UK's Guardian: "For decades, western men have hijacked the language of women's liberation to justify their Islamophobia"

The smug Penny

"Islamophobes," we're told, "could not care less about women of any creed or colour." They only criticize the Sharia mistreatment of Muslim women because of their bigotry and hatred. According to Laurie Penny, "misogyny only matters when it isn't being done by white men." The intent and effect of all this, of course, is quite insidious: those who do dare speak out against Islam's institutionalized, codified oppression of women will be branded as "Islamophobes," and the only misogny that doesn't matter will be that which is done by Muslim men. The victims will be, as ever, Muslim women.
"This isn't 'feminism'. It's Islamophobia," by Laurie Penny in The Guardian, December 22:

As a person who writes about women's issues, I am constantly being told that Islam is the greatest threat to gender equality in this or any other country – mostly by white men, who always know best. This has been an extraordinary year for feminism, but from the Rochdale grooming case to interminable debates over whether traditional Islamic dress is "empowering" or otherwise, the rhetoric and language of feminism has been co-opted by Islamophobes, who could not care less about women of any creed or colour.

How does Laurie Penny know that those whom she tars as "Islamophobes" really don't care about women? Because, as you'll see below, some baddies from the BNP and EDL allegedly said some rude things. And that means that any critic of Islamic gender oppression must be using feminism as a cover for his "hatred," doncha know.

Israeli-Imposed Concentration Camps In Gaza. Jews Are Just Like The Nazis!‏

While Hamas and their willing accomplices in the mainstream media and in anti-Israel (and in just plain Jew-hating) organizations continue to perpetuate the lie that Gaza is a “concentration camp,” here are images they do not want you to see.  If Israel is actually "blockading" the shipments of essential supplies to the terrorist-supporting populations, how do these luxury items arrive?  Maybe they drive the imported German BMWs through their low, narrow rocket-smuggling tunnels from Egypt?
 

I wonder what the BDS crowd, especially the leftist Jewish traitors, have to say?  These photos can't all be Israeli lies, forgeries, or Photoshop-manipulated images, can they? (Well, they're NOT!)

(There are thousands more similar photos all over the Internet; I've sent dozens showing other Gaza sites over the past years.) Don S.

“Concentration Camp” Gaza Now Manufacturing Its Own Cars

November 17, 2013 4 Comments 262 Views

Welcome to Gaza, the world’s only “concentration camp” which manufactures its own cars.

Read More »

Concentration Camp Gaza: At Summer’s End

October 3, 2013 0 131 Views

Gaza beaches are a last resort for Palestinians fleeing… The summer heat.

Read More »

Iranian official calls for direct talks with US

"There's a sucker born every minute" is a phrase often credited to P. T. Barnum (1810–1891), an American showman

While Iran says it is developing new centrifuges - http://news.yahoo.com/iran-says-developing-centrifuges-090813603.html

http://news.yahoo.com/iranian-official-calls-direct-talks-us-153143093.html

By BY NASSER KARIMI |

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — The top foreign adviser to Iran's supreme leader on Friday called for separate talks directly with the United States amid the multilateral negotiations over Iran's nuclear Program.

The remarks Friday by Ali Akbar Velayati signaled a high-level endorsement of the policies of President Hassan Rouhani, who has been been sharply criticized by hardliners over the landmark nuclear deal that Iran reached with world powers last month and over other contacts with the U.S.

Velayati said Iran benefits by talking separately with each of the so-called "5+1" powers — the grouping of the United States, Russia, France, Britain, China and Germany, with which it negotiated the interim nuclear deal and with which it is still to work out a permanent accord. Each has separate interests, he said in comments on television that were also carried on the semi-official Mehr news agency.

"We aren't on the right path if we don't have one-on-one talks with the six countries," he said. 'We have to talks with the countries separately. ... It would be wrong if we bring the countries into unity against us, since there are rifts among them over various international issues."

Empty promises are Bibi’s specialty.

