Friday, May 31, 2013

Wilders in Australia and the "Islamic Problem" - Part II

Mark Durie

This is the second in a four part series of posts written in response to Geert Wilders' visit to Australia in early 2013.
In a previous post I contrasted Geert Wilders' view that 'Islam is the problem' with the claims of many Muslims who preach with equal conviction that 'Islam is the solution', and examined evidence of the negative characteristics associated with belief in Islam, including disadvantaged human development outcomes.
These days many leaders in the West find it convenient to sweep the 'problem' of Islam under the carpet. Long gone are the days of Theodore Roosevelt, Wilders' hero, who declared in Fear God and take your own part that values such as freedom and equality only existed in Europe because it had the military capacity to 'beat back the Moslem invader'.
However, given the negative outcomes associated with Islam, one of which is Geert Wilders' need for constant armed guards (some others were enumerated in the previous post), the question whether Islam is the problem or the solution is not something to be just swept under the carpet.

Meet the Islamists Who’ve Infiltrated the Media

creeping
A short list. Images added. via Meet The Islamist Media Mavens That Sabotage War On Terror – Investors.com.

The London and Boston attacks are a gruesome reminder we’re still at war with jihadists, at home and abroad. However, we’re also at war with their apologists and propagandists.
Alarmingly, Islamists are infiltrating the national media, where they’re undermining every aspect of the global war on terror — from surveillance of homegrown jihadists like the Boston bombers to foreign drone strikes on high-value al-Qaida targets to the imprisonment of enemy combatants at Gitmo.
These agents of influence include:

Europe's Tolerance Tested by Islam

LT. COLONEL JAMES G. ZUMWALT, USMC (RET) May 31, 2013
In 1995, herpetologists began observing frogs in the U.S. with various mutations and genetic defects. Suspecting the cause was environmental rather than natural, they launched a decades' long study linking pesticides and other toxins to disturbing nature's balance.
If so few herpetologist observers could identify such a dangerous trend evolving and isolate its cause, why then is it so difficult for social scientists to do so concerning human behavior within democracies that is disrupting stability's natural balance?
A series of articles by author Soeren Kern underscores this trend in Europe.
Switzerland is a land famous for not having had to fight a war for centuries. Generations of its citizens have proven adept getting along with all cultures. With no standing army, it opted instead to provide for its national defense with a people's militia.
But recently, to enhance public safety, it armed transport police as robberies and assaults on Swiss trains have drastically increased -- the crime rate having doubled since early 2011. A society once secure in the warm glow of peaceful human co-existence now suffers from insecurity as 70 percent of voters say they want an increased police presence.

Israeli government downs the al-Dura myth

Nidra Poller May 29, 2013 

Dispatch International

French court has again postponed verdict in scandalous case
PARIS. There is abundant concrete evidence that two men hacked a British soldier to death in Woolwich on May 22. There were eyewitnesses to the attempted beheading. The immediate aftermath was filmed from every angle by multiple devices. One of the perpetrators, Mujahid (ex-Michael) Adebelajo, starred in an on the spot amateur video produced at his demand. Waving his blood-soaked hands, still clutching a knife and a cleaver, he justified his act religiously – citing the Sura Al-Tawba, “we must fight them as they fight us” – followed by the usual jihadist political garbage. Most news media deleted the Koranic citation but the uncensored version is available at a click on the Net.[i]

The jihad murder of drummer Lee Rigby is an incident, not a baseless news report.

Palestinians Threaten Their Own Businessmen

Khaled Abu Toameh

So far, not one Palestinian Authority official has come out in public against the campaign of intimidating Palestinian businessmen. It will not only foil Kerry's plan, but also scare away potential investors. Those making threats do not want to see prosperity; instead they want the Palestinians to continue living in misery in order to keep alive the fight against Israel. Once again, the biggest losers are the Palestinians.
After rejecting US Secretary of State John Kerry's new plan to boost the Palestinian economy by investing $4 billion in the private sector, the Palestinians have begun threatening businessmen who want to work with Israeli counterparts.
Kerry's plan, which was revealed at last week's World Economic Forum in Jordan, has been condemned by many Palestinians as a U.S. attempt to bribe them into making political concessions to Israel.

Islam's 'Rule of Numbers' Explains London Beheading

Raymond Ibrahim
Fox News


Last week in London, two Muslim men shouting jihad's ancient war-cry, "Allahu Akbar" beheaded a British soldier with a cleaver—in a busy intersection and in broad daylight. They boasted in front of passersby and asked to be videotaped.
As surreal as this event may seem, Islamic beheadings are not uncommon in the West, including the U.S. In 2011, a Pakistani-American who helped develop "Bridges TV"—a station "designed to counter negative stereotypes of Muslims"—beheaded his wife. In Germany in 2012, another Muslim man beheaded his wife in front of their six children—again while hollering "Allahu Akbar."
Beheading non-Muslim "infidels" in the Islamic world is especially commonplace: in Yemen a "sorceress" was beheaded by the "Supporters of Sharia"; in Indonesia, three Christian girls on their way to school were beheaded; in Syria last Christmas, U.S.-supported rebels beheaded a Christian man and fed his body to the dogs; in Africa—Somalia, Tanzania, Mali—Christians are regularly decapitated. (For a comprehensive picture of Christian suffering under Islam, see my new book, Crucified Again: Exposing Islam's New War on Christians.)
Most recently, a disturbing video surfaced from "liberated" Libya of a machete-wielding masked man hacking at the head of a captive—again, to cries of "Allahu Akbar!"

