Archived news and commentary: January 2 - 8, 2006

2006/01/02 - 2006/01/08
2005/12/26 - 2006/01/01
2005/12/19 - 2005/12/25
2005/12/12 - 2005/12/18
2005/12/05 - 2005/12/11
2005/11/28 - 2005/12/04

› From 2001/09/11 -

Sunday, January 8, 2006

News and commentary:

"The crisis facing the Middle East" (The Business, 2006/01/08)
"The root of most of the Middle East’s current problems is Iran, the world's most active state sponsor and paymaster of terrorism of (among many others) the Lebanese Shi-ite militants of Hezbollah (which Iran helped found in the 1980s); the Palestinian terrorist group, Hamas; the Palestinian Islamic Jihad; and many of the barbaric terrorists who are murdering people every day in Iraq in an effort to destroy its first glimpse of freedom. While financing and encouraging the world’s worst terrorists, Iran is also moving ever closer to acquiring nuclear weapons (Tehran denies any military motive in its nuclear power programme, saying it is for purely peaceful purposes, a claim believed by no independent analysts or serious governments). In addition, Iran is developing an intercontinental missile, the Saharb 3, with an 800-mile range that could hit Israel.
All this is happening at a time when Iran is calling for Israel to be wiped off the face of the earth. So it is hardly scaremongering to portray a frightening picture of a rogue regime preparing for war, with the even scarier possibility that terror groups could end up with nuclear weapons before the end of the decade. Yet nobody, apart from Israel, seems to want to do anything about it. ...
With re-heated Nazi propaganda rife on Iranian TV, an official policy of Holocaust denial and presidential calls to wipe Israel off the map, it beggars belief that Western bien pensants can still think that Iran poses no threat to world peace. The chattering-class line is that Iran’s rabid anti-Semitism is just the meanderings of a few hotheads. The same sort of people said much the same about Hitler in the 1930s. When a powerful country’s leaders spout and encourage fascist drivel it is as well for the democracies to take it at face value and act accordingly, until there is good reason not to. That is the lesson of history, which too many in the West seem determined to forget." (Hat tip: Melanie Phillips.)

"Death threats sent to journalists in PA" (Khaled Abu Toameh, The Jerusalem Post, 2006/01/08)
"Several Palestinian journalists in the West Bank and Gaza Strip have received death threats from various armed groups over the past few days because of their coverage of the state of lawlessness and anarchy in Palestinian Authority-controlled areas.":
"On Saturday night, a group of Fatah gunmen tried to storm the offices of the pan-Arab Al-Arabiyah TV station in Gaza City in protest against the airing of a documentary on Muslim female suicide bombers.
The gunmen, who belong to Fatah's armed wing, the Aksa Martyrs Brigades, accused the Dubai-based station of defaming female suicide bombers by presenting them as victims of social and psychological problems. The gunmen left the offices shortly after PA security forces arrived at the scene.
One of the gunmen later claimed that Al-Arabiyah had agreed to broadcast another film praising the phenomenon of suicide bombings.
The Aksa Martyrs Brigades threatened over the weekend to close down the offices of Al-Arabiyah in the West Bank and Gaza Strip after accusing it of "defaming" Palestinian female suicide bombers and their families.
Leaflets distributed by the group demanded that the station apologize to the families in particular and the Palestinians in general within 24 hours or else its offices would be closed.
"At a time when the Muslims and Islam are facing a political, intellectual, economic and social offensive by all the forces of evil in the world, Al-Arabiyah has aired a scandalous and despicable film that is completely biased in favor of the executioner at the expense of the victims of occupation," the leaflets charged. ...
On Sunday, the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate joined the Brigades in condemning Al-Arabiyah for airing the "biased" film, praising Palestinian women for their part in the fight against Israel. However, the syndicate also expressed opposition to the threats to close down the station's offices."

"Norwegian minister apologises for boycott call" (EJP, 2006/01/08)
"Norway's finance minister Kristin Halvorsen said on Friday night she regrets her call for boycotting Israel.
Halvorsen met a wave of criticism from all political parties in Norway on Wednesday after she said that she support the policy of boycotting Israel.
She called all counties in Norway to follow the decision of the county parliament of Soer Trondelag in Northern Norway, which adapted boycott policy against Israel.
Speaking on Norwegian television, Halvorsen said: "I regret that I supported the initiative to boycott Israel. It was my mistake as a member of government to make a political statement in a way that opposes the policy of the majority of the government".
In an answer to a question whether she was forced to apologize by the prime minister, Halvorsen answered: 'No, I am glad that I came to this conclusion all by myself.'" (See also: "Norwegian minister: boycott Israel" (EJP, 2006/01/06) and "Norwegian finance minister causes stir, supports boycott of Israel" (AP/The Jerusalem Post, 2006/01/05))

"HIV Bombers" (Rupert Hamer, The Sunday Mirror, 2006/01/08)
"AL-QAEDA is recruiting suicide bombers who are infected with the AIDS virus, according to documents revealed to the Sunday Mirror.
Terror chiefs are also targeting fanatics who suffer other lethal blood diseases such as hepatitis and dengue fever in order to increase their "kill rate" from an explosion. The chilling new threat is revealed in papers distributed to British military camps in Iraq and across Europe.
Under the heading "HIV/Hepatitis" the document states: "There is evidence that terrorists might be deliberately recruiting volunteers with diseases that are spread by blood transference."
Experts have found that bones and other blood-spattered fragments from a suicide bomber could penetrate the skin of a victim 50 metres away and infect them.
In the papers (part of which is summarised above) soldiers are warned to wear special protective clothing when on guard duty or if they have to deal with casualties in the event of an attack.
All bases must also have snipers hidden behind blast-proof defences ready to take out would-be suicide bombers. The guidelines were issued following the 7/7 London bombings which left 52 dead and injured hundreds more."

