The Slaughter Of The Fogel Family

On Friday night, two Palestinians entered the house of the Fogel family in Itmar and, using knives, slaughtered them:



According to YNET News, the al-Aqsa Martyr's Brigade has claimed credit for this act. Moreover:

Gaza residents from the southern city of Rafah hit the streets Saturday to celebrate the terror attack in the West Bank settlement of Itamar where five family members were murdered in their sleep, including three children.

Residents handed out candy and sweets, one resident saying the joy "is a natural response to the harm settlers inflict on the Palestinian residents in the West Bank."

Palestinian media has condemned the murder on one hand, yet justified it on the other as a response Israel's "hostile policies" towards the Palestinians.

These people are animals. They need to be treated as such. Peace with these animals is not possible. They should not be receiving one penny in Western aid. And we should be giving full support to Israel to conduct whatever military operations they deem necessary to insure the protection of their nation.

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Democracy versus Democracy Founded Upon Individual Rights

When you come down to it, for as much as we laud it, democracy is, by itself, nothing more than mob rule. Lots of places have democracy, many of which are far removed indeed from a "liberal democracy." From Villagers With Torches, an insightful post pointing out that it is not "democracy" that we should be pushing, or at least not democracy alone:

It MAY be too late for Egypt. It may be impossible in Islamic majority nations (and if so the sooner we know the better), but someone in the USA in leadership or potential leadership positions had better speak up so that we have a 30 second sound byte as to the difference between a mob intimidation rule of the masses, and a democracy whose PURPOSE is the protection of the individual while having majority rule.

Very well put. We pushed in 2005 for elections in Gaza and ended up with Hamas. It is quite possible that we could see the same in Egypt unless the call for democracy is irrevocably coupled with an even stronger call for individual rights.

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Turkey, Israel & Gaza, Take Two

Charles Krauthammer at the Washington Post and Barry Rubin at PJM both address the attempt by a coterie of pro-Palestinian activists and Turkish radical Islamists to run Israel's naval blockade of Gaza, ostensibly to deliver aid. Krauthammer concentrates on Israel while Rubin looks at the incident from the standpoint of our NATO ally - and a one time ally of Israel - Turkey. Robert Pollock at the WSJ documents Turkey's descent into an radical Islam. This from Dr. Krauthammer:

The world is outraged at Israel's blockade of Gaza. Turkey denounces its illegality, inhumanity, barbarity, etc. The usual U.N. suspects, Third World and European, join in. The Obama administration dithers.

But as Leslie Gelb, former president of the Council on Foreign Relations, writes, the blockade is not just perfectly rational, it is perfectly legal. Gaza under Hamas is a self-declared enemy of Israel -- a declaration backed up by more than 4,000 rockets fired at Israeli civilian territory. Yet having pledged itself to unceasing belligerency, Hamas claims victimhood when Israel imposes a blockade to prevent Hamas from arming itself with still more rockets. . . .

Oh, but weren't the Gaza-bound ships on a mission of humanitarian relief? No. Otherwise they would have accepted Israel's offer to bring their supplies to an Israeli port, be inspected for military materiel and have the rest trucked by Israel into Gaza -- as every week 10,000 tons of food, medicine and other humanitarian supplies are sent by Israel to Gaza.

Why was the offer refused? Because, as organizer Greta Berlin admitted, the flotilla was not about humanitarian relief but about breaking the blockade, i.e., ending Israel's inspection regime, which would mean unlimited shipping into Gaza and thus the unlimited arming of Hamas.

Israel has already twice intercepted ships laden with Iranian arms destined for Hezbollah and Gaza. What country would allow that?

But even more important, why did Israel even have to resort to blockade? Because, blockade is Israel's fallback as the world systematically de-legitimizes its traditional ways of defending itself -- forward and active defense. . . .

. . . The whole point of this relentless international campaign is to deprive Israel of any legitimate form of self-defense. Why, just last week, the Obama administration joined the jackals, and reversed four decades of U.S. practice, by signing onto a consensus document that singles out Israel's possession of nuclear weapons -- thus de-legitimizing Israel's very last line of defense: deterrence.

The world is tired of these troublesome Jews, 6 million -- that number again -- hard by the Mediterranean, refusing every invitation to national suicide. For which they are relentlessly demonized, ghettoized and constrained from defending themselves, even as the more committed anti-Zionists -- Iranian in particular -- openly prepare a more final solution.

And looking at this issue from Turkey's perspective, this from Mr. Rubin:

Israel-Turkey relations have gone from alliance to the verge of war because the West pretended an Islamist government could be benign.

The foolish think the breakdown is due to the recent Gaza flotilla; the naïve, who pass for the sophisticated experts, attribute the collapse to the December 2008-January 2009 Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip.

Such conclusions are totally misleading. The relationship breakdown was already clear — and in private every Israeli expert dealing seriously with Turkey said so — well over two years ago: the cause was the election in Turkey of an Islamist government. . . .

When the Turkish armed forces were an important part of the regime, they saw Israel as a good source for military equipment and an ally against Islamists and radical Arab regimes. But once the army was to be suppressed, its wishes were a matter of no concern. Depriving it of foreign allies was a goal of the AK Party government.

When Turkey thought it needed Israel as a way to maintain good relations with the United States, the alliance was valuable. But once it was clear that U.S. policy would accept the AK — and was none too fond of Israel — that reason for the alliance also dissolved. Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced:

It’s Israel that is the principal threat to regional peace.

At first, this outcome was not so obvious. The AK Party won its first election by only a narrow margin. To keep the United States and EU happy, to keep the Turkish army happy, and to cover up its Islamist sympathies, the new regime was cautious over relations with Israel. Keeping them going served as “proof” of Turkey’s moderation.