Turkey, Israel, and Syria: Why Things are Going Wrong



I was interviewed by Radikal, possibly the best Turkish newspaper today.
  • What is your assessment of the current state of relations between Turkey and Israel?
Relations will remain bad because Prime Minister Erdogan wants it to be that way. No matter what Israel does—as we have just seen—he will find excuses to do so.
  • Are relations as tense as they seem or both parties play the tough guy before the cameras whereas they enjoy better relations behind the scenes?
Relations are as tense as they seem because Israel DID compromise before the cameras and Erdogan—for domestic reasons—is still playing tough guy both in public and behind the scenes.
  • --Have you followed Prime Minister Erdogan’s recent visit to the US? Does it seem to you that Erdogan has been convinced by President Obama and will adopt a more multilateralist and moderate stance on Syria?

Muslims must face history of Islam

YES, following last week's horror in Woolwich it is correct to point out that there are Muslims and there is Islam. And that they are not always the same thing.

But it is no good to say such acts have nothing to do with Islam. It is an evasion to assert such acts are based on "extremist" misconceptions and deviations, not "true Islam", or are responses to "Islamophobia".

Nor will it do to say (as British Prime Minister David Cameron did) that such acts have no place or basis in Islam, that this act dishonours and misrepresents Islam, that it is "a betrayal of Islam".

"This was not just an attack on Britain - and on our British way of life. It was also a betrayal of Islam," he said. "There is nothing in Islam that justifies this truly dreadful act," he added.

True, there are Muslims and there is Islam, and they are not the same. But Muslims must acknowledge their ownership of Islamic history, cultivate what is good in it and take a clear stand against what is not.

How media condition people to be anti-Israel

Article’s tags: DoubleStandards, Diplomacy, Dhimmitude, Media imbalance
Consider this lofty statement on media conduct from Jovial Rantao,  editor of The Sunday Independent in Johannesburg:
Credibility is the lifeblood of our profession. Without it we are nothing. Without it, not one person will believe a single word that we write. One of the basic tenets of our profession is to ensure that the credibility of the information we gather…is unquestionable.”
If you follow a clutch of anti-Israel titles, including Guardian, the Independent, The New York Times,and the BBC, you will know that the statement is wrong. Their Middle East reporters and correspondents care not a jot for credibility of information. Yet they are believed. What accounts for this anomaly?
The answer lies in something the statement failed to consider. Journalists not only report news, they also make news, or they participate in making news.

WASHINGTON FREE BEACON IRS Crosses Green Line

Pro-Israel groups felt wrath of Obama IRS, WFB investigation reveals
 
AP AP
 
Washington Free Beacon investigation has identified at least five pro-Israel organizations that have been audited by the IRS in the wake of a coordinated campaign by White House-allied activist groups in 2009 and 2010.
 
These organizations, some of which are too afraid of government reprisals to speak publicly, say in interviews with the Free Beacon that they now believe the IRS actions may have been coordinated by the Obama administration.
 
Many of the charities openly clashed with the Obama administration’s policy of opposing Israeli settlement construction over the so-called “Green Line,” which marks the pre-1967 boundary between Israel and the West Bank and West and East Jerusalem.

The Islamic Mindset in the Middle East

Harold Rhode

It might be helpful to ask why we refuse to see the Muslim culture for what it is? It is clear from the abundant writings of the Saudis, Salafis and other Wahhabis that they want to destroy both our culture and us.
Many secular Muslims seem to hate the U.S., Israel, and even Christians living among them, just as passionately as their religious brothers do, but in a form that is political rather than religious.[1] In Islam, there is no separation of religion and state: Muslims might even be atheists, but they may bring to their atheism many of the values of the cultures around them.

The "Grievances" Defense

Peter Huessy

If grievances explain terrorism, the implication is that removing the grievances would remove the terrorism. The U.S. was warned, however, before 9/11, that it faced a "poisonous coalition" of terror groups, wealthy sheiks, military establishments and intelligence, all fueled with an apparently endless supply of indoctrinated recruits from madrassas and mosques. This coalition now has nuclear weapons. A credible case can be argued that the West has the right of self-defense.
The April terrorist attacks during the Boston Marathon killed and wounded scores of people. Machete-wielding thugs last week butchered a British soldier in full view of citizens on a London street. Simultaneously, in Sweden, a full five days of riots have seen burned cars, banks and schools, and assaulted citizens.
These attacks raise the uncomfortable question: "Why are we being attacked?"
A newly announced American policy to deal with such threats involves "addressing grievances and conflicts" that feed what is described as "extremism."
But will this work?

UK Arranged for London Beheader’s Release from Kenyan Prison on Terror Charges




Michael Adebolajo
Would be nice if UK diplomats worked nearly as hard for the release of British women held in Muslim prisons for being in the same room with a man as they did for a Muslim terrorist who happened to hold a British passport.

Peres, Abbas, and Kerry: Fantasies and Realities

Isi Leibler
May 31, 2013
http://wordfromjerusalem.com/?p=4663

 
Earlier in the week, I participated in “Breaking the Impasse”, an event held in Jordan under the auspices of the World Economic Forum. It was attended by some 300 Israeli and Palestinian leaders of commerce and industry who represent over 25% of the GDP of Israel and the Palestinian region. Some of the most prominent Israeli business personalities were present.
The concept was the initiative and brainchild of Israeli hi-tech guru, Yossi Vardi, who persuaded a number of like-minded giants of industry and commerce to join him. He was supported by his Palestinian friend, Munib Masri, chairman of the powerful Padico oil and gas group, who encouraged major Palestinian business leaders to participate in effort project to promote the two state approach as a means of ending the Israel-Palestinian conflict.

