Of potential interest: on Iran arming Iraq for the fight against ISIS‏

http://libertyunyielding.com/2014/05/17/surprised-iran-exporting-arms-iraq/

 

 

Why are we surprised that Iran is exporting arms to Iraq?

There are two layers to this question, which is popping up on TV screens this weekend.  One is the geopolitical layer; the other is the simple-tracing-of-facts layer.

Starting with the latter, Reuters reported in February that Iraq and Iran signed an arms deal in November of 2013, right after Nouri al-Maliki got home from a visit to Washington (during which he petitioned Obama for more arms to fight off the “ISIS” insurgency waging war across Syria and western Iraq).

The ISIS insurgency – “Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham” – is often rendered “ISIL” in English, for Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.  In either case, the territorial reference is to Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, and Israel.  The insurgents are Sunni jihadists, and their principal focus at the moment has been scoped by the Syrian civil war, in which they are fighting the Assad regime.  Most of the ISIS guerrillas come from abroad; a major contingent of them is from the Chechen Caucasus, where Islamist insurgents have waged a war against Russian rule for nearly a quarter century now.  (For more on all this, see the last link above to my January 2014 post.  The map shows the corridor between Syria and Baghdad where the ISIS insurgency has sought to plant roots.)

The bottom line is that ISIS is fighting to gain control of territory over which radical Iran wants control herself.  Iraq, under the current government, has no interest in wielding an outsize influence over her neighbors to the west; the priority in Baghdad is reestablishing control over Anbar Province.  But the larger aspirations of ISIS clash directly with those of the mullahs in Tehran.

My JNF address (Part II): The ‘peace process’ – failure foretold

MARTIN SHERMAN

Into the Fray: If a Palestinian state were established, the full weight of the horrors of the Arab world would come pressing down on Israel, from indefensible borders, infinitesimal distances from major population centers.

US Secretary of State John Kerry with Tzipi Livni and Saeb Erekat, July 30, 2013. Photo: REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst

As I mentioned in my previous column, following my participation in The Jerusalem Post Conference in New York last month, I received an invitation from Russell Robinson, the CEO of the Jewish National Fund, to make a telephonic address to major donors across the United States, assessing the status of the “peace process.”

My column last week was devoted to the first part of that address, delivered on the eve of Israel’s Independence Day. In this week’s column, I share with Jerusalem Post’s readers the remaining topics I raised – with some minor modifications and editorial “tweaks” – which as before, have been made to accommodate the transition from oral to written form.

To recap briefly

As readers will recall, in Part I of my address, aided by a citation from Shakespeare’s Richard II, I argued that the entire peace process, from its inception, was founded on the self-delusion of its architects, and their denial of the harsh realities of the region.

I pointed out that there is a growing awareness of the futility of endeavors to reach a negotiated settlement with the Palestinians. This has resulted in an alarming erosion, over recent decades, of Israeli positions, which I illustrated by excerpts from public proclamations of Shimon Peres and Yitzhak Rabin. The spreading sense of futility has led to increasingly desperate proposals for dealing with the situation – some of which I shall elaborate on this week.

Hating the Jew you’ve never met

ADL’s globe-spanning study of anti-Semitism reveals that over 750 million people’s hatred isn’t about the Jews at all

By Haviv Rettig Gur 

The ADL’s massive Global 100 survey of worldwide anti-Semitic attitudes, published Tuesday, offers some sobering statistics. Some 1.1 billion adults harbor anti-Semitic views. In the Middle East, 74 percent of adults agreed with a majority of the survey’s 11 anti-Semitic propositions, including that “Jews have too much power in international financial markets” and that “Jews are responsible for most of the world’s wars.”

The complexities uncovered by the study are fascinating and important. They include, for example, the jarring discovery that 52% of Germans and Austrians believe Jews talk too much about the Holocaust — but also that young Germans and Austrians are shedding their parents’ anti-Semitic attitudes. The number of Germans holding such views dropped steeply from 33% among those over 50 to 15% among those under 34, and among Austrians from 41% to 12%. The German-speaking world is simultaneously growing tired of hearing about the Holocaust and more accepting of Jews. 

Repulsive Guardian op-ed justifies Palestinian antisemitism; The summer of BDSFails

 Elder of Ziyon
Ian:

---

Repulsive Guardian op-ed justifies Palestinian antisemitism

Yesterday we posted on the results of a new international antisemitism poll by ADL, which demonstrated that Palestinians are the most antisemitic people among the 100 countries surveyed. We noted that Palestinians are even more antisemitic than citizens in Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Pakistan and Iran.
It would seem that true anti-racists would have a pretty difficult time defending such views – as some of the tropes are indistinguishable from the notorious Czarist forgery, Protocols of the Elders of Zion.
To boot, a Guardian op-ed published today by pro-Palestinian activists Donna Nevel and Marilyn Kleinberg Neimark begins with this headline and photo:
"Anti-Semitism should not be waved around like a propaganda tool"
The photo is surreal. An op-ed about antisemitism doesn’t depict Jews, but Palestinians, who, we are told, are denied their basic human rights.
It gets worse, much worse.

