Muddling Toward Maturity Blog

MONA CHAREN - THE CHAVEZ REGIME HAS STEPPED UP ITS ANTI-SEMITIC CRUSADE

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David Horowitz Blasts the Bush Administration for Staging a "Munich" in Annapolis

Update:  Bernard Lewis lays out the scenario especially well:

The first question (one might think it is obvious but apparently not) is, "What is the conflict about?" There are basically two possibilities: that it is about the size of Israel, or about its existence.

If the issue is about the size of Israel, then we have a straightforward border problem, like Alsace-Lorraine or Texas. That is to say, not easy, but possible to solve in the long run, and to live with in the meantime. . .
 
If the issue is not the size of Israel, but its existence, negotiations are foredoomed.  And in the light of the past record, it is clear that is and will remain the issue, until the Arab leadership either achieves or renounces its purpose--to destroy Israel.  Both seem equally unlikely for the time being.

Andy McCarthy in a biting article calls the Annapolis meeting a "farce."

Buried in Annapolis will be the last shards of the Bush Doctrine, the blunt marker the president once put down to signal a do-or-die choice for jihadist nations. Are you with us, he asked, or with the terrorists?

Caroline Glick says:

But in the interests of bringing about the declaration of a sovereign state of Palestine, Rice and her associates are advancing policies that smack of moral dementia.

Her powerful article explains why. 

 **
David Horowitz can't put his objections too strongly. 

An American Secretary of State should be in Baghdad brokering a reconciliation between Iraqi factions and locking down a victory for which nearly 4,000 Americans gave their lives. Iraq is the central front in the holy war against  

Anti-Semitic Publishing Industry Flourishes in Egypt

Egypt publishes really awful stuff.  P. David Hornik writes:

Egypt is “the Arab world’s biggest center of publishing anti-Semitic literature.” So says a new report by the Tel Aviv-based Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center.

This literature that Egypt puts out, says the Center, “is marketed across the Arab and Muslim world, distributed through the Internet, and sold every year at the Cairo International Book Fair.” The Egyptian government, “despite its ability to impose strict censorship,” allows all this to go on.

Read on for detailed examples.

Melanie Phillips Chronicles the Dismaying Anti-Semitism and Anti-Zionism That Pervades Much of Britain

This is a major article that should be noted carefully. 

Dennis Prager Defends Ann Coulter Against Charges of Anti-Semitism

Prager writes:

There is nothing in what Ann Coulter said to a Jewish interviewer on CNBC that indicates she hates Jews or wishes them ill, or does damage to the Jewish people or the Jewish state. And if none of those criteria is present, how can someone be labeled anti-Semitic?

What damage has she ever done to Jews? What is wrong with a person believing that it would be better if another person adopted their faith? Is there one leftist who doesn't believe that a conservative would be better -- "perfected," if you will -- by embracing leftist beliefs and values? Why is it laudable for a left-winger to hope that conservatives convert to liberalism, but dangerous and hate-filled when a Christian hopes that Jews or anyone else will go to heaven (that is, after all,

World-Wide Anti-Semitism Spreading

Victor Davis Hanson surveys the situation with quotes from many (sometimes surprising) sources.

Christiane Amanpour's CNN Series "God's Warriors" Evaluated

What should we make of Christiane Amanpour's six-hour CNN production on Jews, Muslims and Christians titled "God's Warriors"?   

Camera (The Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America) has evaluated all three programs. The first is titled God's Jewish Warriors: CNN's Abomination; the second, "God's Muslim Warriors: CNN's Double Standard"; and the third, Amanpour Slurs Christians. 

Phyllis Chesler also weighs in with her own biting analysis.

Transcripts of the three programs can be found at the following links: God's Jewish Warriors; God's Muslim Warriors; and God's Christian Warriors.

Egyptian TV Telecasts Anti-Semitic Propaganda Movie: "A Girl From Israel"

Read Nonie Darwish's description and review.  If you are not  yet up to speed on Arab hatred towards Jews, you will find it shocking.  Even if you are up to speed on Arab hatred towards Jews, you will still find it shocking.   At least I did.   Raw propaganda like this reminds one of Nazi propaganda.  It can't help but do so. 

Crazed View: Britain's National Union of Journalists Urges a Boycott of Israel

Clifford D. May writes:

The NUJ has declared a boycott against the usual suspect: Israel. Just say no! to Israeli oranges, lemons and melons, they demand.