Palestinians, US upset by east Jerusalem building

By TOVAH LAZAROFF, KHALED ABU TOAMEH
 

Erekat accuses Israel of sabotaging peace efforts, while Jerusalem denies that new approvals were issued for construction projects; "The Palestinians look for excuses to avoid talks," Israeli official says.

Construction in Har Homa
Construction in Har Homa Photo: Courtesy
Israeli officials on Thursday tried to douse a diplomatic fire Channel 10 ignited with its report about two building projects in Jewish neighborhoods of east Jerusalem – of 1,100 units – that have been in the pipeline for years.
These east Jerusalem housing units are a real and official destruction of US Secretary of State John Kerry’s efforts to revive the peace process, Chief PLO Negotiator Saeb Erekat said Thursday.

With desalination, a once unthinkable water surplus is possible

Extracting the Mediterranean Sea’s water could provide Israel with an unquenchable supply of the resource it lacks

Water from the Mediterranean Sea rushes through pipes en route to being filtered for use across Israel in a process called desalination, which could soon account for 80 percent of the country's potable water. (photo credit: Ben Sales/JTA)
PALMACHIM, Israel (JTA) – As construction workers pass through sandy corridors between huge rectangular buildings at this desalination plant on Israel’s southern coastline, the sound of rushing water resonates from behind a concrete wall.

The Calm Before the Jihadi Storm

Raymond Ibrahim
The Blaze


On this Memorial Day, it's important to remember that the very same U.S. policies that created al-Qaeda in Afghanistan in the 1980s—leading to the horrific attacks of 9/11—are today allowing al-Qaeda to metastasize all around the Muslim world. As in the 80s, these new terrorist cells are quietly gathering strength now, and are sure to deliver future terror strikes that will make 9/11 seem like child's play.
To understand this dire prediction, we must first examine the United States' history of empowering Islamic jihadis—only to be attacked by those same jihadis many years later—and the chronic shortsightedness of American policymakers, whose policies are based on their brief tenure, not America's long-term wellbeing.
In the 1980s, the U.S. supported Afghani rebels—among them the jihadis—to repel the Soviets. Osama bin Laden, Ayman Zawahiri, and countless foreign jihadis journeyed to Afghanistan to form a base of training and planning—the first prerequisite of the jihad, as delineated in Sayyid Qutb's Milestones.
Al-Qaeda—which tellingly means "the base"—was born.

Thursday, May 30, 2013

U.S. Praises Sharia Censorship

Deborah Weiss
http://www.legal-project.org/4088/us-praises-sharia-censorship
The United States is silent as the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) passes its most recent UN Resolution that unravels global consensus to support freedom of speech.

From 1999-2010, the OIC succeeded in passing its "defamations of religions <http://ap.ohchr.org/documents/E/HRC/resolutions/A_HRC_RES_7_19.pdf> " resolutions <http://ap.ohchr.org/documents/E/HRC/resolutions/A_HRC_RES_7_19.pdf> , which ostensibly would protect Islam from all criticism, including true statements of fact. Though the name of the resolutions indicated that it would pertain to all religions equally, in the OIC's interpretation, it applied to Islam only.

Muslim groups want FBI out of anti-jihad role, hard-line orthodox imams in

creeping
Just how far have Muslims infiltrated the FBI? The posts of the last few days gave you a clue. Now they want the FBI out of the anti-jihad business. via The Daily Caller » Muslim advocates urge reduced FBI anti-jihad role

Politically influential Muslim activists are pushing to reduce the FBI’s role in countering Islamic terrorism and are seeking greater federal reliance on hard-line orthodox Imams.
The White House’s “Countering Violent Extremism” program “did not produce the results a lot of us were hopeful … [and] kind of collapsed towards the end of last year,” complained Mohamed Elibiary, a Texas-based advocate who was appointed to the Homeland Security Advisory Council.
“I don’t know where it is today … [but] it presents us with the opportunity to look at the question of [whether] it is right to house it within the FBI,” he said at an May 28 event in D.C. staged by the Muslim Public Affairs Council.

FBI leaking information to terror-linked CAIR?

creeping
This is what happens when the FBI refuses to present a coherent story on how an interviewee is shot dead and when agents leak to terror-linked Muslim groups. via FBI’s Orlando fatal shooting spurs call for investigation – South Florida Sun-Sentinel.com.
An Islamic group Wednesday called for a federal civil-rights investigation of last week’s fatal shooting of an Orlando man by an FBI agent investigating his connection to the Boston Marathon bombing suspects.
And the Tampa director of that group said not only was 27-year-old Ibragim Todashev unarmed when he was shot by the agent May 22 — he was hit seven times, including once in the head.
Initial reports in the wake of the shooting said Todashev might have been armed with a knife when, during questioning in an Orlando condo, he lunged toward the agent, who shot him.

Tunisian Interim President Moncef Marzouki -- 'The Invention Of A President, The Illusion Of A Democracy'


Introduction
Tunisian Interim President Moncef Marzouki is facing strong criticism in the country. Marzouki, nicknamed "Tartour" (in Arabic "insignificant," indicating someone who can be pushed in any direction), is accused of backing down on human rights issues in order to maintain the status quo with the El-Nahda Islamist party, which holds a relative majority that it won in the 2011 Tunisian elections. He is also accused of having evolved from a defender of human rights to the champion of Qatar – a country viewed by Tunisia's secular opposition as El-Nahda's main financier and as a supporter of Islamism in the country.