"Denmark Is Unlikely Front in Islam-West Culture War" (Dan Bilefsky, The New York Times, 2006/01/08)
"When the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten published 12 cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad, including one in which he is shown wearing a turban shaped as a bomb with a burning fuse, it expected a strong reaction in this country of 5.4 million people.
But the paper was unprepared for the global furor that ensued, including demonstrations in the Indian-controlled part of Kashmir, death threats against the artists, condemnation from 11 Muslim countries and a rebuke from the United Nations.
"The cartoons did nothing that transcends the cultural norms of secular Denmark, and this was not a provocation to insult Muslims," said Flemming Rose, cultural editor of Jyllands-Posten, Denmark's largest newspaper, which has declined to apologize for the drawings.
"But if we talk of freedom of speech, even if it was a provocation, that does not make our right to do it any less legitimate before the law," he added in an interview from Miami. He spent months living under police protection in Denmark."

More on the Danish cartoon "scandal":
"Muslim organisation calls for boycott of Denmark" (The Copenhagen Post, 2005/12/28)
"EU commissioner lashes out at Mohammed drawings" (The Copenhagen Post, 2005/12/23)
"Demonstrations in Pakistan have escalated into death threats against Danish illustrators who drew pictures of the prophet Mohammed" (The Copenhagen Post, 2005/12/02)
"Muslims march over cartoons of the Prophet" (Kate Connolly, The Daily Telegraph, 2005/11/04)
"Prophet cartoons prompt Egypt to cut off Danish dialogue" (The Copenhagen Post, 2005/11/03)
"War in France, War in Denmark" (Henrik, Viking Observer, 2005/10/31)
"Selective Muslim Silence" (Judith Apter Klinghoffer, HNN, 2005/10/31)
"Denmark arrests 4 terror suspects" (AP/CNN.com, 2005/10/27)
"death will visit Denmark" (infovlad.net, 2005/10/15)
"Holy war against newspaper" (The Copenhagen Post, 2005/10/20)
"Muslim anger at Danish cartoons" (BBC News, 2005/10/20)
"Youth reported held in Denmark for death threats over Mohammed cartoons" (Middle East Times, 2005/10/17)
"Imam demands apology for Mohammed cartoons" (The Copenhagen Post, 2005/10/06)
"Image of Muhammad" (Kurt Westergaard, Fjordman, 2005/10/05)
"Fear Pervades Danish Art Community" (Patrick, Dhimmi Watch, 2005/09/18)

Saturday, January 7, 2006

News and commentary:

"American Journalist Kidnapped in Iraq" (Patrick Quinn, AP/Yahoo! News, 2006/01/07)
"Gunmen kidnapped a female American journalist and killed her Iraqi translator Saturday in western Baghdad, an Interior Ministry official said.
Maj. Falah Mohamadawi said the translator told police before he died that the abduction took place when he and the journalist were heading to meet Adnan al-Dulaimi, head of the Sunni Arab Iraqi Accordance Front, in the Adel section of the city.
The neighborhood is dominated by Sunni Arabs and considered one of toughest in Baghdad.
According to Samir Najim, a guard at al-Dulaimi's office, three armed men in a red Opel four-sedan intercepted the journalist's car and shot the translator before taking her in their car and driving away. The kidnapping took place about 100 yards from al-Dulaimi's office."

"In Video, Al Qaeda's No. 2 Tells Bush to Admit Defeat in Iraq" (Nelson Hernandez, The Washington Post, 2006/01/07)
"Al Qaeda's second-in-command said President Bush had admitted defeat in Iraq by announcing plans to reduce the American troop presence in the country, saying the move would be a victory for Islam.
Ayman Zawahiri's videotaped remarks, broadcast on al-Jazeera television Friday, came after two days of suicide bombings in Iraq killed almost 200 people, 11 of them U.S. soldiers. Al Qaeda's affiliate in Iraq is widely believed to have been behind the deadliest of the attacks. ...
"Bush, you must admit that you have been defeated in Iraq and that you are being defeated in Afghanistan and that you will soon be defeated in Palestine," Zawahiri said, according to a translation of his statement by the Washington-based SITE Institute."

Added in archive:
"Bahraini Women's Rights Activist Ghada Jamshir Attacks Islamic Clerics for Issuing Fatwas Authorizing Sexual Abuse of Infants" (MEMRI, Special Dispatch Series - No. 1060, 2005/12/30)

Friday, January 6, 2006

News and commentary:

"Pictures Worth a Thousand Lives" (Joseph Tartakovsky, Claremont Review of Books, 2006/01/06)
A review of "The Other War: Israelis, Palestinians and the Struggle for Media Supremacy" by Stephanie Gutmann:
"In the media war, Israel has three disadvantages. The first is an open society, which allows reporters (and filmmakers and activists and human-rights observers) the freedom to roam, record, and interview in first-world comfort. This has saddled Israel with what may be the world's highest per capita concentration of reporters. Jerusalem is host to 350 permanent foreign news bureaus, as many as New York, London, or Moscow; the volume of reportage on Israel, Gaza, and the West Bank is 75 times greater than on any other area of comparable population. This obsessive attention necessarily distorts, by casting the Israel-Palestinian war in a theatric, world-historical light.
In the last decade, around 4,500 Israeli and Palestinian lives have been lost to the fighting. The Russo-Chechen war has killed 50,000 (11 times as many), the Darfur crisis has killed 180,000 (40 times as many), and the Congolese civil war has killed 3.5 million (778 times as many). But very few Americans can call to mind images of the ghastly violence in Chechnya, Sudan, or Congo — or even identify the warring parties — because these are places so dangerous that the New York Times simply cannot responsibly send a reporter there, much less a bureau. ...
As Gutmann says, nearly every evil of the last three centuries — racism, apartheid, militarism, colonialism, fascism, ethnic cleansing, genocide — is routinely invoked against Israel. These are not so much criticisms of policy, mind you, but of Israel's existence, for it is understood that regimes dedicated to such evil deserve to be eliminated, not reformed. Are such criticisms confined to the political fringes? If they were, Gutmann wouldn't be able to cite a 2004 poll in which 68% of Germans agreed that Israel now conducts a "war of extermination" against Palestinians. There are ten times as many Palestinians today as in 1920, I might point out to the Germans, but fewer Jews."