Hating the Jew you’ve never met

Indyk Caught Bashing Israel at Hotel Bar

Slams Israel for failed peace process

Martin Indyk / AP

BY: Adam Kredo

Middle East envoy Martin Indyk was overheard at an upscale Washington, D.C., bar bashing Israel and fully blaming it for the recent failure of peace talks with the Palestinians, according to an individual who overheard the conversation and described it as a surprising and “nasty” 30-minute-long tirade against the Jewish state.
Indyk—who has been identified by the Washington Free Beacon as the source of a recent series of anonymous quotes in the press condemning Israel—was caught openly lashing out at Israel over drinks with several members of his staff and wife, Gahl Burt.
The conversation took place in the hotel bar at the Ritz-Carlton on Thursday night, shortly after Indyk finished delivering remarks at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy’s (WINEP) annual gala.
While Indyk was critical of Israel in his public remarks, he and his staff are said to have let loose on the Jewish state over drinks before Indyk was scheduled to meet with former Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak.
“The tone was nasty,” according to the source who overheard the conversation.

Dutch Jihadists in Syria Pose Threat to the Netherlands

Soeren Kern

http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/4308/dutch-jihadists-syria

Many Moroccan youths in the Netherlands have "no education, no prospects and are barely supervised. They are a ticking time bomb." Mustapha Abbou, former Labor Party councilor in the city of Eindhoven.
The age of Dutch jihadists is decreasing constantly and the number of women in this group is growing.

More than 100 Dutch Muslims travelled to Syria in 2013 with the intention of taking part in jihadist activities there, and at least 20 battle-hardened jihadists have since returned to the Netherlands, posing a significant threat to national security, according to a new report published by the Dutch intelligence agency AIVD.
The AIVD annual report for 2013 was presented by Interior Minister Ronald Plasterk and AIVD head Rob Bertholee in The Hague on April 23. In contrast to previous years, when the main security threat was deemed to be a cyber-attack, the principal concern in this year's report is the mounting threats posed by the returning jihadists, as well as by Muslim hate preachers who are using the Internet to radicalize young Dutch Muslims and incite them to violence.

Arabs: We Want Democracy - Like Israel

Khaled Abu Toameh

http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/4317/arabs-want-democracy-israel

"How many Arab leaders would be left if they went on trial of similar cases of bribery and corruption?" — Zuhear al-Karim, Arabic CNN.
"If Olmert were in Kuwait, his case would have been shelved and he would have received a senior position in government." — Yasalam, Al-Aan.
"Law is above all and this is real democracy. Israel is the only real democracy in the Middle East." — Saad Sayad, Arabic CNN.

The Tel Aviv District Court's decision to send former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to six years in prison for corruption has prompted calls in the Arab world for endorsing Israel's standards of accountability, transparency and justice.
Reacting to the sentencing of Olmert, many Arabs expressed hope that the day would come when their countries would learn from Israel that no one is above the law, even if he or she is a president or prime minister.

Iran nuclear deal alienating Saudis and Gulf emirates

John Smith

While negotiating from a point of weakness and reconciliation to counter Iran’s nuclear ambitions, the Obama administration has all but ignored an important and beneficial geo-strategic coalition for over five years: the Gulf Cooperation Council.  And if the US is trying to rebuild its relationship with the GCC, it’s failing miserably.
Arab News reports that SecDef Hagel attended a GCC defense ministers meeting in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, where he promised negotiations with Iran would not harm GCC security.  Hagel stressed,

“First, these negotiations will under no circumstances trade away regional security for concessions on Iran's nuclear program,” he said , [snip] “Second, while our strong preference is for a diplomatic solution, the United States will remain postured and prepared to ensure that Iran does not acquire a nuclear weapon - and that Iran abides by the terms of any potential agreement.”

Almost on cue, GCC member Saudi Arabia presented an unofficial invitation to Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif to meet with the Saudi counterpart, Prince Saud Al-Faisal, demonstrating the GCC’s lack of confidence in Hagel’s statements.

Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian told the official IRNA news agency that Tehran had yet to receive Riyadh's formal invite, but a meeting was expected.

Israelis and Jews

Ted Belman (Originally published in 2006)

In the early seventies, I read Israelis and Jews: The Continuity of an Identity by Simon N. Herman. One didn’t have to read the book, much less write it, to understand that the more religious one is, the more one identifies as a Jew; and the more secular, the more Israeli. At that time, this distinction had little impact on the direction and nature of the Jewish State. But over time this distinction began to tear the country apart.