Interim President Moncef Marzouki[1]

Marzouki, who refers to the secular opposition in the country as "secular extremists," stirred up controversy when, in an April 11, 2013 speech, he warned the Tunisian people not to insult Qatar.[2] He said that anyone who dares to do so will be accountable first to his own conscience and then before the law.[3] A Facebook page called "The Campaign to Insult the State of Qatar"[4] was created shortly after Marzouki's speech, and as of this writing has over 32, 400 members; posts on the page offer a broad range of jokes and insults.[5]

Tunisian protesters hold signs saying "Qatar, go away!"[6]

Following his threat to anyone insulting Qatar, a petition demanding a hearing on Marzouki's performance, signed by 77 MPs, was submitted to the chairman of Tunisia's Constituent Assembly. The signatories belong to various parliamentary groups, but none are from El-Nahda, Marzouki's Congress for the Republic (CpR) party, or the Wafa movement.[7] Subsequently, on April 16, 2013, a motion for Marzouki's dismissal was filed with the Constituent Assembly registry.[8]

If the Muslim Brotherhood is Taking Over Tunisia What Hope is there for Anyone Else?


With Libya going down the drain, Egypt daily moving toward an Islamist dictatorship, and Syria in a bloody civil war between Sunni and Shia Islamists, how is Tunisia—the most potentially moderate Arab state which had the best chance of achieving democracy--doing? Not very well.

Anna Mahjar-Barducci is one of the best authors writing about North Africa and she has produced a comprehensive article on Tunisia for MEMRI. She is also author of “Understanding the `Islamist Wave’ in Tunisia" in the MERIA Journal of which I'm the editor.

While Tunisia is being run by a coalition of the Muslim Brotherhood and two secular parties, the Brotherhood’s power is growing while Salafist groups are free to intimidate people. The most vocal opposition leader, Chokri Belaid, was assassinated with indications that this killing was backed, even organized, by the ruling Islamists.

Political Islam's Fight for Control and Failed U.S. Policy in the Middle East

C. Hart

The battle in Syria has evolved from political demonstrations by the Syrian people against their own government into civil war into what is now a clash between Sunnis and Shiites for control of the Syrian state.  Failed American policy in the Middle East has contributed to a vacuum which has been filled by political and militant Islam.  Current realities are that the battle over Syria is escalating, and spilling into neighboring countries, while the West continues to lack the willpower to exert its influence in the region.  Sitting back and doing nothing has actually helped Shiite Iranian aggression.  Whether an international peace conference, hosted by the U.S. and Russia, takes place or not remains to be seen.  The more active approach would be for America to stop the Shiites from gaining a stronger foothold in Syria and the region.

American Democrats and Israel

Michael Curtis

In his negotiations last week with the Israelis and Palestinians, Secretary of State John Kerry must have reminded them that it has long been clear that the sympathies of the American public are more favorable to Israel than to their adversaries in the Arab-Israeli conflict. For many years, the Pew Research Center has been conducting national surveys on this issue. The latest one, in March 2013, reaches the same conclusion as previous surveys, finding that 49 percent of those consulted sympathized more with Israel, while 12 percent sympathized with the Palestinians.

Assad: I already have S-300; Israel: We won't let you use it


Regional tensions peak • National Security Adviser Yaakov Amidror: Israel will prevent anti-aircraft missile battery from becoming operational in Syria • Assad: We have already received first S-300 shipment and will retaliate against next Israeli strike.


National Security Adviser Yaakov Amidror
|
Photo credit: Dudi Vaknin

Death of a Naked Liberal

Sultan Knish

In 2010, Newsweek was sold for a dollar and it has been devalued since. Its corporate owners have called buying it a mistake and a fool's errand. Around the same time last year, Newsweek marked a major milestone. The loss of 2.5 million readers in ten years. Since then it lost another million leaving it with about the reading population of a small city.

Meanwhile MSNBC isn't doing any better. It lost a fifth of its viewers since last year and it still can't decide if it's a network of angry idiots screaming at the camera (Chris Matthews, Al Sharpton, Ed Schultz and Lawrence O'Donnell) or snide aging college kids making wisecracks about Republicans (Rachel Maddow, Chris Hayes). Neither format is working all that well and at this rate MSNBC may want to look into bringing Keith Olbermann, who combines both demographics, back for another run.

Wednesday, May 29, 2013

After beheading, Muslims stab prison guard, machete attack men in barbershop, deface war memorial, threaten to bomb airplane…

creeping
And that’s just in the days since the broad daylight beheading by Muslims. The media is still busy defending Islam and blaming Brits and the West while Muslims continue their jihad in Eurabia. via Convicts stab and batter prison officer after taking him hostage in jail | The Sun. h/t barenakedislam
THREE fanatical Muslim convicts stabbed and battered a prison officer after taking him hostage.
The terrified warder was freed after a four-hour ordeal at Full Sutton Prison, East Yorks — said to have been inspired by the murder and attempted beheading of soldier Lee Rigby by two extremists in Woolwich on Wednesday.
The unnamed male officer was in hospital last night and is lucky to be alive, sources said yesterday.
A female prison guard was also injured as she tried to stop the brutes dragging her colleague away.

