Archived news and commentary: August 28 - September 3, 2006

2006/08/28 - 2006/09/03
2006/08/21 - 2006/08/27
2006/08/14 - 2006/08/20
2006/08/07 - 2006/08/13
2006/07/31 - 2006/08/06
2006/07/24 - 2006/07/30

› From 2001/09/11 -

Sunday, September 3, 2006

News and commentary:

"Why abduct us? We cede our values for free" (Mark Steyn, Chicago Sun-Times, 2006/09/03)
"Did you see that video of the two Fox journalists announcing they'd converted to Islam? The larger problem, it seems to me, is that much of the rest of the Western media have also converted to Islam, and there seems to be no way to get them to convert back to journalism.":
"The moment the men were released, the Western media and their colleagues wrote off the scene as a stunt, a cunning ruse, of no more consequence than yelling "Behind you! He's got a gun!" and then kicking your distracted kidnapper in the teeth. Indeed, a few Web sites seemed to see the Islamic conversion routine as a useful get-out-of-jail-free card. ...
But that's not how the al-Jazeera audience sees it. If you're a Muslim, the video is anything but meaningless. Not even the dumbest jihadist believes these infidels are suddenly true believers. Rather, it confirms the central truth Osama and the mullahs have been peddling -- that the West is weak, that there's nothing -- no core, no bedrock -- nothing it's not willing to trade. ...
In the Muslim world, they watch the Centanni/Wiig video and see men so in love with the present, the now, that they will do or say anything to live in the moment. And they draw their own conclusions -- that these men are easier to force into the car than that 16-year-old girl in Sydney was. It doesn't matter how "understandable" Centanni and Wiig's actions are to us, what the target audience understands is quite different: that there is nothing we're willing to die for. And, to the Islamist mind, a society with nothing to die for is already dead." (See also: "Warning signs" (Diana West, The Washington Times, 2006/09/01) and "Kidnapped Fox News journalists freed" (Ibrahim Barzak, AP/Yahoo! News, 2006/08/27))

"Hezbollah wants to swap soldiers for child killer" (Uzi Mahnaimi, The Sunday Times, 2006/09/03)
"‘Most hated man in Israel’ at centre of deal to bring prisoners back home
IN his Israeli jail cell Samir Qantar, who is serving four life sentences for murder and terrorism, dreams about an exchange of prisoners that might allow him to go home to Lebanon.
“I can imagine how I’ll return to my village,” he said. “First I hug my mum, then my brothers and sisters, all of them. My idea, which I’ll never give up, is to come out of here with my head held up, without giving up any of my principles.”
Qantar, 44, has been in prison since 1979, when he took part in an attack whose horrifying outcome made him one of the most hated men in Israel.
But in Lebanon, Hezbollah has made his release one of its key demands in negotiations to secure the freedom of Ehud Goldwasser, 31, and Eldad Regev, 26, the two Israeli soldiers it captured on July 12, triggering a 34-day war.
Qantar’s role in the attack on the coastal town of Nahariya 27 years ago would make this an especially bitter pill for Israelis to swallow. A policeman was killed and a family taken hostage when Qantar’s group burst into their home.
Danny Haran, 28, was shot at close range in front of his terrified four-year-old daughter Einat, whose head was then smashed with a rifle butt.
The dead man’s wife Smadar hid in a loft with their two-year-old daughter Yael, keeping a hand over her mouth to stop her crying out. But the girl suffocated, leaving Smadar Haran bereft of her husband and both daughters." (See also:"Terrorist-murderer Quntar awarded honorary Palestinian citizenship" (Itamar Marcus and Barbara Crook, PMW, 2006/03/13))

"Critics of Israel 'fuelling hatred of British Jews'" (Ned Temko, The Observer, 2006/09/03)
"A group of prominent MPs, alarmed at the rise of anti-semitism in Britain, will accuse some left-wing activists and Muslim extremists this week of using criticism of Israel as 'a pretext' for spreading hatred against British Jews.
The charge is made in a hard-hitting report - by MPs from all three major political parties - which will be unveiled at a Downing Street meeting with Tony Blair on Thursday.
The report is published in the wake of an alarming increase in verbal harassment, abusive emails and letters, and even violent assaults on British Jews. The number of incidents that took place in July, which came in the middle of escalating violence in the Middle East, was the third highest on record. ...
The report voices particular concern over 'a minority of Islamic extremists who are inciting hatred towards Jews', and it criticises recent moves by left-wing academics to boycott links with Israel. Though emphasising the right of people to criticise or protest against Israeli government actions, it says 'rage' over Israeli policies has sometimes 'provided a pretext' for anti-semitism."

