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Archived
news and commentary: March 11 - 17, 2002
2002/03/25
- 2002/03/31
2002/03/18
- 2002/03/24
2002/03/11 - 2002/03/17
2002/03/04
- 2002/03/10
2002/02/25
- 2002/03/03
2002/02/18
- 2002/02/24
2002/02/11
- 2002/02/17
2002/02/04
- 2002/02/10
2002/01/28
- 2002/02/03
2002/01/21
- 2002/01/27
2002/01/14 - 2002/01/20
2002/01/07 - 2002/01/13
2002/01/01
- 2002/01/06

Sunday,
March 17, 2002
News and commentary:
"Immoral
equivalency" (Michael Rubin, The Jerusalem Post,
2002/03/17)
"The moral-equivalency labeling of both sides as equally at fault
is increasingly in vogue at the UN, in European capitals, and at the
US State Department. ... Rather than promote peace, moral equivalency
encourages war. When warring parties' positions are automatically morally
equalized, then both sides might as well take more extreme stances.
Why should Arafat negotiate in good faith, if suicide bombings can legitimize
his call to make final agreements the starting point for new negotiation?
... While it sounds noble, the rhetoric of moral equivalency is not
only empty, but also destructive. To equate blame is to deny responsibility.
And to deny responsibility is to remove disincentive for violence. The
quickest way to end terrorism is not to spout platitudes, but rather
to create consequences."
"The
Jihad Files: Al Qaeda's Grocery Lists and Manuals of Killing"
(David Rohde & C.J. Chivers, The New York Times,
2002/03/17)
The first article in a series examining documents left behind in Afghanistan
by Islamic militants: "Like any army, though admittedly with its
own religious and political vernacular, the jihadi network was constantly
indoctrinating and building esprit de corps. A quick summary of the
"Goals and Objectives of Jihad" was found in a Qaeda house:
'1. Establishing the rule of God on earth. 2. Attaining martyrdom in
the cause of God. 3. Purification of the ranks of Islam from the elements
of depravity.'" (See also: "The
Al Qaeda documents" and "Letter
from the front: Victory or Martyrdom. 'So How Could They Retreat So
Easily?'": "He began to throw them at the enemy until
one of the enemy was able to hit Omar in the head with a close-range
shot. ... He went floating in the garden of Eden. Wearing the garb and
belt of eternal life. He picks the choicest fruit of the gardens and
bird-like. He sings his thanks to a Lord who has given him rest. He
had in this life been a prisoner. Now God - may He be exalted - has
freed him.")
"Only
a wall will keep them from each other's throats" (Martin
van Creveld, The Daily Telegraph, 2002/03/17)
"In essence, the problem facing armed forces in dealing with this
kind of war is always the same. He who fights against the weak - and
the Palestinians with their home-made mortars and rockets are weak indeed
- will become weak; he who behaves like a coward - and fighting the
weak is cowardly by definition - will become one. ... Therefore Israel's
one salvation is to get out and build a wall - a wall so high that not
even the birds can fly over it - and permit the Palestinians to establish
their state on the other side of it, as the Saudi peace plan suggests
and this week's Security Council Resolution demands."
"Five
dead in Pakistan church blast" (BBC News, 2002/03/17)
"At least five people have died in a grenade attack on a Protestant
church in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad. The church, inside the city's
heavily guarded diplomatic enclave and not far from the United States
embassy, was crowded with Sunday morning worshippers. ... Islamabad
police chief Nasir Durrani told reporters that 45 people had been injured.
The condition of several is said to be critical. ... Police say at least
two men burst into the church and tossed six grenades at the congregation
as prayer services were under way. Three exploded, but the others failed
to detonate."