Bibi Frees Killers, Gives Construction, Cancels Construction, La Di Da
The ultimate goal of the prime minister’s current policy melange, as always, is political survival.
By: Yori Yanover, JP

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on a train to the southern town of Sderot, to inaugurate a new, rocket proof train station. As this picture exhibits, Netanyahu’s political foundation relies on right-wingers (like Minister of Transportation Yisrael Katz sitting next to him) and the Orthodox, without being one himself. He must devise maneuvers to keep the right at his side, while supporting the secularist Ashkenazi elite where he really belongs. Photo Credit: Kobi Gideon /GPO/FLASH90

Terror Release, Building Tenders – ‘It’s All an Act’

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/175576#replies

Bereaved father criticizes ‘scoundrel’ Netanyahu for 'putting on an act to fool his voters', on an international scale.

 

By Maayana Miskin

Bereaved father and current events analyst Dr. Aryeh Bachrach slammed Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu in an interview with Arutz Sheva.   

Netanyahu is “a scoundrel” who is putting on an act on an international scale, he accused.

On Wednesday, it was reported that Netanyahu will issue building tenders for new homes for Israelis in Judea and Samaria (Shomron). The government also plans to release terrorist killers in the near future.

The entire story – the terrorist release, the building tenders, and even the American criticism of the building tenders – was all planned in advance, Bachrach asserted. “All the criticism of Israel is coordinated by the villain, the director Binyamin Netanyahu, who is freeing those who murdered Jews, those with blood on their hands. And stupid us, we bit our lips and take comfort in the fact that at least they’re issuing building tenders,” he declared.

The “building tenders” are a false promise, he charged. “This zero, this scoundrel, the Prime Minister and director of the play, issued building tenders for E1 as a fitting Zionist response to the Palestinian appeal to the United Nations. That was already more than a year ago and what has happened since?

What Are We Thinking?

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/175506#.Ur0ru5uA2M_

Analysis: As John Kerry seeks to force a deal based on the 'Allon Plan', Arutz Sheva analyst says the implications for Israel are dire.

By Mark Langfan

John Kerry and Binyamin Netanyahu

In a game of tug-of-war, everybody knows what happens if the rope breaks in the middle: both sides keep the part of the rope that's closest to themselves.

 

This simple truism for all fights everywhere works everywhere - except for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict over Judea and Samaria. Why? Because in 1967, Yigal Allon, an Israeli General, came up with a "peace" plan that contradicted all common sense - and military doctrine. 

Allon came up with the "Jordan Valley" peace plan. In this “plan,” Israel would cede Western Samaria (Shomron) - the part that is closest to Tel Aviv abutting the Green Line, and only keeps the eastern Samarian Jordan Valley - the part that is furthest from Tel Aviv, abutting the Jordan River and disconnected from Israel by Western Samaria.  

Scapegoating Israel, Again

Suzanne Fields |

The week between Christmas and New Years has always been one of my favorite times of the year. The hustle and bustle of Christmas is past, and the resolutions of the New Year have not yet kicked in, so the expectations and requirements are few.

Growing up, this week was part of Christmas break from school. During college, it was the time to relax after exams and before the start of a fresh semester. As a young professional, it was the time to get my desk and files organized while no one was around. As a mother of two middle schoolers, I'm looking forward to the unstructured time to sleep in, relax and visit with family and friends. It's the time of year when deadlines don't exist, planning for the future is put on hold and being, rather than doing, is the point of existence.

Most years, during this time of the year, I reflect back on the year that is coming to a close -- what was good and bad about it -- what happened, how did it turn out. Then I turn to the year to come -- what are my hopes and dreams, what goals do I want to set.

Reading over my column from the beginning of this year, "Ten Ways to Start the New Year Fresh," I realized that this reflection and planning has not produced any tangible results, at least not this past year.

The ten ways from the beginning-of-the-year column were:

New companies are bidding in tenders beyond the Green Line for the first time, as more Israelis seek cheaper homes.

 Shlomit Tsur

The script is well known: the Ministry of Construction and Housing plans new homes beyond the Green Line, and, immediately afterwards, the Prime Minister's Office squawks to halt the activity, in response to US President Barack Obama. These tensions are affecting the real estate market: years of building freezes have caused pent-up demand in settlements in the territories, boosting home prices, as a result, contractors which previously avoided the area are now bidding in tenders there.

