Mideast: On Target - Familiar Errors

Mideast: On Target - Familiar Errors: "A corrupt, brutal regime is driven out of part of the area it controls by an anti-Western, ideological, violent opponent.� The population, exploited and brutalized by both, prefers the ideological to the corrupt, and votes accordingly.� In an attempt to regain power, the corrupt regime declares its %u201Cmoderation%u201D and its commitment to Western democratic values, while continuing its path of brutality and exploitation of the population.� The West, correctly fearing the consequences of the victory of the anti-West group, backs the corrupt regime, as the lesser of two evils, despite the fact that the population has long withdrawn support from the corrupt leadership.� The result: nearly 60,000 Americans killed in Southeast Asia between 1964 and 1973.� Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Vietnam.

The decision to support Abu Mazen and the %u201Cmoderate%u201D terrorists of Fatah against the fanatic terrorists of Hamas is as wrong headed and doomed as was the American foray into Vietnam four decades ago.� And for the same reasons: it is doomed to fail.� The Hamas election victory and subsequent ejection of Fatah from Gaza over the past year are indicators of a number of trends, none of which will be reversed by arming Fatah gunmen and releasing their terrorists from Israeli prisons"

See the balance of this very interesting analysis by clicking on the link above.

Al Jazeera English - News - Deaths In Northwest Pakistan Clash

Al Jazeera English - News - Deaths In Northwest Pakistan Clash

6 Month Analysis of the BBC: The Subtle Bias

6 Month Analysis of the BBC: The Subtle Bias

Testimony: France in the Twenty-First Century - Nicolas Sarkozy - Books - Review - New York Times

Testimony: France in the Twenty-First Century - Nicolas Sarkozy - Books - Review - New York Times

Report: Iran to provide Syria with $1b for new weapons | Jerusalem Post

So was Assad serious about his peace overtures or Israel or was he just doing it to blackmail money and help on Lebanon from the Iranians? Read below.

"Iran to provide Syria with $1b for new weapons | Jerusalem Post: "Iran will reportedly fund, at a price of $1 billion, new Syrian fighter jets, tanks, missiles against naval craft and will aid in Syria's nuclear and chemical weapons research programs. In return, Syrian President Bashar Assad has reportedly promised Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to cease the pursuit of peace talks with Israel in exchange for Iranian support of Syrian interests in Lebanon.
The sensitive details from the two leaders' meeting in Damascus earlier in the week were related to the Lebanese Arabic daily Asharq Alawsat by an anonymous Iranian source involved with the discreet meeting, and were brought to light on Saturday."

DEBKAfile, At Leaast 4 Israeli Civilians Injured In Qassam Rocket Attack on Sderot

DEBKAfile, Political Analysis, Espionage, Terrorism, Security:
How about this for an idea: Israel announces that for every Qassam fired at Israel, Israel cuts off electricity and water to the Gaza Strip for one hour. and for every Israeli injured, they lose it for one day. How soon would it take for the Qassam's to stop, or for Hamas to fall or call for international forces to secure its order region? there will be UN and leftist condemnations, ut how much will the Western world really care? The only reason Israel is providing these essentials to Gaza at this point is becuase Egypt doesn't want to further contaminate its society by contact with Hamasastan. However, the Egyptians do nothing to stem the flow of deadly weapons to the Gaza Strip, so why should Israel make it easy on Egypt or the Palestinians?

"The missile from Gaza exploded Thursday on a residential street causing also heavy damage to property. In a press briefing, a senior Israel officer offered a pessimistic outlook for the population living around the Gaza Strip, which suffers an average of two or three missiles a day. Hamas, he said, has procured its first Katyusha rockets, Sagger anti-tank and anti-air missiles and many tons of explosive materials. The Philadelphi strip bordering on Egyptian Sinai is wide open for the transit of war materiel."