"'Most
wanted' Al-Qaeda man held in Africa" (Jonathan
Leake & Jack Grimston, The Sunday Times, 2002/03/17)
"A terrorist named by President George W Bush as one of the 22
most dangerous men in the world has been captured in Africa, according
to US intelligence sources. A senior militant from Osama Bin Laden's
Al-Qaeda network is being held at a high-security prison in the capital
Khartoum. He was named as "Abu Anas", thought by some officials
to be a Libyan terrorist who once claimed asylum in Britain and has
a $25m (£17.5m) reward on his head. Abu Anas Al-Liby was accused
of plotting the American embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania which
killed 224 people. If his arrest is confirmed it would make him the
first from Bush's FBI list of "most-wanted terrorists" to
be caught alive."

Saturday,
March 16, 2002
News and commentary:
"The
Suicide of the Palestinians" (David Gelernter,
The Weekly Standard, from the 2002/03/25 issue)
"We ought to face squarely the origins of the Palestinian descent
into barbarism. In July 2000, Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak made
a peace offer that stunned Israel and the world: Israel would re-divide
Jerusalem - would turn over large pieces of its ancient capital to the
same people who had destroyed its synagogues, desecrated its cemeteries,
and banned Jews from entering when they last ran the show. Arafat rejected
the offer. Then in September 2000 the new wave of murderous violence
began, supposedly triggered by Ariel Sharon's visit to the Temple Mount.
In short, the Palestinian response to Israel's generous peace offer
was, "Drop dead." ... The "lesson of appeasement"
is not that appeasement is futile. Appeasement is not futile, it is
dangerous."
"Why
it is right to join Americas fight" (Rosemary
Righter, The Spectator, from the 2002/03/16 issue)
"It is not the least of the oddities of this open-ended confrontation
that American intervention is courted, not denounced, in al-Qaeda
territory, in Yemen and even in Sudan; it is to the salons and newsrooms
of Paris, Brussels and Berlin, and to places such as the Royal Institute
for International Affairs in London, that you must go to hear these
words: What is the threat? It is the United States. ...
The rise in anti-Americanism and, to a lesser extent, anti-Israeli
prejudice may be a chattering-class phenomenon; but it risks
distorting the political prism through which Britains national
interest is perceived. ... Britains interest is not always identical
with Americas. But it is now. Blair should wear the badge of loyalty
with pride."

Friday,
March 15, 2002
News and commentary:
"Questions"
(Victor Davis Hanson, National Review 2002/03/15)
"Would the world be angry if a Jewish terrorist forced a captured
Muslim to admit to his race and faith as he executed and beheaded him
on film? ... If 19 Americans incinerated 3,000 Muslims in Mecca or Medina,
and blew up 20 acres in either of those cities with a two-kiloton explosion,
would the Saudis or the Egyptians a few weeks later politely listen
to admonitions from the American government about their incorrect Islamic
policies in the Middle East?"
"Saudi
police face deaths criticism" (Reuters/CNN.com,
2002/03/15)
"Saudi media, in a rare criticism of the kingdom's powerful religious
police, have accused the force of hampering efforts to rescue 15 girls
who died inside a blazing school. ... The al-Eqtisadiah daily said firemen
scuffled with members of the religious police, also known as "mutaween,"
after they tried to keep the girls inside the burning building because
they did not wear head scarves and abayas (black robes) as required
by the kingdom's strict interpretation of Islam. The English-language
Saudi Gazette, in a front-page report on Thursday, quoted witnesses
as saying that members of the police, known as the Commission for the
Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, had stopped men who tried
to help the girls warning "it is a sinful to approach them."
One civil defence officer told al-Eqtisadiah he saw three members of
the religious police "beating young girls to prevent them from
leaving the school because they were not wearing the abaya."
"Can
There Be a Decent Left?" (Michael Walzer, Dissent
magazine, from the Spring 2002 issue)
"But the war was primarily neither of these things; it was a preventive
war, designed to make it impossible to train terrorists in Afghanistan
and to plan and organize attacks like that of September 11. And that
war was never really accepted, in wide sections of the left, as either
just or necessary. Recall the standard arguments against it: that we
should have turned to the UN, that we had to prove the guilt of al-Qaeda
and the Taliban and then organize international trials, and that the
war, if it was fought at all, had to be fought without endangering civilians.