The distinction manifested itself in existential issues and the society polarized. “The Israelis” gave rise to post-Zionism revisionism, to the making of a state like any other state, to the peace process, to the notion that the occupation is the problem, not the solution, and finally, that the settlers (“the Jews”) are the enemy of “the good.”

The Israelis grew very powerful, starting from their roots in kibbutzim and in the Socialist ethos. They dominate the press, the academia, the courts, the administration of justice and, for the most part, the government.

Excuse me...you did what?!

Obama Administration threatened Nigeria with sanctions in 2013 for fighting Boko Haram

Robert Spencer 
Boko Haram claimed that their rights had been violated by the Nigerian government, after the pattern of Islamic supremacists everywhere, who always claim that they are the wronged and aggrieved party. The Obama Administration, as clueless and Islam-sympathetic as ever, bought it.
“Obama Administration Threatened Nigeria with Sanctions in 2013 for Fighting Boko Haram,” by Fred Dardick, Canada Free Press, May 14, 2014 (thanks to Pamela Geller):

Hillary Clinton wasn’t the only Obama administration official who went to bat for Boko Haram over the past few years.
Soon after John Kerry took over as Secretary of State, the U.S. Ambassador to Nigeria, Terence P. McCulley, accused the Nigerian government of butchery during a confrontation with Boko Haram terrorists in Baga, a Nigerian town on the shores of Lake Chad, and in May 2013 threatened to withdraw U.S. military aid from the West African nation.
Boko Haram militants attacked a Nigerian military outpost in April 2013 outside Baga, killing one soldier. Following the three-day battle human rights activists, including the George Soros-funded and liberal aligned Human Rights Watch, which is not exactly known for its impartiality when it comes to reporting on Islamic issues, claimed the Nigerian military wantonly slaughtered 183 civilians and burned down over 2,000 homes and businesses.

Feiglin Outlines Five-Step 'Jewish Sovereignty' Plan

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/180590#.U3U8VpsU-M9

 By Dalit Halevy, Ari Yashar

Deputy Knesset Chairman MK Moshe Feiglin (Likud) outlined his national plan while in Toronto last Tuesday for Israeli Independence Day, speaking at an event sponsored by the Jewish Defense League and Toronto Zionist Council.
Feiglin called for reconnecting the young generation with the knowledge that it is part of a long historical chain from the days of the Patriarch Abraham, and that it is a "light unto the nations" not just in the field of hi-tech, but rather in terms of the values and spiritual message it has for humanity, reports Shalom Toronto.
At the start of his address, Feiglin praised the establishment of Israel as a divine act, noting how the infant state of Israel defied the odds and repelled numerous trained Arab armies that planned to "finish what (Nazi leader Adolf) Hitler couldn't do."
However, Feiglin noted that the miraculous establishment of Israel remains somewhat lacking, because G-d "didn't want us to be bored."

J Street: This Is the Real Big Jewish Tent

One Sheikh, two Congressmen and wives, one very pregnant Yesha spokeswoman rep, one Sefirah beard, one Mayor, one Jewish Hebronite, one downtown Hebron Jewish leader, one political consultant, one assistant, one Yesha Council External Affairs coordinator, 

--- J Street, 

this is the real Big Jewish Tent

^

Posted by YMedad

'A' Jewish State vs. 'The' Jewish State

A conversation with FP's David Rothkopf and former Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Michael Oren -- on Zionism, the loyalty of American Jews, and the promise of the Promised Land.

• BY Michael Oren , David Rothkopf

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• Middle East

The following is an edited exchange of emails between Michael Oren, former Israeli ambassador to the United States, and David Rothkopf, CEO and editor of the FP Group, the publisher of Foreign Policy magazine and ForeignPolicy.com.
The first of the emails came after Oren asked Rothkopf how he felt about a trip to Israel he made in late 2013, the first time he had visited the country. Longtime friends, Oren and Rothkopf were roommates and classmates at Columbia University in New York City.
The question, while simple enough, ignited a discourse on the United States, Israel, American Jews, Israeli Jews, and the state of the relationship as seen from two different perspectives -- that of two men who started out with similar backgrounds and views and who, over time, reached some strikingly different conclusions on one subject important to them both. That two people who are close and who agree on so many things could have such disparate perspectives on this issue seemed more than just a disagreement among friends and appeared to be instead a reflection of the state and some of the critical fault lines in a broader debate.

Pro-Israel Groups Blast SJP for Racism and UCLA for Fecklessness

Now the SJP is so emboldened it no longer is content to wait until pro-Israel students can be ejected from a room when anti-Israel venom is flowing. Now the SJP wants pro-Israel students banned from having a voice in the discussion at all.

