A Monumental Distortion Of History

Richard L. Cravatts

 

http://www.jewishpress.com/indepth/front-page/a-monumental-distortion-of-history/2012/10/04/0/

Mahmoud Abbas

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas recently continued a long tradition of attempting to question a Jewish link to Jerusalem by expressing his mendacious notion that “Jerusalem’s identity is Arab, and the city’s and Christian holy sites must be protected from Israeli threats.”

The same scholar of history who wrote a doctoral dissertation that questioned the extent and truthfulness of the Holocaust was now making his own historical claim that there has never been a Jewish presence and history in the world’s holiest city.

Why the Muslim Brotherhood Takeover is Fizzling in Jordan

Islamists now control Egypt, Turkey and Tunisia and are contesting Syria. Jordan is fairly small by comparison, but it’s still part of the package as the Muslim Brotherhood would like to recreate a Greater Syria, combining Egypt and Syria, and adding Jordan to the package to crush Israel and then Lebanon, which has far too many Christians and Shiites in it for their liking.

But so far the Jordanian Arab Spring hasn’t taken off and the Muslim Brotherhood’s big show of force on Friday fizzled with a turnout of only 7,000 when the Brotherhood was predicting 50,000.

Palestinian Authority Rigging Courts

Khaled Abu Toameh

The Canadian Development Agency, with the help of the UN Development Program, has been funding new courthouses in the West Bank "to improve the Palestinians' access to justice." But justice can be achieved even if the judges, lawyers, prosecutors and defendants sit in a tent. Instead of investing in new buildings, it would be more helpful if the Canadians and the UN agency demanded that Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and his aides stop obstructing the work of the judges.

In an unprecedented move, Palestinian judges in the West Bank this week went on strike in protest against the Palestinian Authority's repeated attempts to meddle in the internal affairs of the judiciary system.

Profs. on Mideast Turmoil: Blame America, Israel, and Free Speech

Cinnamon Stillwell 
On October 5, 2012

In the wake of the al-Qaeda attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya on Sept. 11, 2012, the seizure of the American embassy in Cairo, Egypt, and the ensuing anti-American protests and riots throughout the Middle East—the latter ostensibly over an anti-Islam YouTube film trailer that originated in the U.S. months earlier—what do Middle East scholars have to say about the turmoil in the region?

As self-styled supporters of “academic freedom,” are they rushing to defend First Amendment rights instead of kowtowing to Muslim religious sensibilities? Are they denouncing the prospect of self-censorship rather than pushing YouTube to pull the “offending” video by claiming that it constitutes “hate speech?” Are they standing up for religious freedom instead of encouraging Americans to adhere to Sharia law-driven prohibitions on blasphemy? Are they putting aside their anti-Western biases and laying blame where it belongs instead of on America and Israel?

Egypt's Christians - Distraught and Displaced

Raymond Ibrahim
Special to IPT News
October 4, 2012
http://www.investigativeproject.org/3761/guest-column-egypt-christians-distraught

Reuters reported last week that "Most Christians living near Egypt's border with Israel [in the town of Rafah in Sinai] are fleeing their homes after Islamist militants made death threats and gunmen attacked a Coptic-owned shop." Photos of desecrated churches and Christian property show Arabic graffiti saying things like "don't come back" and "Islam is the truth."

Pulling out of Benghazi: These colors run scared

theoptimisticconservative 

Remember the slogan “These colors don’t run,” captioning the American flag?
Neither does al Qaeda.

Why should they?  They’ve just won.  They have forced us out of Benghazi.  It did take multiple attacks over several months, and the gruesome torture and murder of our ambassador, to edge us out.  But the job is done now.  We’re running scared.
Instead of sticking with our commitment to a new Libya, one in which Americans have friendship and influence – one in which we can walk free, and so can Libyans – we have closed our post in Benghazi and drawn down our embassy staff in Tripoli to “essential” personnel only.  It will be of some interest to see how long it takes al Qaeda or other terrorist savages to attack us in Tripoli.

Muslim Riots Reach Europe: Part II

Soeren Kern

Abu Assad al-Almani asks Muslims in Germany to attack any German citizen who supports the film by "cutting their heads from their bodies and capturing it on film so that it is accessible to the public, so that the whole of Germany, and even the whole of Europe, knows that their criminal games will be thwarted by the sword of Islam."

Muslim protests over an American-made anti-Islamic YouTube film, Innocence of Muslims, have spread to more European cities. Muslim rioters had initially clashed with police in Belgium, Britain and France, but since then, protests have spread to Austria, Denmark, Germany, Greece, Norway, Serbia and Switzerland.