The 'Muslims-Killed-by-the-West' Lie

Dennis Prager
The alleged butcher of the off-duty British soldier, Drummer Lee Rigby, defended his carving up of a living human being by claiming that he was engaging in "an eye for an eye" because the British army is killing Muslims in Afghanistan.
Normally there is no reason to respond to the justifications offered by terrorists and other murderers of the innocent. But in this case it is important to do so because much of the Muslim world resonates to this argument and because much of the world's left offers this argument.

This is true even though a large majority of Muslims do not support terror and even though leftists do not support it. Nevertheless, throughout the Muslim and leftist worlds it is believed -- and our children are taught this at college -- that America, the UK. and other countries are targeted by Muslims because we kill Muslims.

The argument is morally perverse and a lie.

A Republican Party That Looks Like America

Sultan Knish

Getting an early start on primary season, Rand Paul stopped by New Hampshire and offered some sage advice for winning elections.  According to the article, "Senator Paul Rand urged New Hampshire Republicans to become more diversified."

New Hampshire is 94.6% white, 2.9% Latino and 1.3% Black. I don't know the exact diversity
statistics for New Hampshire Republicans, but if they get a half-black and half-Latino guy in a wheelchair to run for something, they will probably have covered all the statistical bases. 

"We need to grow bigger," Rand Paul said. "If you want to be the party of white people, we're winning all the white votes. We're a diverse nation. We're going to win when we look like America."

Looking like America is common advice these days. What does America look like? For now it still looks more like New Hampshire than like California. And despite that, Democrats scored some big wins in New Hampshire in the last election. 

Obama won New Hampshire 52 to 46 and it probably wasn't the black vote that put him over the top. He picked up over 100,000 votes in Hillsborough County, which is 90 percent white. Clearly, despite Rand Paul's optimism, Republicans aren't winning all the white votes in New Hampshire. Or in Kentucky.

Statesmen Stuck in Middle East Time Warp

@evelyng1234
 
While visiting Israel this weekend, Secretary of State John Kerry said that everywhere he goes – Europe, the Gulf States, China, Japan, even New Zealand and Brazil – the first thing he is asked about is the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Perhaps his hosts are simply demonstrating tact by starting off with the only issue Kerry shows any real interest in. But if this is truly their number-one concern, we should all be afraid: It means the leaders and diplomats entrusted with managing global crises don’t have the faintest understanding of what is and isn’t important.
Even if we disregard some pretty major problems elsewhere on the planet – for instance, the adventurism of nuclear North Korea, or the serious instability in another nuclear power, Pakistan, where Islamic extremists slaughter thousands of their own countrymen every year – there’s a Middle Eastern problem right next door that’s infinitely more important than the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. I am talking, of course, about Syria.

French soccer cup victory triggers mayhem

Paris-Saint-Germain
Foto:anang
Familiar mechanism: no more dancing in the streets of Paris on National Day
PARIS. Monday, May 13, French soccer fans turned out to honor the local team – Paris St. Germain – winner for the first time in nineteen years of the French League cup. A sweet victory for another kind of “local,” Nasser al-Khalifi, CEO of the club that was bought by Qatari interests two years ago. A big bash was planned at Place du Trocadéro, with the Eiffel Tower in the background, as if the vast square were a replica of the team logo. Fans wearing the jersey with the PSG/Eiffel Tower badge over the heart and “Fly Emirates” across the chest hooted and hollered.

The PLO was founded as an antisemitic movement

Ma'an reports:
President Mahmoud Abbas on Tuesday hailed the creation of the Palestine Liberation Organization as the most significant event in Palestinian people's history.

"(Ahmad) Shuqeiri was asked to figure out what the Palestinians wanted, and he returned with the convention for the PLO," Abbas said at a meeting to mark the 49th anniversary of the PLO's founding.

"We should remind ourselves that this is the most important and significant event in the history of the Palestinian people," the president added.

The Smoking Gun in the IRS Scandal (Part II)

CLIFF KINCAID May 29, 2013
Republicans are getting tripped up by the media when challenged about evidence of President Obama's personal involvement in the IRS scandal. Rep. Dave Camp of Michigan, who chairs the House committee looking into the IRS, "admitted there was no evidence" linking Obama to the IRS scandal, as MSNBC described his appearance on NBC's "Meet the Press." Camp said, "We don't have anything to say that the President knew about it." Michael O'Brien, a political reporter for NBC News, said both Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell and Rep. Dave Camp "admitted they lacked evidence that the targeting of conservatives was ordered by the White House."

But a Democratic Administration or its president does not need to issue orders or directives or make telephone calls demanding that the IRS act against conservatives. History shows that it is simply how the federal bureaucracy operates. The "smoking gun" is liberal politics as usual, and it stretches back to the Kennedy Administration.

Al Qaeda Re-emerging

Matthew Ernst

While the U.S. has undoubtedly had many successes fighting Al Qaeda (AQ), AQ is re-emerging due to a wide array of regional alliances. Much in the way that private businesses adapt to changing social trends and government regulations, AQ has adapted to its transformed political and strategic landscape. The "War on Terrorism" is far from over. In fact, it may just be getting started.

Muslim Heritage‏


Barack Obama, during his Cairo speech, said: "I know, too, that Islam has always been a part of
America's history."

AN AMERICAN CITIZEN'S RESPONSE 


Dear Mr. Obama:

Have you ever seen a Muslim hospital?

Have you heard a Muslim orchestra?

Have you seen a Muslim band march in a parade?

Have you witnessed a Muslim charity?

Have you seen Muslims, shaken hands with a Muslim Girl Scouts?

Have you seen a Muslim Candy Striper?

What Is To Answer?