By: Lori Lowenthal Marcus

Published: May 16th, 2014

Powell Library at UCLA
Photo Credit: Wikimedia Commons

Seven staunchly pro-Israel organizations told the California Board of Regents at a hearing on Thursday, May 15, that its failure to stand up to the thuggery and blatant racism of the UCLA Students for Justice in Palestine against pro-Israel students was a failure of leadership and of morality.
What was so egregious that these pro-Israel organizations were protesting?
JUDICIAL BOARD INVESTIGATE STUDENT COUNCIL MEMBERS WHO WENT ON ISRAEL TRIPS
The UCLA-SJP introduced an initiative which calls for a Judicial Board investigation of student council members who have taken trips to Israel sponsored by groups which the SJP deems to have “political agendas that marginalize multiple communities on campus.” The groups on SJP’s hit list are the ADL (Anti-Defamation League), AIPAC (American Israel Public Affairs Committee) and Hasbara Fellowships.
As Dumisani Washington, the Pastor-leader of the Institute for Black Solidarity with Israel, said in his remarks at the hearing Thursday morning, the SJP’s denunciation of pro-Israel groups for having a political agenda is not just hateful, it is hypocritical.
“One wonders exactly what SJP assumes itself to be, if not an organization with a ‘political agenda,’” Washington told the Regents.

Olmert Isn't Alone

Daniel Doron
Israel Hayom

http://www.meforum.org/3821/israel-corruption

What does it say about Israeli society and the system of government when a prime minister is convicted of taking bribes?
There will always be a few rotten apples. But the Holyland case, and many other instances of bribery at the upper echelon, show us that the corruption spreading in the government is part of the system that allows politics to control the economy.

Former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert had partners: mayors, city council members, the city engineers, cohorts on the planning committees and wheelers and dealers. But Holyland isn't alone at the top. Every day, incidences of destructive corruption in the public and private sectors are discovered, from IDB and Hadassah to many municipalities and even the Keren Kayemet and the military chief of staff (all allegations, of course).

From Latma to Yisrael Hayom

Friday, May 16th, 2014
Caroline Glick

Last Sunday, the government passed what was billed as a major reform in Israeli broadcasting.

The cabinet voted 18-2 to eliminate the fee the public is forced to pay to finance public broadcasting, shut down the public broadcasting authority and open a new public broadcasting authority that will be unfettered by the wreckage of the old one.

The problem with the bill that was approved by the government for submission to the Knesset is that the larger problem with public broadcasting remained unaddressed. The main reason that members of the public railed against the fee is that they don’t like what they are paying for. By and large, with a few notable exceptions, public broadcasting’s offerings are unoriginal, uninteresting and poorly done.

Moreover, they either reflect the worldview of the narrow post-Zionist sliver of the population or signify nothing at all.

Palestine: Fatah, Hamas close to forming unity government

Both groups at odds since Hamas election victory in 2007

A Palestinian woman shouts slogans during demonstration supporting a new attempt to reconcile the militant Islamist movement Hamas and its Fatah rivals on April 22, 2014, in Gaza City. (AFP Photo/Mahmud Hams)

Ramallah, Asharq Al-Awsat—Officials from rival Palestinian factions Fatah and Hamas have drawn up a list of cabinet members for a new interim unity government to be led by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, Asharq Al-Awsat has learned.
After Wednesday’s one-day talks in Gaza, the two groups agreed to form a 15-member interim government, including ministers of the interior, foreign affairs and health.
In exclusive comments to Asharq Al-Awsat, a member of the Fatah delegation to Gaza, Faisal Abu Shahla, said that Wednesday’s talks were “very positive and serious,” adding that the two sides had “agreed on the nature of the government, and its tasks and role.”

How Many Are Thy Tents, O Jacob?

Lori Lowenthal Marcus 

Given the ideological bedlam often seen even within individual Jewish organizations, just imagine trying to get an entire community of Jewish organizations together to sign a several-paragraphs-long statement reflecting a single position -- and to do that within a matter of weeks.

That miracle almost happened recently, when the Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia gathered practically every Jewish organization in the Philadelphia community to send a message of strong disapproval to an anti-Israel coalition known as the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement, which is holding a three-day conference at the University of Pennsylvania on February 3-5.  But the "almost" is necessary because one significant local group refused to join in.  Understanding who, and why, reveals important lessons that must be taken to heart.

British House of Lords baroness warns Israeli audience about threat of Islamists

ARIEL BEN SOLOMON

Lady Cox spoke of Islamist groups making massive investments in the educational system in UK in order to alter the institutions to serve their purposes.