The last point was intended to make fighting impossible. ... The truth
is that most leftists were not committed to having a coherent view about
things like that; they were committed to opposing the war, and they
were prepared to oppose it without regard to its causes or character
and without any visible concern about preventing future terrorist attacks."
"Quiet,
Please, on The Western Front" (Peggy Noonan,
The Wall Street Journal, 2002/03/15)
"'Let's Nuke Em All!' Britain's Daily Mail headlined this week.
The story was about the U.S. government review of its nuclear capabilities.
Someone - Mary McGrory wondered in her column if it was "doomsday
planners" or "a subversive showoff" - leaked the news
that the U.S. may be re-evaluating its nuclear posture, strategy and
potential targets with an eye to breaking the taboo on tactical nuclear
weapons. The New York Times, one of the great newspapers of the world
and received by some in the world as a voice of the West, ran an editorial
in which it likened America to a "rogue state." A columnist
in the Boston Globe said President Bush is "as frightening as al
Qaeda." ... Why are we being so careless and colorful, so offhand,
at a time when what faces us is so somber? Maybe we in the media are
not thinking of the impression we make en masse, all together, on the
world."

Thursday,
March 14, 2002
News and commentary:
'"Hunt
the Boeing' Answers" (Paul Boutin & Patrick
Di Justo, Paul Boutin Weblogger, 2002/03/14)
A thourogh debunking of the allegation that no Boeing aircraft was involved
in the terror attack on Pentagon on September 11: "As lifelong
propellerheads who firmly believe in asking questions, we found Hunt
the Boeing an engaging puzzle, despite its tragic subject matter, but
one full of obvious errors and misleading questions. Since many of our
friends continue to ask us if we've seen the site, we decided to document
our answers to it, which we wrote separately. As might be expected,
Patrick focused on the math and science (you may remember his widely
circulated napkin math on the WTC attack), while Paul picked apart the
wording of the questions." (See
also: "Hunt
the Boeing! And test your perceptions!" (Asile.org))
"'It's
Not Helpful What the Israelis Have Recently Done'" (The
Washington Post, 2002/03/14)
"Q: Mr. President, do you agree with Kofi Annan that Israel must
end the illegal occupation of Palestinian lands? And how is the Israeli
offensive going to complicate General Zinni's mission?
Bush: It is important to create conditions for peace in the Middle East.
Now, our government has provided a security plan that has been agreed
to by both the Israelis and the Palestinians called the Tenet plan.
And George Mitchell did good work providing a pathway for a political
settlement, once conditions warranted. Frankly, it's not helpful what
the Israelis have recently done in order to create conditions for peace.
I understand someone trying to defend themselves and to fight terror.
But the recent actions aren't helpful."
"Bush
versus Israel" (Andrew Sullivan, The Daily Dish,
2002/03/14)
"So Arafat wins, after all. He quit Camp David because he believed
he could get a better deal by ramping up the violence. He is now one
of many terrorist leaders waging a sustained war on Israel, a war that
Israel, even unhindered, would have a hard time winning. He has now
spectacularly proven his point that terrorism works, that a small democracy
like Israel has no right to defend itself adequately, and that eventually
a great power like the United States will intervene to rein in the Israelis
when Arafat wants. It has worked like magic. The only desperately depressing
news is that president George W. Bush has enabled Arafat to do this.
It's okay for us to fight terror, apparently. It isn't okay for Israel."
"Terrorist
says orders come from Arafat" (Matthew Kalman,
USA Today, 2002/03/14)
"A leader of the largest Palestinian terrorist group spearheading
suicide bombings and other attacks against Israel says he is following
the orders of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat. "Our group is an
integral part of Fatah," says Maslama Thabet, 33, a leader of the
Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade. Fatah, headed by Arafat, is the largest group
in the Palestinian Authority, the government of the autonomous Palestinian
territories. ... "The truth is, we are Fatah itself, but we don't
operate under the name of Fatah," he said in a recent interview.
'We are the armed wing of the organization. We receive our instructions
from Fatah. Our commander is Yasser Arafat himself.'"
