Living on slogans

Thanks Ted Belman

By Elyakim Haetzni
The Left lives on slogans. Ever since the time of the Communist Manifesto, with the brilliant catchphrase, “You have nothing to lose but your shackles,” their flock yearns  for political sayings created by masters of brainwashing and psychological warfare. The Israeli Left, for some time now, has not been part of the social or socialist Left. It has become bourgeois and rich, but it has not lost its passion for ideology and for debate and controversy. Its spiritual homeland is no longer Soviet Russia but Palestine, and at the heart of its new argument is not the distribution of wealth  but the distribution of the land.  They also require, as always, someone who they can condemn as a reactionary, living in the past, who is the object of their hatred.
Formerly, it was the contemptible capitalist;  in our day it is the relentless settler, and the red ideology has been replaced by a new belief – the cult of “peace on our enemies’ terms.”

As is their habit, they found a catchy slogan for their new belief system – “Land for peace,” but this slogan now lies buried in the sands of Gush Katif (Gaza), where the Israeli public learned that the true quid pro quo for territories is Hamas rule and rockets, not peace. But slogans are plentiful  and so we have had to endure “Shall we forever live by the sword?”, ” A horse and its rider”, “Peace is made with enemies”, “Window of opportunity” , “No free lunch “, “The demographic demon” and “Time is in favor of the Arabs.”

Free speech UK style

Melanie Phillips’ Friendly Fire

Posted By Robert Spencer On June 28, 2013 @ 3:07 pm In Daily Mailer,FrontPage | 19 Comments

Sign the petition asking that we be allowed into the UK here.
Here is the second piece today (the first is here) from an “ally” rushing to our defense while hastening to assure the world that she is not at all like us — a position that is self-defeating no matter what one may think of us.
“The British government’s jihad against free thought,” by Melanie Phillips, June 27:

By banning from the country as extremists the American anti-jihadis Robert Spencer and Pamela Geller, the Home Secretary Teresa May has not only made herself look ridiculous but has sent the enemies of the United Kingdom the message that they have it on the run.

Indeed. But here comes the kid-gloves caveat:

I do not support the approach taken by either Geller or Spencer to the problem of Islamic extremism. Both have endorsed groups such as the EDL and others which at best do not deal with the thuggish elements in their ranks and at worst are truly racist or xenophobic.

Note in the first place that the letter from the Home Office barring me from the UK said nothing at all about the EDL or “others.” (What others?) It quoted a statement of mine that Islam has a doctrine mandating warfare against unbelievers — a statement that is demonstrably true. So Melanie Phillips’ bringing up the EDL here is completely gratuitous, designed to distinguish her work from ours, and to show the British elites that she is not tainted with our taint. (Be sure to see Pamela Geller’s response here.)

June 28, 2013

 

"And Here We Go"

 

Secretary of State Kerry is convinced that it's necessary to make progress with negotiations before September, when the UN convenes for the new season.  Otherwise, goes his reasoning, Abbas will go to the UN with more unilateral plans.

 

Well, sorry about that.  Israel cannot negotiate by herself, or concede what should not be conceded, to stop Abbas's UN shenanigans.

 

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Earlier in June, Kerry addressed the American Jewish Committee Global Forum in Washington, and explained to his Jewish audience how serious the consequences would be if no deal were to be reached:

“Think about what could happen next door.  The Palestinian Authority has committed itself to a policy of nonviolence. … Up until recently, not one Israeli died from anything that happened from the West Bank until there was a settler killed about a month ago.