"Norwegian minister: boycott Israel" (EJP, 2006/01/06)
"In an interview with the Norwegian daily Dagbladet, Norway’s finance minister Kristin Halvorsen called for a full boycott of Israeli products.
"My aim and that of the Socialist Left is for Norwegian consumers to decide to drop products and services from Israel, and make other choices in the shops," she said in the interview. ...
It is first time that a senior minister in a Western government openly supports an initiative to boycott Israel.
“It is my party’s policy to support the boycott of Israel in order to exert pressure on Israel to stop occupying Palestinian territory,” she said.
"I hope all the counties in Norway will follow the county parliament of Soer Trondelag, which voted last month to boycott Israeli products.” ...
Norway’s prime minister, Jan Stoltenberg, said on Norwegian television on Wednesday that his government is against any form of boycotting Israel.
He said that he had spoken to the finance minister and told her that boycotting is contrary to the government’s official line. He added that a letter underlining this was sent to the Israeli embassy." (See also: "Norwegian finance minister causes stir, supports boycott of Israel" (AP/The Jerusalem Post, 2006/01/05))

"Saddam's Terror Training Camps" (Stephen F. Hayes, The Weekly Standard, 2006/01/06)
"The former Iraqi regime of Saddam Hussein trained thousands of radical Islamic terrorists from the region at camps in Iraq over the four years immediately preceding the U.S. invasion, according to documents and photographs recovered by the U.S. military in postwar Iraq. The existence and character of these documents has been confirmed to The Weekly Standard by eleven U.S. government officials.
The secret training took place primarily at three camps -- in Samarra, Ramadi, and Salman Pak -- and was directed by elite Iraqi military units. Interviews by U.S. government interrogators with Iraqi regime officials and military leaders corroborate the documentary evidence. Many of the fighters were drawn from terrorist groups in northern Africa with close ties to al Qaeda, chief among them Algeria's GSPC and the Sudanese Islamic Army. Some 2,000 terrorists were trained at these Iraqi camps each year from 1999 to 2002, putting the total number at or above 8,000. Intelligence officials believe that some of these terrorists returned to Iraq and are responsible for attacks against Americans and Iraqis. According to three officials with knowledge of the intelligence on Iraqi training camps, White House and National Security Council officials were briefed on these findings in May 2005; senior Defense Department officials subsequently received the same briefing."

"A Letter to the Europeans" (Victor David Hanson, National Review, 2006/01/06)
"Even in this era of crisis, we cling to the notion that in the eleventh hour you, Europe, will yet reawake, rediscover your heritage, and join with us in defending the idea of the West from this latest illiberal scourge of Islamic fascism. ...
On the home front, a single, though bloody, attack in Madrid changed an entire Spanish election, and prompted the withdrawal of troops from Iraq — although the terrorists nevertheless continued, despite their promises to the contrary, to plant bombs and plan assassinations of Spanish judicial officials. Cry the beloved continent.
The entire legal system of the Netherlands is under review due to the gruesome murder of Theo van Gogh and politicians there who speak out about the fascistic tendencies of radical Islam often either face threats or go into hiding. Cry the beloved continent.
Unemployment, postcolonial prejudice, and de facto apartheid may have led to the fiery rioting in the French suburbs, but it was also energized by a radical Islamic culture of hate. In response followed de facto French martial law. All that remains certain is that the rioting will return either to grow or to warp liberal French society. Indeed, so far has global culture devolved in caving to Islamism that we fear that only two places in the world are now safe for a Jew to live in safety — and Europe, the graveyard of 20th-century Jewry, is tragically not among them. Cry the beloved continent. ...
Either your economy will reform, your populace multiply, and your citizenry defend itself, or not. And if not, then Europe as we have known it will pass away — to the great joy of the Islamists but to the terrible sorrow of America."

"In the Shadow of Sharon" (Benny Morris, The New York Times, 2006/01/06)
Sharon III: "Most important, there was a vague certainty that there would be further steps toward a pacification of Israel-Palestine and a separation of its two warring tribes into two relatively homogeneous states. Mr. Sharon had shown the way, courageously, remorselessly, six months ago with the uprooting of the Jewish settlements and the withdrawal of the Israel Defense Forces from the Gaza Strip. And he had shown the way, in defiance of often absurd and mendacious criticism by the Palestinians and their supporters, by pushing forward with the construction of the barrier - overwhelmingly a fence, not a wall - between the Arab West Bank and (Jewish) Israel more or less along the 1967 Green Line.
Many expected, and some feared, that Mr. Sharon would continue with such unilateral steps to separate the two peoples and physically consolidate two separate states. Unilateral, because he believed (as I do) that there was and is no viable Palestinian peace partner. The Palestinian national movement, he believed, still, in the deepest, immutable recesses of its heart, aspires to Israel's destruction and replacement by an Arab-majority state, a "one-state solution." ...
One certainty remains. Israel, and especially and paradoxically, its large moderate left and center, is in the grip of a great sadness. ... They realize that the best hope for peace, that most unlikely of peacemakers, is exiting the stage and that a vista of turmoil and uncertainty has opened up. To be sure, Israel's political structure remains solid and reassuring. But at this bewildering moment, for those interested in progress in the peace process, there is little reason for hope."

"Israel after Sharon" (Caroline Glick, The Jerusalem Post, 2006/01/06)
Sharon II: "Without a doubt, the greatest challenge facing the State of Israel today is Iran's nuclear weapons program. ...
There can be no room for doubt. The need to conduct a military strike against Iran's nuclear program increases with each passing day. The threat that Iran's nuclear weapons program constitutes for Israel is the most egregious example since the Holocaust of what happens when states and societies where anti-Semitism is of a genocidal nature are allowed to acquire the means to attack the Jews. ...
Today, as the Palestinian Authority has ceased to operate in any coherent manner; as the Egyptian border with Gaza has been open for terror traffic for three months; and as Hamas has emerged as the most prevalent force in Palestinian politics and society, it is impossible to deny that Sharon's decision to withdraw Israeli forces from Gaza and northern Samaria has vastly empowered Palestinian terrorists. Today the Gaza Strip has become one of the most active and dangerous bases for jihadi terrorism in the world. ...
This is Israel's current reality. Our main security challenge on all fronts is to destroy our enemies' ability to match their genocidal anti-Semitism with the means to kill us. And the carrying out of this task can only be accomplished by a leadership that truly understands that we are not to blame for our enemies' hatred and that we can do nothing to mitigate it."