UNRWA Resists Resettlement

Alexander H. Joffe
Middle East Quarterly
Fall 2012, pp. 11-25 (view PDF)

http://www.meforum.org/3350/unrwa-resettlement

The Palestinian refugee problem lies at the heart of the Arab-Israeli conflict. But since the 1960s, the international institution charged with aiding the refugees, the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), has resisted their resettlement in the Arab host countries. It has done so by shifting to an educational mission, devising expansive redefinitions of who a refugee is, and expanding its legal mandates to "protect" and represent refugees. As a result, a well-intended international relief effort has been progressively undone by the vagueness of its mandate, which allowed UNRWA to bend to the will of the U.N. General Assembly and be taken over by its own charges and by the bureaucratic imperative of institutional survival.

India: The Next Terrorist Insurgency

S.K. Bhattacharya  
October 3, 2012

Because terrorism works: The death of a U.S. Ambassador in Libya, after all, seemed sufficient to convince many Americans that they should flee the entire Islamic world.

Although so far India's Maoists have shown little interest in attracting global attention by attacking international targets, journalists who study their insurgency reckon that they need only be patient: The Naxals will figure it out soon enough. Then the journalists' careers as International Naxal Experts will be assured.

Why do the journalists reckon this? Because terrorism works: The death of a U.S. Ambassador in Libya, after all, seemed sufficient to convince many Americans that they should flee the entire Islamic world.

Op-Ed: The Wild Card: Arabs in Israel as a Hostage Population

They falsely accused us of expelling them in 1948, but now, the writer says, pushing the Arabs eastward is a viable solution - if necessary.

Dr. Mordechai Nisan

Dr. Mordechai Nisan, author and expert of the Arab-Israeli conflict, lectures on the Middle East at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

Let us be forthright:

Israel is facing a life-and-death struggle against Muslim and Arab forces whose declared and intended goal is to destroy the Jewish State.

A unified pseudo-Islamic Caliphate alliance, as an indomitable Muslim ambition, could be closing in on Israel, uniting the Sunni states Egypt, Syria after Assad falls, and Saudi Arabia, along with Iraq and Turkey interlaced in the fold. Jordan’s place in this coalition remains unknown.

I’m Tired

GADI ADELMAN October 2, 2012

Thirty-one years is long time. Actually, it's far too long. This week will be my birthday and I won't be celebrating.

At the age of 51, I can only look back and wonder why, why things have gotten worse rather than better. I have been speaking, writing and teaching about terror, Islam, Sharia and counter-terror for 31 years.

With all the news surrounding the death of Ambassador Christopher Stevens in Libya, I have to start with the last death of an American Ambassador.

Although the last U.S. ambassador to die in the line of duty was Arnold Raphel, the U.S. ambassador to Pakistan, it is unsure whether it was a terrorist act. He perished in a plane crash in 1988, along with the then president of Pakistan, Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq.

Wake Up, Jews!

Rabbi Aryeh Spero

No doubt, it's hard for people to give up their lifelong attachments and identity.  But there are moments in history when a turning point arrives, and those with eyes to see and ears to hear recognize it.  Many Jews have made political liberalism their religion and personal identity and the Democrat Party their unexamined home and comfort zone.  But everything changed early September.

After Abbas

Khaled Abu Toameh  •  October 2, 2012

"[Abbas's] resignation would actually be the most positive thing he has ever done for the Palestinians." — PLO representative.

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas apparently believes that the Palestinians would not be able to survive for one day without him.

That must be why whenever he faces criticism from Palestinians, Abbas resorts to his old-new threat to resign.

Abbas is convinced that if he steps down -- as his critics and a growing number of Palestinians are demanding -- the Palestinian Authority will collapse and his people will face a new "nakba" [catastrophe].

Egyptian President Morsi Shows His Colors

Ashraf Ramelah

Historically, the Egyptian prison cell has been the incubator for monumental accomplishments, such as the formation of al-Qaeda and the current presidency of Egypt.  It has provided the necessary network, doctrine, and framework to spawn greater goals.  Perfect plans have been hatched and prepared in Egypt's prison blocks, allowing bad actors like Muhammad Morsi to plot their next moves.  Within a few days of Hosni Mubarak's confinement of Morsi to the Two Sahrawi branch of the Wadi el Natruon Penitentiary during Egypt's January 2011 uprising, Morsi broke out.  He was a pawn in the execution of the Muslim Brotherhood's long-awaited scheme to take over Egypt.

Muslims Destroyed 10,000 Books in American School

Remember this is about a movie trailer, it’s not about a destructive ideology that runs on hate. It’s about a movie. Just like the destruction of the Library of Alexandria was about a movie.

