Saturday, January 12, 2013

Muslim writer: "Islamophobia actually doesn't exist at all...some of our Islamic centres created the term"

Tahir Aslam Gora is a "Pakistani writer, novelist, poet, journalist, editor, translator and publisher." And Huffington Post is a thoroughly hypocritical publication, for Tahir Gora here says what I and a few others have been saying for years; we have been attacked by the Huffington Post for saying it. Why? Because it was "Islamophobic" to say. But when a Muslim writer says the exact same thing, that is just fine by the Huffington Post. After all, a Muslim couldn't be "bigoted against Muslims," could he? But if he isn't, then is anyone who says the same things?
"How Muslims Created Islamophobia," by Tahir Gora in the Huffington Post, January 8 (thanks to Ibn Warraq):
The debate as to who speaks for Muslims in the West has festered among the minds of the western intelleigentsia and politicians since Islamists have capitalised on this question.

Bibi to Settlers: Vote Likud, or Else…

The country's front runner party apparatus is enraged with registered members who they claim are not voting Likud in the general elections. 2009 election results say otherwise.
 

 
Likud MK Ofir Akonis: unveiled threats against settlers. Likud MK Ofir Akonis: unveiled threats against settlers.
Photo Credit: Yonatan Sindel/Flash90
Minister of Information and Diaspora. Yuli Edelstein, during an appearance at the town of P’sagot in the Benjamin Region Thursday night, took a stab at explaining why it was crucial for his audience—all settlers—to vote Likud-Beitenu on January 22, Makor Rishon reported on Friday.
According to one of the participants, Edelstein’s “explanation” could be understood as implying that, should support for Likud-Beitenu in the Judea and Samaria settlements be weak, this would result in reduced government investment in there area.

Friday, January 11, 2013

'It's all about experience'


Moshe Ya’alon cannot envision a scenario in which Benjamin Netanyahu doesn’t put together the next coalition. He is sharply critical of rivals' claims that they are ready to immediately inherit the mantle. Will Ya’alon have a difficult time sleeping at night knowing that Shelly Yachimovich is prime minister? "Yes, and so will she."

Strategic Affairs Minister Moshe (Bogie) Ya'alon
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Photo credit: Ziv Koren

A bi-partisan response to the Hagel nomination


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Former Sen. Chuck Hagel walks past President Barack Obama at the White House on Jan. 7. Photo by Kevin Lamarque/Reuters
Former Sen. Chuck Hagel walks past President Barack Obama at the White House on Jan. 7. Photo by Kevin Lamarque/Reuters
Even in the fractious environment that is Washington, DC, Democrats and Republicans have for more than a decade joined together in the belief that Chuck Hagel’s views on the Middle East are beyond the pale. The National Jewish Democratic Council once noted that Hagel “has a lot of questions to answer about his commitment to Israel” while the Republican Jewish Coalition called Senator Hagel, Republican of Nebraska, “one of the most anti-Israel senators.” And while one might facetiously applaud Chuck Hagel’s bringing the two parties together, albeit in mutual concern, there is nothing to applaud about President Obama’s nomination of Chuck Hagel to the position of Secretary of Defense.
As Secretary of Defense, Hagel would be a key player in the making of national security and military policy. Nowhere is the making of this policy more important than the Middle East, our most pressing strategic challenge today. Yet Hagel’s record is one that demonstrates hostility to our allies and sympathy for our adversaries, most clearly evidenced by comments made on a visit to the region in 1998, when Hagel accusing Israel of “having stopped the [Oslo] process” while defending Palestinian terrorists as “desperate men do[ing] desperate things…that’s where the Palestinians are today.”

Thursday, January 10, 2013

Dumbing down anti-Semitism

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Secretary of Defense nominee Chuck Hagel at the White House on Jan. 7. Photo by Kevin Lamarque/Reuters
Secretary of Defense nominee Chuck Hagel at the White House on Jan. 7. Photo by Kevin Lamarque/Reuters
Were it not so sad, so absurd and so stupid, I might be amused by the recent attacks against former Senator Chuck Hagel as being anti-Semitic for his failure to distinguish between the Jewish lobby and the pro-Israel lobby.
There is real anti-Semitism in the world; openly anti-Semitic fascist forces are the Parliament in Hungary; they has asked for a list of Jews, Hungarian rabbis were wondering when - not whether - to advice their community to leave. There is genuine fear; reasoned fear. Neo-Nazis are rising to prominence in the economic dislocation that has beset Greece. I was invited by representatives of the Greek Jewish community to speak at the Holocaust Remembrance Day meeting on January 28th, 68 years after the liberation of Auschwitz, there was genuine angst in their request, appropriate not invented fear.

Hagel Nomination Conveys Chilling Message

Isi Leibler
January 10, 2013
http://wordfromjerusalem.com/?p=4422

 
In light of the opposition generated when former Senator Chuck Hagel’s candidacy for Defense Secretary was initially mooted, most analysts predicted - mistakenly - that President Obama would not proceed with the appointment.
The decision to appoint such an extreme isolationist to this position sends a chilling signal about the broad direction of Obama’s foreign policy during the next four years.
But there are particularly disconcerting connotations relating to American Jews and Israel.