In early November, the Israel Land Authority published a tender for a lot in Ariel zoned for 90 apartments. No less than 15 bids were submitted, and the tender was won by Malibu Investments Inc. (TASE: MLBU.B1) with a bid of NIS 12.6 million, plus NIS 4.8 million in development costs,. The tender's minimum price was just NIS 271,000, and the assessor estimated the lot's value at NIS 3.5 million. Seven of the fifteen bids exceeded NIS 8 million, highlighting developers' confidence in Ariel.

Russian Experts Confirm: Arafat Died of Natural Causes

Ari Soffer 

A team of Russian forensic experts have said that former Palestinian Authority (PA) leader Yasser Arafat died of "natural causes", and ruled out radiation poisoning as a cause of death, according to Lebanon's Daily Star.

"We have completed all the studies. The person died a natural death and not from radiation," announced the head of Russia's Federal Medical-Biological Agency (FMBA) Vladimir Uiba, according to Russia state media.

The announcement echoes previous findings by a group of French experts, who also ruled out foul play as contributing towards Arafat's death.

Both findings contradict a report by a team of Swiss scientists, who claimed that it was likely Arafat was killed by polonium poisoning, though they clarified that the test results neither confirmed nor denied polonium was the actual cause of his death. 

Rank hypocrisy of European Union position on “occupation”

William A. Jacobson    Wednesday, December 25, 2013 

There’s no hypocrite like an EU bureaucratic hypocrite.

Northwestern University Law Professor Eugene Kontorovich has been doing wonderful work exposing the myth of the Israeli “illegal” occupation of Judea and Samaria (the “West Bank”).  You really need to watch the videos we have posted here, The Legal Case for Israel and The historical fiction of Israel’s “occupation”.
Given the war on Israel declared by the American Studies Association and two other smaller anti-Israel boycott groups, and the need to correct so much of the anti-Israel propaganda behind it, here is Prof. Kontorovich’s explanation of the legal history of the region again:
Now Prof. Kontorovich has come out with a challenge to the European Union to treat Israel’s “occupation” the way it treats other “occupations” — and the Europeans are none too happy.
As reported by The Times of Israel, Why is this occupation different from all other occupations?:

The Jihadist Cleansing of Christianity from the Holy Land

December 25, 2013 by Robert Spencer 

Christians in Muslim countries are awaiting Christmas not with joy, but with trepidation.

Fox News reported that in Iraq, “Christians are afraid to put up a Christmas tree or other decorations, according to one Christian pastor in Iraq. Such displays of faith in an increasingly extremist nation can bring threats and violence, say human rights groups. Christian churches must be regularly guarded, but congregants are even more on edge during their holiest days.”

And in Nigeria, according to Reuters, “fearing attacks by Islamist militant group Boko Haram over Christmas, Nigerian police said on Sunday they had ordered extra patrols, surveillance and covert operations to better secure potential targets during the festive period. The militants have struck every Christmas for the past three years, most dramatically in 2011, when they bombed three churches. One of them, on St. Theresa Catholic Church in Madalla, on the edge of Abuja, killed 37 people and wounded 57.”

Likewise in Indonesia, Reuters reported that President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono “has ordered police to step up security around churches over the Christmas holidays following reports of possible attacks.”

Obama Administration Iran Deal Cannot Work

Barry Rubin

How do we know that the Obama administration Iran deal cannot work? Let me count the ways.
The only countries that have played it right are Canada; Egypt, which is now going to receive American weapons; and Iran itself, which will continue to profit from oil sales while making strategic promises it won't keep. This is not about Iranian nuclear weapons. It is about the entire region.
Why have Canada, Egypt, and Iran gotten it right? In large part, Canada has ignored the proposed deal, because it doesn't trust Iran to deliver on any of its promises nor does it believe Iran will change its policy if sanctions end. Iran is not going to change its policy, and Egypt is wisely and cleverly acting in its national interests.
These three countries have simply followed what international diplomacy should be about–the pursuit of national interests, and humanitarian interests when possible. Canada was right, because it was suspicious of radical Islamists, who would push hard to try to get everything and give nothing in return. That it is not a profitable arrangement.

