject apology to Erdogan conveys an unequivocal message to both friend and foe: If confronted with sufficient resolve, the Jews will capitulate.
    Shut up. Go back to Auschwitz!
    – Radio transmission from the 2010 Gaza-bound flotilla, in response to the Israel Navy’s warning that it was entering area under maritime blockade.
    God forbid we apologize. National pride is not just something people say on the street… it has strategic significance. If Erdogan goes around afterward and says that he brought us to our knees, he will appear as a regional leader…. He won’t leave it alone, even after we apologize.
    - Moshe “Bogey” Ya’alon, Haaretz, August 17, 2011 – then deputy prime minister
    You can take the Jew out of the ghetto, but you cannot take the ghetto out of the Jew.
    – A derogatory dictum of undetermined origins.

This is a column I write with a profound sense of sadness and bitter disappointment – bordering on despair – with people I have held in the highest regard. It is a column I would have preferred not to write, but events dictate speaking truth to power.

Broken Cyprus Bows to Its New Eurozone Masters

 Mike McNally
”For a small, open economy like Cyprus, euro adoption provides protection from international financial turmoil.”
European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet, welcoming Cyprus into the European single currency in 2008.

Cyprus has agreed to a ten billion euro ($13bn) deal with eurozone and IMF leaders to bail out its banks, and to prevent the Mediterranean island nation from exiting the European single currency. However, Cypriots can be forgiven for not taking to the streets to wave flags and honk their car horns. They’re finding out just what the “protection” afforded by the euro looks like, and it’s more akin to the kind offered by ski mask-wearing heavies in certain parts of New Jersey than the financial security Monsieur Trichet promised.

Never Look Back

Sultan Knish



A BRIEF PERSONAL NOTE

Due to the Passover holiday and family medical issues, blogging has been lighter as usual, comment moderation has taken longer than usual. I haven't been able to answer many emails, tweets, etc.. My apologies.



NEVER LOOK BACK

Desmond Tutu has been busy lately. Two weeks ago he wrote an editorial calling for the abolition of nuclear weapons. A week later he joined an international anti-tobacco campaign. Last month he condemned American drones for killing Muslim terrorists. Last summer he denounced a military-themed NBC Reality Show.

A grinning and giggling social butterfly, Tutu is always going somewhere and expressing his opinion on something. One minute he’s in Myanmar and the next minute he’s weighing in on Bradley Manning. Wait a little longer and there will be a Tutu column, video or letter on climate change, the death penalty or the price of tea in China.

New York: Muslims prove Islam is a religion of peace by handing out flowers

Flowers.jpg
Well, this is a relief! Saudi Muslim students handed out flowers in Times Square to prove that Muhammad's message was one of peace, mercy and love! So all that you have read about Muhammad calling for warfare against non-Muslims, ordering the assassination of his enemies, predicating the coming of the End Times on Muslims killing Jews, and the rest of it, you can forget about it all: Muslims were handing out flowers!

What would happen to a group of Christian students who went to Riyadh and started handing out flowers to explain the message of Christianity? They would be arrested, imprisoned, and possibly killed.

Bangladesh: "Arrest the atheists who insulted Islam!" Tens of thousands of Muslims call for new blasphemy laws against bloggers

Bangladeshcrowd.jpgTiny minority of extremists
Robert Spencer

These Muslims are calling for the same kinds of restrictions on the freedom of speech that Leftist Sharia enablers such as Eric Posner, Sarah Chayes, and Nathan "Garibaldi" Lean have recently called for in the West -- and that are coming to the West, courtesy UN Resolution 16/18 and ongoing Organization of Islamic Cooperation efforts to intimidate Western states into criminalizing criticism of Islam.
"'Arrest the atheists who insulted Islam!' Tens of thousands of Muslim activists hold prayers on streets of Bangladesh capital to call for new blasphemy laws against bloggers," from the Daily Mail, March 29 (thanks to Pedro):
Tens of thousands of Islamic activists prayed on the streets of the Bangladeshi capital today during a rally calling for the introduction of blaspemy laws and the restoration of a caretaker government.

