Rich Lowry

The great 19th-century satirist Ambrose Bierce defined a revolution as “an abrupt change in the form of misgovernment.” He would understand events in Egypt very well.

In the signature revolution of the Arab Spring, the country turned its back on a secular dictatorship only to fall into the arms of what looks like a budding Muslim Brotherhood dictatorship. Meet the new pharaoh, same as the old pharaoh. Except Egypt’s old form of misgovernment may soon look progressive by comparison.

Muslim Brotherhood president Mohamed Morsi’s decree neutering the judiciary is the latest act in his steady consolidation of power. While he assiduously builds a dictatorship, the Obama administration just as assiduously tells itself bedtime stories. It’s a perfect division of labor — he goes about his empire-building with a clear-eyed realism; we consider it through a gauzy lens of delusion.

Welcome to Egypt! Sharia or bust!

Rick Moran

Now they've gone and done it. Egyptian Islamists have rammed through a constitution that gives few rights to women, restricts free speech, gives Muslim clerics a large role in passing legislation, and doesn't ban slavery outright.

Other than that, what's not to like - if you're a sharia loving Islamist?

Associated Press:

Islamists approved a draft constitution for Egypt early Friday without the participation of liberal and Christian members, seeking to pre-empt a court ruling that could dissolve their panel with a rushed, marathon vote that further inflames the conflict between the opposition and President Mohammed Morsi.
The vote by the constituent assembly advanced a charter with an Islamist bent that rights experts say could give Muslim clerics oversight over legislation and bring restrictions on freedom of speech, women's rights and other liberties.
The draft, which the assembly plans to deliver to the president Saturday, must be put to a nationwide referendum within 30 days. Morsi said Thursday it will be held "soon."
The opposition has called for a major rally Friday in Cairo's Tahrir Square, where some demonstrators have camped out in tents since last week to protest decrees Morsi issued to grant himself sweeping powers. Hundreds gathered in the plaza for traditional Friday prayers, then broke into chants of "The people want to bring down the regime!" - echoing the refrain of the Arab Spring revolts, but this time against a democratically elected leader. Other cities around Egypt braced for similar protests.
The Islamist-dominated assembly that has been working on the constitution for months raced to pass the charter, voting article by article on the draft's more than 230 articles for more than 16 hours. The lack of inclusion was on display in the nationally televised gathering: Of the 85 members in attendance, there was not a single Christian and only four women, all Islamists. Many of the men wore beards, the hallmark of Muslim conservatives.

The die was cast long ago when the administration refused to support the secularists and liberals who actually got rid of Mubarak while the Muslim Brotherhood stayed on the sidelines. Now we have a Sunni sharia state bordering Israel.
A grand result for our "smart" foreign policy.

Page Printed from: http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2012/11/welcome_to_egypt_sharia_or_bust.html at November 30, 2012 - 10:54:46 PM CST

What the upgrading of the Palestinians' status at the UN is really about

By Jonathan Tobin

Hint: Peace isn't it



http://www.JewishWorldReview.com | With the Palestinian Authority status at the United Nations upgraded this evening to nonmember observer state, some who call themselves friends of Israel as well as some prominent Israelis are applauding the initiative. In particular, former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has said he does not oppose the move by his former negotiating partner, PA head Mahmoud Abbas. Olmert says the vote will promote a two-state solution and help Palestinian moderates in their quest to make peace with Israel. But Olmert, whose attempt to give Abbas pretty much everything he had asked for in 2008 resulted in the Palestinian fleeing the U.S.-sponsored talks without even responding to the offer of a state, seems more interested in vainly seeking to undermine his successor Benjamin Netanyahu than drawing conclusions from his own experience. 

Britain is now a bit part player in the Middle East

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Britain's inability to assert a consistent and sensible policy with regard to Israel and Palestine has led us down the road to anonymity

Hague to Abbas, "Oh PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE..."

The Commentator

Israeli politician Abba Eban once noted of the United Nations that if Algeria introduced a resolution declaring that the Earth was flat, and that Israel had flattened it, it would pass by a vote of 164 to 13 with 26 abstentions.