"Young Muslims held in terror camp crackdown" (Jamie Doward et al., The Observer, 2006/09/03)
"Police are investigating a network of terror training camps across Britain which they fear are nurturing a new wave of home-grown Islamic extremists. The investigation is linked to raids late on Friday in which anti-terrorism officers arrested 14 people.
Yesterday police also sealed off a school in East Sussex run by an Islamic charity, Jameah Islamiyah, in the grounds of which The Observer understands the jailed cleric Abu Hamza secretly ran terror camps, training young militant Muslim men to use firearms.
No one at Jameah Islamiyah has been arrested and police stressed that its staff had been fully cooperative in the investigation, which has seen the creation of an exclusion area around the school as police comb its premises. A Sussex Police spokeswoman said the searches could take 'days, possibly weeks'. The 14 men arrested are thought to be mainly young British Muslims of Pakistani origin. They were arrested after a lengthy surveillance operation involving Scotland Yard's Anti-Terrorist Branch and MI5. The men are now in custody at Paddington Green high-security police station."

Added today:
"Convert or die" (Michelle Malkin, michellemalkin.com, 2006/09/02)
"Warning signs" (Diana West, The Washington Times, 2006/09/01)

Saturday, September 2, 2006

News and commentary:

"Prophet drawings motivated by suspects behind failed German train bombings, investigator says" (IHT/AP, 2006/09/02)
"The prime suspects in the failed attempt to blow up two German trains were partially motivated by anger over the publication of cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad, a leading investigator said in an interview released Saturday.
The Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten first published the 12 cartoons in September 2005. One of the pictures showed Muhammad wearing a turban shaped like a bomb. ...
Ziercke told Focus magazine that further motivation for the suspects came with the death of al-Qaida in Iraq leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, killed June 7 in a U.S. airstrike north of Baghdad.
"Both of the prime suspects believed that international terrorism had lost its most important leader," Ziercke said in an interview released to The Associated Press ahead of publication. "The conflict in Lebanon also played a role (in motivating them) though we know the planning for the attacks had already begun earlier than that." ...
Ziercke said he did not believe Hamad and el-Hajdib came to Germany with the intent to prepare attacks.
"The radicalization first took place here, through al-Qaida propaganda found on the Internet," he said."

"Convert or die" (Michelle Malkin, michellemalkin.com, 2006/09/02)
"Watch the new al Qaeda video to see what an "invitation to Islam" sounds like. I've transcribed a sample of American al Qaeda Adam Gadahn's rant:

"Islam is the only religion acceptable to God and came with the revealed book, the Koran, which abrogates all previous revelations, like the Torah and Evangel... God recognizes no separation between religion and state..."

"To Americans and the rest of Christendom we say, either repent (your) misguided ways and enter into the light of truth or keep your poison to yourself and suffer the consequences in this world and the next..."

"If the Zionist crusader missionaries of hate and counter-Islam consultants like Daniel Pipes, Robert Spencer, Michael Scheuer, Steven Emerson, and yes, even the crusader-in-chief George W. Bush were to abandon their unbelief and repent and enter into the light of Islam and turn their swords against the enemies of God, it would be accepted of them and they would be our brothers in Islam. And we send a special invitation to all of you fighting Bush's crusader pipe dream in Afghanistan, Iraq, and wherever else W. has sent you to die."

Reuters' brief report doesn't mention Gadahn's targeting of Pipes, Emerson, Scheuer, and Spencer. Gadahn also extended a special plea to one of al Qaeda's favorite journalists, Seymour Hersh.

More:

"Why not surrender to the truth? Escape from the unbelieving army and join the winning side. As for those who have expressed their respect and admiration for Islam, and acknowledged that it is the truth and demonstrated the support and sympathy for the Muslims and their causes like George Galloway, Robert Fisk, and countless others, I say to them, isn't it time you stopped sitting on the fence and came over to the side of truth? ...Abandon unbelief and accept the truth."