10,000 Islamic supremacist websites, fewer than 100 countering them

Jihad Watch
But remember: the real problem is "Islamophobia."
"10,000 extremist websites on Internet: expert," from AFP, March 26 (thanks to all who sent this in):
There are more than 10,000 extremist websites on the Internet compared to fewer than 100 countering them, an analyst on Tuesday told a conference which stressed the need to rebut militant propaganda. "In many ways, the terrorists are very successful in cyberspace," said counter-terrorism analyst Rohan Gunaratna, who heads the International Centre for Political Violence and Terrorism Research in Singapore.
"It is very important for us to build in the next 10 years the capacities and capabilities to counter the increasing presence and the operation of these groups in cyberspace."
Speakers at the International Conference on Terrorist Rehabilitation and Community Resilience said moderate Islamic groups and governments should make a concerted effort to counter extremist propaganda on the Internet.

Op-Ed: Arabs Have Black Slaves - Today

There is no Arab Apartheid Week on American campuses, but there should be. Slavery, in its most barbaric form, still exists in the Arab world and there is no Exodus in sight either. A shocking article for Passover.


Israel Apartheid Week has come and gone this year on many American campuses. It was, of course, a hoax: However much one says that Arabs in Israel suffer, and whoever is to blame for that alleged suffering, there is no apartheid in Israel.

Meanwhile, however, in Sudan and Mauritania, racist Arab societies enslave blacks. Today. Most of the slaves are African Muslims. Yet there is no Arab Apartheid Week on American campuses. Why not?

One might think American student activists would be upset about Mauritania, the West African country with the largest population of black slaves in the world – estimates range from 100,000 to more than a half-million. In Mauritania, slaves are used for labor, sex and breeding. The wholly owned property of their masters, they are passed down through generations, given as wedding gifts or exchanged for camels, trucks, guns or money.

Brutal Realism About the Middle East

Mike Konrad

History is made by imperfect men. This should be obvious; but only Israel is held to standards of perfection that no one else could measure up to. Yet, this is the drivel which is now taking over the planet.
We see the BBC regularly condemning the Jews for land theft in the West Bank; for colonialism. Excuse me! Didn't the British rule one-quarter of the planet at one time? Isn't Britain still in Northern Ireland, a province whose very name, history, and geography belies the English claim to the territory?
Then there are the French, another runner up in the imperial department. Wait?! Didn't Napoleon offer to give Israel to the Jews? Have they forgotten that?
Spain, which once ruled most of the Americas, is now going to lecture Israel. Spain wants Gibraltar back, but she won't let Israel keep Judea and Samaria?!

What is Really "Broken" In Syria?

Stephen Schwartz

The leaders of Iran and Syria are united not by Shi'ism, but by homicidal fantasies.
Among the many noteworthy aspects of President Barack Obama's recent tour of the Middle East was a comment on March 22, during a press conference with Jordanian King Abdullah II. Obama said, "Something has been broken in Syria, and it's not going to be put back together perfectly, immediately, anytime soon – even after Assad leaves."

Although the characterization of Syria's condition was accurate, Syria has been "broken" for a longer time than most Weste­rners seem to think. A religious fissure in Syrian society – a tear that has now widened into a civil war and filled up with blood, bodies, and ruins – dates at least to 1970. That year Hafez Al-Assad (1930-2000), father of the current dictator, Bashar Al-Assad, who are both members of the Alawite religious minority, seized power within the Syrian wing of the Ba'ath party, which had ruled the country since a coup in 1963.

Muslim "Secret" Courageously Outed

Douglas Murray

"As a community, we do have a 'Jewish problem.' There is no point pretending otherwise." — Mehdi Hasan, British Muslim journalist
How rife is anti-Semitism among Muslims? Well if you poll the so-called "Muslim world, " as Pew and other organizations have done, the answer is: very rife indeed. Take Pakistan for instance. In 2006 only 6% of the population had a "favorable" attitude towards Jews. In 2011 when that question was polled in Pakistan again, favorable attitudes towards Jews had gone down to just 2%.
Of course if you were to cite this figure, you would get an inevitable set of responses, such as claims that the figure was so worrying because "everyone knows" that Pakistan is a somewhat "challenging" country in that regard.
So take a nice moderate Arab country such as Jordan, for instance. After all, it has a peace treaty with Israel and everything.

Iran Deploys 50,000 In Syria

 menewsline.com
Israel's intelligence community has determined that Iran deployed 50,000 troops in Syria. 

Israeli military intelligence commander Maj. Gen. Aviv Kochavi said Iran has taken over much of the Syrian campaign against Sunni rebels. Kochavi said Iran deployed Hizbullah and Shi'ite fighters in Iraq to protect the regime of President Bashar Assad, whose military dropped from 220,000 to 50,000. 