“But if that experiment is allowed to fail, ask yourselves: What will replace it? What will happen if the Palestinian economy implodes, if the Palestinian Security Forces dissolve, if the Palestinian Authority fails? … The failure of the moderate Palestinian leadership could very well invite the rise of the very thing that we want to avoid: the same extremism in the West Bank that we have seen in Gaza or from southern Lebanon."

http://www.timesofisrael.com/abdullah-tells-kerry-israels-actions-undermining-peace/

Benny Morris’s Czechoslovakia Analogy

Evelyn Gordon | @evelyng1234When an acclaimed historian says he sees a terrifying historical pattern repeating itself, he deserves to be taken seriously. And Benny Morris is assuredly one of Israel’s most famous historians. Unfortunately, his warning is unlikely to be seen by many, since it’s buried at the end of a somewhat tedious book review. And it’s liable to be ignored by those who need to hear it most.
Morris reviewed Patrick Tyler’s Fortress Israel: The Inside Story of the Military Elite Who Run the Country—and Why They Can’t Make Peace for the summer issue of the Jewish Review of Books. Most of the almost 5,000-word review was devoted to detailing Tyler’s numerous egregious errors and showing how they undermine his conclusions. But by itself, Morris wrote, Tyler’s spurious history would be insignificant. What makes it noteworthy is that it’s part of a much larger trend:

A Different set of eyes

The Jewish people’s journey to freedom has not been easy. Lt. Col. Falach Hayib, a Bedouin Muslim officer in the IDF, recently chose to witness this struggle first-hand on his first trip to Poland, participating in the IDF’s Witnesses in Uniform (“Edim Be’Madim”) program.

Lt. Col. Falach Hayib on the Witnesses in Uniform program

Lt. Col. Hayib, 45, is from the Jezreel Valley, where he lives with his wife and five children. He has been serving in the IDF for 28 years and is currently an officer in the tracking unit of the IDF’s Edom Division, charged with obstructing illegal breaches of Israel’s southern border regions.

The Witnesses in Uniform program brings IDF soldiers and officers to Poland to commemorate and learn about the Holocaust, providing them with the unique opportunity to experience Poland in an entirely new light – in a way Jews from previous generations perhaps never imagined: proud and in uniform.

"First Order of Concern"

There are many issues that beg to be examined, but my attention has been drawn first to an alarming piece by Claire M. Lopez (with thanks to Dan F.).




The piece? "U.S. Keeps Joining the Forces of Jihad." If that title alone is not enough to get your attention you may be fast asleep. (Emphasis is added.)



"With the June 13, 2013 confirmation by senior Obama administration officials that the president has authorized sending weapons directly to Syrian rebels, there is a trend developing that can no longer be ignored. This is the third country and the third instance in which Barack Obama has leapt into the fray of revolution to the defense of al-Qa'eda and Muslim Brotherhood forces within days of an explicit call for action by Yousef al-Qaradawi, the senior jurist of the Muslim Brotherhood. While no ironclad case for linkage can be proven, even just the appearance, in and of itself, of responsiveness by the U.S. government to declared Brotherhood imperatives ought to be concerning.

"Speaking on Al-Arabiya Television on June 9, 2013, al-Qaradawi called for jihad in Syria:...



"Four days later, on June 13, Ben Rhodes, the Deputy National Security Advisor for Strategic Communications, announced that the intelligence community had arrived at an assessment 'that the Assad regime has used chemical weapons, including the nerve agent sarin, on a small scale against the opposition multiple times in the last year.' This conveniently-timed and entirely unsourced finding set the stage for the White House announcement the next day about Obama's authorization of military aid to the Syrian rebels. The Supreme Military Council, which claims leadership of the Muslim Brotherhood-dominated Free Syrian Army and is headed by BG Salim Idriss, has been selected to receive the weapons."



http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/3785/us-intervention-jihad



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A clarification: In recent weeks, when other nations, including Israel, had confirmed to their leaders' satisfaction, via intelligence sources, that Assad had used chemical weapons, Obama was hemming and hawing, claiming he needed better evidence. He wasn't ready to act. How suspect, then, is this announcement that suddenly the intelligence community had arrived at an assessment regarding use of chemical weapons. Lopez's point here, which is critical, is very clear. The Obama administration fell back on assessments made in the recent past -- assessments he had labeled inadequate -- when it suddenly suited the president to act. There was no new evidence presented.



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Lopez then proceeds to track the other occasions on which Obama pronouncements have followed al-Qaradawi pronouncements: First, with regard to the necessity of Mubarak departing from office. And then with regard to the situation in Libya. In the second instance, al-Qaradawi issued a fatwa (a religious ruling) calling for the murder of Qadaffi, and this was followed by Obama's signing a secret document authorizing support for the al-Qaeda dominated anti-Qadaffi forces. (What happened in Benghazi was directly related to this: Ambassador Stevens was the US liaison to those al-Qaeda dominated anti-Qadaffi forces.)