The NUJ has not declared a boycott against Sudan — despite the fact that the Khartoum regime is committing genocide against black Muslims in Darfur. Nor have they called for a boycott against the Syrian and Russian regimes that regularly murder their critics; the Iranian mullahs who torture reporters; the Palestinian Authority which is complicit in the kidnapping of correspondents; or the many Middle Eastern regimes that trample human rights day in and day out. No, the NUJ targets what is indisputably the freest and most democratic country in the Middle East, the one nation in the world with neighbors so hostile they vow to wipe her off the map.

The simple explanation is anti-Israelism — the 21st century’s most fashionable form of anti-Semitism. The NUJ is not quite candid enough to say that. Instead, the union cites what it calls the “savage, pre-planned attack on Lebanon by Israel.”

You may be thinking: But didn’t last summer’s conflict begin when Hezbollah fired rockets from Lebanon at villages inside Israel? Didn’t Hezbollah commandos cross the border into Israel and kill three Israeli soldiers and kidnap two more (who are to this day still in captivity, deprived of the most basic rights to which POWs are entitled)? Weren’t those acts of war to which Israel had a right to respond? 

Also, you might wonder why the NUJ is so blithely unconcerned about Hezbollah’s use of Lebanese civilians and, in some cases, entire villages, as human shields. Though there was little press coverage during last summer’s war, after the conflict U.K. Foreign Office Minister Kim Howell investigated and reported to a parliamentary committee that Hezbollah had extensively hidden caches of arms in schools and mosques, and rockets in homes and apartment blocks.    (more)

Major Rise in Anti-Semitic Attacks in Britain

Article is here.  Excerpts:

Global anti-Semitism is spiraling upward, driven by xenophobia and cultural clashes in Europe and by increasingly virulent anti-Zionism in the Arab world, according to a comprehensive study of anti-Semitic incidents released by a Tel Aviv University research institute on Sunday. . .

. . .In all, 590 incidents of violence or vandalism were recorded in 2006, a 15 percent increase from 2004 and a seven-fold increase from 1989.

The 2006 figures also represents a 31% increase from 2005, when anti-Semitic incidents declined after several years of increases.

"In two countries - France and Norway - chief rabbis are calling on Jews not to step outside with Jewish symbols on their person," said Prof. Dina Porat, who edited the report along with Stauber.  [much more]

Anti-Israel Special Programs on University Campuses Accuse Israel of Apartheid

The propaganda against Israel flourishes on university campuses.  Click here for a report.  It can get pretty nasty.

A Jewish student at CUNY, raised his hand to ask the question, “Do you support terrorism?” The Arab presenters refused to answer. Rister [the student]politely repeated the same question only to find himself set upon by five CUNY security cops who dragged him from his seat and removed him from the room. One officer continued holding him by the neck on the outside escalator and repeatedly banged Rister’s head against the wall as the escalator descended. Then, before they reached the bottom, the guard threw Rister head first down the remaining steps, injuring him severely enough to be taken to the hospital in a neck brace.  There were seven witnesses to the unprovoked attack . . .

Dore Gold, Former Israeli Ambassador to the UN, Interviewed on Muslim Claim that Jerusalem has No Historical Significance for Jews

The title of this post should be absurd on its face.  Jerusalem of no historical significance to Jews?  Who is kidding whom?  Is this a lie to beat all lies?  And what about the rising prominence of Jerusalem amongst Muslim radicals?

Gold's new book is The Fight for Jerusalem: Radical Islam, the West, and the Future of the Holy City, discusses Muslim claims and shows in painstaking detail the archaeological and other evidence to establish once and for all the Jewish roots in the land of Israel.   Gold says:

A friend of mine in Britain, who works in the  Gulf states, told me that most of his Arab contacts these days tell him that there never was an ancient Kingdom of  Israel or Kingdom of Judah. 

I felt I must at least begin the effort to negate these trends. So in the beginning of the "Fight for Jerusalem," I dealt with these issues but I also put into the book striking color photos from the Israel Antiquities Authority with some of the greatest archaeological finds of recent years that bolster the veracity of the Biblical narrative and contradict the trend Arafat sought to initiate. How can you deny there was a Kingdom of  Judah when you see in my book royal seals of the Davidic dynasty--like the seal of Hezekiah, King of Judah?

Gold also discusses the striking claim by one Muslim leader that Jerusalem will become the capital of a future global caliphate. Read the whole interview here.