"The damages of the imminent fall of Syria are very high for both Iran and Hizbullah," Kochavi said. "Iran is losing a sole ally in the region surrounding Israel. It will lose the ability to transfer weaponry through Syria to Hizbullah. Iran and Hizbullah are both doing all in their power to assist Assad's regime." 

In an address to the Herzliya Conference on March 14, Kochavi cited a much greater level of Iranian military involvement than acknowledged by NATO. The military intelligence chief said Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and Hizbullah formed a special force assigned to protect the regime in Damascus.
"They support Assad operationally on the ground, with strategic consultation, intelligence, weapons," Kochavi said. 

Friday, March 29, 2013

Jihad in Syria, Part II

The Assad Regime Perspective

by Aymenn Jawad Al-Tamimi
Syria Comment


In my previous article I examined the question of how jihadists in Syria conceive of their jihad against the Assad regime. But how does the regime portray jihad?
Earlier this month, many observers were surprised by a statement issued by the Supreme Iftaa Council, whose leader is Mufti Ahmad Hassoun, the most senior Sunni cleric in Syria as Grand Mufti, with strong ties to the regime. The council's fatwa was a call for jihad to defend Assad's government.
I provide my translation of the statement below, as quoted by the Syrian Arab News Agency and reproduced on a pro-regime site called Zanobia (named after the empress of the Palmyrene Empire that had seceded from Rome in the Crisis of the Third Century: an apt symbol for the regime's professed stance of 'resistance' to supposed Western imperialism). I highlight parts in bold for my own emphasis:

The Muslim Brotherhood Infiltrates Obama Administration



Editor’s note: To read and order Frank Gaffney’s pamphlet, The Muslim Brotherhood in the Obama Administration, click here.



 

Arif Alikhan – Assistant Secretary for Policy Development for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
Mohammed Elibiary – Homeland Security Adviser.
Salam al-Marayati – Obama Adviser, founder of Muslim Public Affairs Council and its current executive director.

HANAN ASHRAWI



A self-identified Christian and feminist, Hanan Ashrawi was born on October 8, 1946 in Nablus, a city in the West Bank. Her father, Daoud Mikhail, was a co-founder of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). Ashrawi earned a master's degree in literature at the American University of Beirut, where, during her student days, she dated Peter Jennings of ABC News, who was stationed there as his network's bureau chief.

When the Six-Day War broke out in 1967, Ashrawi, who was then in Lebanon, was declared an “absentee” by Israel and was denied re-entry to the West Bank until 1973, when she was permitted to return under terms of the family reunification plan. During her six-year absence, Ashrawi had earned a Ph.D. in Medieval and Comparative Literature from the University of Virginia. She also had spent time working as a spokeswoman for the General Union of Palestinian Students in Lebanon, helping to organize women’s revolutionary groups, and serving as a guide to foreign reporters visiting Palestinian refugee camps.

Youth Activism in the Small Gulf States


PolicyWatch 2059
Young activists will likely be important agents of structural reform in the small Gulf states, and Washington should make more effort to engage them.
Youths have been key drivers of revolutions across the Middle East since the beginning of the Arab uprisings in early 2011. For example, one recent study indicates that more than half of the protestors in the Egyptian revolution were between the ages of 18 and 30. Although young activists have not sparked similarly dramatic change in the small states along the Persian Gulf's western littoral -- Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, and Oman -- they will likely play an important role in structural reform and therefore merit more attention from both Washington and their own governments.

YOUTHS PUSHING THE TEMPO

Increasingly muscular youth movements carry important implications regarding the extent of potential change in the Gulf, as already seen in fits and starts in Bahrain, Kuwait, and Oman. Like their counterparts in other Arab states, young Gulf activists tend to pursue political agendas that are more far-reaching than those of traditional opposition elements and older generations. Yet they generally call for legislative, judicial, and other structural reforms rather than all-out revolution.

Hezbollah’s Strategic Shift: A Global Terrorist Threat


Congressional Testimony

Hezbollah’s Strategic Shift: A Global Terrorist Threat

House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Terrorism, Proliferation, and Trade
The director of the Institute's Stein Program on Counterterrorism and Intelligence testified before the House regarding Hezbollah's growing terrorist activity worldwide. The following is an excerpt from his prepared remarks; download the PDF to read the full testimony.

Peacemaker or Trojan Horse?