"It was the fall of rebel-held Qusayr to Syrian regime forces on June 5, 2013 that seemed to spur both the al-Qaradawi jihad fatwa and Obama's decision to follow suit and expand assistance to the al-Qa'eda and Muslim Brotherhood-led rebels.



"In each of these instances — Egypt, Libya, and now Syria — it is 'completely clear,' as Barry Rubin writes, 'that the United States is backing people who hate it.' It is also completely clear that, at least since President Obama green-lighted the Islamic Awakening in his June 2009 Cairo speech, U.S. policy has been turned upside-down: in very tangible terms, the U.S. government has joined the forces of jihad to overthrow the unfaithful Arab and Muslim rulers that the Muslim Brotherhood Supreme Guide Muhammad Badi so blatantly threatened (along with the U.S. and Israel) in his late September 2010 call for jihad. In so doing, U.S. leadership is deliberately and proactively enabling the self-declared forces of Islamic jihad and shariah, who make no secret of their enmity and loathing for the U.S. and Western civilization in general, to come to power in country after country of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region.



"The results have been disastrous...



"We have come full circle from going after al Qaeda to indirectly backing al Qaeda," said one US official, speaking about the recent decision to arm these jihadist Syrian rebels...



"The sooner U.S. senior leadership realizes that, whether Shi'ite or Sunni, jihadis fight for the same objectives — restoration of the Caliphate (or Imamate) and enforcement of Islamic Law — the better for American core national security interests..."



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Are you deeply disturbed yet? Furious perhaps? In my humble opinion both reactions are appropriate. Will the American electorate continue to sit still for this, burying its collective head in the sand? Read this article in its entirety, please, and share as broadly as you can. Ask hard questions. Make your voices heard.



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For the record: Currently a senior fellow at the Gatestone Institute, the Center for Security Policy and the Clarion Fund and vice president of the Intelligence Summit, Clare Lopez was formerly a career operations officer with the Central Intelligence Agency, a professor at the Centre for Counterintelligence and Security Studies, Executive Director of the Iran Policy Committee from 2005-2006, and has served as a consultant, intelligence analyst, and researcher for a variety of defense firms.



That is, she knows whereof she speaks.







Credit: Gatestone





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An exclusive released yesterday by Steve Emerson's Investigative Project on Terrorism serves as a companion piece to the Lopez article. Written by David Martasko, it reveals the fact that a deputy of Yusuf al-Qaradawi (the very same al-Qaradawi alluded to by Lopez), Sheikh Abdallah bin Bayyah, met with staffers of the White House Security Council on June 13.



June 13? That's the very day that the Obama administration announced plans to arm Syrian rebels. How about that?



Bin Bayyah, who poses as a moderate, has referred to al-Qaradawi as "a mountain upon whose peak there is light" and as "a great reformer" who "spreads knowledge and wisdom."



According to the Investigative Project report, "Al-Qaradawi is generally considered the leading Islamic scholar affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood. He has called openly for the destruction of Israel and the deaths of all Jews, called Adolf Hitler a divine punishment for the 'misdeeds of the Jews' and claimed the Nazi Holocaust has been popularly exaggerated.

"Al-Qaradawi has also said he wants to die 'in the service of jihad' by blowing himself up in Israel and killing Jews in the process...



"The two clerics' close association has caused reputational trouble for bin Bayyah among Western governments, and the U.S. State Department has denied al-Qaradawi entry into the country since 1999. But the Obama administration welcomed bin Bayyah into the White House." (Emphasis added)



The report documents bin Bayyah's presence at a "December 2012 International Union of Muslim Scholars' board meeting in Doha, Qatar...The meeting ended with a call for the destruction of the state of Israel."