Or else."

"Fake-but-true: The Age defends the holey ambulance hoax" (Andrew Bolt, Herald Sun, 2006/09/02)
"Now The Age tries to defend the missile-through-the-red-cross ambulance hoax.
It starts with a bold claim, announcing in the headline:
Ambulance attack evidence stands the test
It does?
But read on and you will find that reporter Sarah Smiles, who lived as a student in Beirut for four years, doesn’t confirm the evidence but change it:

• The missile through the Red Cross painted on the roof of one ambulance becomes a possible missile through the back of the other of the two that were attacked.

• The first ambulance that was hit by a missile is now hit instead by “small weapons”.

• A man who had his leg blasted off in the ambulance with the hole through the Red Cross now has it blasted off in the ambulance with the bigger hole in the back.

• A medic explains the strange absence of blood in that ambulance by saying the injured man’s leg was “cauterised”.

• An attack launched by Apache helicopters is now launched by drones.

• A driver who was first reported to have been knocked unconscious in the attack this time fails to mention that, claiming only that shrapnel-pocked helmet saved him.

• Curiously, all three Red Cross workers who were there and were interviewed after the alleged incident, claim they were saved by a shrapnel-pocked helmet. None were actually wounded with all this shrapnel flying about.

No explicit acknowledgement is made of what seems even from this story to be conceded: that The Age‘s initial claim that a missile was fired through the Red Cross symbol of ambulance was false.
Nor does it admit what it also seems to concede: That the ambulance first pictured as “proof” of that missile strike was not hit by a missile at all." (Hat tip: Tim Blair. See also: "The ambulance hoax - why no missile could have done this" (Andrew Bolt, Herald Sun, 2006/09/01))

"Pentagon Cites Spike In Violence in Iraq" (Ann Scott Tyson, The Washington Post, 2006/09/02)
"Rising sectarian bloodshed has pushed violence in Iraq to its highest level in more than two years, and preventing civil war is now the most urgent mission of the growing contingent of 140,000 U.S. troops in the country, according to a new Pentagon report released yesterday.
Executions, kidnappings and other sectarian attacks targeting Iraqi civilians have soared over the past three months, contributing to a 51 percent rise in casualties among the population and Iraqi security forces, the report said. More than 3,000 Iraqis are killed or wounded each month, and by July, 2,000 of the casualties were the result of sectarian incidents, it showed. ...
In a grim revelation, the report cited the Baghdad coroner's office stating that it received 1,600 bodies in June and more than 1,800 in July, of which 90 percent were assessed to be the result of executions.
Moreover, the report said, the revenge killings perpetrated by Sunni and Shiite death squads are spreading outside the Iraqi capital into the far reaches of the country, from Basra in the south to Mosul and Kirkuk in the north. Iran and Syria are actively supporting forces fueling the unrest among religious factions, it said."

Friday, September 1, 2006

News and commentary:

"The ambulance hoax - why no missile could have done this" (Andrew Bolt, Herald Sun, 2006/09/01)
Ouch!: "A military source I know, who cannot be identified, has checked to see if Israel has any missile that would pop a neat hole in the roof of an ambulance and explode, causing no scorch marks, no shrapnel damage and no fatalities to the people inside.
He checked his findings with army experts and writes (and apologies that the links did not get through):

There is no weapon that would deliver terminal effects consistent with the pictures, the alleged story and the reputed damage done to ambulance and people. ...

Of course there are no lesser warhead missiles listed for Israel, nor any I know of for the US. Who would field a $2 million missile only to equip it with a $200 war head that couldn’t even stop a van? It defies logic that this is the case and pursuing this line, as Tony Jones did on ‘Lateline’, is not so much a case of hope triumphing over common sense or experience, it is absolute idiocy.