Daniel Pipes' Talk at UC-Irvine Disturbed by Muslim Students

Daniel Pipes, the important scholar of Middle Eastern matters, had his speech on "The Threat to Israel's Existence" interrupted at University of California - Irvine by what he said appear to be " goons of an Islamist persuasion."   His weblog links to videos of his speech (including the disturbances) plus there are links to several commentaries on the event.    One of the videos includes Pipes' complete address which is a handy way to get up to speed on the current threat to Israel.   (HT: Candace de Russy at Phi Beta Cons)

AYAAN HIRSI ALI: MUSLIMS AREN'T TOLD ABOUT THE HOLOCAUST

John Podhoretz calls this the "Op-Ed of the Month... if not the year" by "the relentlessly brave Ayaan Hirsi Ali."   Hirsi Ali is the Somali immigrant who served in the parliament of the Netherlands until earlier this year when she moved to America.

Hirsi Ali didn't hear of the holocaust until she was 24 years old and living in Holland.

As a child growing up in Saudi Arabia, I remember my teachers, my mom and our neighbors telling us practically on a daily basis that Jews are evil, the sworn enemies of Muslims, and that

JIMMY CARTER'S UNERRING INSTINCT FOR ERROR

Update 12/18/06 - Here is an insightful article pointing out the millions of dollars Jimmy Carter has received from Arab sources for his library.  One can't be blamed for wondering how objective that makes him.

**

Mona Charen says Jimmy Carter has "a seemingly unerring instinct for error."  Carter has written a new book: Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid.  Charen says "[it] is touted (by Carter himself) as an evenhanded analysis of the Israeli/Arab conflict -- but one need go no further than the title to suspect otherwise."

Here’s a precis of the book: Israel is the problem. In fact, it’s all summed up in the final paragraph: “Peace will come to Israel and the Middle East only when the Israeli government is willing to comply with international law, with the Roadmap for Peace, with official American policy, with the wishes of a majority of its own citizens — and honor its own previous commitments — by accepting its legal borders.” By the way, that kind of awkward phrasing is found throughout this slapdash work.

.... The book is so foolish that you can pretty much close your eyes and point to any page to find something simplistic, naïve, or tendentious.   (Read Charen's entire review)

THE NAZI HOLOCAUST, J.R.R. TOLKEIN, IRAN'S AHMADINEJAD

The Colossus blog offers useful reflections on the relevance of Tolkein, the history of Naziism, and the face of evil in Iran's Ahmadinejad.   (HT: Hugh Hewitt)

DUTCH PROFESSOR FORBIDDEN TO SPEAK ON ISLAMIC ANTI-SEMITISM

Why doesn't the virulence of Islamic anti-Semitism raise eyebrows and voices in a huge  chorus of protest?  How is it that Islamic anti-Semitism thrives as a protected attitude amongst the politically correct elite ?  Why isn't Islamic anti-Semitism denounced in the strongest of terms?  What kind of insidious twisting of people's minds allows such hate to go unchallenged? 

Islamic anti-Semitism in my opinion ranks as one of the Big Stories of this century, its end still waiting to be played out.

Here is a story of a Dutch University professor who was censored from delivering a speech on the prevalence of anti-Semitism throughout history and culminating

Israel Guilty of Apartheid?

The Stanford student organization Coalition for Justice in the Middle East (CJME) accuses Israel of practicing apartheid.  This article refutes the charge.

The analogy between apartheid and Israel is absurd. The revival of national sovereignty in the Jewish homeland is not a manifestation of European colonialism, in contrast to the white settlers (Afrikaans, English and others) who created Johannesburg and Pretoria. Jews are indigenous to the Middle East as is the Jewish national language, Hebrew. Anyone who has ever visited Israel knows that it is one of the most diverse multi-ethnic democracies in the world.

Read the whole article and its defense of Israel against this slander.

Iranian Papers: "Great War to Wipe Out Israel Coming"

Editorials in Iranian newspapers claim '50 percent of Israel already destroyed,' say 'Israel must collapse.'  Read more  here.    (HT: Drudge)

British Anti-Semitism Then and Now

David Gutmann lays out the situation.  Near the end, Gutmann writes:

Along with the rest of what is now being called "Eurabia," the Brits are soothing the Muslims among them by acts of appeasement. In 1938, they bought a year of peace by offering Czechoslovakia to Hitler; now, for a temporary peace, they offer Muslims a piece of the Jews who are like the unlucky passenger tossed from the sled to appease the ravening wolves.

United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFL) - Sitting Around, Not Stopping Weapons Smuggling

According to news reports,

"Despite the 20,000 troops deployed in southern Lebanon, the United Nations admits that weapons smuggling from Syria continues unhindered. A German report finds UNIFIL does not patrol after dark.

Hizbullah terrorists are free to roam at night without fear of being identified by the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), according to a report by the German paper Der Spiegel.

