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Why the peace talks will fail

by Speranza ( 186 Comments › )
Filed under Israel, Palestinians at September 2nd, 2010 - 6:00 pm

They will fail because they are not peace talks, they are capitulation talks.  The Arabs start with maximalist positions and never budge. It is being hosted by a man named Barack Obama who knows nothing about foreign policy, and one of the participants – Mahmoud Abbas – is an unrepentant terrorist who happens to wear a nice suit. The whole attempt is a ploy to pulverize Netanyahu into continuing the surrender policy of big mouth Ehud Barak and moronic Ehud Olmert. The Palestinians cannot even mention the Jewishness of Israel and still want to flood the country with  millions of hate indoctrinated refugees and descendants of refugees. Also I have to feel for Netanyahu – this is the third time this year he has had to be in the presence of Barack Hussein Obama a man who clearly despises him and his country.

by Benny Avni

Hamas’ cold-blooded execu tion of four West Bank set tlers on Tuesday cast a heavy cloud over the launch of peace talks yesterday.

After meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin “Bibi” Netanyahu, President Obama vowed that such “senseless slaughter” is “not going to stop us.”

But Palestinians remain outraged over Israel’s refusal to extend a freeze on new construction in its West Bank settlements. “If there is an announcement to build more houses, the Palestinians will not be able to continue negotiations,” a spokesman warned yesterday, after Obama met with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas. Egypt’s President Hosni Mubarak was adamant on the same point last night.

In other words, the received wisdom is that outsiders must foster a deal by insisting: You, Palestinians, stop killing; you, Is raelis, stop building.

[....]

That’s why Netanyahu’s demand to end the Arab-Israeli conflict is unrealistic. But short of an end to conflict, no amount of Israeli concessions can bring what Obama envisioned last night — “a peace that will end the conflict . . . for our generation, our children’s generation and the next.” So Jews will continue to build, even as Arabs continue trying to kill them.

Read the rest:  Building v. Killing

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Syria signs Formal Alliance with Hizballah

by Rodan ( 141 Comments › )
Filed under Hezballah, IDF, Islamic Invasion, Islamic Supremacism, Islamic Terrorism, Israel, Lebanon, Syria at August 31st, 2010 - 8:30 am

The Arabic Imperialist occupation Army (Hizballah) of the Phoenician Christian homeland of Lebanon has reportedly signed a formal alliance with Syria. This means that in case of war, both will fight side by side. This creates a different situation for Israel and the IDF. They now will face a 2 front war in any future conflict,. This also shows that these 2 Arabic entities now feel confident enough to take on israel.

The Syrian army signed a defense alliance with Hizbullah, a Kuwaiti paper reported on Monday.

According to the report in Al- Rai, in case of war, the two will split a “bank” of targets in Israel, and Syrian radars will supply Hizbullah operatives with intelligence on the location of Israeli aircraft, to assist Hizbullah in aiming anti-aircraft weapons.

The alliance radically changes the balance of power in the North, because it means in any future confrontation the IDF will be faced with attacks from both the northern and northeastern borders.

Read the rest: Syria reportedly signs pact with Hizbullah

Israel needs to show no mercy in the next war with the Islamic Imperialists. They should not drop leaflets or warn civilians. The IDF must unleash Dresden style fire bombings and flatten Arab occupied Lebanon and Syria. They must be brutal and put fear into the Islamic Imperialists. The time for Israel’s restraint must end and no mercy is to be given its enemies.

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Assorted thoughts on the Dhimma, its basis in nomadism and in Islamic scripture and exegesis

by Philip_Daniel ( 158 Comments › )
Filed under Academia, Afghanistan, Albania, Anti-semitism, Balkans, Blogmocracy, Bosnia, Christianity, Dhimmitude, Egypt, Fascism, France, Gaza, Georgia, Guest Post, History, India, Iran, Iraq, Islam, Islamic Finance, Islamic Invasion, Islamic Supremacism, Islamic Terrorism, Islamists, Israel, Jihad, Judaism, Kosovo, Lebanon, Libya, Massacres, Middle East, Military, Pakistan, Palestinians, Racism, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Serbia, Sharia (Islamic Law), Somalia, South Ossetia, Spain, Syria, Turkey, Uncategorized at August 30th, 2010 - 11:30 am