From what we know it is clear that:

A. The Red Cross or its personnel lied;

B. The lie was designed to swing international opinion, ie was propaganda;

C. Martin Chulov passed off Hezbollah propaganda as fact;

D. Martin Chulov has no idea what he is doing and lacks the most basic instinct for military fact checking or the required level of detached scepticism to be covering a war..." (Hat tip: Tim Blair. See also: "The Red Cross Ambulance Incident" (Zombietime, August 2006))

"Warning signs" (Diana West, The Washington Times, 2006/09/01)
"The most shocking thing about the Centanni-Wiig "conversion" is the silence that has followed. First, there is silence from Islam. Shouldn't Muslim religious leaders, and particularly "beautiful and kind-hearted" Palestinian Muslim religious leaders, vehemently condemn the forced conversions? As Mr. Bostom put it, "Will such Muslim authorities at least recognize the acute predicament of Centanni and Wiig by issuing a fatwa stating that their 'conversion,' being under duress, was not bona fide, condemning in advance any Muslim who might now attack these journalists for 'apostasy' from Islam?"
Yes, of course, they should -- at least according to any Western understanding of compulsion and morality -- but don't hold your breath. Meanwhile, holding their breath is exactly what Western media are doing when it comes to covering (not covering) the story. Even Fox's Greta van Susteren, a tabloidesque host who never met a bodily fluid she couldn't elaborate on, went delicate on us the other night, failing, in a one-hour "exclusive" interview with the two men, to ask a single question about their religious ordeal -- presumably at their request.
Why? Who or what is served by shutting up? Only forces of coercion -- a word which, after all, implies the nullification of individual will. Which means this is one case where silence isn't golden and ignorance isn't bliss. They are dangerous and dumb." (See also: "Kidnapped Fox News journalists freed" (Ibrahim Barzak, AP/Yahoo! News, 2006/08/27))

"Muslims feel like victims. The West feels guilty. Is the world going mad?" (Gerard Baker, The Times, 2006/09/01)
"But to argue, as is now common, that it [profiling] is another example of harassment of and discrimination against Muslims by an increasingly aggressive and hostile State and society, is not only a bit rich. It sounds disturbing like another example of what is becoming a dangerous pathology among many Muslims — to wallow in a self-imposed and eagerly embraced status of victimhood.
This condition places the blame for every ill in their lives, in their communities, in the West and in the countries of the Middle East, on the imperialist oppression of the white man, the American and, of course, the Jew, never once stopping to consider even the possibility that their plight might be, in part at least, their own making.
Though the West is surely not blameless, either through history or today, in its treatment of Muslims, the idea that responsibility for the woes of the Islamic world these past few hundred years can be laid at somebody else’s door is escapist fantasy. ...
Pierre Rehov, an Algerian-born French filmmaker, who produced a documentary, Suicide Killers, was asked in a TV interview this year how the world could end the madness of suicide bombings and terrorism. “Stop being politically correct and stop believing that this culture is a victim of ours,” he said.
Of course, this celebration of victimhood plays to the West’s deep sense of guilt, producing a fearful complementarity that makes today’s crisis so potent — a civilisation all too willing to accept the blame for the woes of a people all too willing to blame them."

"Saudi Gets 27 Years to Life for Enslaving Maid" (Barbara Ferguson, Arab News, 2006/09/01)
"WASHINGTON, 1 September 2006 — A Saudi man convicted of sexually assaulting an Indonesian housekeeper and keeping her as a virtual slave was sentenced yesterday to 27 years to life in prison in Colorado.
Homaidan Al-Turki, the 37-year-old Saudi national, denied the charges and blamed anti-Muslim prejudice for the case against him. He said prosecutors persuaded the housekeeper to accuse him after they failed to build a case that he was a terrorist. ...
The lawyer argued that cultural differences were at the heart of the charges. ...
An affidavit said she spent four years with the family in their suburban Colorado home, sleeping on a mattress on the basement floor and getting paid less than $2 a day.
The media have not identified the woman, who is now 24, because she is an alleged victim of rape.
Al-Turki said he treated the woman the same way any observant Muslim family would treat a daughter. “Your honor, I am not here to apologize, for I cannot apologize for things I did not do and for crimes I did not commit,” he told the judge. 'The state has criminalized these basic Muslim behaviors. Attacking traditional Muslim behaviors was the focal point of the prosecution.'" (Hat tip: Dhimmi Watch.)

"As deadline passes, US says Iran must pay for its defiance" (Richard Beeston and James Bone, The Times, 2006/09/01)
"IRAN failed yesterday to comply with a United Nations deadline to halt its uranium enrichment work, increasing tensions between the country and the international community.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the UN’s nuclear watchdog, reported that Iran had continued its controversial enrichment work beyond yesterday’s deadline.
In a confidential report obtained by The Times, it also listed numerous cases of non-co-operation by the Iranian authorities with atomic inspectors. It also reported finding samples of highly enriched uranium at a technical university suspected of conducting military research work."