Spanish UNIFIL official Richard Ortax admitted to the paper that no patrols are carried out at night “because of the danger involved.”    (Read more)

KEEPING TRACK OF THE U.N. AND ISRAEL

Anne Bayefsky reports on "The U.N.'s Spokesperson for Suicide Bombers:  John Dugard delivers his annual address to the U.N. on Israel's human-rights record."   She writes: 

On October 19, U.N.-appointed “human rights” expert John Dugard told the General Assembly that “Palestinian suicide bombers” are “a consequence of occupation.” In five years traveling on the U.N. payroll - 22 percent of which comes from American taxpayers - Dugard has now distinguished himself as the most fanatical spokesperson for terrorism at the U.N. outside the Arab and Muslim world.   

More here.     Anne Bayefsky is a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute and at Touro College Law Center.    She is also editor of www.EyeontheUN.org.

The International Crisis Group (ICG): An Introduction

This article is not favorably impressed with the ICG, seeing it's attempted solution to the  Arab-Israeli problem as naive and dependent on denying reality.   

Jews are Hated for Being Jews (Shame on the World!)

I found Mark Steyn's following words arresting:

Jews are hated for what they are – so, at any moment in history, whatever they are is what they’re hated for.  For centuries in Europe, they were hated for being rootless cosmopolitan types.  Now there are no rootless European Jews to hate, so they’re hated for being an illegitimate Middle Eastern nation-state. If the Zionist Entity were destroyed and the survivors forced to become perpetual cruise-line stewards plying the Caribbean, they’d be hated for that, too.

Commenting on these words is Caroline Glick who says (writing in the Jerusalem Post):

It is crucial that all of us internalize the message that these lines convey. For in recent years, rather than recognize the prejudice of our detractors, we have devoted ourselves to attempting to understand and so justify the hatred they heap upon us.

We tell ourselves we are hated because we are too strong - or because we are too weak. We are hated because we are too religious - or because we are not religious enough. We are hated because we insist on defending Israel - or we are hated because we are willing to compromise on Israel.

Yet, as Steyn wisely notes, we are not hated because of what we do, we are hated because we are Jews.  . .   (More)

JEWS WHO HATE ISRAEL

For a stomach turning read, take a look at this article by Paul Bogdanor, co-author of  The Jewish Divide Over Israel: Accusers and Defenders.   Bogdanor recites the unbelievable hatred towards Israel displayed by anti-Zionist writers such as Noam Chomsky, Norman Finkelstein, Tony Judt, Jacqueline Rose, Michael Neumann, and others.  This is all very eye-opening for those of us less acquainted with the Jewish anti-Zionist phenomenon.   It boggles one's mind to hear Jews calling other Jews "Nazis" and worse. 

Of the book itself, an  Amazon editorial review says:

Today, Jewish "progressives" rationalize violence against the innocent as resistance to the oppressor, excuse Arab extremism as the frustration of a wronged party, and redefine eliminationist rhetoric and physical assaults against Jews as "criticism of Israeli policy." Israel’s Jewish accusers have played a crucial and disproportionate role in the current upsurge of antisemitism precisely because they speak as Jews. Eager to evade the "moral taint" of justifying Israel’s right to self-defense, Israel’s Jewish accusers find themselves, in an age of suicide bombers, complicit in the murder of their fellow Jews.

The article offers a solid introduction to this sad phenomenon.

BRITISH JEWS NOW IMMIGRATING TO ISRAEL IN RECORD NUMBERS

A report in the Jerusalem Post opens with this sentence on new arrivals coming to Israel: "Anti-Semitic attitudes in the UK are a leading factor in encouraging aliya for British Jews" 

I believe there is no future for Jews outside Israel," said Yossi Vardakis, 19, while en route from London to Israel, where he plans to study rather than face hostility at a British university. "You don't feel really welcomed being Jewish [in England]. You're attacked for supporting Israel... You see this hatred coming out."

. . . Shachar Navon of the Jewish Agency's London branch said the influx of immigrants would contribute to an expected 550 British olim in 2006, the highest number in the last decade and a continuation of a trend which has seen about a 50 percent rise in British newcomers in the last few years.

She attributed that increase largely to antagonism felt by British Jews: "They say they are not fully secure here in the UK and that there are anti-Semitic acts all the time. They say they want to live in a place that welcomes them instead of looking at them as strangers."