Today the United Nations will vote to upgrade the status of Palestine to ‘non-member observer'. And much like Eban predicted, the resolution will easily be voted through.
For over a year now the British government has been asserting that there will be no substitute for direct negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians. While supporting their right to a state, Britain and the United States have both urged Abbas to turn away from unilateralism and towards dialogue.

Lethal Shiite Iranian Jew-Hatred, Despite Abject Dhimmitude

Andrew Bostom

I have written repeatedly and at length (here, here 1,2,3,  and here) about the visceral, najis ("infidel impurity")-inspired, intermittently apocalyptic (and certainly at present) Islamic Jew-hatred that has pervaded Iranian Muslim society since the nation became a Shiite theocracy ~ 1502, under Shah Ismail.


Despite being only a vestigial, vanishingly small minority that lives in abject, crushing dhimmitude, here is a pathognomonic contemporary example of how Iranian Jew-hatred manifests itself at present-past as prologue.

As reported by UPI, today (11/29/12):

Hamas: A Pawn in the Sunni-Shiite War

Harold Rhode
November 29, 2012

Shi'ite Iran, from its inception in 1979, saw Sunni organizations, such as Hamas, as tools with which to undermine the Sunni rulers, who control most of the Arab world.

A full scale Middle Eastern, Islamic type of war between the Sunnis and Shiites is raging. Officials in Washington are doing their best to label it anything but a war; when asked if it is a war, they seem to react in fear, and ignore the issue by saying, "We must do our best to ensure that such a war does not happen."

By refusing to label what is going on a war, however, we may well be preventing ourselves from devising policies which would address the problem, and make it evolve in the best interests of the US.

Historically, Islamic warfare has not necessarily been one in which large armies have fought each other, at least at the beginning of conflicts. What usually happens is that there are what we in the West call "terrorist raids," in which opposing sides send small raiding parties into each other's territory. These raids are ongoing and cause both sides to live in a constant state of tension with one another.

General Assembly Resolution for Limited Palestinian Statehood Lacks Legal Authority

November 29, 2012 | Eli E. Hertz

A host of resolutions passing annually by the General Assembly are not legally binding documents by any measure. One needs only to read Article 10 of the UN Charter:

“The General Assembly may discuss any questions or any matters within the scope of the present Charter or relating to the powers and functions of any organs provided for in the present Charter, and, except as provided in Article 12, may make recommendations to the Members of the United Nations or to the Security Council or to both on any such questions or matters” [italics by author].

Did Israel kill Yasser Arafat?

And if so, was it justified?  

http://palwatch.org/main.aspx?fi=157&doc_id=8093 

by Itamar Marcus and Nan Jacques Zilberdik 

Did Israel kill Yasser Arafat? That is the question being discussed as the Palestinian Authority exhumes his body this week for French prosecutors investigating his death. This follows the announcement by a Swiss institute that they found remnants of the poison polonium on Arafat's clothes.

However, the more fundamental questions are why would Israel have wanted to kill Arafat and would it have been justified. The assessment must be based on the objective data as to Arafat's role at the time. Was he just a political leader or was he also an archterrorist leading the most systematic and deadly terror war that Israel ever faced? Yasser Arafat died in November 2004 after four years of a PA terror campaign, also called the second intifada. One thousand Israelis had already been murdered in attacks coming from PA territory under Arafat's leadership.

Israel Paying the Price for the West's Self-Hatred

Peter Martino

 

The moral question – "Who began the war and who denies its adversary's right to exist?" – is never asked. The media simply do not tell the truth.

Last Thursday evening, some 1,500 demonstrators convened in front of the Italian Parliament in Rome, waving Israeli and Italian flags. The demonstration "For the Truth, for Israel" had been organized in barely two days by Fiamma Nirenstein, a member of the Italian Chamber of Deputies, Italy's equivalent of the House of Representatives. The demonstrators listened to messages by over 50 people, including Matteo Renzi, the Mayor of Florence and a prominent leader of the Democratic Party, Angelino Alfano, Italy's former Justice Minister and the president of Berlusconi's party PDL, Gianfranco Fini, the Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies and the leader of the FLI party, and Renato Schifani, the Speaker of the Senate.
Although Nirenstein is Jewish, many of the demonstrators were not. In a statement released after the event, Nirenstein wrote that the demonstration showed how important "the existence of Israel and its safeguard is to the Italian people and its representatives." She said it also showed that "people are more and more capable of identifying the lies disguised as criticism to the Israeli government." Nirenstein, chairperson of the International Council of Jewish Parliamentarians, expressed her satisfaction that the Italians and their political leaders understand that Israel is "a bastion of human rights and democracy in the Middle East."