Yet as the AK majorities in elections rose, the government became more confident. No longer did it stress that it was a center-right party with family values. The regime steadily weakened the army, using EU demands for civilian power. As it repressed opposition and arrested hundreds of critics, bought up 40 percent of the media, and installed its people in the bureaucracy, the AK’s arrogance and its willingness to throw off its mask grew steadily.

And then, on top of that, the regime saw that the United States would not criticize it, not press it, not even notice what the Turkish government was doing. President Barack Obama came to Turkey and praised the regime as a model of moderate Muslim democracy. Former President Bill Clinton appeared in Istanbul, and in response to questions asked by an AK Party supporter, was manipulated into virtually endorsing the regime’s program without realizing it.

Earlier this year, the situation became even more absurd as Turkey moved ever closer to becoming the third state to join the Iran-Syria bloc. Syria’s state-controlled newspaper and Iranian President Ahmadinejad openly referred to Turkey’s membership in their alliance, and no one in Washington even noticed what was happening. Even when, in May, Turkish policy stabbed the United States in the back by helping Iran launch a sanctions-avoidance plan, the Obama administration barely stirred.

A few weeks ago, the Turkish prime minister said that Iran isn’t developing nuclear weapons, that he regards President Ahmadinejad as a friend, and that even if Iran were building nuclear bombs it has a right to do so. And still no one in Washington noticed. . . .

The current Turkish government hates Israel because it is an Islamist regime.

Note who its friends are: It cares nothing for the Lebanese people; it only backs Hezbollah. It never has a kind word for the Palestinian Authority or Fatah; the Turkish government’s friend is Hamas.

Lately for the first time, the AK government began to run into domestic problems. The poor status of the economy, the growing discontent of many Turks with creeping Islamism in the society, and the election — for the first time — of a popular leader for the opposition party began to give hope that next year’s elections might bring down the regime. Indeed, polls showed the AK sinking into or very close to second place. With the army neutered, elections are the only hope of getting Turkey off the road to Islamism. . . .

The question now becomes: how much can Turkey sabotage U.S. interests before U.S.-Turkish relations go the same way? The defection of Turkey to the other side would be the biggest strategic shift in the Middle East since the Iranian revolution three decades ago.

Pretending that this isn’t happening will not change it.

Robert Pollock, writing at the WSJ, documents the sharp move towards the Islamist camp that Turkey's PM Erodogan has led. This from Mr. Pollock:

. . . To follow Turkish discourse in recent years has been to follow a national decline into madness. Imagine 80 million or so people sitting at the crossroads between Europe and Asia. They don't speak an Indo-European language and perhaps hundreds of thousands of them have meaningful access to any outside media. What information most of them get is filtered through a secular press that makes Italian communists look right wing by comparison and an increasing number of state (i.e., Islamist) influenced outfits. Topics A and B (or B and A, it doesn't really matter) have been the malign influence on the world of Israel and the United States.

For example, while there was much hand-wringing in our own media about "Who lost Turkey?" when U.S. forces were denied entry to Iraq from the north in 2003, no such introspection was evident in Ankara and Istanbul. Instead, Turks were fed a steady diet of imagined atrocities perpetrated by U.S. forces in Iraq, often with the implication that they were acting as muscle for the Jews. The newspaper Yeni Safak, Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan's daily read, claimed that Americans were tossing so many Iraqi bodies into the Euphrates that local mullahs had issued a fatwa ordering residents not to eat the fish. The same paper repeatedly claimed that the U.S. used chemical weapons in Fallujah. And it reported that Israeli soldiers had been deployed alongside U.S. forces in Iraq and that U.S. forces were harvesting the innards of dead Iraqis for sale on the U.S. "organ market."

Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan has distanced himself from allies such as the U.S. and curried favor with the likes of Iran's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. The secular Hurriyet newspaper, meanwhile, accused Israeli soldiers of assassinating Turkish security personnel in Mosul and said the U.S. was starting an occupation of (Muslim) Indonesia under the guise of humanitarian assistance. Then U.S. ambassador to Turkey Eric Edelman actually felt the need to organize a conference call to explain to the Turkish media that secret U.S. nuclear testing did not cause the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami. One of the craziest theories circulating in Ankara was that the U.S. was colonizing the Middle East because its scientists were aware of an impending asteroid strike on North America.

The Mosul and organ harvesting stories were soon brought together in a hit Turkish movie called "Valley of the Wolves," which I saw in 2006 at a mall in Ankara. My poor Turkish was little barrier to understanding. The body parts of dead Iraqis could be clearly seen being placed into crates marked New York and Tel Aviv. It is no exaggeration to say that such anti-Semitic fare had not been played to mass audiences in Europe since the Third Reich. . . .

[PM Erodogan] and his party have traded on America and Israel hatred ever since. There can be little doubt the Turkish flotilla that challenged the Israeli-Egyptian blockade of Gaza was organized with his approval, if not encouragement. Mr. Erodogan's foreign minister, Ahmet Davutoglu, is a proponent of a philosophy which calls on Turkey to loosen Western ties to the U.S., NATO and the European Union and seek its own sphere of influence to the east. Turkey's recent deal to help Iran enrich uranium should come as no surprise.

Sadly, Turkey has had no credible opposition since its corrupt secular parties lost to Mr. Erdogan in 2002. The Ataturk-inspired People's Republican Party has just thrown off one leader who was constantly railing about CIA plots for another who wants to expand state spending as government coffers collapse everywhere else in the word.

. . . Prime Minister Erdogan was one of the first world leaders to recognize the legitimacy of the Hamas government in Gaza. And now he is upping the rhetoric after provoking Israel on Hamas's behalf. It is Israel, he says, that has shocked "the conscience of humanity." Foreign Minister Davutoglu is challenging the U.S: "We expect full solidarity with us. It should not seem like a choice between Turkey and Israel. It should be a choice between right and wrong."