"No
Equivalence - Bush's men should know better than to liken soldiers to
suicide bombers" (The Wall Street Journal, 2002/03/14)
"In short, the targeting of innocents is Mr. Arafat's explicit
strategy to address the "grievance" of Israeli occupation.
Israel, on the other hand, has pursued a policy of carefully targeting
militants, and has been risking its soldiers over the past week to arrest
suspects and confiscate weapons in Palestinian towns and refugee camps.
Some non-combatants have been killed, but there is no moral equivalence
here - certainly not the kind implied by U.S. proposals for monitors
to keep peace between the two sides, or by Colin Powell's declaration
last week that "if you declare war on the Palestinians and think
you can solve the problem by seeing how many Palestinians can be killed,
I don't know if that leads us anywhere." The message all this sends
Mr. Arafat is unmistakable: Ratchet up suicidal bombings of Israeli
civilians, induce a military response, and the U.S. will heavily pressure
Israel for concessions."

Wednesday,
March 13, 2002
News and commentary:
"U.S.
and Afghan Troops Overrun Rebel Cave Complex" (Barry
Bearak, The New York Times, 2002/03/13)
"A United States military official said today that Afghan and American
troops had overrun the cave complex in the Shah-i-Kot Valley and were
now chasing the remnants of the Taliban and Al Qaeda forces. ... Operation
Anaconda, the work of a United States-led coalition, was symbolically
named by the Americans after the snake that surrounds its prey in its
coils. But
three Afghan commanders interviewed about Tuesday's attack said that
many rebels had probably slipped the noose. The oft-repeated ultimatum,
surrender or die, may have been less apt a slogan for the situation
than skedaddle and live."
"Saudi
Government Daily: Jews Use Teenagers' Blood for 'Purim' Pastries"
(Special Dispatch No. 354, MEMRI, 2002/03/13)
The ancient anti-Semitic "blood libel" in a contemporary version:
"In an article published by the Saudi government daily Al-Riyadh,
columnist Dr. Umayma Ahmad Al-Jalahma of King Faysal University in Al-Dammam,
wrote on "The Jewish Holiday of Purim." Following are excerpts
of the article":
"Before I go into the details, I would like to clarify that
the Jews' spilling human blood to prepare pastry for their holidays
is a well-established fact, historically and legally, all throughout
history. This was one of the main reasons for the persecution and exile
that were their lot in Europe and Asia at various times. ...
For this holiday, the victim must be a mature adolescent who is, of
course, a non-Jew that is, a Christian or a Muslim. His blood
is taken and dried into granules. The cleric blends these granules into
the pastry dough; they can also be saved for the next holiday."
(See
also: "'Blood
libel' alive and well" (Joseph Farah, WorldNetDaily, 2000/11/30))
"Al
Qaeda's Iranian escape hatch" (Richard Z. Chesnoff,
Jewish World Review, 2002/03/13)
"Senior counterterrorist agents in Europe have told me that, despite
emphatic denials by the Iranian government, fugitive troops loyal to
Osama Bin Laden continue to slip freely across Afghanistan's 600-mile
border with Iran. From there, say the sources, they are being smuggled
by members of Iran's Revolutionary Guard to a variety of countries in
the Middle East, South America and possibly elsewhere. The sources,
whose information has proved reliable in the past, say that since mid-January,
more than 50 Al Qaeda operatives have reached Lebanon via the clandestine
Iranian route. Hundreds more reportedly are waiting to leave the Islamic
Republic in the same way."
"The
Phases of Arafat" (Michael Kelly, The Washington
Post, 2002/03/13)
"The so-called Saudi plan currently on the table is a cynical and
moth-eaten fraud put forth by a cynical and moth-eaten regime. In its
ultimate proposals - the abandonment of Jerusalem, the return of all
Palestinian refugees - it is purposely unworkable. Israel should nevertheless
grasp it (or something equally unrealistic) as the basis for a new round
of negotiations. This won't produce peace. But Israel can learn from
Arafat's strategy; the great thing now is to take the long view - and
meanwhile move the war to the next phase."