Nurit Greenger | May 29, 2013

One of my readers, a Holocaust survivor has asked me to help him reply to some questions he received from one his readers such as:
Why there is an apparent and disturbing blurred line between perpetrators and victims?
Why the Holocaust memorial observances in Israel is of the superficial?
Why do people suggest that there is a possibility that Israel might inflict a Holocaust on the Arab-Palestinians?
Why the line “between us [the Jews] and them [the non-Jews] has been destroyed? In other words, during WWII, while the Holocaust was taking place some Jews committed terrible acts against their own and some Germans and other non-Jews acted nobly, and there was a whole range of intermediate cases on both sides. Still, is there no line between “them” and “us”?

Terrorist who killed 38 Israelis appointed PA adviser

KHALED ABU TOAMEH

Man behind 1978 Coastal Road massacre made adviser to Abbas.

Coastal Road Massacre Bus
Coastal Road Massacre Bus Photo: Wikimedia commons
 
Hussein Fayyad, one of the commanders of the terror group that carried out the 1978 Coastal Road massacre, revealed on Tuesday that Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas had appointed him as one of his advisers.
The attack, which led to the killing of 38 Israeli civilians, including 13 children, was planned and carried out by Abbas’s Fatah faction.

Fayyad, who was released in a prisoner swap with Israel in 1985, said that Abbas signed a decree in 2008 promoting him to the position of “advisor” to the PA president.

However, Fayyad – who is not related to PA Prime Minister Salam Fayyad – complained that the PA leadership has not done anything to ensure that he get the job.

The Fear of Causing Offense

Douglas Murray
There are people literally trying not to see the story and not to admit what the story is. This was an attack that made plenty of sense and had been whipped up, as well as aspired to by others, for many years.
Drummer Lee Rigby, 25 years old, was walking down a street in South London, heading back to his barracks, when the two men drove a car into him. Drummer Rigby, who had done tours of duty in Afghanistan, was pinned down by the two men. They then attempted to decapitate and disembowel him with knives and a meat cleaver. Passing members of the public looked on in horror.

Palestinians: Kerry Trying to Bribe Us to "Sell Out"

Khaled Abu Toameh

The Americans and Europeans are clearly not listening to what the Palestinians are telling them: that dollars and euros will not change the hearts and minds of the people. They will continue to stick to their demands,including the "right of return" for Palestinians refugees to their former homes and a full Israeli withdrawal to the pre-1967 lines. If Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas accepts Kerry's economic plan and returns to peace talks with Israel, he will be accused of "selling out" to Israel and the U.S. in return for money.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry is trying to bribe the Palestinians by offering them economic projects in return for political concessions, Palestinian Authority officials claim.

Tuesday, May 28, 2013

The Smoking Gun in the IRS Scandal (Part I)

CLIFF KINCAID May 28, 2013
Jeffrey Lord's story in the American Spectator about a "smoking gun" in the IRS scandal has backfired. He implied that the head of the IRS union had personally met with President Obama to plot against the Tea Party when there is no evidence of such a meeting or such plotting. Instead, as the Daily Caller and U.S. News & World Report have reported, the union chief had been part of a "Workplace Flexibility Forum" in the Old Executive Office Building attended by 200 people and featuring Obama as a speaker.

Lord is a fine columnist, but Wall Street Journal columnist Kimberley Strassel had previously pointed out that the smoking gun evidence of presidential wrongdoing has been right in front of us all along, in the form of various statements by the President and other administration officials attacking and demonizing the Tea Party, as well as demands from Democrats and their allies that conservative groups be scrutinized by the IRS. This was pressure from above that had its intended effect-to disable the Tea Party movement during the 2012 elections.
"The media and Congress are sleuthing for some hint that Mr. Obama picked up the phone and sicced the tax dogs on his enemies," Strassel commented. "But that's not how things work in post-Watergate Washington. Mr. Obama didn't need to pick up the phone. All he needed to do was exactly what he did do, in full view, for three years: Publicly suggest that conservative political groups were engaged in nefarious deeds; publicly call out by name political opponents whom he'd like to see harassed; and publicly have his party pressure the IRS to take action."
In fact, the pressure came not only from the Democratic Party, but from various George Soros-funded groups and journalists, one of whom, Seth Rosenfeld, obtained personal financial information about filmmaker Joel Gilbert and his financial backers. The Gilbert case, which involves a massive invasion of privacy and harassment of donors to an anti-Obama film, is potentially even more serious in a legal sense than scrutiny of Tea Party groups by the IRS. In addition, the IRS reopened Gilbert's 2009 tax return, and simply denied all of his business expenses, even though they were well-documented.

From My Bird's View

Nurit Greenger 
 
You see my friends the world has a problem with Jews having a JEWISH STATE; it is against their DNA and unacceptable. What the world wants to do is mix the Jews with Erev-Rav, which they are working hard at, and thus eventually end this Jewish state's "experiment".

Obama Administration Calls for the 'Human Rights' of Jihadi Murderers

Raymond Ibrahim
PJ Media

It's well known that whenever jihadis attack and slaughter innocent people — especially Christians — the Obama administration tries to ignore or whitewash. Lesser known, however, is that whenever foreign governments try to subdue the jihadis, the Obama administration objects and calls for the "human rights" of the terrorists.
According to Reuters,
Nigerian warplanes struck militant camps in the northeast on Friday [5/17] in a major push against an Islamist insurgency, drawing a sharp warning from the United States to respect human rights and not harm civilians. Troops used jets and helicopters to bombard targets in their biggest offensive since the Boko Haram group launched a revolt almost four years ago to establish a breakaway Islamic state and one military source said at least 30 militants had been killed. But three days after President Goodluck Jonathan declared a state of emergency in the northeast, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry issued a strongly worded statement saying: "We are … deeply concerned by credible allegations that Nigerian security forces are committing gross human rights violations, which, in turn, only escalate the violence and fuel extremism.