Most Jews Wish You a Merry Christmas

Dennis Prager

As a Jew, and a religious one at that, I want to wish my fellow Americans a Merry Christmas.

Not "Happy Holidays." Merry Christmas.

I write, "my fellow Americans" because, as reported by the Pew Research poll released just last Wednesday, nine in 10 Americans say they celebrate Christmas.
Apparently, many Americans have forgotten that Christmas is not only a Christian holy day, but also an American national holiday. Just as we wish one another a "Happy Thanksgiving" or a "Happy Fourth," so, too, we should wish fellow Americans a "Merry Christmas."

It doesn't matter with which religion or ethnic group you identify; Christmas in America is as American as the proverbial apple pie. That is why some of the most famous and beloved Christmas songs were written by guess who? Jews.

"White Christmas" was written by Irving Berlin (birth name: Israel Isidore Baline).
"Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer" -- Johnny Marks.

A calculated boost to deterrence

By YAAKOV LAPPIN

12/25/2013

Amid recent uptick in violence along Gaza border, the defense establishment has concluded that its hard-earned deterrence against Gaza's terrorist factions is beginning to crumble and may require a boost.

IDF soldier sits atop a tank just outside northern Gaza Photo: REUTERS/Amir Cohen

The defense establishment doesn’t yet know for sure which organization sent a sniper to kill an Israeli civilian on the Gaza fence in cold blood. But it does feel that Hamas was prepared to turn a blind eye to the attack.
That, combined with the fact that an Israeli was shot dead while standing on his own side of the border, was enough to lead the IDF to the conclusion that its hard-earned deterrence against Gaza’s terrorist factions, in place since the end of last year’s week-long conflict, was beginning to crumble again and required a boost.

To be sure, the Gaza border has been anything but quiet of late. Since Friday alone, the IDF felt compelled to open fire five times on Palestinian suspects coming up to the fence and knowingly breaching the security zone, and, in at least two cases, planting explosives near the border. In the past, Hamas did not allow Palestinians to approach the fence.

PA rejects EU demand not to fund terrorists with EU money, yet EU continues transferring money to PA

http://palwatch.org/main.aspx?fi=157&doc_id=10444

November 2013

PA Minister mocks EU for criticizing PA use of funding for terrorists' salaries:

"The Europeans want their money that comes to us to remain clean - not to go to families of those they claim to be terrorists... These [prisoners] are heroes"

December 2013: 

EU ignores its own principles, continues transferring funds to the PA and facilitating salaries to terrorists 

"The EU donated approximately 11 million euros to pay the November salaries... [of PA] government employees"

Head of Prisoners' Club: Government workers and prisoners' salaries are paid together

"What is disbursed to the prisoners is exactly what is disbursed to me and you [a PA civil servant]. These are salaries. Therefore, when the salaries are paid to those working in [government] ministries and institutions, they will also be paid to the prisoners."

by Itamar Marcus and Nan Jacques Zilberdik

Click to contribute to PMW's year-end campaign

In 2011, Palestinian Media Watch exposed that the Palestinian Authority was using Western donor money to pay salaries to terrorists. Following PMW's exposure of these payments to terrorists, many European countries condemned the practice.

Recently, PA Minister of Prisoners' Affairs Issa Karake made a public statement rejecting the European demand that EU funds not go to terrorists. Indeed, Karake mocked the EU for challenging the PA's funding of terror saying, "the Europeans want their money... to remain clean." He said that by viewing Palestinian prisoners as terrorists, Europe has adopted an "occupation mentality." According to the PA, the prisoners "are heroes":

"The Europeans want their money that comes to us to remain clean - not to go to families of those they claim to be 'terrorists.' [They] need to renounce this occupation (Israeli) mentality. These [prisoners] are heroes, fedayyeen (self-sacrificing fighters), and fighters who fought so that we could live in dignity... These heroes, whom you (i.e., the audience) are applauding, must live in dignity, so that we will continue to hold our heads high. We appreciate the people of the revolution and are proud of them."