How Will the Turkish Military React

Article or Op-Ed

Summary

The Turkish military began to Westernise in the late 18th century and became a strictly secular institution under Ataturk in the early 20th century. The military are Turkey's most Westernised institution and a bastion of secularism. What is more, they consistently rank as the most popular and widely respected institution in Turkey. Since the 1990s, the Turkish military have emerged as a force defending Turkey's secular democracy in the political realm. What explains the military's behaviour? Given the recent rumblings in Turkey over its presidential, and upcoming parliamentary elections -- the Justice and Development Party (AKP), with an Islamist pedigree and currently in government, is at the centre of the controversy -- a review of the Turkish military's commitment to secularism will help reveal how it might react in the near future to a number of important issues.

Help Wanted: Peacemaker - New York Times

Help Wanted: Peacemaker - New York Times

"President Bush baffles me. If your whole legacy was riding on Iraq, what would you do? I’d draft the country’s best negotiators — Henry Kissinger, Jim Baker, George Shultz, George Mitchell, Dennis Ross or Richard Holbrooke — and ask one or all of them to go to Baghdad, under a U.N. mandate, with the following orders:

“I want you to move to the Green Zone, meet with the Iraqi factions and do not come home until you’ve reached one of three conclusions: 1) You have resolved the power- and oil-sharing issues holding up political reconciliation; 2) you have concluded that those obstacles are insurmountable and have sold the Iraqis on a partition plan that could be presented to the U.N. and supervised by an international force; 3) you have concluded that Iraqis are incapable of agreeing on either political reconciliation or a partition plan and told them that, as a result, the U.S. has no choice but to re-deploy its troops to the border and let Iraqis sort this out on their own.”

The last point is crucial. Any lawyer will tell you, if you’re negotiating a contract and the other side thinks you’ll never walk away, you’ve got no leverage. And in Iraq, we’ve never had any leverage. The Iraqis believe that Mr. Bush will never walk away, so they have no incentive to make painful compromises."

Biblical Destruction - WSJ.com

Biblical Destruction - WSJ.com
How the Palestinians are destroying archeologcal evidence of Jewish ties to the temple Mount, and how weak-kneed Israeli authorities are cooperating with this destruction.

The Bush Doctrine Lives - WSJ.com

The Bush Doctrine Lives - WSJ.com

The Counterterrorism Club - WSJ.com

The Counterterrorism Club - WSJ.com

"The presumption seems to be that any dilution of democracy, regardless of circumstance, diminishes the capacity to remain democratic at all. Once the liberal bearings become contaminated, the progressive impulse withers like an atrophied muscle. This argument is no more convincing than those who oppose anti-assault weapon legislation on the fear that the removal of the most dangerous firearms from the streets necessarily leads to the disarmament of the entire nation.

The fact is, it's possible to be liberal, progressive, and still not stupid. It's good to be vigilant when it comes to safeguarding our Constitution, but it's crazy to think that this document, without some supplemental statutory assistance, will enable the government to protect our democracy -- not just as a philosophical principle, but as a state of fact.

It is simply not true that the Constitution is always applied consistently and without exception. Pedophiles, for instance, are clearly on the short end of constitutional justice in America, with their detentions lasting not only indefinitely but often infinitely. Few seem to mind. We prosecuted Nazis in Nuremberg knowing that the full sweep of constitutional protections would have resulted in no convictions -- an unbearable outcome -- and so we created new laws with relaxed standards."

BBC won't remove anti-Semitic posting | Jerusalem Post

BBC won't remove anti-Semitic posting | Jerusalem Post

France: Hizbullah not a terror group | Jerusalem Post

France: Hizbullah not a terror group | Jerusalem Post

Militants stir in Lebanese outposts | csmonitor.com

Militants stir in Lebanese outposts | csmonitor.com

War has its Own Momentum in Mideast -- Beware Syria

July 10, 2007

JINSA Report #683
To the South, or to the West?
Syria, under pressure from the UN Tribunal investigating the murder of Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, and under additional UN (plus Lebanese, French and American) pressure to halt the flow of weapons and fighters into Lebanon and Iraq, has issued two sets of warnings: to the south and to the west. To Israel and to Lebanon.