Jerrold L. Sobel


With what must have been the same fanfare and adulation our textbooks relate the people of Troy gave to the Homeric "Trojan Horse," President Obama received when he touched down in Israel last week. To the blare of trumpets in the background, a full military honor guard, and a red carpet strewn up the entire tarmac, the president majestically disembarked. 

Barely off Air Force One, Obama was immediately surrounded and embraced by both Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Israel's ancient president, Shimon Perez. The smiles, the touching, if ever there was a kumbaya moment between heads of state, this was it. As if not enough to make every Jewish liberal in Israel and the United States kvel (beam with pride), the president brought down the house when he spoke in Hebrew: "tov lihiyot shuv ba'aretz," meaning: it's good to be be back here in Israel. He then finished off his initial remarks with the oft repeated refrain, one which rings hollow to many Israeli advocates: "America stands by Israel."

Facing facts on Islam

Thomas Lifson
In the face of the powers that be in government, education, and the media, Pamela Geller and her collaborators toil away to present a more realistic picture of the implacable Islamic religious war underway against the West for over a millennium. Their latest campaign undertaken by The American Freedom Defense Initiative is once again using transit ads in New York. Here are two of the first ads:


The New York Post writes of the campaign:

Another picture shows a woman dressed in a white burqa getting whipped above the words: "Under Islamic law rape victims are tortured or killed unless they agree to marry their rapist."

Geller said that picture is from Indonesia.

Why Lebanon’s PM Mikati Resigned?

Bilal Y. Saab
Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati surprised very few when he resigned on Friday, causing the technocratic government that he created with Hezbollah’s blessing two years ago to collapse. This final chapter of Mikati’s tenure seemed to be written well before he took the post in January 2011. Mikati, a prominent Sunni politician and millionaire businessman with international contacts, knew very well that Hezbollah, which effectively controls Lebanon’s government, would make life very difficult for him. Nevertheless, he accepted the challenge, perhaps naively believing that he could do something that no politician has been able to do since former prime minister Rafiq Hariri was killed on February 14, 2005: bring stability and normalcy to a country seemingly always on the verge of sectarian strife. In the end, though, he could not.

Passover blood libel in Hanan Ashrawi's "Miftah" website (UPDATE)

Elder of Ziyon

Miftah describes itself this way:

Established in Jerusalem in December 1998, with Hanan Ashrawi as its Secretary-General, MIFTAH seeks to promote the principles of democracy and good governance within various components of Palestinian society; it further seeks to engage local and international public opinion and official circles on the Palestinian cause. To that end, MIFTAH adopts the mechanisms of an active and in-depth dialogue, the free flow of information and ideas, as well as local and international networking.
Hanan Ashrawi, a darling in the Western media, remains the Chairperson of the Board of Directors of Miftah.

In Miftah's Arabic edition there is an article railing against President Obama's speech to Israeli students. But one part of the speech particularly raised the ire of the author, Nawaf al-Zaru.

Obama’s Keystone Pipeline Block Causes Environmental Disaster

Front Page Mag


This is what happens when your idea of best sustainable practices involves blocking a secure pipeline and instead relying on Warren Buffett to transport your oil.

A mile-long train hauling oil from Canada derailed, spilling 30,000 gallons of crude in western Minnesota on Wednesday, as debate rages over the environmental risks of transporting tar sands across the border. …
There has been a rapid increase in rail transport of crude in the last three years as booming North American oil production has outgrown existing pipeline capacity.
“Railroads travel through population centers. The safest form of transport for this type of product is a pipeline.”
But Warren Buffett has a piece of the rail business, but doesn’t have a piece of the pipeline. And he has a very big piece of Obama Inc.

Religion of Peace (ROP): Imam Says Muslims Must Grow Beards to Avoid Gay Feelings



Khalid Yassin’s fabulous beard is the only thing standing between him and raging homosexuality
This video features the fun-loving Imam Khalid Yassin who claims that the US government created AIDS and has said that “The Koran gives a clear position regarding homosexuality lesbianism and bestiality. … They are aberrations punishable by death.”

But according to Yassin, Mohammed’s companions apparently suffered from some very strong gay urges. (Via Halal Porkshop.)
The beard is a natural sign of manliness and it is a natural sign of distinguishing men from women.
And among the companions of the Prophet, they used to not even look at a man who shaved his beard for fear they may have desire for him.