Surely this is fascinating:  Jews leaving Europe for an embattled nation whose existence now has itself become so uncertain and fragile.  What does this say about Europe (and England?!)  What does it say, further, about Israel as a magnet for the regathering of Jewish people from around the world?  Can the United States resist the tide of anti-Semitism sweeping the globe?  I think so, but I predict the Left will more and more agitate against the support of Israel.  Already it is increasingly difficult for Jews on American university campuses.

ANTI-SEMITISM IN EDINBURGH, SCOTLAND

James Glassman wandered around Edinburgh during the world's largest arts festival and was shocked by what he heard.   A quote from his article:

But what is going on in Edinburgh now is no satire.  For me, Hughes represents a growing trend among left-thinking people in this country and around the world to accept as dogma that those on the Left should hate Bush, Blair, American imperialism, Israel and, while we’re at it, the Jews.  It is a cultural trend that I’ve found increasingly evident but never before has the Jew-hating element been so overt.  This week has confirmed that my Jewish paranoia is not entirely unfounded.  As the old saying goes: “Just because I’m paranoid doesn’t mean they’re not out to get me.”

THE BIG LIE - "PROTOCOLS OF THE ELDERS OF ZION"

Here is a comprehensive article dealing with the Protocols of the Elders of Zion.  The article describes a new book by former Israeli Supreme Court justice Hadassa Ben-Itto, The Lie that Wouldn't Die--The Protocols of the Elders of Zion  It also details the way Muslims make use of this Big Lie in their fomenting of hatred towards Jews and the State of Israel.

UPDATE 8/28/06:   Jamie Glazov has an interview with Hadassa Ben-Itto here.

PHONY (AND STAGED) PRO-HEZBOLLAH PROPAGANDA PICTURES USED BY THE MAIN STREAM MEDIA

I have updated my August 2nd post on the phony pro-Hezbollah, anti-Israel propaganda pictures coming out of Lebanon.    Click here and then scroll down to see the incredible videos.   Do we have a bunch of naive dunderheads in MSM?   Or is it a matter of the MSM choosing sides and cooperating in a propaganda effort against Israel and the West?   Either way, skepticism is now the watchword in viewing any photos on TV, in print, or on the internet.

UPDATE 8/11/06:  Still more

Update 8/16/06:  Michelle Malkin provides a helpful summary article for WorldNetDaily.

Update 8/18/06: Joel Mobray updates the situation still further and concludes his article saying,

Yet given that thugs from Hezbollah, Hamas, and Arafat’s Fatah control almost everything in the most “newsworthy” areas of the Arab world, any scene or event encountered by Western media outlets must be viewed with supreme skepticism.

 

But it’s not as if this is news to the Western media. They know it. Yet pretend as if they don’t. That’s the real travesty.

WILL AUGUST 22nd PROVE TO BE A DAY OF CONFLAGRATION??

Bernard Lewis, the celebrated scholar and expert on Islam, has warned that August 22nd might be a cataclysmic date for the Middle East and the world.   As an article in WND today reports: 

A top expert on the Mideast says it is possible Iran could pick Aug. 22, the anniversary of one of Islam's holiest events, for a cataclysm Shiite Muslims believe will forever resolve the battle between "good" and "evil."

Princeton's Bernard Lewis has written an opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal advising that the rest of the world would be wise to bear in mind that for those who believe the end of the world is imminent and good, there is no deterrent even to nuclear warfare.

As WorldNetDaily has reported, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has urged his people to prepare for the coming of an Islamic "messiah," raising concerns a nuclear-armed Islamic Republic could trigger the kind of global conflagration he envisions will set the stage for the end of the world. . . .

In Islam, as in other religious, certain beliefs describe the "cosmic struggle" at the end of time. For Shiite Muslims, Lewis wrote, this will be "the long awaited return of the Hidden Imam, ending in the final victory of the forces of good over evil."

The significance, he said, is that there's a "radical" difference between Iran and other governments with nuclear weapons.

"This difference is expressed in what can only be described as the apocalyptic worldview of Iran's present rulers," he wrote. Iran's leaders now "clearly believe that this time is now, and that the terminal struggle has already begun and is indeed well advanced."  . . .

Lewis wrote, "This might well be deemed an appropriate date for the apocalyptic ending of Israel and if necessary the world. It is far from certain that Mr. Ahmadanejad plans any such cataclysmic events precisely for Aug. 22. But it would be wise to bear the possibility in mind."   More

UPDATE 8/10/06: 

Bernard Lewis's piece appears in the Opinion Journal as well.