Thursday, August 31, 2006

News and commentary:

"Belgian Authorities Destroy Holocaust Records" (Paul Belien, The Brussels Journal, 2006/08/31)
"The Belgian authorities have destroyed archives and records relating to the persecution and deportation of Jews in Belgium in the 1930s and 1940s. Some of this happened as recently as the late 1990s. This was revealed during hearings in the Belgian Senate last Spring. Though the Senate report dates from 4 May the Belgian press has not yet mentioned the affair. [update 3 Sept.: The Brussels Dutch-language newspaper De Morgen published an article on page 6 of its 14 Dec. 2005 edition, under the title: Archives about Persecution of Jews were Intentionally Destroyed] The Senate report says that “documents about the period 1930-1950 have been destroyed on a massive scale.” ...
While the records about the persecution of the Antwerp Jewry have been kept intact, documents about the fate of the Jews in Brussels and in French-speaking cities with large pre-war Jewish communities, such as Charleroi and Liège, were purposely destroyed. In Charleroi all the archives relating to the 1930s and the war years have vanished. In Brussels the judicial archives are present “until the early 1930s, while there is (almost) nothing left of the period thereafter,” the report says, adding that 'Reference is often made to the 1944 fire of the Palais de Justice to explain this lack of archives [...] However, there is no doubt that large parts of the Brussels judicial wartime archives were destroyed after 1944.'"

"One killed, dozens hurt in wave of bombings in Thai Muslim south" (Muhammad Sabree Musordi, AP/Yahoo! News, 2006/08/31)
"YALA, Thailand (AFP) - A wave of small bombs have exploded almost simultaneously at 22 banks in Thailand's Muslim-majority south, leaving one person dead and at least 29 injured.
Militants, many of them dressed as students, left the bombs hidden inside books at commercial banks across the province of Yala, the regional army commander, Lieutenant General Ong-korn Thongprasom told Thai television on Thursday.
"Two suspects were arrested in connection with the bomb attacks. Mostly the militants used young men dressed in student uniforms to plant small bombs which were hidden inside books," he said on Thursday. ...
More than 1,400 people have been killed in the mainly Muslim provinces since the latest violence erupted in January 2004."

"Amnesty Int'l redefines 'war crimes'" (Alan Dershowitz, The Jerusalem Post, 2006/08/31)
"HERE'S HOW law professor David Bernstein answered Amnesty's charge:

The idea that a country at war can't attack the enemy's resupply routes (at least until it has direct evidence that there is a particular military shipment arriving) has nothing to do with human rights or war crimes, and a lot to do with a pacifist attitude that seeks to make war, regardless of the justification for it or the restraint in prosecuting it [at least if it's a Western country doing it], an international "crime."

In other words, if attacking the civilian infrastructure is a war crime, then modern warfare is entirely impermissible, and terrorists have a free hand in attacking democracies and hiding from retaliation among civilians. Terrorists become de facto immune from any consequences for their atrocities. ...
Consider another example: "While the use of civilians to shield a combatant from attack is a war crime, under international humanitarian law such use does not release the opposing party from its obligations towards the protection of the civilian population."
Well that's certainly nice sounding. But what does it mean? What would Amnesty suggest a country do in the face of daily rocket attacks launched from civilian populations? Nothing, apparently. The clear implication of Amnesty's arguments is that the only way Israel could have avoided committing "war crimes" would have been if it had taken only such military action that carried with it no risk to civilian shields - that is, to do absolutely nothing.
For Amnesty, "Israeli war crimes" are synonymous with 'any military action whatsoever.'"

"U.S. military sees Iran's nuke bomb 5 years away" (Rowan Scarborough, TheWashington Times, 2006/08/31)
"The U.S. military is operating under the assumption that Iran is five to eight years away from being able to build its first nuclear weapon, a time span that explains a general lack of urgency within the Bush administration to use air strikes to disable Tehran's atomic program.
Defense sources familiar with discussions of senior military commanders say the five- to eight-year projection has been discussed inside the Pentagon, which is updating its war plan for Iran. The time frame is generally in line with last year's intelligence community estimate that Iran could have the capability to produce a nuclear weapon by the beginning or middle of the next decade."