"Say
That Again?" (Thomas L. Friedman, The New York
Times, 2002/03/13)
"If Abdullah lets his message get watered down, it will signal
not only that the Palestinians can't make real peace with Israel, but
that the Arabs can't either. Therefore, no real acceptance of a Jewish
state in the Middle East is possible even if Israel fulfills
all Arab requirements. For the Arab world, that would mean that bin
Laden and Syria are in the driver's seat and that the Arab past will
continue to bury the Arab future. That's why the real question before
this Arab summit is: Can the Arabs answer bin Laden by positing a different
vision? Can the Arab-Muslim world show a willingness to live with pluralism
with a Jewish state in fair boundaries? Or must the area be free
of all "infidels"? An Arab League that can't live with a pluralism
of people can't live with a pluralism of ideas. If it can't live with
a pluralism of ideas, it will never develop and will remain, at some
level, alienated from the West and Israel."
"UN
backs Palestinian state" (BBC News, 2002/03/13)
"The United Nations has for the first time passed a resolution
calling for a Palestinian state alongside Israel. The US-drafted document
"affirming a vision" of a Palestinian state was backed by
14 out of 15 members of the Security Council. The Palestinians praised
the move, while Israel said it welcomed a "balanced" resolution.
... Earlier, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan delivered his toughest
statement yet on the violence. Mr Annan condemned Palestinian suicide
attacks as "morally repugnant" and said he was "profoundly
disturbed" by Israel's use of heavy weaponry in civilian areas."
(Note: As The Wall Street Journal's Best
of the Web Today points out it's rather the first Security Council
resolution to back a Palestinian state as "the General Assembly
way back in 1947 endorsed a partition of Palestine into Jewish and Arab
states. The Arabs, of course, rejected the plan and launched a war against
the incipient Jewish state.")

Tuesday,
March 12, 2002
News and commentary:
"Israel
in massive new offensive" (BBC News, 2002/03/12)
"The Israeli army has sent thousands of troops backed by tanks
and helicopter gunships into Palestinian areas of the West Bank and
Gaza Strip in a massive operation to round up militants. Thirty Palestinians
are reported to have been killed and hundreds taken into custody in
what BBC Middle East correspondent James Reynolds describes as Israel's
biggest ground offensive for 20 years."
"Al-Qa'ida
Activist, Abu 'Ubeid Al Qurashi: Comparing Munich (Olympics) Attack
1972 to September 11" (Special Dispatch No.
353, MEMRI, 2002/03/12)
"According to the London Arabic-language daily Al-Quds Al-Arabi,
Al-Qurashi is a bin Laden activist, and Al-Anssar is published by Al-Qa'ida.":
"There are data attesting to the importance of the Munich operation
in the history of the resistance movement, and the extent of its influence
on the entire world. It is known that a direct consequence of this operation
was that thousands of young Palestinians were roused to join the fedayeen
organizations
The number of organizations engaging in international
'terror' increased from a mere 11 in 1968 to 55 in 1978. ... This increase
in 'terror' activity after Munich will doubtless recur, particularly
if we take into account that the New York raid was a political, economic,
and military disaster for America, 10 times greater than that of the
Munich operation... It will gradually give rise to an all-out struggle
against the American crusader campaign which, if it continues to spread,
will strike at the heart of America."
"Two
Stubborn Men, and Many Dead" (Amos Oz, The New
York Times, 2002/03/12)
A perfect example of the black magic of moral equivalency, not only
comparing Arafat to Sharon, but fusing them together: "Sometimes
during these nights I see these two men fused into the persona of an
ancient warrior, a wicked Nero, amusing himself by playing with fire,
laughing savagely while stoking the flames. ... I suspect that even
the Siamese twins, Mr. Sharon and Mr. Arafat I now call them
"Mr. Sharafat" know this. But fear and stagnation stifle
them both. They are living under the dominion of a bloodstained past.