A Ba'ath official told The New York Sun, "If Israel doesn't vacate the strategic Golan Heights before September, Syrian guerillas will immediately launch 'resistance operations' ... Damascus is preparing for Israeli retaliation following Syrian guerilla attacks and for a larger war... (The unnamed Ba'ath official) said that in the opening salvo of any conflict, Syria has the capability to fire 'hundreds' of missiles at Tel Aviv. 'Syria passed repeated messages to the U.S. that we demand the return of the Golan either through negotiations or through war. If the Golan is not in our hands by August or September, we will be poised to launch resistance, including raids and attacks.'"

As for Lebanon, the UN appears finally to be taking reports of Syrian infiltration seriously, including consideration of changing the mandate of UNIFIL to guard the border. Arab and Iranian press reports say Syria has told its citizens to leave the country. Hezbollah has been unable to translate last summer's military stalemate against the IDF into political gains in Beirut, but the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI), in a special dispatch, reports that Hezbollah has now, "threatened to establish a 'second government' through 'historical steps' in mid July." Steps supported by Syria, as Syria has supported the Fatah al-Islam terror groups in their fight against the Lebanese Army from inside Palestinian refugee camps.

The IDF takes the Syrian threat extremely seriously, suspending changes in Israeli military personnel abroad and improving ground force operations. But the threat from Syria is likely to be primarily missiles, including chemical warheads. To that end, the Israeli government has moved defense funds to the Home Front Command, but acknowledged that the situation of gas masks for the population is unacceptable. Syria is known to have Scud-D surface-to-surface missiles, which were tested in coordination with Iran, and is believed to have Chinese C-802 missiles of the sort used against the IDF/Navy last summer - courtesy of Iran as well.

Syrian propaganda is already blaming Israel for any future war. The New York Sun quotes the Ba'ath official saying Syria "has 'proof' Israel is also readying for a war. 'We hear about special Israeli trainings to take Damascus. We see that Israel is reestablishing bases of the Israeli army in the Golan that are unusual and not needed except for war. We believe the Israeli government has an interest in confronting Syria to rehabilitate its image of losing to Hezbollah,' he said."

War in the Middle East has a way of building its own momentum. Junior Assad, a pawn of Iran, may believe he has no choice but to continue his bluster against two countries closely associated with American interests in the region - Israel and Lebanon. Israel will have to take seriously any Syrian move against Lebanon, and the U.S. will have to take seriously any Syrian move against Lebanon or Israel.

Richard Cohen - They Honor Us With Their Hate - washingtonpost.com

Richard Cohen - They Honor Us With Their Hate - washingtonpost.com

Worthy reminder of why most "traditional" Muslims hate us -- far beyond the reason of our Iraqi War. It is because of our values, of which we should be proud, and which we cannot concede to make them happy, without changing ourselves.

The case for mistrusting Muslims - Los Angeles Times

The case for mistrusting Muslims - Los Angeles Times

Mortar barrages pound Negev - Israel News, Ynetnews

Mortar barrages pound Negev - Israel News, Ynetnews

Why shouldn't Israel turn off electricity to Gaza one hour for every Qassam rocket shot across its border by the Palestinians? How fast would Hamas get control of this problem if it were forced to govern in darkness? Call it collective punishment, but it can't help but be effective. At worse, it would begin the process of decoupling Gaza from Israel (some would say that this would undermine Israeli influence over Gaza. What influence?).

'Time running out for Iran strike' | Jerusalem Post

'Time running out for Iran strike' | Jerusalem Post

What About Muslim Moderates? - WSJ.com

What About Muslim Moderates? - WSJ.com:

More "bone-headedness" by a boneheaded Bush administration. Woolsey is a died-in-the-wool conservative, and proves what we are widely seeing today -- you don't have to have abandoned your conservative or neo-conservative ideology or conceded its wrongness to be enormously dissapointed and upset with the gross incompetence of the Bush administration.