The Israeli Man's Burden

Sultan Knish

New York Times bureau chiefs in Jerusalem are expected to set new standards for malicious bias and during his time there, Ethan Bronner was no exception.

A bureau chief anywhere else in the world may be expected to explore the life and color of the city. But in Jerusalem, a New York Times scribe fills the same spot as the bitter goth kid working on the high school paper who is forced to review musicals put on by cheerleaders. What comes out the other end may have a distant resemblance to journalism, but is mostly just gallons of congealed bile.

Ethan Bronner, who has moved up the New York Times totem pole from attacking Israel to attacking America, still visits the old country on occasion and still pens spiteful little pieces about how dumb and shallow the cheerleaders are. The latest Bronner missive sees him attending a wedding and grumbling at how happy everyone seems to be.

At a "raucous wedding", Bronner finds that few people are interested in discussing "the Palestinians or the Arab world on their borders". Instead, "everyone was celebrating". And why wouldn't they be celebrating? It is a wedding. And people at weddings generally don't talk about the people trying to kill them. Average weddings in the United States don't involve detailed discussions of terrorism, even when New York Times reporters are in attendance.

Hamas textbooks to teach about 'liberation plans'

by KHALED ABU TOAMEH

http://www.jpost.com/Middle-East/Hamas-new-textbooks-to-teach-about-liberation-plans-313939

Text part of new curriculum, which is expected to be introduced into the Gaza Strip schools next academic year.

East Jerusalem Classroom Photo: REUTERS/Mohamad Torokman
Hamas has begun preparing new school textbooks that teach children about “plans to liberate Palestine and the legitimacy and various forms of resistance [against Israel].” Jamal Abu Hashem, advisor to the Hamas-controlled education ministry, said new books would be introduced as part of National Education Studies for grades 8-10.

Abu Hashem was speaking during a workshop in Gaza City that was attended by senior officials of the education ministry and experts from a number of universities. His statements were published by several Hamas websites.

Can the U.S. Government Buy Moderation in the Middle East? No



Can the Obama Administration turn radicals into moderates with money?

Way back in 1979, shortly after the Iranian revolution, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini said that people in the West didn't understand revolutionary Islamism. "They think," he explained, "the revolution is all about the price of watermelons. It isn't." In other words, this is an ideological cause not a money-making attempt where people can be bribed.

Three Examples:

1. The Palestinian Case

On May 26, at the World Economic Forum in Jordan, Secretary of State John Kerry proclaimed a new plan. He wants to find $4 billion from investors. If he does this, he claims, the Palestinian economy will be doing great, people will be employed, and there will be peace.

Actually, this is a bribe to get the Palestinian Authority back to negotiations with Israel which would also mean, of course, that the Obama Administration can claim a foreign policy success. That's $4 billion to buy a negotiations'process that will meet a few times and break down in deadlock, as has happened over 20 years under far better potential conditions and additional billions of dollars of aid to the Palestinians. The initiative is also intended to get the Palestinian Authority to drop plans to seek statehood at the UN; file cases against Israel at the World Court; and to try to join other international institutions as an independent state.

Islam’s War of Annihilation Against Hindus



A thought-provoking essay written by Narain Kataria, president of the Indian American Intellectuals Forum, sounds a familiar alarm. “Hinduism Faces Eclipse” reveals that “the anti-Hindu forces within and without India are working in tandem on an insidious mission to destroy our civilization and culture, and obliterate Hinduism from the Indian soil.” Kataria further contends that Indians are not facing terrorism, but worldwide jihad, which he calls a “fully globalized franchise…working overtime to destroy all non-Muslim nations.”

‘Cockroach’ as anti-Arab Slur and other Narrative Creations

Two Claremont Colleges conducted investigations: Pitzer exonerated its Students for Justice in Palestine members and pilloried a Jewish Israeli faculty member from the other school, while Claremont Mckenna found the Pitzer students and the faculty member behaved poorly.
The Jewish Press
Published: May 28th, 2013
Najib Hamideh and other Students for Justice in Palestine bar students entry to Claremont McKenna College cafeteria in "Israeli checkpoint street theater demonstration," March 4, 2013
Najib Hamideh and other Students for Justice in Palestine bar students entry to Claremont McKenna College cafeteria in "Israeli checkpoint street theater demonstration," March 4, 2013
A recent article in The Jewish Press laid out the framework of a March 4 clash between a student who had been involved in a street theater demonstration – a “mock Israeli checkpoint” – and a Jewish professor.  What could have been merely a tense situation became toxic largely because the professor is Israeli and the student is an Arab Palestinian.

Monday, May 27, 2013

Bennett: Every time we give up land people are killed

By LAHAV HARKOV

Bayit Yehudi leader pans president Peres's speech calling for two-state solution, saying "This is the time to say this is our land, it's not for sale;" requests that IDF protect West Bank residents from rock-throwing.