They are hostages to one another, so much so that the entire historical
dynamic of the conflict of the Middle East has become captive to their
fears, their immobility." (See also: "The
algebra of infinite justice" (Arundhati
Roy, The Guardian, 2001/09/29), in which
Roy uses the same trick: "What is Osama bin Laden? He's America's
family secret. He is the American president's dark doppelgänger.
The savage twin of all that purports to be beautiful and civilised.
He has been sculpted from the spare rib of a world laid to waste by
America's foreign policy... ... Now that the family secret has been
spilled, the twins are blurring into one another and gradually becoming
interchangeable.")
"Powell
was right" (Evelyn Gordon, The Jerusalem Post,
2002/03/12)
"Powell intended his point to be that military action is incapable
of stopping Palestinian terror. That is the accepted leftist wisdom:
that guerrilla warriors fighting for self-determination can never be
vanquished. Historically speaking, of course, that is nonsense. History
is rife with examples to the contrary, from the Roman defeat of Jewish
guerrillas fighting to regain their independence 2,000 years ago, to
the American defeat of Indian guerrillas fighting to regain their lost
land. However, it is also irrelevant - because the current Palestinian
violence is not guerrilla warfare, but rather warfare backed by a recognized
government. Indeed, the lion's share of fatal Palestinian attacks are
now being committed by an organization that answers directly to Palestinian
Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat, the Al-Aksa Martyrs Brigades, which
is a wing of Arafat's own Fatah party. For government-sponsored warfare,
there are certainly military solutions, but to succeed, they require
a clear objective: the defeat of the enemy government. Sharon, however,
has consistently refused to set that as his objective, and his military
strikes are patently not directed at that aim. Without such an objective,
Powell is quite correct - Sharon's military action is leading nowhere."

Monday,
March 11, 2002
News and commentary:
"No
more Mr. Nice Guy" (Martin Walker, UPI, 2001/03/11)
"In global terms, the impact of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks
was to end that curious twilight decade that we called the post-Cold
War period. We are all now living in a new era altogether, and a lot
of scholars and thinkers are trying to define it. Only President George
W. Bush wants to call it the age of the War on Terrorism. Max Boot in
the Weekly Standard has hailed the coming of a new American Empire.
... Russian thinker Semen Novoprudsky calls it the emergence (and Russia's
absorption into) "the Empire of Good" in which America becomes
"the exclusive exporter of liberal values to the savage outposts
of the modern world." The point is that Novoprudsky, though a supporter
of liberal values, fears the trend could be dangerous, as the Americans
take over the traditional Russian role of stabilizing Central Asia.
In a sense, all of these various new descriptions are right, because
they are all grappling with the same two hard facts. The first is that
in his "with us or against us" speech, Bush has redefined
the nature of American friendship and alliance. Henceforth, the mission
will define the coalition, rather than the coalition defining the mission
- which may not bode well for NATO as we have known it. ... And there
is one more measure of the way the world has changed in the past six
months. Most thoughtful commentators, when considering the concept of
American Empire in the past, would stress that it was essentially benign
and even benevolent, seeking not conquest but the extension of its own
freedoms and prosperity to others. The benevolence is over. If we think
about it, we know what new world we are living in; it is the era of
No More Mr. Nice Guy."
"Bush:
September 11 terrorists' day of 'reckoning'" (CNN.com,
2002/03/11)
"Recalling the horror, heroism and haunting images of September
11, President Bush on Monday implored governments across the globe to
join the war against "terrorist parasites." ... "September
11 was not the beginning of global terror, but it was the beginning
of the world's concerted response," Bush said. 'History will know
that day not only as a day of tragedy, but as a day of decision, when
the civilized world was stirred to anger and to action. And the terrorists
will remember September 11 as the day their reckoning began.'"