BARONESS CAROLINE COX speaks at TAU’s Green House yesterday. Photo: Ariel Ben Solomon

Baroness Caroline Cox of Queensbury warned about the growing threat of political Islam in Britain and Africa at an event hosted by the Yuval Ne’eman Workshop for Science, Technology and Security at Tel Aviv University and The Israeli Institute for Strategic Studies on Monday.

“Islam is using the freedoms of democracy to destroy it,” as some of its adherents try to “inhibit criticism,” said Cox, speaking at the Green House next to the university.

In England, if you criticize Islam, you are called a racist, she said.

In addition, she drew attention to what she called the effort to Islamize Africa through massive investments and other activities. She cited evidence and information gleaned from her stay in the region, pointing to the countries of Uganda, Nigeria and Sudan.

Cox sits in the House of Lords – in which she had served as deputy speaker from 1985 to 2005 – and is the CEO of Humanitarian Aid Relief Trust (HART), which works to promote community development in various impoverished countries – mostly in Africa and Asia.

A sweet deal for the mullahs

Ted Belmanhttp://www.israpundit.com/archives/63596527

Be afraid of the looming Iran nuclear agreement. Be very afraid.
Gary Gambill, National Post
With negotiations between the so-called P5+1 (the five permanent members of the UN Security Council, plus Germany) and Iran over the fate of its nuclear program set to resume this week, the International Crisis Group (ICG) has released a detailed proposal for a final status settlement. Drawn from months of interviews with Iranian and P5+1 officials, the May 9 report outlines what an agreement splitting the difference between the “red lines” of both sides would look like. For anyone worried about Iran’s nuclear intentions, it is a very worrying document indeed.

Let's Do Almost Nothing

 Efraim Inbar
Israel Hayom
May 15, 2014

http://www.meforum.org/3820/palestinian-israeli-talks-collapse

Now that the Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations have ended in failure, many suggest taking advantage of the political limbo to advance their preferred unilateral plans. The Israeli political right wing is promoting the annexation of Area C, while the left wing is advocating a "coordinated" (whatever that means) unilateral withdrawal. Government officials have spoken about the need for Israel to "do something." Others suggest negotiating with the Quartet, instead of the Palestinians.

Activism is unquestionably a trait that is admired in Israel. Zionist-rooted rhetoric such as "we have to determine our borders and destiny on our own" falls on receptive ears.

It's Dangerous to Call Muslims Dangerous

David Whitley / 15 May 2014 / 83 Comments

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The Washington Times headline, "Bill Maher: Liberals too soft on Islam" (May 10, 2014) caught my attention because Maher, for all his usual crazy liberal insanity, has got the Islam issue right.
Maher's cable show had three combatants recently when they discussed Islam and the kidnapping of the 300 school girls in Nigeria. Arianna Huffington, President of the Huffington Post online, Comedian Baratunde Thurston,

Read more at http://eaglerising.com/6169/dangerous-call-muslims-dangerous/#eVO5XbH9RSIitxUE.99

David Whitley / 15 May 2014

The Washington Times headline, "Bill Maher: Liberals too soft on Islam" (May 10, 2014) caught my attention because Maher, for all his usual crazy liberal insanity, has got the Islam issue right.

Maher's cable show had three combatants recently when they discussed Islam and the kidnapping of the 300 school girls in Nigeria. Arianna Huffington, President of the Huffington Post online, Comedian Baratunde Thurston,

and Matt Welch editor of Reason.com. They exchanged opinions like little school kids trading marbles and with the same results, nothing substantial gained when it was all done.

Huffington started off the quibbling by saying she believes it's "dangerous" to stereotype all Muslims as terrorists. Agreed, but a flimsy straw man argument at best, because no one claims all Muslims are terrorists. Nothing more satisfies a liberal than beating a straw man like a piñata to prove a point that no one holds.

WTW's and Docstalk Readers-Special Notice

Forgive the interruption to your normally scheduled blog. It seems that my main blog, Docstalk (http://docstalk.blogspot.co.il/) is having significant layout difficulties.  This has happened before and it takes Blogspot some time to "get to my blog" to fix it. I have notified, I think, the Blogspot fixers and asked to have my blog put back to normal.

Until that time I am moving all most of my posts to our second blog, Writing the Wrongs.  I am adding a couple features from Docstalk-we do not mean to inconvenience anyone and thank you for allowing us to co-mingle two blogs. For the near term, WTW readers will be receiving more international news as well as radical Islam information. We will also do our best to post Israel and Israel related items consistent with WTW's stted intentions.