[Official PA TV Live, Nov. 4, 2013]

Click to view

This rejection by the PA has significance beyond the financial issue, as it shows the ideological divide between Western donors and the PA. While the Western world views the killing of civilians as murder and terror, the PA sees Palestinians' killing of civilians as heroic and deserving of financial reward. As the PA minister said: "These [prisoners] are heroes... We appreciate the people of the revolution and are proud of them."

No Christmas spirit in the West Bank: Israeli journalists banned from celebrations

By KHALED ABU TOAMEH

Palestinian journalists applaud the move as justification for "restrictions" imposed on Palestinian media by Israel.

church of nativity Photo: Reuters

The Palestinian Authority said on Tuesday that it expelled Israeli journalists who came to Bethlehem to cover Christmas celebrations.
The PA Ministry of Information said the decision was taken at the request of Palestinian journalists, who protested against the presence of their Israeli colleagues at Manger Square in the city.


A ministry official claimed that the journalists who were kicked out of Bethlehem work for Ha’aretz, i-24 News, Channel One and Arutz Sheva.
Palestinian journalists praised the PA police for kicking the Israelis out of the city.
Omar Nazzal, a senior representative of the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate, told the Ramallah-based Wattan TV that the move was justified in wake of “restrictions” imposed by Israel on Palestinian journalists.

Egypt's New Constitution: As Bad as its Old One?

Michael Armanious

Amr Moussa, chairman of the committee tasked with amending the Islamist constitution, talked about how the new constitution guarantees that Egypt will have a "civilian government" and promote the creation of a "democratic and modern country."
But he did not promise that it would be a secular one. Moussa asserts that the new constitution bans the creation of parties based on religion, but it gives Egypt's theocrats-in-waiting a way to get around the ban on by allowing parties to be established on "Islamic reference"; and Article Two remains.
"In Egypt, a civil state means a modern nationalist state that is compatible with Islamist provisions." — Ali Gomaa, Egypt's former Grand Mufti.

Egypt's interim president Adly Mansour has set January 14 and 15, 2014, as the dates for a referendum on the country's amended constitution.
Amr Moussa – the chairman of the (fifty-member) Committee of Fifty tasked with amending the 2012 Islamist constitution – appeared in multiple televised interviews to tell about the importance of the new amended constitution for the future of Egypt. He talked about how the new constitution guarantees that Egypt will have a "civilian government" and will promote the creation of a "democratic and modern country." He stressed that Egypt will have no military or theocratic government. He also listed several articles that will guarantee freedom for Egyptians, including freedom of religion and freedom of expression.
A closer look at the constitution itself reveals that it is not the freedom-promoting document Moussa describes it as being.

Peace through Power, War through Weakness: A Tale of Two Middle East Policies

ANDREW E. HARROD December 22, 2013

"Strategic threats are growing longer and longer," Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) Captain Barak Raz stated with respect to the dangers facing his country.

Raz, the IDF Central Command's former Judea and Samaria (West Bank) Division spokesperson, spoke during a Dec. 10, 2013, conference call discussing growing dangers to Western interests in the Middle East.

The conference call occurred in lieu due to inclement weather of a Capitol Hill panel sponsored by the Endowment for Middle East Truth (EMET), a pro-American and pro-Israeli Washington, DC think tank. Raz focused on Israeli policy vis-à-vis the Palestinians in the conflicted Judea and Samaria/West Bank. Lebanese Christian Middle East scholar Walid Phares, meanwhile, joined Raz to discuss the role of Iran's nuclear weapons program in Middle Eastern security.