"A Calamity for Israel" (Charles Krauthammer, The Washington Post, 2006/01/06)
Sharon I: "The stroke suffered by Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon could prove to be one of the great disasters in the country's nearly 60-year history. ...
The success of this fence-plus-unilateral-withdrawal strategy is easily seen in the collapse of the intifada. Palestinian terrorist attacks are down 90 percent. Israel's economy has revived. In 2005, it grew at the fastest rate of the developed countries. Tourists are back, and the country has regained its confidence. The Sharon idea of a smaller but secure and demographically Jewish Israel garnered broad public support, marginalized the old parties of the left and right, and was on the verge of electoral success that would establish a new political center to carry on this strategy. ...
Sharon put Israel on the only rational strategic path out of that wreckage. But, alas, he had taken his country only halfway there when he himself was taken away. And he left no Joshua."

Thursday, January 5, 2006

News and commentary:

"Iranian leader hopes for Sharon's death" (Reuters/Ynetnews, 2006/01/05)
"Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was quoted Thursday as saying he was hoping for the death of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.
“Hopefully the news that the criminal of Sabra and Shatila has joined his ancestors is final," the semi-official students news agency ISNA quoted him as telling a group of Shi'ite Muslim clerics in Iran's holy city Qom.
Sabra and Shatila are the names of refugee camps in Beirut where pro-Israeli Christian militiamen massacred Palestinians after Sharon masterminded the 1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon.
The former Revolutionary Guardsman has made a string of verbal attacks on Israel since taking office in August.
In October he called Israel a "tumor" which should be “wiped off the map.” In subsequent speeches he suggested Israel should be moved to Europe or North America and called the Holocaust a myth."

"Norwegian finance minister causes stir, supports boycott of Israel" (AP/The Jerusalem Post, 2006/01/05)
"Leftist Norwegian Finance Minister Kristin Halvorsen caused a stir Thursday by publicly backing a consumer boycott of Israel in solidarity with Palestinians.
Halvorsen, who is also leader of the Socialist Left Party, was quoted as telling the major Oslo tabloid Dagbladet that she had stopped buying Israeli products long ago, and that she supports her party's boycott campaign.
"My and the Socialist Left's goal is for Norwegian consumers to decide to drop products and services from Israel, and make other choices in the shops," she was quoted as saying. The interview was given before Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon suffered a stroke on Wednesday.
Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere, of Labor, immediately responded that a government-backed boycott of Israel 'would be unthinkable.'" (See also: "Norway: Parliament shuns Israeli products" (Ynetnews, 2005/12/22))

"Sharon Gravely Ill After Massive Stroke" (Steve Weizman, AP/Breitbart, 2006/01/05)
"Prime Minister Ariel Sharon fought for his life Thursday following seven hours of emergency surgery to stop widespread bleeding in his brain. The massive stroke made it unlikely that he would return to power.
Vice Premier Ehud Olmert was named acting prime minister and convened the Cabinet for a special session, where Sharon's large chair at the center of the long oval table remained empty. "This is a difficult situation that we are not accustomed to," Olmert told the somber ministers.
A brain scan after surgery showed that the bleeding had been stopped, and the 77-year-old prime minister was transferred to the intensive care unit, said Dr. Shlomo Mor-Yosef, the director of Hadassah Hospital in Jerusalem.
At a midafternoon briefing, Mor-Yosef said Sharon was in serious but stable condition on a respirator in "deep sedation." He will remain sedated for another 24 hours at least, Mor-Yosef said.
He denied widespread rumors that Sharon's condition was far worse than doctors have let on and promised to issue immediate updates on any change.
Sharon's sudden turn for the worse, at the height of his popularity, stunned Israelis, who had relied on the tough ex-general to steer them through turbulent times. Rabbis called Israelis to flock to synagogues and say special prayers.
The daily newspaper Yediot Ahronot ran a headline that said: 'The last battle.'"

"Heavy Bloodshed Wracks Iraq Again" (Jason Straziuso, AP/Yahoo! News, 2006/01/05)
"Suicide bombers infiltrated a line of police recruits and a crowd of Shiite pilgrims Thursday as insurgents killed 125 civilians and five U.S. soldiers, escalating attacks while political factions worked to forge a coalition government.
The stark surge in post-election violence produced familiar but heartrending images on a day that was the fourth deadliest since the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003.
A woman and an infant girl in a bright red jumpsuit lay in a pool of blood, their faces covered by a sheet as men ferried the wounded in pushcarts in Karbala, 50 miles south of Baghdad. Ball bearings lay scattered on the bare earth next to Shiite Islam's holiest shrine in Iraq. ...
The American convoy was south of Karbala when it was attacked about 10 a.m., though it had been conducting a mission unrelated to the suicide attack in the Shiite holy city, Lt. Col. Barry Johnson said. At least 2,188 members of the U.S. military have died since the war began, according to an Associated Press count.
Only 15 minutes after the attack on the convoy, a suicide bomber wearing a vest packed with ball bearings detonated his explosives on a busy pedestrian path about 100 feet from the Imam Hussein shrine in Karbala. The attack killed 63 and wounded 120, Karbala police spokesman Rahman Meshawi said."