Please. Good leaders work to defuse tensions in situations like this, not to escalate them. No American should be deceived as to the true motives of these men: They are demagogues appealing to the worst elements in their own country and the broader Middle East.

The obvious answer to the question of "Who lost Turkey?"—the Western-oriented Turkey, that is—is the Turks did. The outstanding question is how much damage they'll do to regional peace going forward.

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Obama, Turkey and Israel

On Monday, nine pro-Palestinian activists were killed and others injured when Israeli soldiers took control of six boats forming a flotilla about 70 miles offshore in international waters. The flotilla was headed towards the Gaza strip for the ostensible purpose of delivering aid. The real purpose was to challenge Israel's naval blockade of the Gaza strip and, thereby, create an international incident. The "flagship" of the flotilla was dispatched by our NATO "ally," Turkey. Israel's blockade is meant to stop the well documented and deadly flow of military equipment and terrorists into Gaza from the sea.

With those basic facts in mind, here are a few thoughts.

- The Obama administration response to the above incident has been jaw dropping, with the worst being that Obama and Clinton have allowed a UN Security Council statement to go forward that all but condemns Israel and ignores the obvious - that responsibility for this incident lies directly on the shoulders of Turkey and their Islamist Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan. There were numerous legitimate ways to deliver aid to the Palestinians. Instead of choosing any of them, Turkey chose to bless an attempt to bust through Israel's blockade of the Gaza strip. This was a blatant attempt to create precisely the type of incident that occurred. The fact is that Israel had every right to board those ships - and indeed, to sink them if they tried to run the blockade, which is no doubt why Israel chose to board the ships before they reached - and tried to run - the blockade.

- If Israel is guilty of anything, it is of not boarding the boats with sufficient overwhelming force / firepower such that there would be no question in the minds of the pro-Palestinian activists on the boats that any acts of aggression on their part would be suicidal. The Israelis went in with with no one pointing guns out of the helicopters to cover their descent and, equally as mystifying, armed with paintball guns and sidearms when they should have had Uzis, bayonets and stun grenades. The first rule of force is that any show of weakness invites a violent response - and a body count. The second rule is that overwhelming force and an obvious willingness to use it invites peaceful attention.

- At about the 1:20 mark in the video above, Clinton states that the Palestinians have a "legitimate need" to receive humanitarian assistance. No, they don't. The Palestinians have no right foreign aid of any sort. Indeed, if anyone was serious about peace in the Middle East, the first thing to do would be to cut off all aid to the Palestinians. All foreign aid does at this point is subsidize Hamas and the PLO, allowing them to pursue the destruction of Israel as opposed to creating a viable nation state.

- If anyone in the U.S. actually believes that Israel and Turkey are allies of equal importance, they are either ignorant or pro-Islamic ideologues. While Turkey was a secular nation for much of the past century, with the rise of Salafi Islam, Turkey itself has become infected. Let there be no doubt, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is moving the country into the Islamist camp "as fast as he can drag it" there. Turkey is at best a nominal ally of the U.S. at this point.

- According to the Washington Post:

The U.N. Security Council early Tuesday condemned "those acts which resulted in" the deaths of at least nine civilians aboard an aid flotilla bound for the Gaza Strip, and called for a "prompt, impartial, credible and transparent" investigation into why and how the Israeli military acted to stop the ships from reaching their destination.

Why did Obama agree to a UN Security Council statement that did not begin with an affirmation of Israel's right to blockade the Gaza strip, a condemnation of Turkey and those entities responsible for trying to break the blockade rather than to deliver aid through normal channels, and recognition that Israel acted with restraint in an attempt to defuse the situation without having to sink the ships? This is so overboard in its anti-Israeli bias that I cannot think of any similarly egregious act in America's history vis-a-vis Israel.

- If you want to know how peaceful the "aid" and the passengers were, you will not find it in the MSM or in the speeches of our politicians. According to the Jerusalem Post, Israel's search of the ships and passengers found individuals with links to terrorists as well as military equipment. This from the Jerusalem Post:

Dozens of passengers who were aboard the Mavi Marmara Turkish passenger ship are suspected of having connections with global jihad-affiliated terrorist organizations, defense officials said on Tuesday, amid growing concerns that Turkish warships would accompany a future flotilla to the Gaza Strip.

According to the defense officials, the IDF has identified about 50 passengers on the ship who could have terrorist connections with global jihad-affiliated groups.

During its searches of the Mavi Marmara on Tuesday, the military also discovered a cache of bulletproof vests and night-vision goggles, as well as gas masks. On Monday morning, at least nine foreign activists were killed during the navy’s takeover of the Mavi Marmara, which was trying to break Israel’s blockade of the Gaza Strip.

The group of over 50 passengers with possible terror connections have refused to identify themselves and were not carrying passports. Many of them were carrying envelopes packed with thousands of dollars in cash.

The military is working to identify the passengers and is looking into the possibility that some of them have been involved in terror attacks. Some of them are apparently known Islamic extremists. . . .

- Lastly, Clinton's call for a "two-state solution" at this point is simply ridiculous. It defies reality to believe that any such "solution" is possible so long as Islamists are determined to see the destruction of Israel. The current international tune is little more than an effort by Islamists to destroy Israel's legitimacy as a nation. And Obama is not merely playing right along, he is in large part directing the tune. I have wondered over the past year and a half whether the U.S. would survive Obama. Now I wonder if Israel will also.

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Obama's Cairo Address: What We Needed, What We Got

I held high hopes for President Obama and his speech from Cairo to the Muslim world. With his Islamic background, President Obama was uniquely positioned to effectively speak some hard truths to the Muslim world. He was uniquely qualified to use the bully pulpit to call for much needed reforms in Islam. And he was uniquely qualified to educate both the Islamic world and the rest of us on the reality at the heart of Muslim violence. My hope was that he would find a way to do those things without being insulting and while expressing an optimistic vision of what was possible.