Joel Rosenberg weighs in on the subject over at National Review Online.  What's interesting about Rosenberg's article, is that he states he has written two novels on radical Islam.  Radical Islam has  followed the very script he had outlined in his novels!  Prescient?   Up till now, it seems so.  Rosenberg writes:

It is hard for many Americans to imagine an Iranian leader (or any other world leader) actually trying to bring about the end of the world by launching a nuclear attack to destroy millions of Jews and Christians. But it is precisely this type of attack that I wrote about in my recent political thrillers, The Ezekiel Option and The Copper Scroll. One of my goals was to help people understand this brand of radical Islamic thinking and its implications for Western civilization. On page 358 of The Ezekiel Option, a fictional Islamic character insists that Israel is going to be “wiped off the face of the map forever.” Five months after Option was published last June, Ahmadinejad gave a speech vowing to wipe Israel “off the map” forever. In the novel, Iran forms a military alliance with Russia and starts buying state-of-the-art weaponry from Moscow to accomplish its apocalyptic objectives. Last December, fiction again became reality, when Iran signed a $1 billion deal with Russia to buy missiles and others weapons.

Muslims are not the only ones who have apocalyptic end-times views, of course. As an evangelical Christian from an Orthodox Jewish heritage, my novels are based on a number of “end times” prophecies that the Bible says will be fulfilled in “the last days.” For example, the Hebrew Prophet Ezekiel — writing 2,500 years ago — described a future Middle Eastern war to annihilate Israel that is known today by Bible scholars as the “War of Gog and Magog.” Jews and Christians who take Ezekiel’s prophecies seriously believe that at the last minute the God of Israel will supernaturally intervene to defeat Israel’s enemies in this war. By contrast, the Muslim version of the “War of “Gog and Magog“ found in the Koran concludes with Muslims winning. The Ezekiel Option and The Copper Scroll imagine how such prophecies could play themselves out in modern times. But suddenly this is no longer the stuff of fiction. Ahmadinejad actually seems intent on launching the “War of Gog and Magog.”        (More here)

MICHAEL MEDVED - WHY THE WORLD HATES THE JEWS

Michael Medved wrote an important column today, "Why the World Hates the Jews."   He  said,

Whether it’s the angry international reaction to Israel’s efforts to defend itself in Lebanon, or Mel Gibson’s drunken rant in Malibu, the age-old specter of anti-Semitism refuses to disappear.  With only 13 million Jews in the world – less than one fourth of one percent of the earth’s population – why does this tiny group inspire such bitter, widespread and often violent animosity?

He boils down anti-Semitism to three major contentions and in turn supplies excellent analyses of each charge:

1- The emphasis on the “Chosen People” concept in the Bible

2- The prominence and prosperity of Jews in most nations in which they’ve established significant communities, and

3- The startling successes of the State of Israel in the mere 60 years of its existence.

Read his article here.

WESTERNERS ARE SUCKERS - THE ANTI-ISRAEL PRESS FALLS FOR TERRORIST "STAGING" FAR TOO OFTEN!!

Terrorists understand that images are more important than armies.    This article by Jonah Goldberg puts a fair number of Arab/Muslim terrorist accusations and photo manipulations, past and present, on the record.  Goldberg could have put still more.   Helpful in this regard (including background on the many unanswered questions surrounding Qana), would be a perusal of recent posts at Confederate Yankee.

UPDATE:  Robert  Spencer has a terrific article titled, Stage-Managed Massacre (about Qana) complete with many important links. 

UPDATE 8/9/06:   Michelle Malkin on "doctored" anti-Israel photographs  at Reuters and other news organizations.

UPDATE 8/10/06:  A Green Helmet guy directs a pro-Hezballah production. Video footage  of the "staging" taking place.   This is incredible!!    Finally, Michelle Malkin puts lots of this phony reporting and "fauxtography" together in this superb, not-to-be-missed Hot Air Vent. 

MUSLIM HATRED OF JEWS FROM THE TIME OF MUHAMMAD UNTIL NOW

"Whenever a Jew is killed, it is for the benefit of Islam."  So said the 17th century Indian Sufi jurist Sirhindi (d. 1621).   Dr. Andrew G. Bostom once again puts us in his debt by producing a major article on the Muslim attitude towards Jews from the time of Muhammad right down to the contemporary Seattle murders of July 28, 2006.   Bostom's articles are always valuable, not only for their own content (which is invariably excellent), but also for the numerous embedded links he includes within them.
 

THE PATHOLOGY OF PALESTINIAN SUICIDE BOMBERS

Some insight into the mindset of radical Palestinians is offered in an interview by Jamie Glazov of Frontpagemag.com with Pierre Rehov, a French filmaker who has filmed six documentaries on the Palestinian Intifada. His documentary, Suicide Killers, explores the psychology of suicide bombers. He has a new film out, From the River to the Sea, which examines the worldwide forces that have empowered Hamas and Hezbollah."  A portion of the interview follows.