Wednesday, August 30, 2006

News and commentary:

"The media war against Israel" (Melanie Phillips, melaniephillips.com, 2006/08/30)
"Certain conclusions are now inescapable. First, hatred of Israel and the irrationality associated with that hatred have now reached unprecedented proportions within Britain and the west. Second, with a few honourable exceptions the mainstream media are no longer to be believed in anything they transmit, either in words or pictures, about the Middle East. It is only the blogosphere which is now performing the most elementary disciplines of journalism: to aspire to objectivity, to separate facts from prejudices, to apply basic checks to claims being made by partisans to a conflict, and to be particularly wary of those with a proven track record of lying. Third, the mainstream media must now be regarded as active accessories to the war being waged against the free world and therefore as a fifth column in that world – an enemy within. Fourth, the impact of the lies and distortions transmitted by the mainstream media in inflaming the already pathological hatred of the west within the Arab and Muslim world is incalculable. ...
To date, as far as I can determine, not one mainstream editor or proprietor has acknowledged this corruption of the western media. The scale of this corruption now threatens to have a lethal impact on the course of human history. Hatred now drives not just the jihadists but their western dupes, too. Truth and freedom are indivisible. The deconstruction of the former inevitably presages the destruction of the latter. This is the way a civilisation dies."

"Not the hole truth" (Andrew Bolt, Herald Sun, 2006/08/30)
"IT'S bad enough that friends of Hezbollah terrorists could trick so many journalists with just a tall story and a rusty Lebanese ambulance.
Worse is that some of those journalists seemed so eager to believe this ambulance was indeed wickedly blown up by an Israeli missile fired straight through the big red cross on its roof -- leaving not even a scorch mark.
But worst is that even now that this hoax has been exposed, none of the countless writers and commentators who fell for it have admitted to passing on as fact the propaganda of terrorists.
It is this refusal to admit that suggests there was an agenda, after all, to so much of the hysterical reporting of the war in Lebanon between Israel and Hezbollah. ...
But it hasn't been the only hoax in the reporting from Lebanon. Reuters had to fire a freelance photographer in Lebanon who'd been caught by bloggers photo-shopping a picture to make a pall of smoke seem thicker.
The cover of US News and World Report magazine showed a picture of a Hezbollah soldier posed with the flames of Israel's vengeance behind him -- flames actually rising from a burning tip.
Then there was the Green Helmet Guy, a Lebanese rescue worker -- or so reporters said -- who always bobbed up at the sites of alleged Israeli atrocities, parading the victims and instructing foreign photographers on how to get the best shots.
There was also the Passion of the Toys, in which spotless, heart-rending toys kept featuring in the foreground of news agency pictures of Lebanese buildings bombed by the Israelis.
On it went, all uncovered by bloggers."

Tuesday, August 29, 2006

News and commentary:

"Reuters Photo (Mahmoud al-Jihad)"
(iowahawk, 2006/08/29)

"Israeli Airstrike Leaves Reuters Ambulance in Flames, Chopped, Channeled" (iowahawk, 2006/08/29)
"QANA, LEBANON - Israeli Defense Forces face fresh charges of war atrocities today, as international press agency Reuters released stark photos showing the devastation caused by a daylight IDF missile attack on a clearly marked Reuters press ambulance.
According to Reuters spokesman Martin Aldwyn, the vehicle was used by the agency's local freelancers to transport poignant war-ravaged street urchins to Lebanese hospitals. Although clearly marked with a red cross, "PRESS," fuzzy dice, and the international symbol for "Baby On Board," the flaming 1950 Mercury was left nearly unrecognizable by the attack. Photos show that the impact of the Israeli missiles slammed the vehicle to the ground, lowered its roof five inches, and left it with a pancaked hood, shaved door handles, frenched headlights and De Soto grille." (See also: "Terrorist theater tricks" (Caroline Glick, The Jerusalem Post, 2006/08/28))