Thank you for your consideration and understanding.  Docstalk remains online but dramatically impacted-I will add some stories from time to time.  Thank you loyal readers for understanding-all the best-doc

Boko Haram and the Dynamics of Denial

Mark Durie


It is a common refrain of pious Muslims in the face of atrocities done by other Muslims in the name of Islam that Islam must not be shamed. Whenever an Islamic atrocity potentially dishonors Islam, non-Muslims are asked to agree that ‘This is not Islamic’ so that the honor of Islam can be kept pristine. The real issue, however, is not what would be good or bad for Islam’s reputation; Islam is not the victim here. The pressing issue is not to get people to think well of Islam, but how, for instance, in the case of Boko Haram’s kidnapping of the Nigerian schoolgirls, the girls can be rescued and, above all, how Boko Haram’s murderous rampage can be halted.
Qasim Rashid, an American Muslim, recently published on FoxNews.com a heart-felt expression of deep distress at the kidnapping of Nigerian girls by Boko Haram (‘What would Muhammad say to Boko Haram’).  He declared that Muhammad himself would not recognize this group as acting in line with his teachings:

Nigerian ‘Sex-Slaves' Disrupt Obama Narrative on Islam

RAYMOND IBRAHIM May 15, 2014

Islamic law permits the possession of concubines, or sex slaves.  This has been demonstrated countless times, including through Islamic clerics quoting Islamic scriptures, and through ordinary Muslims, past and present, acting on it.
Boko Haram members stand if front of "Allahu Akbar" banner
That said, Islamic sanctioned sex-slavery does not perturb the Western world simply because the powers-that-be-specifically academia, media, and government-ignore it, and all other unsavory phenomena associated with Islam, out of existence.
Interesting, therefore, are the responses from the authorities-comical one might even say-when one of these everyday anecdotes actually does surface to the general public.

Secretary of State John Kerry to introduce George Soros at State Department open forum

• Posted by KristiAnn Mod on May 14, 2014

Wow. All bets are off. Coup complete.

• Since the mid-1980s in particular, [ Soros ] has used his immense influence to help reconfigure the political landscapes of several countries around the world—in some cases playing a key role in toppling regimes that had held the reins of government for years, even decades. Vis à vis the United States, a strong case can be made for the claim that Soros today affects American politics and culture more profoundly that any other living person. (DTN)

George Soros is one of the most dangerous and politically powerful individuals on earth.

• “Secretary of State John Kerry to introduce George Soros at State Department open forum Tuesday,”Free Beacon, May 13, 2014

The Holocaust Revisited—An Open Thank You Note to Ed Schultz

Roger L Simon

Dear Ed,

May I call you Ed? You can certainly call me Roger.

I know you’ve been taking a lot of flak for that Tweet you made the other day — “Gay people were really the ones being persecuted in Hitler’s Germany” — some calling you about as sensitive as Attila the Hun and wondering why NBC Universal would allow such a bizarre personality to represent them in public, sort of like asking Donald Sterling to host their morning show.
And I realize too that you quickly deleted the Tweet after a deluge of responses from normal human beings.
But, even with all that, I just wanted to say thank you, sir, for my family and for myself!
You see you have solved the mystery of why my grandmother’s Uncle Lennie, “the bachelor,” was incinerated at Auschwitz.  Unfortunately, his sexual preference did not appear on ancestor.com.  But now we know.

Britain's Two Set of Books

Douglas Murray
May 14, 2014 

http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/4305/britain-double-life

We are trying to live our lives in our nation while running two sets of accounts. On one side of the ledger -- as on the BBC page -- are the facts that are happening. On the other side is the recounting of punishments for those who have identified the facts.

Britain is in the midst of a breakdown. It comes from trying to live a double-life. As with everybody who leads such a life, at some stage it will inevitably crack under the stress of its own contradictions.
Take just one day's worth of news on the BBC website this past week. On one side of the page was the headline: "Tory candidate quits over homophobic and anti-Islamic tweets." On the other side of the page was a headline about the alleged Islamist take-over of schools in Birmingham and the North of England.
The first article involves a council candidate who retweeted several tweets that someone could potentially have deemed offensive. As usual in modern Britain, the likelihood is that nobody actually did find them offensive, but that someone decided that someone else might find them offensive, and therefore decided to get rid of the culprit. For what it is worth, the "homophobic" tweet consisted of a lame joke asking: "How CAN a gay guy keep a straight face?" Not the best gag in the world, but sure as anything not the precursor to some anti-gay pogrom, nor, in any sane society, a matter to cause a resignation.

Israel must continue to build east of the greenline.

Ted Belman
In his first term in office, President Obama targeted Israel’s settlement activity with a vengeance, like no one before him did. He continued American policy of calling them “illegitimate” whatever that means, rather than illegal which the which was the term of choice put forward by the UN and the EU representatives. But he went further and forced PM Netanyahu to agree to a nine month construction freeze to enable negotiations to take place. This wasn’t enough to induce Abbas to enter negotiations until the last weeks of the freeze.  Ultimately all his efforts to bring about a settlement failed. It was generally accepted that his insistence on making the freezing of settlement construction the centerpiece of his efforts was largely to blame for their failure.
It should be noted that there is no legal precedent declaring them illegal but opinions to this effect, abound. On the other hand, the legality of Israeli communities beyond the 1949 armistice lines has been affirmed by international-law experts Eugene Rostow, Stephen Schwebel, Julius Stone, and others.