That is not what President Obama did. He did not merely fail to accomplish what was needed in his speech, but in many ways, he damaged our interests. Indeed, for what good he did with his strong statement on our "unbreakable" bonds with Israel and his mention of women's rights, his pronouncements and omissions on virtually all other critical issues can only serve to make matters worse.

Obama at one point said that “we must face the hard issues.” The reality is that his speech was a study in ignoring those issues, or worse, being less than honest about them. He also made repeated, unforgivable statements of moral equivalency that have the effect of allowing guilty parties to excuse their own misconduct and make any needed change in their conduct less likely. Making such statements of moral equivalency - for example, equating the plight of the Palestinians to the holocaust or equating the mistreatment of women in Muslim society with the problems women face in American society - is counterproductive and appears as weakness.

To be more specific, below are brief summaries of the salient points from my more detailed posts on each issue:

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Where Obama needed to speak the hard truth to the Muslim world about the nature of its problems, he instead merely restated the excuses for those problems common throughout the Muslim world - that modernity is incompatible with Islam and that the causes of the backwardness of Islamic states are external.

Where Obama needed to encourage Muslims to take responsibility for the state of their nations and the evolution of their religion, he was silent.

Where Obama needed to defend freedom of speech and encourage critical thinking about Islam in the Muslim world, he said not a word.

Part 1 - Obama's Cairo Address: Hiding From The Existential Problems Of The Muslim World

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Where Obama needed to promote democracy throughout the Middle East, he instead mouthed the words of multiculturalism and moral equivalence, announcing that the U.S. did not have the moral authority to impose governmental structures on others, marking a return to the failed 'real politik' policies of the past.

Where Obama needed to use Iraq as an example of what was possible in terms of democracy, freedom of speech, and equality, he instead spoke of it as an embarresment and a wrong to be quickly forgotten.

Where Obama needed to announce that he would protect Iraq's nascent democracy, Obama instead announced proudly that he will leave Iraq to its own devices – and ultimately, to the predations of its voracious neighbor.

Part 2 - Obama's Cairo Address: A Walk Back From Democracy & Iraq

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Where Obama needed to address women's rights robustly, he did so tepidly.

Where Obama needed to honestly address the subjugation of women in the Middle East and the violence directed towards them, he instead ridiculously equated their plight with that of women in the West.

Where Obama needed to discuss and condemn the institutionalized subjugation of women by Sharia law, Obama was silent.

Where Obama needed to use the bully pulpit to condemn honor violence for the evil that it is, Obama said not a word.

Part 3 - Obama's Cairo Address: Obama Calls For Women's Rights While Glossing Over Discrimination & Violence

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Where Obama needed to take a bold stand against nuclear proliferation, Obama mouthed the suicidally inane argument that no nation should dictate which other nations may or may not acquire nuclear weapons.

Where Obama needed to speak to the Muslim world about the dangers of Iran's nuclear weapons program and the need for concerted effort, instead Obama spoke about the utter fantasy of a world without nuclear weapons.

Where Obama need to condemn Iran's endless acts of terrorism and their deadly meddling in Lebanon, Gaza, Iraq, Sudan, the UAE, Bahrain and Azerbaijan, Obama instead announced a moral equivalence between the single act of the U.S. to engineer a coup against the unelected Iranian PM Mohammed Mosaddeq over half a century ago and the mountain of evil acts and the oceans of blood accumulated by Iran's theocrats since 1979.

Part 4 - Obama's Cairo Address: Nukes, Iran & Weakness Writ Large

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Where Obama needed to make a strong and clear statement of our support for Israel, he did.

Where Obama needed to call on Hamas to end violence, recognize past agreements, and recognize Israel's right to exist, he did.

Where Obama needed to hold the Palestinians responsible for building a functional society, he instead blamed Israel for their current state and detestably gave moral equivalence to the plight of Palestinians with the holocaust.

Where Obama should have been pointing out the ramifications of the fact that Palestinians inside Israel enjoy a far higher quality of life than anywhere else in the Middle East, he instead stayed silent on the ill treatment and manipulation of Palestinians by all of the other Middle East countries.

Where Obama needed to make a clear statement that the “plans for peace” put forth by the Arabs are ill disguised roadmaps to the destruction of Israel, he instead identified Israeli settlements as being the major roadblock to peace.

Where Obama needed to quash once and for all the canard of a “right of return” and call upon all Middle East countries to allow Palestinians to integrate into the countries in which they now live, he was silent.

Part 5 - Obama's Cairo Address: Israel & Palestine – A Little Good, A Lot Of Outrageousness

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Where Obama needed to be honest with Islam and the world about the intolerance of Islam and condemn in no uncertain terms the practice of harming or killing any who convert from the Muslim faith, Obama ignored this while claiming Islam had a history of "tolerance."

Where Obama should have condemned in no uncertain terms the Salafi dogma taught around the world that it is permissible for a Muslim to slaughter those of other religions and to plunder their possessions, Obama was silent.

Where Obama should have spoken against the practice in Pakistan of using charges of blasphemy against the Prophet to justify the disenfranchisement of Christians and theft of their lands, Obama said not a word.

Where Obama should have chastised Algeria for jailing Christians for practicing their religion, he was silent.

Where Obama should have railed against Turkey for their refusal to allow any churches to be built, he instead ignored it.

Where Obama should have condemned the systematic persecution of Christians by Palestinian Muslims in Gaza, the West Bank and Jerusalem, his silence was deafening.

Where Obama should have pointed out that non-Muslims of whatever stripe are treated as second class citizens in all Muslim countries, he was silent.