"Pronouncing Blame on the Israel Lobby" (Dana Milbank,The Washington Post, 2006/08/29)
Via Glenn Reynolds: "MEARSHEIMER AND WALT: Idiots, or anti-semites?
Do I have to choose?":
"Yesterday, at the invitation of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), they held a forum at the National Press Club to expand on their allegations about the Israel lobby. Blurring the line between academics and activism, they accepted a button proclaiming "Fight the Israel Lobby" and won cheers from the Muslim group for their denunciation of Israel and its friends in the United States.
Whatever motivated the performance, the result wasn't exactly scholarly. ...
When the two professors finished, they were besieged by autograph- and photo-seekers and Arab television correspondents. Walt could be heard telling one that if an American criticizes Israel, "it might have some economic consequences for your business."
Before leaving for an interview with al-Jazeera, Mearsheimer accepted a button proclaiming "Walt & Mearsheimer Rock. Fight the Israel Lobby."
"I like it," he said, beaming."

More on "The Israel Lobby":
The article: "The Israel Lobby" (John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt, The London Review of Books, 2006/03/23)
The study [PDF]: "The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy" (Stephen Walt and John Mearsheimer, Harvard University, March 2006)

"Yes, It's Anti-Semitic" (Eliot A. Cohen, The Washington Post, 2006/04/05)
"The Jewish threat" (Caroline Glick, The Jerusalem Post, 2006/03/24)
"The graves of academe" (Melanie Phillips, melaniephillips.com, 2006/03/21)
"Stephen Walt's War with Israel" (Richard Baehr and Ed Lasky, The American Thinker, 2006/03/20)
"David Duke Claims to Be Vindicated By a Harvard Dean" (Eli Lake, New York Sun, 2006/03/20)

"No-appearance gang still at large" (Tim Blair, timblair.net, 2006/08/29)
To paraphrase Rod Liddle: "In the end, it is not the sinister men of no appearance at whom we should direct our wrath, but the white liberals who enable them to prosper.":
"Those sinister men of no appearance continue their Sydney crime spree:

A 16-year-old girl was tailed by a car full of men before being dragged inside and assaulted in Sydney’s west last night, police say …
The three men involved in the attack were described to police as having dark “mullet-style” hair cuts.
One was believed to be aged 20 to 25, 170 centimetres tall and clean shaven, police said.

The police press release said a little more than that:

Police are seeking three men described as being of Middle Eastern/Mediterranean appearance, with dark “mullet-style” hair cuts. One of the men is believed to be 20 to 25-years-old, 170cm tall and clean shaven."

(See also: "First They Came For the Jews: The Story of Yet Another World War" (Fjordman, Dhimmi Watch, 2006/08/24))

Added today:
"Terrorist theater tricks" (Caroline Glick, The Jerusalem Post, 2006/08/28)
"Ahmadinejad says Holocaust 'made up to embarrass Germany'" (Aresu Eqbali, AFP/Yahoo! News, 2006/08/28)
"Minister lashes out at publishers for scandalous books" (Turkish Daily News, 2006/08/28)
"Reuters Alleges Israeli Air Strike" (John, Power Line, 2006/08/27)

Monday, August 28, 2006

News and commentary:

"Terrorist theater tricks" (Caroline Glick, The Jerusalem Post, 2006/08/28)
"What are we seeing when we watch events from the Middle East on our television screens? Is it news or is it terrorist theater?":
"AS IS the case with the Palestinian war against Israel, one of the most notable aspects of Hizbullah's latest campaign against Israel has been the active collaboration of news organizations and international NGO's in Hizbullah's information war against Israel. Like their rogue state sponsors, subversive sub-national groups like Hizbullah, Fatah and Hamas, see information operations as an integral part of their war for the annihilation of Israel and defeat of the West. And their information operations are more advanced than any the world has seen. As becomes more evident with each passing day, they have successfully corrupted both the world media and the community of NGOs that purportedly operate in a neutral manner in war zones.
It is not a coincidence that I saw the pictures of the Reuters' vehicle on Powerline and not in the media coverage of the purported attack. Both the global media and the international NGO community abjectly refuse to investigate themselves. ...
As each day passes it becomes clear that the responsibility of protecting our nations and societies from internal disintegration has passed to the hands of individuals, often working alone, who refuse to accept the degradation of their societies and so fight with the innovative tools of liberty to protect our way of life. The vigilance of just a handful of bloggers brought us the knowledge of the corruption of our media and the network of global NGOs that we have come to rely on to tell us the "objective" truth." (See also: "Kidnapped Fox News journalists freed" (Ibrahim Barzak, AP/Yahoo! News, 2006/08/27), "Reuters Alleges Israeli Air Strike" (John, Power Line, 2006/08/27), "Reuters Doctoring Photos from Beirut?" (Charles Johnson, Little Green Footballs, 2006/08/05) and "Stage-Managed Massacre" (Robert Spencer, FrontPageMagazine, 2006/08/02))