"Islamist terrorism has led the American and British governments in the past month to launch separate public diplomacy programs aimed at engaging Muslims at home and abroad. A quick comparison shows the two initiatives are headed in opposite directions. At least the Brits have finally got it right.

The Bush administration is building bridges to well-funded and self-publicized organizations that claim to speak for all Muslims, even though some of those groups espouse views inimical to American values and interests. After years of pursuing similar strategies -- while seeing home-based terrorists proliferate -- the Blair-Brown government is now more discerning about which Muslims it will partner with. Stating that 'lip service for peace' is no longer sufficient, the British are identifying and elevating those who are willing to take clear stands against terrorism and its supporting ideology."

Kurdistan Showdown - WSJ.com

Kurdistan Showdown - WSJ.com

oyyy....

Libya Destroyed Millennia of Jewish Heritage - WSJ.com

Libya Destroyed Millennia of Jewish Heritage - WSJ.com

The other refugees. If the Palestinians want a rigth of return to anywhere other than the Palestinian teritories, let them go live in the houses in Cairo, Damascus, Tripoli, Sanaa and Tunis of the 800,000 Jews from Arab countries who were made refugees. This figure, by the way was certified by the UN, vs the 650,000 Palestinian refugee figure form pre-'67 Israel also certified by the UN. Instead of expending their time deligitimizing Israel, perhaps leftist Western intellectuals should focus their time on this population swap.

DEBKAfile - In the Middle East, America’s Exit from Iraq Attracts Less Interest than Gathering War Clouds

DEBKAfile - In the Middle East, America’s Exit from Iraq Attracts Less Interest than Gathering War Clouds

Al Aqsa Brigades demands Abbas to remove Fayyad from his post - International Middle East Media Center - IMEMC

Al Aqsa Brigades demands Abbas to remove Fayyad from his post - International Middle East Media Center - IMEMC

WSJ: One View of What Went Wrong In Iraq and Our Criminal Mismanagement of This Enterprise

Commentary: The Weekend Interview - WSJ.com

"Mr. Chalabi would appear to be the nearest thing Iraqis currently possess to a genuine walk-and-talk democratic politician, one who will risk life and limb to embody the principle personally. In fact, the U.S.'s main error in Iraq, according to Mr. Chalabi, has been trying to micromanage the development of Iraqi politics. "The U.S. should make a choice," he says, "either to accept full democracy and live with the consequences or undertake full control. They keep trying to 'give local initiatives a boost' instead of letting Iraqi democracy succeed on its own. When you make your own mistakes, you learn. When outsiders make them, unfortunately, they get treated as the enemy."

His recounting of post-war Iraqi history -- which began with the high-handed regency of L. Paul Bremer and then the appointed Iraqi government of Ayad Allawi -- returns again and again to this point.

"The problems began when the U.S. declared an official occupation," he says. "We told the U.S. not to have an occupation, that it would be a disaster. We never intended that. We wanted the Iraqis to run their own affairs, but we were not trusted to do that. Two years ahead of time, we asked [the U.S.] for a 10,000 man multiethnic military police force of Iraqis to be trained ... We were refused."

OpinionJournal - Featured Article

OpinionJournal - Featured Article

Unexpected Benefit of Socialized Medicine -- Faulty Syringes that fail to detonate British Terror Car Bombs

Scotsman.com News - Terrorism in the UK - Faulty NHS syringes 'stopped London bombs'

Scotsman.com News - Terrorism in the UK - The middle-class militants seeking bloody martyrdom

Scotsman.com News - Terrorism in the UK - The middle-class militants seeking bloody martyrdom: "Last night one former friend told how the Cambridge-eductated doctor was an Islamic extremist who wished to see the whole world brought under Islamic sharia law."