Part 6 - Obama's Cairo Address: Islam's Tradition Of Religious Tolerance?

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Where Obama should have been honest about our history with the Islamic world, Obama gave a completely false picture of the nature of the relationship between the U.S. and Islam from the earliest days of our country.

Where Obama pointed out that Morocco was the first country to recognize America, he failed to mention that the recognition came as part of a deal that saw America pay a huge sum of money to ransom a U.S. merchant ship and crew that Morocco had pirated, Obama delibertely gave a false impression by neglecting to mention that detail.

Where Obama should have pointed out that the same philosophy used by the Barbary Pirates to justify war against America, that it is “the right and duty of the faithful to plunder and enslave” non-Muslims, is in fact being taught still today in Saudi Salafi schools and madrassas throughout the world, Obama stayed silent.

Part 7 - Obama's Cairo Address: The Dangerous Whitewashing Of History

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Obama's speech in Cairo was a golden opportunity for our nation, the Muslim World, and the world as a whole. We bear no inherent animus towards Islam. And indeed, our world would be a better and richer one with good and peaceful relationships between Islam and other religions, between the Middle East and the U.S. But there are enough dysfunctional aspects of Islam today that such an eventuality will never be possible unless changes happen. Obama had a chance to be open and honest about all of this in Cairo. He failed. He failed us, and he failed his audience in the Muslim world.

Update: In my points above, I failed to note that Obama needed to also address the mistreatment/execution of gays. Unfortunately, as Gay Patriot points out, not only was Obama silent on that point, but so have been all the left-wing gay groups in the U.S.

Summary - Obama's Cairo Address: What We Needed, What We Got
Part 1 - Obama's Cairo Address: Hiding From The Existential Problems Of The Muslim World
Part 2 - Obama's Cairo Address: A Walk Back From Democracy & Iraq
Part 3 - Obama's Cairo Address: Obama Calls For Women's Rights While Glossing Over Discrimination & Violence
Part 4 - Obama's Cairo Address: Nukes, Iran & Weakness Writ Large
Part 5 - Obama's Cairo Address: Israel & Palestine – A Little Good, A Lot Of Outrageousness
Part 6 - Obama's Cairo Address: Islam's Tradition Of Religious Tolerance?
Part 7 - Obama's Cairo Address: The Dangerous Whitewashing Of History

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Interesting Posts From Around The Web - 9 March 2008

A round-up of interesting posts from around the web, all below the fold.

Art: Marathon, Carl Rottman, 1648
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Likelihood of Success: Ron Coleman ponders the massacre of students in Israel. I do not agree with his conclusion, but it is thoughtful, moral, and thus must be accorded great respect.

Soccer Dad: Retaliation for the massacre needs to be swift, far ranging and brutal. "[P]eace is impossible with Palestinian leaders for whom reconciliation is a one-way process."

The Irish Elk: March 7, 203 and the martrydom of Saints Perpetua & Felicitas

This Ain’t Hell: NPR angers their audience with conservative heresy.

Yourish: The road to hell is paved with good intentions.

Ironic Surrealism: Heh. You might be a Taliban if . . . . (my favorite: "You wipe your butt with your bare left hand, but consider bacon ‘unclean.’")

Soob: The intersection of evolutionary psychology, polygamy and Muslim suicide bombers.

The Fulham Reactionary: How clueless is the chattering class in the UK? Perhaps you can discuss it while pondering the solution to racism as part of an interracial gathering for coffee and biscuits with the UK’s Culture Minister.

Sheik Yer’Mami: The latest in jihad news, including al Qaeda plants in London’s police force, hanging homosexuals in Iran, and UK’s odious Home Secretary banning Jews to appease the Islamists.

No Oil For Pacifists: Solid arguments for the efficacy of telecom immunity provisions in FISA.

Dhivehistan Report: Miss Sri Lanka – hot chick.

Whited Sepulchre: Thus sayeth Thomas Sowell on NAFTA, thus let it be written.

Faultline: Obamacans may be a con.

Vast RightWing Conspiracy: Hillary’s ridiculous claims to have played a substantive role in the Irish peace negotiations.

Red Alerts: A great link round-up, including posts on slavery in Saudi Arabia and the web’s sexiest nerds.

An Englishman’s Castle: Media silence on the Manhattan Declaration and global warming fraud.

A Western Heart: A must see pic for the global warming crowd.

MK’s Views: More feel good leftiness without any scientific support.

Covenant Zone: Keen insight - the history of man is predicated on first-guessers.

Liberty Corner: A classical ethical bind for lawyers is not so difficult for non-lawyers.

VenjanzTruth: A blacklash on the Robert Downey Jr. satire.

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Interesting News & Posts - 29 February 2008

Interesting news and posts from across the blogosphere:
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Art: A Dream of Solomon, Luca Giordano, 1693

From ABC News: The Joint Chiefs chairman has a word of warning to Sens. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton: A rapid of withdrawal from Iraq would lead to a "chaotic situation" and would "turnaround the gains we have achieved, and struggled to achieve, and turn them around overnight.

The Captain blogs on the Obamanomics of Fear, considering an article in the Economist that says Obama’s economic plans and rhetoric sound "worryingly populist."

From Seraphic Secret: "The impossible situation whereby the Palestinians continue to fire Qassams, while receiving electricity for their Qassam workshops and fuel used by vehicles that fire Qassams, is deluxe terrorism that fits well with the dictum: ‘The master of the house has gone mad.’" I concur. The only way Israel can stop this insanity is to respond with overwhelming force.

From Jammie Wearing Fool: "Like most normal human beings, I'm forever indebted to Matt Drudge for bringing us Monica Lewinsky, among other interesting stories. Over the past ten years, he's gone where most media cowards dare not tread. But what the hell was he thinking by revealing the fact Prince Harry was stationed in Afghanistan? Did we really need to know this?" Nope. We sure didn’t.