(See also
Presidents Bush's remarks on the six-month anniversary of the September
11:th attacks: "President
Thanks World Coalition for Anti-Terrorism Efforts")
"Listen
to the Kuwaitis" (Victor Davis Hanson, National
Review, 2002/03/11)
"On film, dozens of Western-educated, yuppified Kuwaitis smugly
expressed outright enmity for the United States - making past reports
somewhat more understandable that infants born last year in the kingdom
were named after bin Laden and that a vast majority opposes our efforts
in Afghanistan. Those who were educated over here seemed to be the most
virulently anti-American. ... Instead, once again as in the case of
the terrorists who incinerated our citizens on Sept. 11, murdered Danny
Pearl, and are planning more mayhem for us all, public opinion in Kuwait
confirms that the root of anti-Americanism is not poverty (they are
rich), not exploitation (they do not give oil away), not past grievance
(we saved them), not purported solidarity with the Palestinians (whom
they ejected), but a basic sense of umbrage and accompanying envy that
grows with greater exposure to the West."
"Arafat
vs the war on terror" (The Jerusalem Post, 2002/03/11)
"Much has been made of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's dropping his
demand for seven terror-free days before implementing the Tenet cease-fire
plan. But Sharon was not the only one to make concessions to terrorism;
by sending envoy Anthony Zinni back to the region, US President George
W. Bush dumped his own requirement that Palestinian Authority Chairman
Yasser Arafat fight terrorism before US mediation efforts resumed. These
twin concessions pose serious questions - not just for the situation
here, but for the global war on terrorism led by the United States.
... What has not sunk in is that as long as Palestinian goals are not
threatened, and indeed are advanced, by the means they have chosen,
they have little reason to abandon those means."
"Ending
the War Process" (William Safire, The New York
Times, 2002/03/11)
"The unspeakable is still printable here, however. Then-Prime Minister
Ehud Barak, desperate for a deal that would get him re-elected, made
egregious concessions of land that would have endangered Israel. Bill
Clinton, eager to wash away memory of his transgressions, pressed Barak
for even more concessions to appease Yasir Arafat. That Saudi-sponsored
Palestinian, seeing Israel's panicked leader on the run, was thus emboldened
to make greater demands. Envisioning total victory, he launched the
terror war on civilians. That's what happened. ... That history, frantically
being buried by diplomatists, is exhumed to draw its lessons: One is
that unilateral compromise is appeasement, which only whets the appetite
of Arab extremists. Another is that the prospect of intervention
by the U.S., U.N. or Europeans gives Palestinian terrorists an
incentive to prolong the bloodshed in hopes a horrified world will coerce
Israel into submission."
See
the archive for
earlier news and commentary.
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"When
people accept futility and the absurd as normal, the culture is decadent.
The term is not a slur; it is a technical label."
Jacques
Barzun

Articles
of the week
"Losing
the Enlightenment" (Victor Davis Hanson, OpinionJournal,
2006/11/29)
"Allah’s
England?" (Daniel Johnson, Commentary. November 2006)
"'Sex
in the Park': The latest doings of the Danish imams"
(Henrik Bering, The Weekly Standard, 2006/11/18)
"Narcissism
on Stilts" (Harold Evans, New York Sun, 2006/11/16)
"Terrorists
are recruiting in our schools, says MI5 boss" (Philip
Johnston, The Daily Telegraph, 2006/11/10)
AOTW Archive

From the archives

Oriana
Fallaci, R.I.P.
"The
Rage, the Pride and the Doubt" (Oriana Fallaci, The
Wall Street Journal, 2003/03/13)
"How
the West Was Won and How It Will Be Lost" (Oriana Fallaci,
The American Enterprise, from the January/February 2003 issue)
"On
Jew-hatred in Europe" (Oriana Fallaci, dennisprager.com,
2002/04/13)
"Anger
and Pride" (Oriana Fallaci, dennisprager.com, 2001/12/19)

Weekly archive
2006/12/04
- 2006/12/10
2006/11/27 - 2006/12/03
2006/11/20 - 2006/11/26
2006/11/13
- 2006/11/19
2006/11/06
- 2006/11/12
2006/10/30
- 2006/11/05
From
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Monthly
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December
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November
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October
2006
September
2006
August
2006
July
2006
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Author index
Ajami,
Fouad - Johnson, Paul
Kagan,
Robert - Ye'or, Bat

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