DEBKAfile - Syria Winds up Planning for Campaign of Terror on Golan

DEBKAfile - Syria Winds up Planning for Campaign of Terror on Golan

Interesting article. How will Israel respond to the result? With more concessions which ignore Israel's legitimate rights?

Capital - WSJ.com

Capital - WSJ.com: "When Princeton economist Alan Krueger saw reports that seven of eight people arrested in the unsuccessful car bombings in Britain were doctors, he wasn't shocked. He wasn't even surprised.
'Each time we have one of these attacks and the backgrounds of the attackers are revealed, this should put to rest the myth that terrorists are attacking us because they are desperately poor,' he says. 'But this misconception doesn't die.'"

Read the rest of the article. It defintiely presents a point of view. It is a bit too generic, though, and doesn't discuss religious ideology, but it does point out that frustration in ability to politically express oneself is a big part of the problem. However, again, that doesn't answer why doctors in democratic Great Britain should turn to terrorists... other than the corrosive sway of Islam.

Israel Boycott

Israel Boycott

Watch this entertaining little movie. All too often, anti-Zionism, however misguided, quickly morphs into anti-Semitism, as anti-Semitic attacks in Europe and the US have demonstrated during the past 6 years. What have the Palestinians contributed to this world besides suicide bombings and skyjackings? Or the Arabs, other than the oil they sit on?

At a Theater Near You ... - New York Times

At a Theater Near You ... - New York Times:

This is a great read from Friedman. In summary, the breast-beating leftists among us must come to accept that it isn't our fault tha tthe Islamists have this cult of death -- it is the fault of the Islamic belief system and their failure to adapt to the modern world. They have to solve this problem before their whole culture is contaminated. Read every word of this article, but the following quote gets at the nub of it:

"Two trends are at work here: humiliation and atomization. Islam's self-identity is that it is the most perfect and complete expression of God's monotheistic message, and the Koran is God's last and most perfect word. To put it another way, young Muslims are raised on the view that Islam is God 3.0. Christianity is God 2.0. Judaism is God 1.0. And Hinduism and all others are God 0.0. One of the factors driving Muslim males, particularly educated ones, into these acts of extreme, expressive violence is that while they were taught that they have the most perfect and complete operating system, every day they are confronted with the reality that people living by God 2.0., God 1.0 and God 0.0 are generally living much more prosperously, powerfully and democratically than those living under Islam. This creates a real dissonance and humiliation. How could this be? Who did this to us? The Crusaders! The Jews! The West! It can never be something that they failed to learn, adapt to or build. This humiliation produces a lashing out."

False hopes of peace - Israel Opinion, Ynetnews

False hopes of peace - Israel Opinion, Ynetnews: "It is no coincidence that a Palestinian state was never established prior to Israel's foundation; it is no coincidence that the Partition Plan was rejected by the Palestinians; it is also no coincidence that for the almost 20 years that had elapsed between the War of Independence and the Six Day War, no such state was established in Judea, Samaria and the Gaza Strip.
�
Even recently, when it still seemed to many of us that there was a central government among the Palestinians, they chose not to establish a state of their own, even though such a state would have been recognized by the world at large, including Israel.

�The truth of the matter is that Palestinian nationalism is the byproduct of our Zionism."

JCPA�Peace Process-Why Israel Must Now Move from Concessions-Based Diplomacy to Rights-Based Diplomacy

JCPA�Peace Process-Why Israel Must Now Move from Concessions-Based Diplomacy to Rights-Based Diplomacy: "Government leaders and diplomats would do well to adopt a more aggressive diplomatic stance based on Israel's longstanding international legal and historical rights to a sovereign state in its own homeland with a united Jerusalem as its capital.2 Moreover, in 2007, forty years after the adoption of UN Security Council Resolution 242, the State of Israel should also reassert its substantial legal rights to secure boundaries in the West Bank opposite Palestinian demands for a state in Gaza, the entire West Bank, and Jerusalem. Generous Israeli concessions have, if inadvertently, reinforced the charges by some that Israel's legitimacy is inextricably linked to further territorial concessions. Therefore, Israel should now recalibrate the moral force of its rightful claims that today have been all but lost to the Palestinians in the international court of public opinion."