Deputy Minister Slams IDF Radio for Promoting Palestinian 'Lies'

Deputy Minister lashes out at the great Palestinian Arab myth - that they preceded a Jewish presence in the Land of Israel

By Ido Ben-Porat and Tova Dvorin

Deputy Minister Ofir Akunis (Likud) fired heavy criticism at IDF Radio Monday night, accusing the network of featuring frequent interviews with Palestinian Authority (PA) negotiator Saeb Erekat.
"I hear Saeb Erekat on IDF Radio all the time - and every time I hear him on IDF Radio, he says that Hamas is 'not a terror organization," Akunis lamented, in the Knesset plenum. He added sarcastically: "They only send 10,000 rockets on the heads of the children of Sderot, Netivot, Rishon Lezion, Ashdod, Ashkelon, Tel Aviv and Gush Etzion, and fire rockets at Jerusalem."  
Akunis also thoroughly rejected the argument that "settlement building" in Judea and Samaria torpedoed peace talks with the PA.

Darkness again falls on Europe: Jews fleeing France

Thomas Lifson

The number of Jews leaving France for Israel is up 400% in the first quarter of 2014, according to AFP. The largest remnant of Jews in Europe surviving the Holocaust is now under a new threat, one that echoes the last century’s, but with new faces and names.

The Jewish Agency for Israel, a global body responsible for the immigration and absorption of Jews into Israel, said 1,407 people left France for Israel between January and March against 353 people a year earlier.
"This phenomenon is speeding up" said Ariel Kandel, the head of the Jewish Agency's French chapter. (snip)
Kandel told AFP that the reasons for the hike in numbers were a "climate of anti-Semitism" and the prevailing gloomy economic situation in France.

The French news agency’s story does not mention the words “Muslim” or “immigrant,” but the anti-Semitism that matters today in France is far different from the imported Nazi variety or the traditional French disdain that ensnared Col. Dreyfuss.  Muslims, immigrants and their French-born children, principally from North Africa, are attacking Jews on the streets and making life unpleasant for anyone identifiably Jewish.

5 Things the Media and Government Won’t Tell You About Boko Haram

Robert Spencer

Over at PJ Media I examine five reasons why it shouldn’t have taken so long for Hillary Clinton’s State Department to declare Boko Haram a terrorist group:

5. The abduction of the schoolgirls is only the latest in a huge string of atrocities.
The world has only begun to notice them because of the abduction of the schoolgirls, but the Nigerian jihad terror group Boko Haram has been around for years. Without attracting the international outrage they have drawn upon themselves now, they have committed innumerable acts of unimaginable savagery, murdering over 2,500 people in the first three months of 2014 alone and torching numerous churches and Christian homes.
At my website Jihad Watch a Google search turns up about 115,000 results for “Boko Haram,” indicating that anyone who has been tracking jihad activity over the last few years has had plenty to track in Boko Haram, and that the outrage over the abducted schoolgirls, as welcome as it is if it results in genuine action to stop this brutal and bloody group, is quite late and arbitrary.
Of course, in the Obama administration it hasn’t been fashionable to talk about jihad activity other than within the context of al Qaeda, and Boko Haram is not al Qaeda. Therefore it essentially did not exist (either for the administration or for the mainstream media that it carries around in its pocket like so many nickels), or if it did, it wasn’t a terrorist group: Hillary Clinton’s State Department was notoriously slow to designate it as such, even as the dead bodies piled up.

Iran Unveils New Missile Equipped with MRV Payloads

FARS NEWS

TEHRAN (FNA)- The Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) Aerospace Force has equipped its short-range Zelzal missiles with newly developed Multiple Reentry Vehicle (MRV) payloads, a military hi-tech owned only by a handful of the world states.

 

The surface-to-surface Zelzal missile is equipped with thirty 17-kg bombs which can destroy a wide range of targets and is a proper option for targeting airport runways and equipments, installations and facilities on the ground.

The solid-fuel missile with a 300-km range is among the most important missiles which can attack enemy targets and bases in short distances.

Zelzal was unveiled on Sunday in the presence of Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei in a two-hour tour of the IRGC's Aerospace Exhibition, where state-of-the-art equipment and hardware were showcased.

The missile was earlier test-fired in 2011 during the drills, codenamed Payambar-e Azam (The Great Messenger) 6, but it was then armed with regular payloads.