Video: Following Gaza's Ceasefire, Cleveland Rally Calls For the Destruction

IPT News
November 26, 2012
http://www.investigativeproject.org/3822/video-following-gaza-ceasefire-cleveland-rally

Anti-Israel protests and demonstrations were held throughout the United States following the start of the Israel-Gaza conflict earlier this month. On Wednesday November 21st Al-Awda The Palestine Right to Return Coalition's Cleveland, OH chapter organized a rally in downtown Cleveland calling for the destruction of Israel.
Al-Awda is a radical Palestinian organization dedicated to advancing the agenda that the Israeli state should not exist. Al-Awda advocates "the rights of all Palestinian refugees to return to their homes and lands of origin, and to full restitution of all their confiscated and destroyed property," according to the organization's website. The group's logo is a picture of the map of Israel and a key.
The Al-Awda rally featured chilling chants including:
"When people are occupied, when people are occupied, resistance is justified. When people are occupied, resistance is justified. When people are occupied, resistance is justified. When people are occupied, resistance is justified . Free free Palestine. Free free Palestine. Free free Palestine."

Cruel IDF bombed a peaceful (dual-use) soccer stadium.

Elder of Ziyon
Here is what Gaza's soccer stadium used to look like, with the Pepsi brand prominently displayed:

Here is what Gaza's soccer stadium looks like today:

PALESTINIAN REFUGEES LANGUISH IN LEBANON

David Schenker

Middle East Quarterly

Fall 2012

To download the full article, go to:
http://www.washingtoninstitute.org/policy-analysis/view/palestinian-refugees-languish-in-lebanon

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Not only is discussion of settlement of the Palestinian refugees currently within the Lebanese borders taboo, since 1990 it has also been unconstitutional.

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"In all but name, Lebanon today is a non-country," wrote the Lebanese historian Kamal Salibi in 1989. A weak state racked with sectarian and political divisions, there is little on which Lebanese people can agree. One rare issue on which they seemed to have formed an enduring consensus, however, is that of the Palestinians.

The Coming Sharia State of Egypt

 Theodore Shoebat

Egypt has now a modern pharaoh, named Muhammad Morsi, and with him as the sole ruler, the country will ultimately become an official Sharia state. Sharia is already enforced to some degree, but now that the Muslim Brotherhood is expanding its power, it will implement the edicts of its constitution, the Koran, to is fullest capacity.
This is was foreshadowed months ago when counter-revolutionaries were crucified in front of the presidential palace, since these type of executions are demanded in the Koran where it states that:

“The punishment of anyone who fight against Allah and His apostle and do mischief in the land is to be killed or crucified or to have their hands and feet from opposite ends or be banished from the land.” (Quran: The table spread)

That Egypt will become a Sharia state is most clearly shown in Egyptian politics itself. In September of this year, Egypt’s justice Hossam Ghariani, President of the Supreme Judicial Council, said in a video that the Egyptian people were demanding Sharia, and that to enforce it would be the correct choice:

IN VIENNA, ONCE AGAIN THE CRIES OF ‘DEATH TO THE JEWS’ ARE HEARD…….

KGS

Where have we seen this before?

The Viennese are letting it all happen again, this time through their Muslim immigrant surrogates.

Vienna protesters call for ‘death to Jews’

By BENJAMIN WEINTHAL

11/26/2012

Activists protesting against Operation Pillar of Defense call for “Freedom for Palestine,” the destruction of Israel.

PHOTO: DIE JÜDISCHE ONLINE

Anti-Israel demonstrators gathered on Friday in the heart of Vienna, protesting Israel’s Operation Pillar of Defense and chanting slogans calling for the murder of Jews and bashing the Jewish state.

Israel’s eight-day military operation to stop Hamas rocket fire from entering the country prompted two fiercely anti-Israel protests in the Austrian capital.