"Gang terrorizes train in France" (Marc Burleigh, AFP/The Washington Times, 2006/01/05)
Note that this happened FOUR days ago and was reported for the first time yesterday. I've commented on this apparent strategy of silence regarding certain crimes twice in just a month. First regarding the French 18-year-old girl who was "doused with petrol and set alight in broad daylight" and then in a more general sense regarding the death threats against Miss England:
"PARIS -- A gang of more than 20 youths -- thought to be North African immigrants -- terrorized hundreds of train passengers in a rampage of violence, robbery and sexual assault on New Year's Day, French officials said yesterday.
The five-hour-long criminal frenzy was "totally unacceptable," French President Jacques Chirac told reporters. "Those guilty will be found and punished, as they deserve."
The gang of between 20 and 30 youths boarded the train, heading from Nice on the French Riviera to Lyon, in eastern France, early on Jan. 1, as it carried 600 passengers home from New Year's Eve partying overnight.
Once inside, they went wild, forcing passengers to hand over mobile phones and wallets, and slashing seats and breaking windows.
A 20-year-old woman cornered by several of the marauders was sexually molested.
"It was a real scene of pillage on the train," said the regional state prosecutor, Dominique Luigi, adding that the passengers were in a state of "panic."
Train staff alerted police, and the train pulled into a station to wait. The three officers who initially turned up later were joined by reinforcements.
A waitress in a bar near the station said two young women from the train had come inside in tears.
"They told me there had been groping. They talked about sexual assaults. They were really traumatized," she said.
The train resumed its journey with the heavy police presence on board but, just before Marseille, the youths pulled the emergency stop and many escaped.
Only three -- two 19-year-old Moroccans and a minor, all living in France -- were arrested." (See also: "France accused of covering up train gang attack" (John Lichfield, The Independent, 2006/01/05)
"Opposition politicians have accused the French government of covering up a sustained attack by a gang of 20 young people on a crowded train near Nice on New Year's Day.
The group robbed and sexually assaulted passengers at knifepoint, smashed windows and slashed seats. No information on the incident was released by the authorities, who announced that he New Year festivities had passed off without a widely feared resumption of the violence seen in deprived suburbs in November."
Also: "Raucous train ride outrages France" (Doreen Carvajal, International Herald Tribune, 2006/01/05)
"The Socialist Party issued a statement declaring that the incident revealed more about "a worrying lack of security" and also questioned why the police were slow to respond and why so few arrests were made.
The party is "astonished that information was known so late," Delphine Batho, the party's national secretary for safety said in a statement calling for a swift investigation and criticizing the interior minister for 'deafening silence.'")

"Muslim group avoids Holocaust Day" (BBC News, 2006/01/05)
Melanie Phillips: "How long is Britain going to treat this organisation as mainstream? And, as long as it does, what does this say about the British mainstream?":
"The Muslim Council of Britain, the country's main Muslim organisation, has decided to maintain its boycott of Holocaust Memorial Day.
The MCB's policy is not to take part in the UK's commemorations of the mass murder of Jews because it does not mention non-Jewish victims of genocide.
It had been reconsidering this, but the BBC has learned the MCB has decided to boycott this year's event too. ...
It has been severely criticised for boycotting the country's national Holocaust commemorations in previous years.
Some alleged that its policy indicated anti-Semitism by downplaying the singular nature of the Nazis' attempt to murder a whole people by industrial methods.
In the face of the criticism, the MCB has now deliberated privately but decided that the ceremony later this month will also be boycotted, the BBC's British affairs correspondent Stephen Evans said."

"Sharon Suffers 'Extensive' Stroke and Is 'Very Grave'" (Steven Erlanger, The New York Times, 2006/01/05)
"Prime Minister Ariel Sharon suffered a serious stroke on Wednesday night and was undergoing emergency brain surgery in an effort to save his life, a hospital official said.
Mr. Sharon's power as prime minister was transferred to Deputy Premier Ehud Olmert. Israeli politics, dominated in recent years by Mr. Sharon, were thrown into turmoil, especially with growing lawlessness in the Gaza Strip.
Mr. Sharon suffered "an extensive stroke and one could say his condition is very grave," Dr. Shlomo Mor-Yosef, the director of Hadassah-Ein Kerem hospital, said about 7 a.m. local time after the prime minister had been returned to the operating room for what was expected to be hours more of surgery. He said that Mr. Sharon, 77 and overweight, had suffered a cerebral hemorrhage with "massive bleeding." ...
The mood in Israel was somber, with Josef Lapid, leader of the Shinui Party, calling it "one of the most dramatic nights in Israel's history." Whether or not Mr. Sharon survives, the country seemed already to have entered a post-Sharon era. Some compared the feeling to the night in 1995 that Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated."

Wednesday, January 4, 2006

News and commentary:

"Palestinian Legislative Council Candidate and Mother of Three Hamas Terrorists Umm Nidal Farhat: Israelis are Not Civilians and There are No Prohibitions on Killing Them; I Am Willing to Sacrifice My Ten Sons" (MEMRI, Special Dispatch Series - No. 1063, 2006/01/04)
"The following are excerpts from an interview with Umm Nidal [1], Palestinian Legislative Council Candidate and the mother of three Hamas terrorists who were killed while taking part in "martyrdom" operations. Dream2 TV aired this interview on December 21, 2005.":
"Umm Nidal: "I protect my sons from defying Allah, or from choosing a path that would not please Allah. This is what I fear, when it comes to my sons. But as for sacrifice, Jihad for the sake of Allah, or performing the duty they were charged with - this makes me happy."
Interviewer: "What duty is this?"
Umm Nidal: "The sacred duty, Jihad for the sake of Allah. It is a sacred duty - one of the duties of Islam, which cannot be abandoned. We would be sinners if we did." ...
Interviewer: "Recently, many operations have been carried out in restaurants and commercial centers. The world regards them very differently than operations against the military. When a bombing takes place in one of those places, the Palestinian cause is damaged worldwide.
In Palestine itself - in Gaza and in the West Bank - people are divided over these operations."
Umm Nidal: "All the Palestinians share the same view. They are not divided. The only ones who disagree and think otherwise are, of course, the foreigners, who have no sympathy for us or for our cause, and who know nothing about us. They are the ones who think that this man has come to kill innocent people. This is what they think. But we, as Muslims, think differently. We are familiar with the Koranic verse: 'One who attacks you, attack him in like manner.'
These are war necessities. How can we win otherwise? It's true we carry out operations against the military and its soldiers, but [killing civilians] is a war necessity. They are all occupiers to begin with. Whoever comes from abroad and lives on the land of Palestine is considered an occupier, even if they are women or old people. They are all occupiers. Besides, don't forget that they all serve in the army. They are all considered soldiers. They are all reserve soldiers." ...
Interviewer: "What does the word 'peace' mean to you?"
Umm Nidal: 'The word 'peace' does not mean the kind of peace we are experiencing. This peace is, in fact, surrender and a shameful disgrace. Peace means the liberation of all of Palestine, from the [Jordan] to the [Mediterranean] Sea. When this is accomplished - if they want peace, we will be ready. They may live under the banner of the Islamic state. That is the future of Palestine that we are striving towards.'"