Egyptian Pop Star Chaaboula to Sing ‘I Hate Israel’ at Morocco World Music Festival Featuring Alicia Keys, Justin Timberlake

Joshua Levitt

'I Hate Israel' Abdel-Fattah el-Sisi Alicia Keys Chaaboula Hey Arab Leaders justin timberlake Kool and the Gang Mawazine McDonald's Morocco Morocco Festival Palestinian Media Watch Ricky Martin Robert Plant Shaaban Abdel Rahim We Love Sisi

Egyptian singer Shaaban Abdel Rahim, known as Chaaboula. Photo: Mawazine Festival.

Egyptian singer Shaaban Abdel Rahim, known as Chaaboula, plans to sing I Hate Israel, the infamous song that ended his contract for McDonald’s in 2008, at Morocco’s Mawazine world music festival, which is also featuring international stars Alicia Keys, Justin Timberlake, Ricky Martin and Kool and the Gang.
Egypt’s Youm7 news site reported on Saturday that Rahim said he will open his concert with I Hate Israel.
Arabic entertainment news site FilFan cited Rahim as saying that he’ll be wearing a costume with the colors of the Egyptian flag and will also sing his ode to former Egyptian defense minister and now presidential candidate Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, We Love Sisi.
Rahim was cited by FilFan as saying it’s “an honor for me to be the only Egyptian singer in the festival this year, it is the first time that I have taken part in such a big event.”

The Boko Haram Girls May Already Have Been Mutilated

 

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by Phyllis Chesler 12 May 2014

Raw: Video Claims to Show Missing Nigerian...

A new video from Nigeria's Boko Haram militant network purports to show dozens of abducted schoolgirls, wearing hijabs and praying in Arabic. (May 12)

The entire world is focused on the captured Nigerian girls, many scenarios have been envisioned--and yet there is at least one issue no one has raised: That it is entirely possible that these poor girls have also been genitally mutilated. If so, that means that their rapes will be doubly torturous and traumatizing.

And make no mistake: They will be raped by their captors on their "wedding" night and/or over and over again by strangers if they are trafficked into a brothel.

Sharia for Dummies

EDWARD CLINE May 10, 2014

No, that's not the actual title. Sharia-ism is Here: The Battle to Control Women and Everyone Else might have been called that but doubtless Joy Brighton, the author, would have encountered brand or trademark infringement problems with the publisher of the popular and successful For Dummies series, John Wiley & Sons. I also suspect that Wiley & Sons would have been horrified by the idea of publishing such an "Islamophobic" book anyway. It has published Islam for Dummies and The Koran for Dummies, both of which, to judge by their Amazon descriptions, are treacly, inoffensive, sanitized guides to a highly "misunderstood" and "misperceived" religion-cum-ideology.

Have They no Shame?

  Isi Leibler
http://wordfromjerusalem.com/?p=5086

In terms of shameless personal corruption on a broad party political level, I doubt that anything can match the extraordinary efforts by MKs from the majority of political parties, who are promoting legislation calculated to damage or destroy the nation’s most popular and widely circulated daily newspaper.

The campaign against Israel Hayom is beneath contempt. It emanates from Noni Mozes, the publisher of Yediot Achronot which, prior to the advent of Israel Hayom, totally dominated the mass media.

Israel Hayom was established by billionaire philanthropist Sheldon Adelson, a friend of Prime Minister Netanyahu who is also probably today the greatest philanthropist to Jewish and Israeli causes. The paper is politically center-right and its editorial policies basically support the Netanyahu government. Yet it prides itself on opening up its pages to opposing viewpoints – ironically including op-eds from some of the MKs now seeking its closure. In contrast, Yediot was notorious for excluding any dissenting opinion whilst frenziedly promoting supporters, such as former discredited Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.

Obama: I want to reach out and save the kidnapped Nigerian girls

Bob Fredericks
New York Post

http://www.investigativeproject.org/4379/obama-i-want-to-reach-out-and-save-the-kidnapped

 

President Obama said he wakes up thinking of the Nigerian schoolgirls abducted by Islamist extremists and facing a life as sex slaves, and wishes he "could reach out and save those kids."

"We only need to look at today's headlines — the devastation of Syria, the murders and kidnappings in Nigeria, sectarian conflict, the tribal conflicts — to see that we have not yet extinguished man's darkest impulses," Obama said at a Los Angeles fund-raiser late Wednesday.

"I have this remarkable title right now — president of the United States," Obama said. (He loves to say this; it makes him feel so powerful and what he says important even when he does not act.) "And yet every day when I wake up, and I think about young girls in Nigeria or children caught up in the conflict in Syria . . . there are times in which I want to reach out and save those kids."

Obama, speaking at an event for the Steven Spielberg-backed USC Shoah Foundation, was frustrated over the lack of a quick fix.