Gayle Smith, Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for Development and Democracy at the National Security Council, met with bin Bayyah. According to the sheikh's website, so did National Security Adviser Tom Donilon (although that reference was erased after inquiries were made).



http://www.investigativeproject.org/4056/exclusive-deputy-of-banned-suicide-bomb-endorsing



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And then, a piece written by Raymond Ibrahim. Another analyst who knows what he's talking about, he is a Coptic Christian, American-born of Egyptian immigrants, and fluent in Arabic. A Shillman Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center and an Associate Fellow at the Middle East Forum.





Credit: Komonews



His article is entitled, "Obama to Egyptian Christians: Don't Protest the Brotherhood." In this instance, emphasis was in the original throughout.



"As Egyptians of all factions prepare to demonstrate in mass against the Muslim Brotherhood and President Morsi's rule on June 30, the latter has been trying to reduce their numbers, which some predict will be in the millions and eclipse the Tahrir protests that earlier ousted Mubarak. Accordingly, among other influential Egyptians, Morsi recently called on Coptic Christian Pope Tawadros II to urge his flock, Egypt's millions of Christians, not to join the June 30 protests.

"While that may be expected, more troubling is that the U.S. ambassador to Egypt is also trying to prevent Egyptians from protesting—including the Copts. The June 18 edition of Sadi al-Balad reports that lawyer Ramses Naggar, the Coptic Church's legal counsel, said that during [Anne] Patterson's June 17 meeting with Pope Tawadros, she "asked him to urge the Copts not to participate" in the demonstrations against Morsi and the Brotherhood.



"The Pope politely informed her that his spiritual authority over the Copts does not extend to political matters.



"Regardless, many Egyptian activists are condemning Patterson for continuously behaving like the Muslim Brotherhood's stooge. Leading opposition activist Shady el-Ghazali Harb said Patterson showed 'blatant bias' in favor of Morsi and the Brotherhood, adding that her remarks had earned the U.S. administration 'the enmity of the Egyptian people.' Coptic activists like George Ishaq openly told Patterson to 'shut up and mind your own business.'...



"Indeed, the U.S. ambassador's position as the Brotherhood's lackey is disturbing—and revealing—on several levels. First, all throughout the Middle East, the U.S. has been supporting anyone and everyone opposing their leaders—in Libya against Gaddafi, in Egypt itself against 30-year U.S. ally Mubarak, and now in Syria against Assad. In all these cases, the U.S. has presented its support in the name of the human rights and freedoms of the people against dictatorial leaders.



"So why is the Obama administration now asking Christians not to oppose their rulers—in this case, Islamists—who have daily proven themselves corrupt and worse, to the point that millions of Egyptians, most of them Muslims, are trying to oust them?



"What's worse is that the human rights abuses Egypt's Coptic Christians have been suffering under Muslim Brotherhood rule are significantly worse than the human rights abuses that the average Egyptian suffered under Mubarak—making the Copts' right to protest even more legitimate, and, if anything, more worthy of U.S support...



"Yet despite the fact that if anyone in Egypt has a legitimate human rights concern against the current Egyptian government, it most certainly is the Christian Copts, here is the U.S., in the person of Ms. Patterson, asking them not to join the planned protests.



"In other words, and consistent with Obama administration doctrine, when Islamists— including rapists and cannibals—wage jihad on secular leaders, the U.S. supports them; when Christians protest Islamist rulers who are making their lives a living hell, the administration asks them to "know their place" and behave like dhimmis, Islam's appellation for non-Muslim "infidels" who must live as third class "citizens" and never complain about their inferior status."



http://www.meforum.org/3540/egyptian-christians-brotherhood



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Shocking and shameful. What has the US become?



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All other matters I had expected to write about today will keep until I write again. What is here must be digested thoroughly and used extensively.



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"The More Things Change..."

There I was, for several days (as may happen again), focused on family matters and attending to the news less vigorously than is my norm.  Now that I'm back to concentrating on Israeli and world events, I'm not sure how much I really missed.  Certain issues are simply recycled, and recycled, and recycled.

 

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I have in mind, most significantly, the prospect of Secretary of State Kerry returning to this area to "advance" the "peace process."  He will arrive in Amman, Jordan late today and use this as his base for shuttle diplomacy.  An exercise in futility that I had expected him to abandon before now.  Silly me. 