Wednesday, January 09, 2013

"Over the Top"

This is one of those times when it all seems a bit much.  Bad enought that Obama has now nominated Hagel for the position of Secretary of Defense.  But then we have a Democratic lobbying group, the National Jewish Democratic Council, which has released a statement saying that it is confident that Hagel:
 
"will follow the president’s lead of providing unrivaled support for Israel.
"President Barack Obama's unprecedented pro-Israel credentials are unquestionable, and setting policy starts and stops with the president.”
HUH??

Tuesday, January 08, 2013

What to do About a Coup?


Shoshana Bryen
American Thinker (Bryen)
January 7, 2013

http://www.jewishpolicycenter.org/3792/what-to-do-about-a-coup


How does a secretary of state decide whether and when to put the United States on record regarding what appears to be a coup -- the decision of a sitting ruler to remain in place in contravention of the terms of the country's constitution?
The Venezuelan Constitution is clear.

Israel Should Annex Jewish Land

Steven Shamrak

Likud Minister Erdan called for the "immediate annexation of the Jewish population" in the West Bank (Judea and Samaria) in response to the Palestinian Authority's attempt to upgrade its status at the United Nations on November 29.
When asked if he was concerned that annexing the settlements would anger the United States, Erdan responded that as long as the PA was going against American wishes at the UN, Israel should sit idly by without acting. "We don't always see eye-to-eye with the US," he said.
European and Arab foreign ministers failed to jointly endorse the unilateral Palestinian statehood bid at the United Nations during a meeting in Cairo, calling instead for a negotiated two-state solution.

Monday, January 07, 2013

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As you may know, various voices emanating from the international community attacked the validity of the Levy Report. Baker held his ground and insisted that the Levy Report has it right. Good.


Dr. Alan Baker, an expert on international law and a member of the committee headed by Judge Edmond Levi recommending the extension of Israeli law to Jewish towns in Judea and Samaria, said at a conference discussing the matter Tuesday night that Israel would be fully in its rights to do so.

"Sure Not Dull"

 
Some months ago I wrote a number of times about a little boy named Zakkai, in the US, who was undergoing severe medical problems.  I learned about his situation from his grandmother, whom I know -- who had written and asked for prayers:  He had an extensive tumor growing up his spine and into his thoracic area.  At first it was thought be a rare form of malignancy and then was declared benign.  This was cause for celebration, but he certainly wasn't home free.  Non-cancerous, rapid growing tumors can do extensive damage.

Sunday, January 06, 2013

Obama to nominate virulently anti-Israel Chuck Hagel for Defense secretary

From The Post-American Presidency, by Pamela Geller with Robert Spencer:
Like Brzezinski, [Rosa] Brooks also indulged in the familiar anti-Semite’s complaint: that a few simple criticisms of Israel got one slapped with accusations of…anti-Semitism. (Neither, of course, seemed inclined to own up to how they had prejudged the case and stacked the deck against Israel.) Brooks enunciated this complaint in this way in 2006: “Publish something sharply critical of Israeli government policies and you’ll find out. If you’re lucky, you’ll merely discover that you’ve been uninvited to some dinner parties. If you’re less lucky, you’ll be the subject of an all-out attack by neoconservative pundits and accused of rabid anti-Semitism.”[i]
 Chuck Hagel
Former Senator Chuck Hagel (R-NE) would probably have agreed with Brooks. According to the Jerusalem Post, he was “one of a handful of senators who frequently didn’t sign AIPAC-backed letters related to Israel and the peace process during his time in the Senate and opposed additional sanctions on Iran.”

What is Fatah celebrating today?

 
Today Fatah members in Dehaisheh, outside Bethlehem celebrated the terror group's special day by parading around in paramilitary uniforms, khafiiyehs and ski caps while brandishing rifles, axes, mock-up rockets and other terror paraphernalia.

Still according to the wise men in high places, like Israel's President Shimon Peres, Fatah and its leader Mahmoud Abbas are peaceful moderates. Israel is supposed to surrender its capital city and expel more than a half a million Jews from their homes and land in Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria in order to appease these Palestinian peaceniks.

Arafat and the Second Intifada

Elliott Abrams 


Former Palestinian president Yasir Arafat salutes during a rally at his headquarters in the West Bank city of Ramallah September 14, 2003. (Courtesy REUTERS/Goran Tomasevic GOT/jm). Former Palestinian president Yasir Arafat salutes during a rally at his headquarters in the West Bank city of Ramallah September 14, 2003. (Courtesy REUTERS/Goran Tomasevic GOT/jm).
 
 Analysts have long debated the role of Yasir Arafat in the second intifada, the violent Palestinian uprising that followed on the failure of Camp David in 2000.
The PLO and Palestinian Authority (PA) have long denied that Arafat was behind the violence, instead calling the second intifada a spontaneous uprising. This claim was endorsed in the so-called Mitchell report, the “Sharm el-Sheikh Fact-Finding Committee” of 2001: “We have no basis on which to conclude that there was a deliberate plan by the PA to initiate a campaign of violence at the first opportunity….”