Syria’s European Jihadis

Elliott Abrams

During a recent visit to Israel, I found military officers focused intently on Syria — where, they said, there are now about 5,000 jihadis. These are not Muslim Brotherhood types, but fighters in Jabhat al-Nusra (listed by the United States last December as an international terrorist organization) and other Sunni jihadi groups linked to al-Qaeda.

The key concern, the Israelis said, is where the jihadis go after Assad falls. Do they stay on in Syria to fight any Alawite militias that may appear? Do they go west to Lebanon, to fight the Shiite group Hezbollah? South to try to cross into the Golan, and fight the Israeli army? Or east into Iraq, to fight as Sunnis against the Shiite-led government of Prime Minister Maliki — which the Israelis saw as perhaps the most likely outcome?

Weekly Commentary: Israeli Policy Towards Egyptian Military Cannot Be Shortsighted


Dr. Aaron Lerner Date: 28 March 2013
 
There is no question that Israel's relations with the Egyptian military are particularly critical as we witness the upheaval and tremendous uncertainty regarding the future of our neighbor and first Arab peace partner.
 
However, by the same token, there could be devastating consequences for the Jewish State in the medium and long term if our decision making process relating to Egypt gave priority to our relations with the military at the expense of all other considerations.

Thursday, March 28, 2013

Jordan's King Warns Obama; America Backs Muslim Brotherhood Agent as Syria's Next Ruler

Barry Rubin

”Don’t scare anyone. But once you gain ground then move ahead. You must utilize as many people as possible who may be of use to us.”
       –Joseph Stalin to future Communist dictator of Hungary Mattyas Rakosi, December 5, 1944.

It really isn't too hard to understand what is happening in the Middle East if you watch the facts.

1. Jordan's King Abdallah, who President Barack Obama just visited, is clearly telling us what's going wrong: that the Muslim Brotherhood is dangerous and so why is the United States supporting it? Presumably, this is what Abdallah told Obama.

2. U.S. policy is now escalating support for a Muslim Brotherhood regime in Syria and the Syrian rebels increasingly have open Brotherhood leadership.

3. Repression is gradually escalating in Egypt with arrests of moderates, Islamists being sent to the military academy, and many more measures.

Breaking News: Cyprus jails Hezbollah man for plotting to kill Israelis

BENJAMIN WEINTHAL JERUSALEM POST CORRESPONDENT

Criminal court in Limassol sentences Hezbollah operative to 4 years prison for plotting to kill Israeli tourists.

El Al airplanes sit on the runway
El Al airplanes sit on the runway Photo: Ronen Zvulun / Reuters
A criminal court in Limassol, Cyprus, on Thursday sentenced Hezbollah operative Hossam Taleb Yaacoub to four years in prison for plotting to kill Israeli tourists on the small island. The prison sentence wraps up a criminal process that began last July when Yaacoub was arrested.
The Jerusalem Post has learned that he has ten days to appeal his conviction. Yaacoub admitted that he observed Israeli flights land in Cyprus and documented the movements of Israelis and locations where they stayed.
The conviction of Yaacoub may add greater urgency to the EU talks to include Hezbollah in its terror list. EU countries such as Austria and Germany have blocked a listing of Hezbollah because of insufficient legal evidence showing Hezbollah engages in terrorism. The Cyprus conviction represents the first conviction of a Hezbollah member in a European court.

Problems in the FBI Denying Islam's Role in Terror

Teri Blumenfeld
Middle East Quarterly
Spring 2013, pp. 13-18 (view PDF)


More than a decade after the deadliest attack on U.S. soil, the U.S. administration seems no closer to identifying let alone repelling Islamist terrorists in the homeland. The 9/11 committee used the term "failure of imagination" to explain why the U.S. government was unable to prevent the catastrophic events of that day.[1] But although the enemy was identified at that time, the Federal government and one of its most important branches, the FBI, have adopted a policy of scrubbing Islamism from public consciousness[2] though since bin Laden's 2011 demise, "at least nine publicly known Islamist-inspired terror plots against the United States have been foiled, bringing the total number of foiled plots as of April 2012, to 50."[3]
In November 2009, U.S. Army major Nidal Hasan (right) gunned down thirteen of his fellow servicemen at Fort Hood, Texas. Despite clear links establishing his connection to radical cleric Anwar al-Awlaki (left), the subsequent Webster report spoke only vaguely about generic "violent radicalization" while president Obama referred to the jihadist massacre as "workplace violence."
The Obama administration's response to the 2009 Fort Hood terror attack by U.S. Army major Nidal Hasan offers a vivid illustration of this practice. In August 2012, an independent commission charged with reviewing the FBI's failure to prevent the attack issued its report, recommending eighteen changes in policies and operations. However, the commission, headed by Judge William H. Webster, upheld the government's policy of excluding Islamism from the findings, concluding that despite the intelligence failure, FBI personnel had faithfully followed protocols and procedure, and there occurred "no misconduct that would warrant administrative or disciplinary action."[4]