Economics and Trade Minister Naftali Bennett arriving for cabinet meeting, April 28, 2013.
Economics and Trade Minister Naftali Bennett arriving for cabinet meeting, April 28, 2013. Photo: Alex Kolomoisky/Pool/Yediot Aharonot
 
Withdrawal from land leads to deaths, Economy and Trade Minister Naftali Bennett said Monday, responding to President Shimon Peres' speech calling for a two-state solution.
"I value our president, but the concept of withdrawals failed and brought thousands of victims," Bennett said at a Bayit Yehudi faction meeting.
"Every time we give up land, people are killed," he added.
Bennett called for the government to declare "this is our land, and it is not for sale." The government's job is to provide security for its citizens, Bennett added, and the government is failing to do so in Judea and Samaria, where mothers and children in cars are pelted with rocks.

Serving Those Who Served

 

This Memorial Day, the Heritage family will join all Americans in remembering the service and sacrifices of those who gave all so the rest of us would remain free.
There is no greater way to honor their memory than making a personal commitment to serving those who served—our 22 million living American veterans and their families.
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Those who give the most have the set the bar high for the rest of us. The Congressional Medal of Honor Foundation was founded by the Congressional Medal of Honor Society, which consists exclusively of the living Medal of Honor recipients. These brave men have committed themselves to continuing a life of service to their nation.

The Battling Boys of Benghazi



The poem below was written by a MARINE CORPS Officer (ANON).
bat

A Memorial Day for Islamic Terror




May 27, 2013 
On John Wilson Street, the flowers lie thick. Men and women walk by leaving bouquets and cards. If not for the balloons and teddy bears with British flags on them, it might be Copley Square near the finish line of the Boston Marathon where the same bouquets lie limply against steel barriers. But there the teddy bears and balloons wear the stars and stripes.

In the middle of May, Prime Minister David Cameron was at Copley Square saying that we will never give in to the terrorists while praising the values of diversity and then two weeks later he was outside 10 Downing Street declaring that we will never give in to the terrorists and praising Islam. The places had changed but the script hadn’t.

Memorial Day 2013: Jihad Is Stronger Than Ever

Robert Spencer On May 27, 2013

The war on terror is long over. U.S. Army attorney Lt. Gen. Dana Chipman declared last week that the Fort Hood jihad massacre was a “criminal act of a single individual,” not an act of international terrorism. Barack Obama declared the war on terror over yet again last Thursday, saying, “Beyond Afghanistan, we must define our effort not as a boundless ‘global war on terror’ – but rather as a series of persistent, targeted efforts to dismantle specific networks of violent extremists that threaten America.”

Savages of Stockholm

Sultan Knish

Europe has many fine traditions. Its newest tradition is the burning car. Why burn cars? Because, as George Mallory once said of mountains, they're there. There are lots of car around and if you're a member of a perpetually unemployed tribe that wandered up north and forages on social services, you might as well do something to pass the time.

Burning houses is a lot of work and house fires spread. Car fires are simpler. In a welfare state
everyone has houses but not everyone has cars. Burning cars is a way to stick it to those who work for a living. It's also a way to drive off the members of the sickly Swedish tribe and claim the area for your own. And it's also fun.

Either you have a plan for buying a car or for burning a car. Considering the Muslim unemployment rates in Sweden, France and everywhere else, it's safe to say the car burners don't have future plans that involve saving up for a car or taking out a loan for a car or finding work. Cars are things that they steal, either the usual way or by defrauding social services. They might get a car by dealing drugs, but those cars are disposable. One day they'll have to burn them anyway.

Texas: FBI arrests Hezbollah-linked Muslim trying to get sensitive job at DoD

creeping
How many others have been hired? via Alleged member of Hezbollah arrested here – San Antonio Express-News.
The FBI has arrested a San Antonio man on charges he lied to get into the United States and tried to get a sensitive Defense Department position.
Wissam Allouche, 44, appeared for an initial hearing Friday afternoon, and shook his head when U.S. Magistrate Judge Henry Bemporad read the charges leveled in a federal indictment. The judge ordered him held pending a bail hearing and his arraignment Tuesday.
“He allegedly tried to cover up his affiliation with Hezbollah,” said special agent Erik Vasys, spokesman for the FBI in San Antonio. “It is believed he was looking to secure a sensitive position with the U.S. government at some point.
The indictment said Allouche had married a U.S. citizen and was going through the naturalization process. During that process, he reportedly lied when asked if he’d ever been a member of or associated with a terror organization, the indictment said.
The FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force alleges he was a fighter with the Amal militia in Lebanon in the early to mid-1980s.

Obama's Seven Premises About Islamist Terrorism and Revolution‏

Barry Rubin

So you want to understand Obama foreign policy? Ok, here is is, an explanation in clear, simple, and accurate form based on Obama's recent speech at Fort McNair about terrorism:
Obama Premise Number One:
If one wanted to come up with a slogan for the Obama Administration regarding the "war on terrorism" it would be this:
To win the war on terrorism one must lose the war on revolutionary Islamism. 
because only by showing that America is the Islamists' friend will it take away the incentive of Muslims, including radical Muslims, to join al-Qaida and attack the United States.
This is NOT the same thing precisely as showing that the United States is the Muslims' friend. For, after all, the United States is taking sides for some Muslims and against others. And the side it is taking is that of the Islamist Muslims against the moderate, traditionalist, and nationalist ones.
In other words, the administration is largely assuming in practice that the Islamists are the proper representative and leadership of the Muslims. (That is also true, by the way, of domestic preferences.)
Thus, if the Muslim Brotherhood governs Egypt, Tunisia, the Gaza Strip, and Syria, they would have what they wanted and there would be no need for them to attack America and would have every interest in suppressing al-Qaida.