Haniyeh: Palestinians will not recognize Israel

http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=608441
 
GAZA CITY (Ma'an) -- Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh said Tuesday that 
Palestinians would not recognize Israel, despite the siege on Gaza and two 
wars.
 
"We had two wars in which hundreds of people died, and thousands of acres of 
land were destroyed, but Palestinians did not and will not recognize 
Israel," the Gaza premier said as he welcomed international activists to the 
enclave.
 
Haniyeh said Israel's blockade aimed to limit the influence of the Islamic 
model outside the Gaza Strip, and to isolate Palestine in an attempt to 
force Palestinians to recognize Israel and accept the conditions of the 
Mideast Quartet.

Poll: Most Israeli Arabs Support Violent Uprising

Gil Ronen

About 58% of the Arab citizens of Israel say that the Palestinian Authority Arabs would be justified in starting a violent rebellion (“intifada”) if the diplomatic process does not advance. A similar percentage advocate an “intifada” by Israeli Arab citizens if their situation does not improve considerably, according to a poll, which was carried out by Prof. Sami Samoha of Haifa University, with the Israeli Democracy Institute.

The views are in line with the call Monday by an Arab Knesset Member, for an Arab intifada inside Israel.

The poll shows that 63% of Israel's Arab citizens think Iran should continue its nuclear development, despite the evidence that Iran seeks Israel's destruction through nuclear weapons.

Hamas now preventing its own people from leaving Gaza!

elderofziyon

Whose siege is it anyway?

From the virulently anti-Israel IMEMC site:

Palestinian sources in the Gaza Strip have reported that the Hamas government in the coastal region prevented Mahmoud Zahar, one of the political leaders of Hamas, from travelling, as he and a delegation he heads were trying to cross into Egypt on their way to Lebanon and Iran.

The sources said that Zahar, and 22 Hamas officials, were stopped by the Palestinian Security Forces of Hamas at the Palestinian side of the Rafah Border terminal between the Gaza Strip and Egypt, the Radio Bethlehem 2000 have reported.

A Bad, Bad Choice

Report: Kerry may hire controversial diplomat for advisory post

Robert Malley

BY: Adam Kredo

An anti-Israel diplomat who was kicked off the 2008 Obama campaign after he was caught negotiating with the terror group Hamas is under consideration for a State Department advisory post, the Washington Free Beacon has learned.

Robert Malley, a longtime government insider who worked for former President Bill Clinton and advised then-Sen. Barack Obama, is said to be on Kerry’s shortlist for deputy assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern Affairs, according to reports and sources. He currently serves as the Middle East director of the International Crisis Group (ICG).

If tapped for the job, Malley would be in charge of the Israel-Palestinian peace process, according to Al Monitor.

Top Iranian general rejects compromise with U.S.

Dozens dead as Lebanese army pledges to "finish with" Sunni hardline cleric Palestinian Authority prime minister's resignation accepted, analysts raise alarms over "chronic [political] instability" Palestinian Islamic Jihad suspected after rockets launched from Gaza into Israel What we’re watching today:  Iranian state media is reporting on statements, made by Brigadier General Mohammad Reza Naqdi, rejecting compromise with the United States. The speech is likely to dampen optimism, expressed in some corners of the Western foreign policy community, that the election of Hassan Rouhani to be Iran's next president may present an opening for engagement with Tehran. Naqdik, who was appointed to his position by Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei in 2009, boasted that Iran has 'disgraced' the United States. The statements come amid deepening concerns over the degree to which Rouhani is genuinely willing or able to moderate Iran's foreign policy. By law and politics, Iran's foreign policy is set by Khamenei, who has banned concessions to the West, and in a speech given last week Rouhani personally thanked Khamenei and the Iranian clergy. Reuters reported that Rouhani had in past spoken approvingly about clandestinely expanding Iran's nuclear program, and had noted that "the world started to work with" Pakistan after it acquired nuclear weapons. In a recent interview with the Washington Post, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu outlined Jerusalem's evaluation that Iran seeks an arsenal comprising hundreds of nuclear weapons.