Lessons from the Cold River - Los Angeles Times

Lessons from the Cold River - Los Angeles Times: "If the Lebanese army can stand up to jihadists, anybody can."

U.S. Ties Iran to Deadly Iraq Attack - New York Times

U.S. Ties Iran to Deadly Iraq Attack - New York Times: "Iranian operatives helped plan a January raid in Karbala in which five American soldiers were killed, an American military spokesman in Iraq said today.
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Video Video: Brig. Gen. Kevin J. Bergner

Brig. Gen. Kevin J. Bergner, the military spokesman, also said that Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps has used operatives from the Lebanese militia group Hezbollah as a “proxy” to train and arm Shiite militants in Iraq."

The most constructive use of this information right now would be a limited surgical air strike at a Revolutionary Guard camp in Iran that can be tied to these activities. If this can be accomplished under multinational auspices, all the better. Iran has run proxy wars against Western interests for decades -- if a message were sent that we were prepared to use military force against them for this, it would put a lot more teeth in a sanctions program regarding their nuclear capability, and might bring us to a happy ending on the nuclear front (right now it is going in the opposite direction). It couldn't get much worse -- the Iranians historically run to negotiation and settlement when confronted with a resolute foe. We must prove to them that we ARE resolute, and willing to bring our forces against their homeland in defense of our own. the practical utility of sending this message now cannot be overstated.

Ending the Farce - New York Times

Ending the Farce - New York Times

A morality play from that least moral place, Washington.

Counterterrorism Blog: The Muslim Brotherhood for Beginners

Counterterrorism Blog: The Muslim Brotherhood for Beginners: "Those who follow counterterrorism commentary over the last several months have noticed a number articles and media treatments dealing with the Muslim Brotherhood. Much of this commentary assumed familiarity with the Brotherhood and the issues raised by its presence in Western countries. Consequently, those unfamiliar with issues might feel lost, like sports fans who enter the stadium at halftime. My goal in this article is to give primer on the Muslim Brotherhood and the recent debates surrounding it. I am going to avoid the temptation to provide my own opinions on the merits of these debates. This decision does not imply that I have no opinions about the group and its worthiness for our embrace. Those opinions, however, will have to await another day."

YouTube - Israel kill Hamas Mickey Mouse

YouTube - Israel kill Hamas Mickey Mouse
If it weren't so tragic it would be comical.

Poll: 42% of Israelis think peace possible under current leaders - Haaretz - Israel News

Poll: 42% of Israelis think peace possible under current leaders - Haaretz - Israel News


Overall, 41 per cent of Palestinians supported dissolving the Palestinian Authority while 26 percent wanted it replaced it with an international trusteeship. 16 percent of Palestinians said they favored a return to full Israeli occupation. However, 49 percent rejected dismantling the PA.

Some 42 percent of the Palestinians surveyed favored the establishment of a confederation with Jordan.

Jordan's King Abdullah and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak have recently dismissed the idea of a confederation with Jordan, at least until an independent Palestinian state is established.

Abdullah rejects W. Bank confederacy | Jerusalem Post

Abdullah rejects W. Bank confederacy | Jerusalem Post: "Jordan's King Abdullah II flatly rejected a confederation with the Palestinians on Sunday, calling any such proposal at the current time a 'conspiracy' against his kingdom and the Palestinians, a local newspaper reported."

This isn't as bad as it sounds, though it isn't great. King Abdullah will follow his father's formula, and only go for confederation if the Palestinians ask for it in connection with a peace treaty with Israel. Good luck, with the weakling Abbas in charge. This lack of leadership by the little king will ultimately contribute to destabilizing Jordan.