Blonde Sagacity tells of the defense being raised in an Australian trial of 12 men on charges of terrorism. Apparently, they were merely responding to the evil of the U.S.

Bull Dog Pundit thinks that McCain passed his "Sister Souljah" moment when he repudiated the statements made by local disc jockey Bill Cunningham taking leveling low class polemics at Obama. I concur and think it will go a long way to inoculating him against charges of racism.

Confederate Yankee ponders whether we "have . . . completely breed the violence of self-preservation out of this generation?"

From the Jawa Report, with appropriate visuals: "Angelina Jolie, official hot bi-curious celebrity babe of The Jawa Report," supports the troop surge.

From Villagers With Torches: VWT is one of the most incisive bloggers out there. His post today revolves around a quote attributed to de Tocqueville : A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largesse from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy.

U.S. foreign policy for moonbats, from a New Zealand blog posted by an Aussie. And leftie moonbat politics seem to be driving the Kiwis to the land down under. Meanwhile, the Velvet Hammer blogs from the U.S. about multiculturalism and gang violence in Melbourne. You gotta’ love the anglosphere.

Dinah Lord tells us that french supermodel Katoucha Niane, a victim of and activist against Female Genital Mutilation, has been found floating in the Seine.

At Brain Droppings, Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal is draining the swamp.

From Red Alerts, the deadly toxin ricin has been found in a Las Vegas hotel room. As many as seven people were possibly exposed. No word yet on the circumstances surrounding how the ricin got into the hotel room, though its hard to imagine that this is not connected to terrorism, and while it may make sense for the LVPD to play down the possible connection, it does not pass the smell test.

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Interesting News - 30 January 2008

Medieval Islamic justice in the Maldives. Four men who broke into a 12 year old girls house and gang raped her were convicted only of "consensual sex before marriage" and given no jail time. The Islamic Court ruled that the victim had implied consent because she had reached the age of puberty and did not scream or struggle, as the court has determined the facts.

Has anyone noticed that the greatest threats to freedom of speech in the West all come from the left these days. The latest involves Kommisar Corzine in the Garden State.

And in the Islamic World, the censor keeps a close eye on what books are permissible for sale in the county. Nothing is allowed in critical of Islam or making the connection between Islam and terrorism – which, as we know from Britain, does not exist.

I happen to pray to the patron saint of economics also.

Sheik Yer Mami has a round up of Jihad News. As to be expected, all is quite disturbing – with the statement on Jordian family values the most so.

Some humorous and sage advice on the upcoming election at Politics & Pigskins.

Pressaphobia? Perhaps agenda journalism has something to do with it.

So was 1812 the worst year ever for Britain? I think that such a characterization is a bit to soon. 2008 may well dismiss thoughts of 1812 to . . . the dustbin of history.

Oh Adolph, we barely knew you. Der Spiegel on the rise of Hitler to the position of idol in 1930’s Germany.

"There is . . . nothing less accountable or more invisible than a hidebound bureaucracy, exercising its right to omniscience and an implacable resistance to reason." What a great quote by a Brit caught in a stereotypical comedy sketch with local govt. But he fails to see the humor. If he thinks the locals are bad, what does the world’s ultimate bureaucracy, the EU, portend? (H/T: An Englishman’s Castle)

The thought of a McCain nomination is driving some of my favorite conservative pundits nuts. I think McCain will be the best of the existing choices for foreign policy, – and if he gets good economic advice, that he could be a successful President. (H/T Instapundit)

The thing is, turning over Gaza was Ariel Sharon’s idea. Yet I am sure he would have truly punished Hamas for their actions under the current circumstance. Sharon went comatose far too soon, or stayed compos mentis too long, depending on your point of view. The former would lead to Israel exercising its duty to defend its citizens with all necessary force. The latter would have left Gaza under Israeli control. What is happening now is simply ridiculous.

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Interesting News - 26 January 2008

According to PM Maliki, "We defeated al Qaeda, now there is just Nineveh province where they escaped to, and Kirkuk," And as a new offensive is aimed at al Qaeda, it looks as if it may be an all-Iraqi operation.

In the world of hypocritical politicians, Charles Krauthammer thinks that John Edwards makes other hypocrites looks like pikers.

The Democrats are still refusing to reauthorize the Protect America Act. This is the law that corrects FISA to allow for eavesdropping on foreign communications without the necessity of a warrant. Even Time’s resident leftie Joe Klein thinks this is nuts.

There is a real possibility that Denmark will become the first Muslim country in Europe. This is a particularly troubling post.

Crusader Rabbit ponders why males are the happier gender.

Seraphic Secret discusses the ramifications of the Hamas foray into Egypt.

Bookworm Room seems to be taking a bit of sadistic delight in Andrew McCarthy’s shredding of the NYT.

Soccer Dad has an exceptional post that hits the nail on the head. "Islamist hatred of the West is not a grievance we can address. Attempting to accommodate the demands of Islamists only encourages them. For there to be peace between Islam and the West, there needs to be a change of heart in Islam. Anything else is useless." I couldn’t agree more, and have said so previously.

Do read CAIR’s action letter urging an end to the "illegal blockade of Gaza" by Israel. Not a word about rockets or attacks on Israel. And let’s not forget the Muslim Brotherhood’s chapter here in the US, the MAS, or the radical Deobandi organization, the MCB in Britain. Personally, I would support a blockade and far more – aimed at Gaza, CAIR, MAS and the MCB. I am just not feeling a whole lot of compassion for terrorists and their enablers these days.

Nor do I support "victory over those who disbelieve," or feel the need to ask God for "protection from the great Satan." I suspect most Iowans would agree, but that is a bit unclear at the moment.