"Palestinians Enter Egypt After Border Smash" (Ibrahim Barzak and Ashraf Sweilam, AP/Yahoo! News, 2006/01/04)
"RAFAH, Gaza Strip - Hundreds of angry Palestinians streamed into Egypt on Wednesday after militants with stolen bulldozers broke through a border wall, and two Egyptian troops were killed and 30 were wounded by gunfire in the rampage.
About 3,000 Egyptian Interior Ministry troops who initially had no orders to fire swarmed the border but were forced to withdraw about a half-mile, said security forces Lt. Sameh el-Antablyan, who announced the casualties.
Gen. Essam el-Sheikh said Egyptian forces later began firing back.
The scene was one of utter chaos. An Egyptian armored vehicle was burning and hundreds of Palestinians could be seen crouched in farm fields just inside Egypt.
The militants' rampage through the southern Gaza town of Rafah underscored the growing lawlessness in Palestinian towns, especially in Gaza, and represented the most brazen challenge to the authority of Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas.
Earlier, the Egyptian troops fired tear gas and shot into the air. A witness said three Palestinians were injured — one seriously, when a troop carrier crushed him against a wall.
Police imposed a curfew on the Egyptian side, all shops were closed, and authorities cut electricity, plunging the scene in near total darkness."

"Suicide Bomber Kills 32 at Iraq Funeral" (Jason Straziuso, AP/Yahoo! News, 2006/01/04)
"In the worst attack of the day, more than 100 mourners were walking alongside the coffin of a 14-year-old boy in a cemetery in the northern town of Muqdadiyah when the funeral procession was joined by a stranger carrying hidden explosives.
"Suddenly, there was a strong sound, and we were turned upside down," said Amer Khazim, 37. "I saw many legs and hands flying all over the place."
The cemetery's concrete tombs were stained with blood, and body parts were strewn on the bare earth. At least 32 people were killed and 42 wounded, said Dr. Firas al-Nida of the hospital in Muqdadiyah, 60 miles north of Baghdad.
The funeral was for the teenage nephew of Ahmed al-Bakka, the head of the local Dawa party who had survived an assassination attempt on Tuesday. The nephew was killed in the assassination attempt. The party is led by Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari and a main partner in the country's largest Shiite political coalition, the United Iraqi Alliance."

"Taliban Behead Teacher for Educating Girls" (FOX News, 2006/01/04)
"KANDAHAR, Afghanistan — Taliban militants beheaded a teacher in a central Afghan town while his wife and eight children watched, officials said Wednesday, describing the latest in a string of attacks targeting educators at schools where girls study.
Four men stabbed Malim Abdul Habib eight times late Tuesday before decapitating him in the courtyard of his home in Qalat, said Ali Khail, a spokesman for the provincial government of Zabul, where the attack took place.
The assailants made Habib's wife, four sons and four daughters watch, Khail said. His children were between the ages of 2 and 22. No other family members were hurt.
The insurgents killed Habib, 45, after he refused to go with them to meet their commander, said the victim's cousin, Esanullah, who goes by only one name.
The attackers fled and Habib's wife called the police, Khail said. Police are questioning three people who were guests in the victim's home at the time.
Habib was the headmaster of Shaikh Mathi Baba high school, which is attended by 1,300 boys and girls."

"Australia's Perilous PC" (Sharon Lapkin, FrontPageMagazine, 2006/01/04)
"Australia has a long history of mythologizing scoundrels and criminals. This national syndrome emerged in the 1870s, when a self-confessed murdering bushranger named Ned Kelly became a folk hero. ...
However, last week in Australia, Fairfax media, which owns the two largest newspapers in Melbourne and Sydney, recklessly embraced the Kelly syndrome when it portrayed ten Muslim terror suspects held in maximum security in the Barwon Prison, as misunderstood victims of the bullying West. The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age said the men were in “solitary confinement, dressed in ‘Guantanamo Bay orange’ and banned from touching loved ones.”
Both newspapers made the error of misapplying an idiosyncratic Australian syndrome to adherents of Middle Eastern culture. Thus the Sydney Morning Herald published a story entitled “No Xmas joy for Vic terror suspects,” and The Age published: “Terror suspects: Christmas in solitary.” Both reported the alleged terrorists were near breaking point because the conditions were hard, and the Muslim men were not permitted to spend Christmas with their families.
And the stories quickly lapsed from the sublime to the ridiculous when the men’s lawyer, Rob Stary, was quoted implausibly describing the reverence felt for Christmas by these alleged followers of Osama bin Laden. “Although the men are Muslim,” he said, 'spending this time of year in jail was nonetheless difficult as they see Christmas as a traditional time for celebration with family.'"

"'Democrats' for Jihad" (Andrew G. Bostom, FrontPageMagazine, 2006/01/04)
"According to available Palestinian Authority polling data, Hamas is poised to win a plurality of the votes in the forthcoming January 2006 Parliamentary elections for Gaza, and the Palestinian Arab-controlled areas within Judea and Samaria. The prospect of such electoral results, despite Hamas’ continuous, bloody record of jihad terrorism (which merely confirms its openly espoused genocidal charter ), creates a conundrum for those policymakers extolling uncritically the virtues of “democratization” in the Middle East, generally, and the areas under Palestinian Arab suzerainty, specifically. Even frank apologists for Hamas, quick to stress how past “liberation” movements were incorporated into electoral processes, while cynically ignoring Hamas’ heinous ideology, will be forced to grapple with the organizations latest open pronouncements stating its plans for non-Muslim “citizens” under any Hamas-lead governments jurisdiction, and espousing an endless, annihilationist jihad against Israel. ...
What a bitter irony that a murderous jihadist organization has co-opted the rhetoric of true liberal democracies in order to impose the totalitarian Shari’a “democratically”. As writer Diana West noted appositely, “It is vox populi. And just because the people have spoken doesn't mean we should applaud what they say.” Democracy—mere popular rule—should not be our primary objective for the Muslim world, but rather Muslim societies and governments who share our values, so we can safely share this planet."