This marks the second week since the devastating attacks on the US Embassy and the American Cooperative School of Tunis (ACST), Tunisia, where I teach art and drama here in North Africa. We are still holding our breath.
Nowhere in our dreams did we imagine, all of us holed up in our homes, that the “peaceful protest” would turn ugly and migrate to our school, which is located across the highway from the embassy.

What Does Israel Do if Obama Is Reelected?

“Don’t Panic” -- Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy

By Barry Rubin

I’m going to try to analyze what Israeli strategy might look like if Obama were to be reelected. I don’t want to write a partisan piece -- predicting every type of the most horrible disaster and open hatred from the White House -- but a serious analytical effort. This involves speculation, but policymakers have to develop the most likely scenarios in order to plan ahead.

Let me start, though, with a joke. An asteroid hits the ocean, producing a giant tidal wave so powerful that within an hour all land will be covered by water. Television networks put on a variety of politicians, alleged wise people, and religious figures to speak with the doomed population. The rabbi among them explains: “All I can say is that you have one hour to learn to breathe underwater.”

That is Israel’s mission. To survive a second Obama term brought on it by the American -- including a large majority of American Jewish -- voters.

CAIR Can Expel You ‘For Any Reason’

Daniel Pipes On October 1, 2012

This past Saturday, folks, was a big day for the Council on American-Islamic Relations. Its “Leadership Conference & 18th Annual Banquet” at the Marriott Crystal Gateway Hotel in Arlington, Va. lasted from 9 am until past 10 pm.

Sadly, I missed the event. Not that I wouldn’t eagerly have plunked down my $199.00 for a ticket to hear Linda Sarsour, Nihad Awad, Siraj Wahhaj, Al Sharpton, and Dennis Kucinich. Even better, I could have learned CAIR’s “Strategies for Challenging Anti-Islam Legislation and Campaigns” from the horse’s mouth. However, this little clause stopped me short:

Morsy pledges support for Palestinians, Syrians

JPOST.COM STAFF

Speaking at Turkish JDP conference, Egypt's President says he will "lend a hand to people of Gaza;" denounces Syrian regime.

Photo: REUTERS

Egyptian President Mohammed Morsy pledged his support to the Palestinian and Syrian people on Sunday at the Turkish ruling party congress.

"We can never hesitate to lend a helping hand to the people of Gaza, our neighbors and brothers, as well as the people of the West Bank and all Palestinians everywhere,” Morsy told the general conference of the Justice and Development Party, the Egyptian Independent reported.

On the Syrian crisis, the Independent quoted Morsy as saying: "We will not settle down until the end of this bloodshed, until the will of the Syrian people to choose their leadership is met, and until current leaders who are unjust to their people and who shed their blood are removed."

Intervention Won't Save Syria

Gary C. Gambill
The National Interest

http://www.meforum.org/3347/syria-intervention

The death toll in Syria has reached a threshold where outside parties are entitled to use force to protect the civilian population. But those who would intervene in ostensible pursuit of this noble objective have an obligation to ensure that, on balance, the patient benefits from the procedure. Whereas former president Bill Clinton can claim with some justification that "the burning of villages and killing of innocents was history" after NATO's 1999 intervention in Kosovo, achieving a positive balance sheet in Syria will be extraordinarily difficult.

The Syrian conflict differs from other notable targets of humanitarian intervention in three critical respects. For starters, the constituency that has borne the brunt of appalling human-rights abuses is not an imperiled ethno-sectarian minority (such as Iraqi Kurds or Kosovo Albanians) or the population at large (as with Somalis in 1992). Instead, it is Syria's Sunni Arab majority that is suffering at the hands of an oppressive minoritarian regime.

"Season of Our Gladness"

That gladness does not, in any way, refer to the current political situation (it should only be).  It is, rather, a reference to the holiday of Sukkot, which begins tomorrow night and lasts for a week.  It is, truly, a joyous time, with gathering of family and friends to eat within the temporary walls of the festively decorated sukkah, and, most properly, sleeping there as well.  (More easily done in Israel than in colder climes, I know.)

Illegal migration from Africa continues to drop'

BEN HARTMAN

09/30/2012 

A total of 122 illegal migrants crossed Israel from Egypt compared with 2,000 during same time period last year, PIBA says.

Photo: reuters

A total of 122 illegal migrants crossed Israel’s southern border with Egypt since the beginning of September and were jailed at the Saharonim Prison facility in the Negev, the Interior Ministry’s Population, Immigration, and Borders Authority (PIBA) said Saturday.

The number refers only to those who were apprehended by Israeli authorities after crossing into the country. It represents a small drop from August, when some 199 were arrested. That said, the figure does represent a dramatic drop over the same period last year when 2,000 African migrants crossed into Israel.