The American Islamic Congress has launched a new Anti-Suicide Bombing Campaign. They have my support.

The FBI has given its Community Leadership Award for 2007 to M. Zuhdi Jasser, MD. "Dr. Jasser is a former U.S. Navy Lieutenant Commander. He is the founder and Chairman of the Board of the American Islamic Forum for Democracy (AIFD), based in Phoenix, Arizona. AIFD seeks to address the central ideological conflict in the war on terror." It is an award well deserved.

The Center for Islamic Pluralism has a fascinating textually based analysis of the appropriate punishment for those who chose to leave Islam or commit other acts of apostasy. It is a stinging criticism of the "oil jurists" of Salfi Islam.

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Interesting News - 22 January 2008

Are Brits at the Their Best suggesting that Brits take a cue from their storied ancestors about how to take back their country? Hmmmm, given the nature of the "outdoor activities" they review, one could make that assumption. But who am I to cast stones. I’ve been suggesting a Boston Tea Party at the Thames for some time now.

When you see British people being criminally prosecuted for selling goods in pounds and ounces rather than by metric weights, you can get some small feel for how heavy handed life in the EU portends to be.

Would Turkey lifting its ban on headscarves be a victory for freedom of choice or a Muslim trojan horse? (H/T Turcopundit)

In response to incessant attacks on its people by elements of the democratically elected government of the Palestinians, Israel took the quite reasonable response of cutting off its energy supplies to the Gaza Strip in an effort to have the people of Gaza begin to take control of their murderous government. That lasted two days because of concerns of a humanitarian crisis - in Gaza of course. Apparently, Israelis targeted for anonymous murder by Hamas rockets does not count as such a crisis. The outcome was foreseen by some. When will Israel figure out that it stands no chance if it conducts its foreign policy and national security in terms of the whims of foreign opinion. If this type of decision making continues, we suspect we will see the end of Israel in our lifetime. Having said that, the ability to laugh at insanity and keep one’s sense of humor suggests that I might be wrong.

Indeed, Saudi Prince Turki has offered dhimmi status to Israel if only Israel will embrace the ill named Arab League "peace plan." I think any appropriate response must of necessity include some euphanism for sex and mention of a camel.

Tomorrow War has an exceptional round-up of relevant links covering a wide range of topics, from attacks on U.S. supply lines in Pakistan to California sending a trade delegation to Cuba. (I think the latter might run afoul of a law or two).

Cryptome has posted an extensive interview with our nation’s Spy Chief, Mike McConnel. The interview covers the panapoly of issues facing our intelligence community today – the majority of which are internal. This is a must – read. (H/T Soob)

Free speech, the Blue Group, and France’s hate speech laws are discussed here.

Dinah does Pakistan, . . . or at least an exceptional round up of Pakistani news.

In honor of Neville Chamberlin and the current UK Labour government, TNOY has the top nine UK Islamic occupational specialties.

Fred’s fried. I predicted this after his loss in South Carolina. Rick Moran is in morning, as our many of us who saw in Fred a true Regan conservative. He was the right man, but the wheels started to come off of his campaign in July. I suspect that, given the current economic climate, Romney will reap the most from Thompson’s exit through Super Tuesday.

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The Intersection of Islam, Government & Democracy

We’ve been treated to a bevy of articles recently discussing the intersection of Islam and politics in the Middle East, all of which raise some troubling questions with surprising answers. The threshold question is how do such parties perform in democratic elections?

Amir Taheri answers that question, and it would seem, throughout the Middle East, that their popularity is not strong:

. . . [I]n Jordan's latest general election, held last month, the radical Islamic Action Front (IAF) suffered a rout. The IAF's share of the votes fell to five per cent from almost 15 per cent in the elections four years ago. The group, linked with the Muslim Brotherhood movement, managed to keep only six of its 17 seats in the National Assembly (parliament.) Its independent allies won no seats.

. . . The Islamists' defeat in the Jordanian elections confirms a trend that started years ago. Conventional wisdom was that the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and lack of progress in the Israel-Palestine conflict, provide radical Islamists with a springboard from which to seize power through elections.

. . . So far, no Islamist party has managed to win a majority of the popular vote in any of the Muslim countries where reasonably clean elections are held. If anything, the Islamist share of the votes has been declining across the board.
In Malaysia, the Islamists have never crossed beyond the 11 per cent share of the popular vote. In Indonesia, the various Islamist groups have never collected more than 17 per cent.

The Islamists' share of the popular vote in Bangladesh declined from an all-time high of 11 per cent in the 1980s to around seven per cent in the late 1990s.
In Gaza and the West Bank, Hamas, the Palestinian branch of the Muslim Brotherhood, won the 2006 general election with 44 per cent of the votes, far short of the "crushing wave of support" it had promised.

Even then, it was clear that at least some of those who run on a Hamas ticket did not share its radical Islamist ideology. Despite years of misrule and corruption, Fatah, Hamas' secularist rival, won 42 per cent of the popular vote.

In Turkey, the Justice and Development Party (AKP) has won two successive general elections, the latest in July 2007, with 44 per cent of the popular vote. Even then, AKP leaders go out of their way to insist that the party "has nothing to do with religion".

"We are a modern, conservative, European-style party," AKP leader and Turkey's Prime Minister Recep Tayyib Erdogan, likes to repeat at every opportunity. In last July's general election, the AKP lost 23 seats and, with it, its two-third majority in the Grand National Assembly (parliament).

AKP's success in Turkey inspired Moroccan Islamists to create a similar outfit called Party of Justice and Development (PDJ). The PDJ sought support from AKP "experts" to prepare for last September's general election in Morocco.
And, yet, when the votes were counted, the PJD collected just over 10 per cent of the popular vote to win 46 of the 325 seats.