In this photo released by the official website of the office of the Iranian Presidency, Iran's President Hassan Rouhani speaks during a news briefing after Iran and world powers agree in Geneva to a deal over Iran's nuclear program, at the Presidency compound in Tehran, Iran, Sunday, Nov. 24, 2013. (AP Photo/Presidency Office, Mohammad Berno)

Israeli Security Sees Rising West Bank Salafi-Jihadi Threat

 Yaakov Lappin
Special to IPT News
December 23, 2013
http://www.investigativeproject.org/4248/israeli-security-sees-rising-west-bank-salafi

At a time when threats from organized Palestinian terrorism are being effectively contained in the West Bank, Israeli security forces are now on the lookout for a new and troublesome phenomenon: The rise of al-Qaida-inspired Salafi-jihadi terrorist cells.
The heightened state of alert to this new threat took effect last month, when an unprecedented security incident took place.
A Salafi-jihadi cell, armed with guns and explosives, set out from the Hebron area to carry out a series of attacks. The first intended targets were IDF soldiers; and later, the cell planned to strike targets affiliated with the Palestinian Authority – both equally worthy of attack according to the worldview of Salafi-jihadis. According to this view, any state or system of government that isn't based on a literal interpretation of Islamic law, and which is not part of a caliphate state, is completely illegitimate.
The cell was under close surveillance by the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency). Israel's elite Counter-Terrorism Unit moved in to intercept cell members after they got into a vehicle, armed with guns and bombs, to carry out their jihad mission.

US spying gives momentum to free Pollard effort

GIL HOFFMAN, HERB KEINON

inShare3

MKs demand Pollard's release after revelations that US conducted surveillance on former PMs Barak, Olmert.

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu at the cabinet meeting Photo: REUTERS

Politicians from across the political spectrum renewed their call for the United States to release Israeli agent Jonathan Pollard Sunday, following revelations that the US National Security Agency (NSA) had spied on Israeli leaders.
The revelations gave momentum to the effort to encourage US President Barack Obama to commute Pollard’s life sentence to the 28 years he has served. But Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu made a point of saying that Israel did not need an excuse to deal with Pollard’s release.

“We do not need a special incident to talk about the release of Jonathan Pollard,” Netanyahu said at the start of the weekly cabinet meeting.
“We, I am dealing with this with every US president, including with President Obama all the time, including now.”
Netanyahu said he hoped that the circumstances would be created that would enable “bringing Jonathan home” to Israel.
“This is not conditional nor connected to recent events, even though we gave our opinion on these matters,” Netanyahu said, hinting that there was a private government reaction to former NSA contractor Edward Snowden’s revelations.
Publicly, however, neither the Prime Minister’s Office, the Foreign Ministry, nor the Defense Ministry were commenting on the leaked documents.

We Have Legal Grounds

A campaign for the promotion and acceptance of the Levy A campaign for the promotion and acceptance of the Levy Report

יש לנו בסיס חוקי

הקמפיין לחיזוק, קידום וקבלת דו"ח לוי

דו"ח לוי - יש לנו בסיס חוקי Levy Report

THE LEVY REPORT
Sign\"Like": https://www.facebook.com/TheLevyReport#!/TheLevyReport /
https://www.facebook.com/TheLevyReport#%21/TheLevyReport
What is the Levy Report?
In January, 2012, Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu appointed a committee to examine the status of Israeli building in Judea and Samaria. Edmund Levy, former Justice and vice president of the Supreme Court, headed the committee; its other members were Alan Baker, Ambassador and international lawyer, and Tehiya Shapira, retired Tel Aviv District Court Judge. Their Report “The Status of Building in Judea and Samaria” – was released on July 8, 2012.
The committee concluded based on international law, because of both historical and legal factors, Israel’s presence in Judea and Samaria is not an “occupation.” Or “illegitimate” and that Israel has the legal right to settle in Judea and Samaria.
The report recommended that all scheduled demolitions be halted and guidelines be put in place so that communities in Judea and Samaria should be allowed to continue to build and grow.

Israel's Ghetto Mentality

It is ghetto-like thinking that leads Israel’s government ministers to seriously advocate uprooting Jewish towns and villages in the Jews’ ancestral homeland in order to curry favor with Arab potentates and US coteries.