Goals and Strategy for Islamization of Knowledge and Higher Education in U.S.A.

creeping

and World-Wide. That’s not our title. That’s the title of a strategic document from the Institute of Islamic Sciences, Technology and Development’s (IISTD) website.
Americans wonder how Islamization, e.g., CScope, creeps into our public schools. The answers are many and there are long-standing and well-funded plans afoot. We ignore them at our own peril.
Basic Goals and Strategy for Islamization of Knowledge and Higher Education in U.S.A. and World-Wide
IISTD Goals and Functions:
Islamization is an individual duty of every Muslim ( fard `ayn ); it is also a Muslim necessity because secularization, through Westernization or Marxism, has failed to develop Muslims even like the modern non-Muslim peoples of the West and East. The goal of IISTD is, therefore, to accelerate contemporary efforts to Islamize all areas of the two cultures. The function of IISTD is to PROMOTE Islamization of ALL knowledge, natural sciences and technology particularly, through the Quran, the Sunnah concerning the two cultures, and Islamic intellectual legacy.

Texas: CSCOPE tests students on Islamic sharia

creeping
via Cscope Students Tested On Sharia Law » RED HOT CONSERVATIVE.
State Cscope Director Wade Laby and Texas Education Service Center Directors will continue to LIE and tell legislators, parents and communities that Cscope is not Pro Islamic but the mounting evidence proves otherwise. Below is a History Cscope Assessment question testing students on Sharia Law. SERIOUSLY!! THIS IS OUTRAGEOUS!
Cscope aligns with the TEKS? Where in the Texas Teks is Sharia Law listed? It isn’t! If you have questions as to why Cscope is testing your child or grandchildren on Islamic Sharia Law email the State Cscope Director Wade Labay at Wade.Labay@esc13.txed.net and ask him why?
cscope-sharia
The first option above should read “requiring a tax on non-Muslims to live safely in Muslim countries” – it’s called the poll tax or jizya.

Tunisian girls going on "sexual jihad" in Syria

Jihad Watch

"He added that this fatwa — had it indeed been issued — may involve Syrian girls living in Syria, who can 'support the mujahideen by marrying them for a few hours.'"
That sounds like temporary marriage, which is usually simply prostitution behind the hypocritical fig leaf of a "marriage" with a time limit, violates Islamic law. Temporary marriage is an established Shi'ite concept that is also prevalent among some Sunnis. We saw it taking place in Egypt last year, and it is also rising among Saudis, even though Sunnis ostensibly reject it.
Shi'ites justify temporary marriage, mutah, by their reading of Qur'an 4:24:
And all married women (are forbidden unto you) save those (captives) whom your right hands possess. It is a decree of Allah for you. Lawful unto you are all beyond those mentioned, so that ye seek them with your wealth in honest wedlock, not debauchery. And those of whom ye seek content (by marrying them), give unto them their portions as a duty. And there is no sin for you in what ye do by mutual agreement after the duty (hath been done). Lo! Allah is ever Knower, Wise.

Egypt: Mosque used to imprison and torture Christian opponents of Muslim Brotherhood regime

Jihad Watch

Watch for the worldwide Muslim protests against the desecration of this mosque -- no, wait...
"Egyptian mosque turned into house of torture for Christians after Muslim Brotherhood protest," from FoxNews.com, March 26 (thanks to all who sent this in):
Islamic hard-liners stormed a mosque in suburban Cairo, turning it into torture chamber for Christians who had been demonstrating against the ruling Muslim Brotherhood in the latest case of violent persecution that experts fear will only get worse. Such stories have become increasingly common as tensions between Egypt’s Muslims and Copts mount, but in the latest case, mosque officials corroborated much of the account and even filed a police report. Demonstrators, some of whom were Muslim, say they were taken from the Muslim Brotherhood headquarters in suburban Cairo to a nearby mosque on Friday and tortured for hours by hard-line militia members.