Islamists have done no better in neighboring Algeria. In the latest general election, held in May 2007, the two Islamist parties, Movement for a Peaceful Society (HMS) and Algerian Awakening (An Nahda) won just over 12 per cent of the popular vote.

In Yemen, possibly one of the Arab states where the culture of democracy has struck the deepest roots, elections in the past 20 years have shown support for Islamists to stand at around 25 per cent of the popular vote. In the last general election in 2003, the Yemeni Congregation for Reform (Islah) won 22 per cent.

Kuwait is another Arab country where holding reasonably fair elections has become part of the culture. In the general election last year, a well-funded and sophisticated Islamist bloc collected 27 per cent of the votes and won 17 of the 50 seats in the National Assembly.

In Lebanon's last general election in 2005, the two Islamist parties, Hezbollah (Party of God) and Amal (Hope) collected 21 per cent of the popular vote to win 28 of the 128 seats in the parliament.

And, this despite massive financial and propaganda support from Iran and electoral pacts with a Christian political bloc led by the pro-Tehran ex-General Michel Aoun.
Afghanistan . . . [has] held a series of elections since the fall of the Taliban in Kabul . . . By all standards, these have been generally free and fair elections, and thus valid tests of the public mood. In Afghanistan, Islamist groups, including former members of the Taliban, have managed to win around 11 per cent of the popular vote on the average . . .

Read the entire article. Thus, it would seem that Islamist movements have only limited support throughout the Middle East where reasonably free elections have occurred.

One of the other interesting aspects of using religion to justify a political party is the backlash when such parties take power and do not deliver – as is often the case since you can’t eat a holy book, nor do sacred texts generate electricity of serve to make water potable. Thus, in Iraq as pointed out in this article here, and now in Pakistan, when religious parties had in fact taken political control of some of the provicial areas, their failure to perform as promised is not being excused by the electorate, irrespective of their religious credentials:

In 2002, Ibrar Hussein voted for an Islamic takeover.

Fed up both with Pakistan's military-led government and with the mainstream, secular opposition, Hussein decided that religious leaders should be given a chance to improve living conditions in this sprawling frontier city.

But five years after support from people like Hussein propelled the Islamic parties to power in the provincial government -- and to their strongest-ever showing nationally -- the 36-year-old shopkeeper is rethinking his choice.

"You can see the sanitation system here," Hussein said, pointing with disgust to a ditch in front of his shop where a stream of greenish-brown sludge trickled by. "People were asking for clean water, and they didn't get it. We were very hopeful. But the mullahs did nothing for us."

Hussein's disenchantment is just one reason why, with Pakistan on the eve of fresh parliamentary elections, the religious parties are struggling to appeal to voters.

On the surface, at least, they have many things going for them: Pakistan's president, Pervez Musharraf, is deeply unpopular. So, too, are his backers in Washington. The leading opposition politicians have had their opportunities before, and failed. Overall, frustration in Pakistan is running high.

And yet the Islamic parties seem poorly positioned to benefit from that frustration. Beset by bitter internal divisions, they have failed to come up with a unified campaign strategy. Their candidates, meanwhile, have to answer for a dubious record in governing North-West Frontier Province, their traditional base of support. And out on the stump, they are finding that anti-American sentiments are not quite as raw as they once were. . .

Read the article here.

Thus, in terms of democracy, Islamists would seem to have a limited appeal that tends to degrade further when they are actually voted into office. But the danger of Islamist parties is that, at least some seek only one democratic vote - the one to ensconce them into power. Or as Bernard Lewis put it, "one man, one vote, one time." That is what happened in Iran when they voted in a government structure that included the unique Khomeini construct of the Supreme Guide. Time will tell whether that holds true in the Gaza strip, where Hamas, a Muslim Brotherhood offshoot, took total control in a coup some months ago.

On a final note, it is interesting to note that the imposition of a theocracy in Iran has had an effect beyond just the political realm. The theocracy is doing a tremendous job of secularizing a large portion of its youth who comprise over 70% of its population.

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Interesting News From Around The Web - 12/22/2007

Secretary of Defense Gates says that Pakistan is now al Qaeda’s primary target. And now a suicide attack inside a crowded Mosque in a settled area of Pakistan.

When the NYT runs positive front page articles on a particular Republican presidential candidate, why do I feel like there is an ulterior motive?

More on the destroyed CIA Tapes, this time from the 9-11 Commission staff.

Is China’s military operating outside of Politburo control?

Is global warming a cover for countries to try and gain economically at our expense?

The WSJ takes note of the incredible sophistry of Ms. Clinton’s far left foreign policy statements.

Reversing a trend that began with the Jacobites some 200 years ago, Sarkozy, a Catholic, is urging a greater role for religion in France’s public life.

Soccer Dad looks at Iranian influence on this side of the pond which, in reality, has been with us and growing for many years: "Allowing Iranian influence to grow in the Western hemisphere presents a threat to the United States. Will the government act to forestall this threat or allow it to grow unchecked?" If the latest NIE is any indication, we will not be forestalling that threat anywhere in the world.

I do not understand Israel’s restraint in failing to respond with overwhelming force when they are regularly attacked from the Gaza Strip. The latest is six qassam rockets that landed in an Israeli school yard. Joshuapundit has the story.

A Porkbusters letter to the President pleading for an end to earmarks in the Omnibus Spending Bill.

The insane energy bill that skews agricultural production and puts us on the edge of incredible inflation in the price of food.

Rick Moran at Right Wing Nuthouse throws his political endorsement behind Fred Thompson.

The question of universal healthcare has several facets, but the gate keeper is can such a system be made to work without degrading the quality of care. The Glittering Eye has an interesting post on this from the perspective of a Canadian doctor.

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