Giulio Meotti

The writer, an Italian journalist with Il Foglio, writes a twice-weekly column for Arutz Sheva. He is the author of the book "A New Shoah", that researched the personal stories of Israel's terror victims, published by Encounter. His writing has appeared in publications, such as the Wall Street Journal, Frontpage and Commentary. He has just prblished a book about the Vatican and Israel titled "J'Accuse: the Vatican Against Israel" published by Mantua Books.

Claude Lanzmann is a great filmaker. His new movie, “The Last of the Unjust”, tells the incredible story of Benjamin Murmelstein, the last head of the Jewish ghetto di Theresianstadt, the only one who survived the war.
The movie tells the story of this brave Jew who had to work with Adolf Eichmann (“Murmelschwein” the collaborationist, as he was defamed after war).

Pollard's Imprisonment 'Absurd' Given US Spying

Fmr. Assistant Secretary of Defense lashes out after US spying revelations, comes as Obama omits Pollard from clemency list.

By Ari Yashar, Arutz Sheva Staff

Former Assistant Secretary of Defense Dr. Lawre

Dr. Lawrence Korb

nce Korb on Saturday night said that Jonathan Pollard's ongoing imprisonment, in light of new revelations of US spying on Israeli leaders, is "absurd" and a "moral embarrassment."
Korb's comments come as US President Barack Obama omitted Pollard from the 13 pardons he issued last Thursday. In addition to the 13, 6 of whom were drug dealers, Obama commuted the sentence on 8 other criminals, all of them drug dealers.
"The lack of proportion of Pollard's sentence and his weakening medical condition in any case demands his release by any measure of justice," remarked Korb.
Korb noted the new revelations show "that during the time that (the US is) so stubborn about (Pollard's) continued sentence after 29 years, we ourselves are spying on Israeli leaders."

Islamists Sieze US Weapons Meant for Secular Rebel Groups in Syria

Night Watch

North Korea: According to information relayed by defector sources, the health of Kim Kyong-hui -- the aunt of Kim Jong Un -- has deteriorated because of the execution of her husband, Chang Sung-taek. She was unable to attend the memorial event for the second anniversary of the General's passing because of health problems. She reportedly has travelled overseas to receive treatment.

The sources said her health wasn't great as it was and she suffered a heart attack when her husband was executed by firing squad.
Comment: With Kim Kyong-hui's departure, the closest relatives of the late Kim Chong-il have been removed as advisors and counselors to Kim Jong Un. The North Korean government contains many cousins and distant relatives of Kim Jong Un. Execution of a family member is a serious cultural transgression that reportedly has unhinged many people because of its ruthlessness, according to defector sources.
At a minimum, the young Kim has shown he is no respecter of family. That is a serious liability in a culturally Confucian society. Kim Jong Un is being manipulated to follow the same path his father followed, relying on soldiers. Everybody but possibly the senior military officers despised Kim Chong-il. Kim Chong-il realized how much he had been manipulated only in the last year of his life, based on the changes he tried.
North Korea-South Korea: For the record. North and South Korean delegates held a fourth meeting at Kaesong to complete the normalization program for the joint industrial complex.

Brooks Breaks

My Right Word

Over the decades, Israelis have wobbled through error, uncertainty and moral ambiguity. But, collectively, they have adapted to their tragic circumstances with some reasonable degree of success. They didn’t recoil from the drama they were caught in. They are nothing if not critical of one another. The society moves forward on a great wave of fevered argument. There are always new parties, as old messy improvisations — the semi-socialist economy, the Oslo process, the security fence — become obsolete.But there will always be those whose minds recoil from the ambiguity of a tragic situation. Some of these people turn into amoral realists and decide in the brutal situation that anything that advances survival is permitted. Under their leadership, security becomes insecurity because security measures are taken to the extreme. These are the people who want to permanently colonize the West Bank.On the other side, there are people whose minds seem to flee, almost by instinct, from ambiguity to absolutism. These are often good people, with high ideals. But they take a dappled society in a tough situation, like Israel, and they want to judge it according to black and white legal abstractions. They find a crime or an error and call for blanket condemnation (these people tend not to apply this standard to themselves).