Crowning Erdogan as the New King of Islamists



Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu’s apology to Turkey for the deaths of its citizens during the 2010 flotilla raid misses the point. The tension with Turkey was never really about the operation. It was about making Israel bow to Turkey, crowning Prime Minister Erdogan as the new king of the Islamists.

“Israel apologized to Turkey. Dear prime minister, we are grateful that you let our country experience this pride,” says billboards that have been set up in Ankara celebrating the Israeli apology.

The actions taken by the Turkish government since Netanyahu’s apology show that its goal is submission, not reconciliation.

The sorry truth is that the virus of anti-Semitism has infected the British Muslim community

It's a shameful fact that Muslims are not only the victims of racial and religious prejudice but purveyors of it, too.



If tomorrow, God forbid, I were to cause the death of an innocent man with my car, minutes after sending a series of texts on my mobile phone, I’m guessing I’d spend the rest of my life riddled with guilt. What I wouldn’t do is go on television and lay the blame for my subsequent 12-week imprisonment at the door of . . . wait for it . . . the Jews. Yet that’s what the Labour peer Nazir Ahmed did in April 2012 – less than five years after causing a car crash on the M1 in which Martin Gombar, aged 28, was killed.

COP: CNN Exposes Obama's High-Speed Rail Boondoggle

ROGER ARONOFF March 28, 2013
The Obama Administration has put high-speed rail at the forefront of its infrastructure policies, but in reality it's a slow-moving target for criticism. "Ask any CEO where they'd rather locate and hire: a country with deteriorating roads and bridges, or one with high-speed rail and Internet; high-tech schools and self-healing power grids," said the President in his February State of the Union speech. Ostensibly, high speed rail projects have gone forward in the U.S. even though they have shown little-to-no progress to date. It is telling that when the sequester went into effect the Obama Administration canceled White House tours and let go thousands of illegal immigrants instead of revisiting waste such as this.

'Erdogan doing his best to make Israel regret apology'

Economy and Trade Minister Naftali Bennett: Turkish PM Recep Tayyip Erdoğan conducting a personal and vitriolic campaign at the expense of Israel-Turkey relations • Israeli officials: Level of compensation families will receive has not yet been determined.

Turkish PM Recep Tayyip Erdoğan says apology deal obligates Israel to cooperate with Turkey on Israel-Palestinian peace process.
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Photo credit: AFP

Passover blood libel in Hanan Ashrawi's "Miftah" website (UPDATE)

Elder of Ziyon
  Miftah describes itself this way:
Established in Jerusalem in December 1998, with Hanan Ashrawi as its Secretary-General, MIFTAH seeks to promote the principles of democracy and good governance within various components of Palestinian society; it further seeks to engage local and international public opinion and official circles on the Palestinian cause. To that end, MIFTAH adopts the mechanisms of an active and in-depth dialogue, the free flow of information and ideas, as well as local and international networking.
Hanan Ashrawi, a darling in the Western media, remains the Chairperson of the Board of Directors of Miftah.

In Miftah's Arabic edition there is an article railing against President Obama's speech to Israeli students. But one part of the speech particularly raised the ire of the author, Nawaf al-Zaru.

Obama said:
I also know that I come to Israel on the eve of a sacred holiday – the celebration of Passover. And that is where I would like to begin today. Just a few days from now, Jews here in Israel and around the world will sit with family and friends at the Seder table, and celebrate with songs, wine and symbolic foods. After enjoying Seders with family and friends in Chicago and on the campaign trail, I’m proud to have brought this tradition into the White House. I did so because I wanted my daughters to experience the Haggadah, and the story at the center of Passover that makes this time of year so powerful.

Jordan's King Warns Obama; America Backs Muslim Brotherhood Agent as Syria's Next Ruler

Barry Rubin

”Don’t scare anyone. But once you gain ground then move ahead. You must utilize as many people as possible who may be of use to us.”
       –Joseph Stalin to future Communist dictator of Hungary Mattyas Rakosi, December 5, 1944.

It really isn't too hard to understand what is happening in the Middle East if you watch the facts.

1. Jordan's King Abdallah, who President Barack Obama just visited, is clearly telling us what's going wrong: that the Muslim Brotherhood is dangerous and so why is the United States supporting it? Presumably, this is what Abdallah told Obama.