FP: The Palestinians have shown over and over again that they lust for the destruction of Israel to the point that they would prefer it over a good life for themselves.  They would rather blow themselves and their children up then have their own state, live in peace and have Jews next to them.  This is a craving for death no?  From where does such a pathology emerge?

 

Rehov: We should not say the Palestinians, but some Palestinians, and unfortunately a significant percentage of them. To get into this pathology would take months of medial reports but my own experience on the field led me to retain two aspects of the problem.

 
No Palestinian suicide bomber actually becomes a suicide bomber as a direct result of occupation or to fight this occupation. What they fight is the culture and the free society behind this so-called “occupation.” The word occupation has to be understood as they see it: for Palestinians, Tel Aviv, Haifa, Eilat, Beer Sheva are occupied.  Not only Gaza (which is no longer occupied) and the West Bank.

 
What a suicide bomber wants to destroy is not the army of the enemy, but the "impurity" surrounding him. None of them are seculars. What leads them to commit a suicide attack is their absolute belief in a ferocious God, who has put the Muslims in charge of His world, and asked them to spread His word by any means. The first duty to a Muslim is to convert non-Muslims to Islam.

 
This leads to a real pathology, since Islam doesn't leave any door open for interpretation or reform. Mohammed is the last prophet. Islamic law should prevail. Anything contrary to this absolute truth must be destroyed.

 
In such a closed culture, the interpretation of outside events is obviously different from a rational one.  Any victory is offered by God. Any defeat is a punishment for not being pure enough. And while the Occidental culture is mostly built on guilt, one has to understand that Muslim culture is built on shame. The opposite of shame being pride, no Muslim can accept to obey other rules than the Islamic ones.

 
This leads to a situation where, young males, and some young women, actually dream of being this absolute heroes, that everyone is going to worship, whose duty would have been fulfilled, and whose reward is specifically described in the Koran: namely, absolution, paradise, 72 virgins for the men, and the acceptance of 70 members of their family, forgiven for all their sins.

 
I asked a female suicide bomber who had failed in her mission: “Why, if your God created Jews, do you think it is your mission to kill them?" She answered: "God also created snakes, rats, and viruses."

WHAT ISLAM TEACHES ABOUT THE JEWS - TRULY DISGUSTING

Andrew Bostom provides a helpful, if disgusting and odious, account of the teaching of the Qur'an and the Hadith concerning the Jews.   It needs to be filed away for anyone wanting to know what Islam teaches about the Jews.   The article begins with these words:

There are short-term reasons behind the attacks on Israel by Hezbollah and Hamas. But underlying all the geo-strategy is a solid foundation of fanatical Jew-hatred, dating back to the founding of Islam. There is literally nothing Israel or Jews can do to appease those who seek to annihilate them.

Read it all.   (HT: Atlas Shrugs )

IMPORTANT INTERVIEW WITH MELANIE PHILLIPS, AUTHOR OF "LONDONISTAN"

Jamie Glasov of Frontpagemag.com has a short, but powerful interview with Melanie Phillips, author of Londonistan.    This interview needs to be read in its entirely.  It is not long.  The following quote does not do full justice to the interview.

The British establishment, as I have said, has a historic proclivity towards appeasement.  It takes the cynical view that there is no group in the world whom it cannot buy off one way or another.   In addition, it has an absolute blind spot about religious fanaticism.   It refuses to acknowledge the religious nature of Islamic fascism -- maybe because to do so would mean facing up to horrendous challenges, or maybe because the British elite simply cannot take seriously something that sounds to its super-sophisticated ears so absurd as the restoration of the medieval Caliphate and the Islamisation of the world. . .

Daniel Pipes, director of the Middle East Forum and author of Militant Islam Reaches America says this about the book:  

In contrast to the overwhelming majority of her British compatriots, who prefer to avert their eyes from the radical Islamic horror growing in their midst, Melanie Phillips has compiled a unique record that fearlessly, brilliantly and wittily exposes this problem.  Londonistan builds on and goes beyond her prior work by showing the role of what she calls the British ‘spiral of decadence’ in permitting Islamist ideas and demands to ride roughshod over the UK’s traditional ways. Phillips rightly warns Americans of the acute dangers for them, too, from Britain’s being a source of Richard Reid–like terrorists to the ending of the two countries’ special relationship.