"Secret services say Iran is trying to assemble a nuclear missile" (Ian Cobain and Ian Traynor, The Guardian, 2006/01/04)
"The Iranian government has been successfully scouring Europe for the sophisticated equipment needed to develop a nuclear bomb, according to the latest western intelligence assessment of the country's weapons programmes.
Scientists in Tehran are also shopping for parts for a ballistic missile capable of reaching Europe, with "import requests and acquisitions ... registered almost daily", the report seen by the Guardian concludes.
The warning came as Iran raised the stakes in its dispute with the United States and the European Union yesterday by notifying the International Atomic Energy Authority that it intended to resume nuclear fuel research next week. Tehran has refused to rule out a return to attempts at uranium enrichment, the key to the development of a nuclear weapon.
The 55-page intelligence assessment, dated July 1 2005, draws upon material gathered by British, French, German and Belgian agencies, and has been used to brief European government ministers and to warn leading industrialists of the need for vigilance when exporting equipment or expertise to so-called rogue states."

Tuesday, January 3, 2006

News and commentary:

"Living, and dying, with suicide bombers" (Ralph Peters, USA Today, 2006/01/03)
"The suicide bomber is so powerful a weapon that not even the terrorists have realized its full potential. Today, we see intermittent, localized attacks. The suicide bomber is at the same stage of development as the tank was in World War I: Used in small numbers, armored vehicles did not achieve and sustain critical mass.
We need to prepare for the suicide-bomber blitzkrieg, when murderous zealots come at us in waves. ...
Suicide bombers are recruited from the ranks of troubled souls, from those who find mundane reality overwhelming and terrifying. The suicide bomber longs for release from the insecurities of his daily experience. He is fleeing from life every bit as much as he's rushing toward paradise. He dreads women, sin and doubt.
Hypnotized by faith and excited to ecstasy, he can walk into a children's clinic and press a detonator. No heart-rending child's face will stop him. His god will forgive the innocent. Nothing matters but the divine will as interpreted by the masters of terror — the most brilliant psychologists of our time.
We have faced enemies more dangerous, but none so implacable.
The world's great strategic struggle of this century is between those who believe in a generous, loving god — in any religion — and those who serve a punitive, merciless deity.
The suicide bomber has chosen his side."

"Yeah, That's the Ticket..." (James Taranto, Best of the Web Today, 2006/01/03)
Taranto on Ahmadinejad's latest Holocaust rant ("Ahmadinejad said Europeans had decided to create a "Jewish camp" as the best means for ridding the continent of Jews and said the camp, Israel, now enjoyed support from the United States and Europe in what he termed the slaughter of Muslims."):
"The depopulation of Jews from the Arab and Muslim worlds is largely a postwar phenomenon; according to the JVL, Iraq's Jewish population had declined to around 100 by 2003 from 150,000 in 1948:

After the establishment of Israel in 1948, Zionism became a capital crime. ...

After the Six-Day War, more repressive measures were imposed: Jewish property was expropriated; Jewish bank accounts were frozen; Jews were dismissed from public posts; businesses were shut; trading permits were cancelled; telephones were disconnected. Jews were placed under house arrest for long periods of time or restricted to the cities.

Persecution was at its worst at the end of 1968. Scores were jailed upon the discovery of a local "spy ring" composed of Jewish businessmen. Fourteen men -- eleven of them Jews -- were sentenced to death in staged trials and hanged in the public squares of Baghdad; others died of torture. On January 27, 1969, Baghdad Radio called upon Iraqis to "come and enjoy the feast." Some 500,000 men, women and children paraded and danced past the scaffolds where the bodies of the hanged Jews swung; the mob rhythmically chanted "Death to Israel" and "Death to all traitors." This display brought a world-wide public outcry that Radio Baghdad dismissed by declaring: "We hanged spies, but the Jews crucified Christ."

The Jews of Iran have not fared as badly as their Iraqi counterparts, but the mad mullahs have hardly been good for the Jews:

Under the Phalevi Dynasty, established in 1925, the country was secularized and oriented toward the West. This greatly benefited the Jews, who were emancipated and played an important role in the economy and in cultural life. On the eve of the Islamic Revolution in 1979, 80,000 Jews lived in Iran. In the wake of the upheaval, tens of thousands of Jews, especially the wealthy, left the country, leaving behind vast amounts of property.

So it would be more accurate to say that Arab countries since 1948, joined by Iran since 1979, have been following the lead of the Germans of the Nazi era and depopulating themselves of Jews." (See also: "Iran President: Israel Completed Holocaust" (Nasser Karimi, AP/Yahoo! News, 2006/01/01))

"France to lift state of emergency" (Reuters/ABC News, 2006/01/03)
"France says it will lift a state of emergency on Wednesday, which was introduced in November during the worst violence in the country in nearly 40 years.
The decision was made after calmer than expected new year celebrations.
Officials had feared that the holiday season might trigger new violent protests against racism and unemployment by youths of African and Arab origin as well as whites from poor areas.
Officials say President Jacques Chirac will end emergency measures giving regional officials power to impose curfews and to carry out searches during the day or at night without a judge's order.
"The President decided to end the state of emergency as of January 4, 2006," a spokeswoman for his office said."