"Ahmadinejad says Holocaust 'made up to embarrass Germany'" (Aresu Eqbali, AFP/Yahoo! News, 2006/08/28)
"TEHRAN (AFP) - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has told German Chancellor Angela Merkel that the Holocaust may have been invented by the victorious Allied powers in World War II to embarrass Germany, the semi-official news agency Mehr has reported.
The remarks by the outspoken Ahmadinejad, who has repeatedly questioned the veracity of the Holocaust, came in a letter sent to Merkel in July whose contents have not been disclosed until now.
"Is it not a reasonable possibility that some countries that had won the war made up this excuse to constantly embarrass the defeated people ... to bar their progress," Ahmadinejad said in the letter on Monday.
"The question is if these countries, especially Britain, felt responsible for the Holocaust survivors, why they did not settle them in their own countries?" it said." (See also: "Full Text of Pres. Ahmadinejad's Letter to German Chancellor" (Fars News Agency, 2006/08/28))

"Minister lashes out at publishers for scandalous books" (Turkish Daily News, 2006/08/28)
"Minister of Education Hüseyin Çelik has blasted publishers for distorted versions of books included in a reading list recommended for school children and announced the ministry would bring lawsuits against the publishers involved in the scandal.
"If you like Heidi, don't try to Muslimize her; write your own Heidi book," Çelik said in remarks published in some Turkish newspapers yesterday. He said the publishers would be sued because they used the ministry's logo on the controversial books. ...
Some publishers had inserted Islamist ideology into the translations, making alterations in such classics as Hugo's "Les Miserables," Spyri's "Heidi" and Collodi's "Pinocchio."
Some of the books on the list, printed with the ministry-approved logo, were either distorted to reflect the publishers' often religious ideology or included obscene words and phrases. ...
In one translation, Geppetto's little son Pinocchio says "Give me some bread for the sake of Allah," and gives thanks to "Allah" when he becomes an animated marionette.
In Dumas' "Three Musketeers," D'Artagnan while on his way to see Aramis is stopped by an old woman who explains: "You can't see him right now. He is surrounded by men of religion. He converted to Islam after his illness."
Eleanor H. Porter's "Pollyanna" confirms her belief in the Muslim apocalypse, while La Fontaine's fisherman prays using Muslim terminology to catch more fish." (Hat tip: Dhimmi Watch.)

"'Gaza caught in anarchy and thuggery'" (Khaled Abu Toameh, The Jerusalem Post, 2006/08/28)
"'When you walk in the streets of Gaza City, you cannot but close your eyes because of what you see there: unimaginable chaos, careless policemen, young men carrying guns and strutting with pride and families receiving condolences for their dead in the middle of the street.'
This is how Ghazi Hamad, spokesman for the Hamas-controlled Palestinian Authority government and a former newspaper editor, described the situation in the Gaza Strip in an article he published on Sunday on some Palestinian news Web sites. ...
Dismissing Israel's responsibility for the growing state of anarchy and lawlessness in the Gaza Strip, Hamad said it was time for the Palestinians to embark on a soul-searching process to see where they erred.
"We're always afraid to talk about our mistakes," he added. "We're used to blaming our mistakes on others. What is the relationship between the chaos, anarchy, lawlessness, indiscriminate murders, theft of land, family rivalries, transgression on public lands and unorganized traffic and the occupation? We are still trapped by the mentality of conspiracy theories - one that has limited our capability to think." ...
"We have all been attacked by the bacteria of stupidity," he remarked. 'We have lost our sense of direction and we don't know where we're headed.'"

Added today:
"Hamza henchman defies law to praise 7/7 bombers" (Dipesh Gadher, The Sunday Times, 2006/08/27)
"America's Muslims Aren't as Assimilated as You Think" (Geneive Abdo, The Washington Post, 2006/08/27)

 

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)

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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)

Weekly archive

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2006/11/06 - 2006/11/12
2006/10/30 - 2006/11/05

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