Steven Emerson, executive director of the Investigative Project on Terrorism and author of American Jihad: The Terrorists Living Among Us  says this:

"Londonistan" is one of the most compelling books you will ever read on the ascendancy of Islamic fundamentalism, violence and intimidation in the West. Melanie Phillips exposes the scandalous appeasement of militant Islam by British officials, the media, even the Church of England, capturing in extraordinary detail how British society and institutions have either ignored or actively fostered the growth of extremist groups on British soil. This book will both enlighten and enrage. Although its story is focused on the United Kingdom, it could be applied to any European capital or to the United States.

RADICAL MUSLIMS RALLY IN NEW YORK CITY, CHANT "ISLAM WILL DOMINATE THE WORLD"

You won't believe what a group of Muslims (the Islamic Thinkers' Society) had to say in an April 20th rally in New York City.  Steve Emerson at the Counterterrorism blog  reports on the story using the following title:  "Islamists' message to Israel at New York City rally:  'The mushroom cloud is on its way!'"   Accusations of "hate" are thrown around all too readily in our society, I think, but in this case such an accusation is completely accurate and appropriate.  Read the following chants.

Israel won’t last long… Indeed, Allah will repeat the Holocaust right on the soil of Israel
Takbeer! 
Response: Allahu Akbar!

Islam will dominate the world
Islam is the only solution
Islam will dominate the world
Islam is the only solution
Takbeer!
La ilaha il Allah, Muhammad-ur Rasool Allah

* * *
Another mushroom cloud, right in the midst of Israel!
Takbeer!!  Allahu Akbar! 

A sign said "Islam Will Dominate" with a picture of an Islamic flag over the White House.  A video can be found at this site.

JEWS WHO HATE ISRAEL

Why are so many Jewish intellectuals anti-Israel and anti-Semitic?  This article, an interview with Edward Alexander (co-author of The Jewish Divide Over Israel: Accusers and Defenders), offers answers.  One answer is the following:

A large proportion of Jewish intellectuals, even more than ordinary Jews, have long assumed that Judaism and liberalism are the same thing, or that Judaism follows an arrow-straight course from Sinai to liberal and left politics, in this country to the left wing of the Democratic Party. So long as the existence of the state of Israel seemed to harmonize with liberal ideals, especially in the years after the Holocaust, it could be actively supported or at least tacitly accepted by most Jewish liberals. But the June 1967 war changed all this, and with remarkable speed. For now Jewish intellectuals were required to choose between liberal pieties and defense of the beleaguered Jewish state.

See the article for much more.  Edward also recommends Sander Gilman's Jewish Self-Hatred.

THE ANTI-SEMITIC DIVESTMENT CAMPAIGN

Phyllis Chesler writes today on the Anti-Semitic Divestment Campaign.   On the general subject of anti-Semitism, an earlier article on the socialist roots of Anti-Semitism may be worth noting.    Paul Johnson offers a useful historical summary in his essay, "The Anti-Semitic Disease".   I have many other articles on this subject which I may dig out sometime.    The anti-Israel politically correct stance bears close watching.  It is very frightening and a reminder of 1939.

A quote from the Paul Johnson essay:

What strikes the historian surveying anti-Semitism worldwide over more than two millennia is its fundamental irrationality. It seems to make no sense, any more than malaria or meningitis makes sense. In the whole of history, it is hard to point to a single occasion when a wave of anti-Semitism was provoked by a real Jewish threat (as opposed to an imaginary one). In Japan, anti-Semitism was and remains common even though there has never been a Jewish community there of any size. 

Asked to explain why they hate Jews, anti-Semites contradict themselves. Jews are always showing off; they are hermetic and secretive. They will not assimilate; they assimilate only too well. They are too religious; they are too materialistic, and a threat to religion. They are uncultured; they have too much culture. They avoid manual work; they work too hard. They are miserly; they are ostentatious spenders. They are inveterate capitalists; they are born Communists. And so on. In all its myriad manifestations, the language of anti-Semitism through the ages is a dictionary of non-sequiturs and antonyms, a thesaurus of illogic and inconsistency.

UPDATE: 2/21/06 - Mark Tooley reviews  the anti-Israel position of Mainline denominations such as the Presbyterian Church USA, United Church of Christ, and the United Methodist Church (still in debate).  He reminds us:

 The Religious Left in the U.S. ignored persecution of Christians under the old Soviet Empire and continues to ignore such persecution by Islamic regimes.  For these officials, too often, the priority is not preserving the Gospel around the world but rather evangelizing for their own preferred anti-Western liberation theologies.