2. U.S. policy is now escalating support for a Muslim Brotherhood regime in Syria and the Syrian rebels increasingly have open Brotherhood leadership.

3. Repression is gradually escalating in Egypt with arrests of moderates, Islamists being sent to the military academy, and many more measures.

Obama encouraged Israelis to rebel

Op-ed: In Jerusalem speech, US president went over the head of a prime minister he does not trust
http://www.ynetnews.com/Ext/Comp/ArticleLayout/
CdaArticlePrintPreview/1,2506,L-4360129,00.html

Try to imagine for a moment what would happen if Prime Minister Netanyahu would speak before American students at Columbia University and call on them to rise up and demand that their politicians block any gun control legislation or encourage the students to act determinedly against President Obama's health care law. What an uproar such an act would have caused in the US and the world over - and justifiably so. The prime minister of Israel, the headlines would say, is intervening in the most sensitive issues of American politics.

The Deconstruction of Marriage

Sultan Knish

The only question worth asking about gay marriage is whether anyone on the left would care about this crusade if it didn't come with the privilege of bulldozing another civilizational institution.

Gay marriage is not about men marrying men or women marrying women, it is about the

deconstruction of marriage between men and women. That is a thing that many men and women of one generation understand but have trouble conveying to another generation for whom marriage has already largely been deconstructed.

The statistics about the falling marriage rate tell the tale well enough. Marriage is a fading institution. Family is a flickering light in the evening of the West.

Do you really understand what is happening in Syria?

Free Syrian Army and Al Nusra Front Now Fighting Each Other


Why have a two-sided civil war, when you can have a three-sided civil war? Four-sided if you count the Kurds.

Two Syrian rebel groups – one seeking an elected civil government, the other favoring the establishment of a religious state – are battling each other in the city of Tal Abyad…
Four people were killed Sunday in fighting here between the Farouq Battalions, which favors elections, and Jabhat al Nusra, or the Nusra Front, which the United States has declared an al Qaida-affiliated terrorist group. Since then, Farouq has been massing men here in an example of the growing friction that’s emerged in recent months as Nusra has captured strategic infrastructure across Syria’s north and east, including oil and gas installations, grain silos and a hydroelectric dam.
The McClatchy report is spinning this as a fight between pro-democracy moderates and anti-democracy Islamists, but the Farouq Battalions are a part of the Free Syrian Army that, at least used to be, loaded with Salafists.
So this is actually a firefight between one group of Salafists and another… which is not too surprising as Salafis don’t get along too well with each other.
And this isn’t really about democracy. It’s about power.

Muslim Lawyer Proposes Using Cyber-bullying Laws to Outlaw Blasphemy




This is so wrong on so many levels. This is a gross abuse of laws that were meant to deal with individual harassment to eliminate freedom of speech and religious freedom on behalf of Islamic theocracy.

Dr. Qasim Rashid argued that cyber-bullying laws could be used to limit freedom of expression – such as the burning of Korans — in war time:
“Most, if not all of you are familiar with the 2011 case where Terry Jones, a pastor from Florida, burned a Koran on March 20, 2011, and this event itself provides a prime example of the gap that advanced technology caused in America’s free speech model,” Rashid said.
“So in addition to placing a big sign on his church lawn that said Islam is the devil, Jones burned the Koran, screened it live on the Internet and put in layman’s translations so that people in war-torn [areas] in particular can see what he’s doing,” he continued.  “Now like the hypothetical KKK member who might burn a cross on his black neighbor’s lawn to target him specifically, Jones did the exact same thing by burning the Koran — broadcast it and targeted Muslims in a war- torn country…to target them specifically.”

UN concerned Syria war spilling over into Golan Heights

By REUTERS

Security Council voices "grave concern" about repeated violations of ceasefire line between Syria, Golan Heights; cite danger to UN peacekeepers due to escalating civil war, armed members of opposition in buffer zone.

Israeli Syrian border in the Golan Heights
Israeli Syrian border in the Golan Heights Photo: REUTERS/Baz Ratner
UNITED NATIONS - The UN Security Council voiced concern on Wednesday about repeated violations of the ceasefire line between Syria and the Golan Heights and the danger to UN peacekeepers there due to the escalating Syrian civil war.

The armed struggle between rebels and forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar Assad has posed increasing difficulties for the 1,000-strong UN Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF). UN peacekeepers monitoring the line halted patrols this month after rebels held 21 Filipino observers for three days.