Rouhani and Iranian Deceit

Mordechai Kedar
To understand the election of Rouhani as president of Iran, several points must be clarified:
The first is the Shi’ite practice of taqiyya. Ever since the birth of Shi’a in the middle of the seventh century CE, its adherents have been so persecuted by the Sunni majority that their lives were in constant danger and when they were caught, in many cases, they were brutally murdered. Over the years, in order to survive, Shi’ites developed the practice of taqiyya or “the need to survive”, which enabled them to endure in a hostile environment despite their faith and their political leanings. A basic component of taqiyya is khoda’a, which means deception, or pretense. During the 1350 years of the conflict with the Sunnis, the Shi’ites have developed the practice of taqiyya and khoda’a into an art. They have become so adept at it, that polygraph tests cannot detect the physiological phenomena that usually occur when a person lies, (involving changes in perspiration, production of saliva, heart rate, blood pressure, etc.) when the subject being investigated is a Shi’ite. And Western police departments are aware of this.

Lally Weymouth interviews Israeli politician Naftali Bennett

Lally Weymouth

Lally Weymouth is a senior associate editor of The Washington Post.
Jerusalem
One of Israel’s new political stars is a successful businessman turned politician — Naftali Bennett, 41, whose party, Habayit Hayehudi (the Jewish Home), won 12 seats in parliament in the last election, making him a key cabinet member. Some Israelis describe Bennett as extreme — he admits he wants to annex parts of the West Bank. Others, including many young Israelis, subscribe to his views. This past week, he spoke at length to The Washington Post’s Lally Weymouth in his office in Jerusalem. Excerpts:
Several years ago, you started and sold a high-tech company.
Yes, I founded and sold a company, Cyota, for $145 million. I was the CEO. We founded it in 1999, so I was 27. Then the Second Lebanese War started and I had to go fight, and that gets you thinking: What does Hezbollah want with us? I realized they just don’t want us here. I decided, I’m not going back to the business world, which is really my passion. I’m going to dedicate myself to the state of Israel. At that point in time, [current Prime Minister] Benjamin Netanyahu was the head of the opposition. He was looking for a chief of staff. I joined him for a couple of years, from 2006 to 2008.
You didn’t get along in the end, did you?
We didn’t have a fight, contrary to what people think, but it’s no secret that in the last few years, we’ve not been in touch.
Do you think Netanyahu views you as a rival?
Well, I lead a party that competes with the Likud, so we are political rivals. I highly respect him, but I also have profound disagreements with him.

Friday Afternoon Roundup - Another Brief Roundup

Sultan Knish

Thank G-d, the medical situation mentioned in earlier weeks is improving. Hopefully this coming week will bring better news. This week was surprisingly all original articles, despite the conditions.

The roundup will still be brief as I am typing this up with not that much time left before I have to head out to the hospital. A place which I hopefully will never have to see for a very long time afterward.



OBAMAWAR 2: THE SEQUEL

To invade Libya, Obama lied and told the American people that the residents of Benghazi were about to suffer a massacre that would stain “the conscience of the world.” No such massacre had taken place or was ever going to take place. The only innocent people who wound up massacred in Benghazi were the Americans sent there by Hillary Clinton.

This time, swap out Aleppo or Homs for Benghazi as the cities badly in need of American protection. Never mind that the Christians of Aleppo and Homs, the only innocent parties in a religious war between a Shiite government and Sunni terrorist groups, are in far more danger from the Islamist Sunni terrorists that Obama is proposing to arm.

The Free Syrian Army’s Farouq Brigades went door to door expelling Christians in Homs. Of the 160,000 Christians in the city, there are now barely a 1,000.

In Qseir, the city recently recaptured by the Syrian Army from the Sunni militias, whose loss partly triggered the rush to war by the Western allies of the Muslim Brotherhood, most of the Christians had fled a place where they were once 10 percent of the population following Sunni Muslim persecution.

The 10,000 Christians of Qseir were ordered to leave the city by loudspeakers on mosques. If Obama’s intervention helps the Islamist militias retake Qseir; there will soon be no Christians left in the city at all. And the same goes for Homs and Aleppo.