Added in archive:
"Muslim organisation calls for boycott of Denmark" (The Copenhagen Post, 2005/12/28)

Monday, January 2, 2006

News and commentary:

"It’s the demography, stupid" (Mark Steyn, The New Criterion, January 2006)
"Most people reading this have strong stomachs, so let me lay it out as baldly as I can: Much of what we loosely call the western world will survive this century, and much of it will effectively disappear within our lifetimes, including many if not most western European countries. There’ll probably still be a geographical area on the map marked as Italy or the Netherlands — probably — just as in Istanbul there’s still a building called St. Sophia’s Cathedral. But it’s not a cathedral; it’s merely a designation for a piece of real estate. Likewise, Italy and the Netherlands will merely be designations for real estate. The challenge for those who reckon western civilization is on balance better than the alternatives is to figure out a way to save at least some parts of the west. ...
Just to recap those bald statistics: In 1970, the developed world had twice as big a share of the global population as the Muslim world: 30 percent to 15 percent. By 2000, they were the same: each had about 20 percent.
And by 2020?
So the world’s people are a lot more Islamic than they were back then and a lot less “western.” Europe is significantly more Islamic, having taken in during that period some 20 million Muslims (officially) — or the equivalents of the populations of four European Union countries (Ireland, Belgium, Denmark, and Estonia). Islam is the fastest-growing religion in the west: in the UK, more Muslims than Christians attend religious services each week.
Can these trends continue for another thirty years without having consequences? Europe by the end of this century will be a continent after the neutron bomb: the grand buildings will still be standing but the people who built them will be gone. We are living through a remarkable period: the self-extinction of the races who, for good or ill, shaped the modern world."

"Cracking An Insurgent Cell" (Julian E. Barnes, USNews.com, 2006/01/09)
A must-read report on a counter-terrorist operation in Mosul, which is more illuminating than the combined magnum opus of Andrew Sullivan on the same subjects:
"Majeed, Fox believes, will be able to get the detainees to talk about IEDs, weapons, and other cell members. There's just one catch, though. The Iraqi Army has a reputation for beating prisoners. And Fox knows that if the detainees are hurt, he'll be held accountable. "It is very important," he tells Majeed, "that these guys not be harmed."
Majeed stares back at Fox. "These guys," he says, "got hit hard by the police."
Fox moves on. "If you get any actionable intelligence, let us know, and we will do a joint op."
A shaking Nashwan and Adel are loaded onto the Stryker. ...
As the clock approaches midnight, Fox's gamble pays off. Majeed calls. Nashwan has begun talking, giving his real name, Ahmed Mohammed Ali, and revealing the location of a cache of weapons. Within minutes, Fox arrives at Majeed's base with four Strykers. Majeed outlines his plan. Three of the Strykers -- equipped with thermal imaging gear that allows soldiers to see at night -- will form an outer cordon. Then one of the Iraqi platoons will form an inner cordon, while the other searches for the suspect vehicle in a parking lot. Fox nods: The plan sounds good. Gently, he suggests that Majeed take a squad of Americans into the parking lot with him. Majeed agrees.
The Iraqis bring along Nashwan, his eyes blindfolded with blacked-out goggles and his hands bound. The parking lot, it turns out, is less than 200 yards from a polling site. It's so close, in fact, that the raiding party passes a group of American engineers installing protective barriers around the voting area. With Nashwan's help, the Iraqis quickly locate a van with weapons concealed in a roof compartment -- three rocket-propelled grenade launchers, two sniper rifles, an antitank rocket launcher, and a stash of ammunition, grenades, and rockets. It is, Nashwan says, all of the cell's weapons. Fox turns to Majeed. Both men grin broadly. "This is a major win for the IA [Iraqi Army]," Fox tells him. "This is the best combined operation we've had." Fox is ecstatic. It is his greatest victory yet in his four months in Iraq. This is what the Americans ought to be doing, he thinks: helping the Iraqis help themselves." (Hat tip: The Corner.)

"Israel's North Korean media" (Caroline Glick, The Jerusalem Post, 2006/01/02)
"Last week Israel absorbed terrorist attacks on all fronts. Kassam rockets rained down on Ashkelon, Sderot and the communities of the Western Negev. Katyusha rockets were launched against cities in the North. Palestinians attacked Israelis throughout Judea and Samaria and an IDF officer was killed when he stopped a suicide bomber at a roadblock outside of Tulkarm. The Palestinian Authority has ceased to operate in any effective way. Foreigners are kidnapped on a daily basis in Gaza. All Palestinian terror groups have called off their imaginary cease-fire. Hamas's chieftain Khaled Mashaal just rounded off a two week visit to Iran, replete with a prolonged visit to a Revolutionary Guards training base. And the IDF has acknowledged that al-Qaida has successfully seeded itself not only in Gaza but in northern Samaria.
But all of this is relegated to the back pages of the newspapers, because the only thing that Israelis need to know is that Sharon is a great man and a great leader. ...
It is a terrible thing when in a democracy as small and as vulnerable as Israel the media takes it upon itself to collude with a failed, sick leader in systematically lying to the public about the state of the country in order to advance a dangerous political agenda that has already been borne out by events as a failure.
Indeed, when the history of our times is written, the treachery of the Western media will fill future generations with disgust. And the perfidy of the Israeli media will be the source of the most extreme revulsion."

"Palestinian militants call off truce" (Harry de Quetteville, The Daily Telegraph, 2006/01/02)
"Palestinian armed groups ended a year-long truce with Israel yesterday in a move which could lead to new violence and derail elections in the West Bank and Gaza already threatened by lawlessness and political infighting.
The so-called "cool down" by militants has been frequently interrupted by rocket attacks launched from Gaza, and Islamic Jihad has continued to carry out suicide bombings on Israeli targets. ...
Of the three main militant groups Islamic Jihad marked the end of the truce, which it has barely observed, by firing rockets at Israel from the Gaza Strip.
Hamas too officially ended its truce, but analysts say it is unlikely to make an immediate return to violence because it hopes to do well in elections at the end of the month. Any major attack could offer a pretext for the polls to be called off.
In a humiliating twist for Mr Abbas, the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade also said it was ending the truce. The group is the armed wing of Mr Abbas's Fatah movement and is nominally loyal to him, but it claimed joint responsibility for the rocket attacks with Islamic Jihad."

Added in archive:
"EU commissioner lashes out at Mohammed drawings" (The Copenhagen Post, 2005/12/23)

See the archive for earlier news and commentary.

 

 

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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)

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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)

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