Samuel Laster, an Israeli journalist who lives in Vienna, told The Jerusalem Post on Sunday that he heard a contingent of 15 to 20 Austrian Islamists chanting in Arabic, “Death to the Jews.”

Laster first reported on the call to eliminate Jews on his website die juedische (“the Jewish”).

Speaking from Vienna by phone, he told the Post that a “mix of Austrian leftist radical extremists and Islamists” appeared at the protest. He estimated that at least 400 anti-Israel protesters, including Salafists, Muslim Brotherhood members and Palestinians, took part in the demonstration.

UK's Leading 'Palestine' Group Blasted for Anti-Semitism

Palestine Solidarity Campaign accused of ‘institutionalized’ anti-Semitism, support for terrorism

By Ari Sofer

First

Man waves pro-boycott sign in Ramallah

Flash 90

A controversial new website levels a series of severe accusations at the Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC), the UK’s leading anti-Israel group. ‘Exposing the Palestine Solidarity Campaign’ alleges that extremism, support for terrorism, anti-Semitism and other forms of bigotry are “an institutionalized problem” within the PSC.
One of the site’s founders spoke exclusively to Arutz Sheva – on condition of anonymity – about the motivations behind the initiative.
‘It’s about telling the truth,’ he said, ‘and shattering the illusion that groups such as the PSC care one bit about human rights. They don’t. For them, the language of human rights is a tool to further an anti-Jewish agenda. Worst of all, the PSC ruins the efforts of those Palestinians who are actually striving for peace, through the PSC’s representation of the Palestinian position as one of absolutist support for terror, hatred and ignorance.’

The ultimate aim of the initiative – a joint project of Jewish and moderate Muslim activists – is to ‘defeat bigotry, in all its forms, and restore the human rights narrative to its rightful place.’
On its website, the PSC claims to campaign ‘for peace & justice for Palestinians, in support of international law and human rights & against all racism.’

Gaza conflict puts crimp in tunnel smuggling biz

 Sarah Lynch, Special for USA TODAY

 RAFAH, Egypt — In this run-down, dusty town that straddles the border of the Gaza Strip, a long-thriving smuggling operation through tunnels has nearly come to a halt because of the violence between Israel and Hamas.
In the past week, Israeli airstrikes have destroyed many of the underground channels that connect Gaza to the Sinai Peninsula in Egypt as part of its operation to stop the seemingly relentless rocket attacks against Israeli cities and towns.
Many smugglers in the Sinai have stopped their work.
FULL COVERAGE: Latest developments in Israel-Gaza conflict
"Israel can hit at any time," said Abou Khaled, an Egyptian with Palestinian roots who co-owns a tunnel. "It's too dangerous to work."
The tunnels are used to send things like construction materials and household supplies that are in short supply in Gaza, though there is always a markup in price. Illegal weapons such as rockets and mortars, cars and drugs have also been smuggled through, and people have passed undetected beneath the border.

Speaking Truth to Hamas

Andrew G. Bostom

The remarkably courageous Ramallah-born Mosab Hassan Yousef, the eldest son of Hamas cofounder Sheikh Hassan Yousef and a former Hamas activist himself, served time on several occasions in Israeli prison. Yousef is also known as "the Green Prince," the code name assigned him by the Shin Bet (Israeli security agency), with whom he later collaborated for a decade to thwart numerous terrorist attacks during the second intifada, sparing hundreds of Israeli lives. 

Hours before primary, PM calls on Likud members to vote

LAHAV HARKOV

11/25/2012 

Southern Likud activists release post-cease-fire endorsements; Ya’alon popular choice for next defense minister; 97 candidates compete for 24-25 spots; voting stations to open at 9 a.m; 125,351 party members to vote.

Photo: Marc Israel Sellem/The Jerusalem Post

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu called on the Likud’s 125,351 members to vote in Sunday’s tight primary race, while activists released lists of recommended candidates in light of Operation Pillar of Defense and the security situation in the South.
“I call on you to come vote for the Likud candidates in the next Knesset,” Netanyahu said in a prerecorded call to party members. “In this primary, you will choose the country’s leadership in the coming years. Come influence, decide and vote.”

Related:

• Habayit Hayehudi primary candidates sue party
• Settler group encourages double-voting in Likud