The passage below might elucidate how the Arabs and later the Turks viewed the dhimmi/rayah, and how this perspective was a direct outgrowth from the peripatetic lifestyle correctly associated with these two national groups…

The nomad’s energies are suddenly diverted from herding cattle to governing an empire; and, like all human beings, he sets out to solve the new problem with which he is confronted by applying to it his own particular experience of the past. He thinks of himself as still a herdsman, though no longer of animals but of men, and, in order to keep these ‘human cattle’ (a less docile herd than sheep and cows) under control, he selects and trains ‘human watch-dogs’ to help him and takes greater pains over their breeding and education than his ancestors took, on the steppes, in providing themselves with animal auxiliaries…In detail the method of nomadic empires has been to treat the majority of their sedentary subjects as ‘human cattle’ who are to be periodically milked and shorn and are to be kept in order by a ferocious repression at the first symptoms of insubordination, but are otherwise allowed to live their own lives in their own way; and to control these ‘human cattle’ through the agency of a small, select body of ‘watch-dog’ slaves recruited partly from prisoners-of-war, partly from the victims of professional slave-raiders and slave-dealers, and partly from children who are rounded-up periodically from the ‘human herd’ in order to be broken-in by their master [devcirme, meaning "tribute in blood"], with no more compunction than a shepherd feels in separating the lamb from its mother or the calf from the cow.

Turkey, Arnold Joseph Toynbee and Kenneth Porter Kirkwood, p. 19, Scribner, 1927

Likewise, from early Islamic historiography, we read that Soleiman ibn-e Abdolmaleck said of the Zoroastrians of formerly-Sassanid Persia, now integrated into the Rashidun Caliphate…

Milk the Persians and once their milk dries, suck their blood.

The blood metaphor is hardly new in regards to the attributed sayings of the earliest generations of imperial Muslims; on the battlefield, Khalid ibn al-Walid, the “Sword of Allah”, addressed his Eastern Roman equivalent thusly…

Now then, embrace Islam so that you may be safe, or else make a treaty of protection for yourself and your people and agree to pay jizya. Otherwise, do not at all blame anyone but yourself, for I have brought you a people who love death as you love life.

The annals of a medieval Armenian chronicler, Ghewond, records a similar line as having been spoken by Muhammad prior to his death…

Go against the countries and put them under your rule, for the plenty of the world has been given to us for our enjoyment. Eat the meat of the select ones of the countries, and drink the blood of the mighty.

By “drinking blood” is not meant literal vampirism, but the subjugation and exploitation of unbelievers under the theocratic tyranny enjoined by Allah and Muhammad in the Koran and Sunna, imposed by the Caliph, the “viceregent of Allah on Earth”, in order to ensure the obedience of the Slaves of Allah and the chastisement of the heathens, either through death or surrender to a state of perpetual wretchedness…

Narrated Jubair bin Haiya: ‘Umar sent the Muslims to the great countries to fight the pagans…When we reached the land of the enemy, the representative of Khosrau came out with forty-thousand warriors, and an interpreter got up saying, “Let one of you talk to me!” Al-Mughira replied, “Ask whatever you wish.” The other asked, “Who are you?” Al-Mughira replied, “We are some people from the Arabs; we led a hard, miserable, disastrous life: we used to suck the hides and the date stones from hunger; we used to wear clothes made up of fur of camels and hair of goats, and to worship trees and stones. While we were in this state, the Lord of the Heavens and the Earths, Elevated is His Remembrance and Majestic is His Highness, sent to us from among ourselves a Prophet whose father and mother are known to us. Our Prophet, the Messenger of our Lord, has ordered us to fight you till you worship Allah Alone or give Jizya (i.e. tribute); and our Prophet has informed us that our Lord says:– “Whoever amongst us is killed (i.e. martyred), shall go to Paradise to lead such a luxurious life as he has never seen, and whoever amongst us remain alive, shall become your master.”

Sahih Bukhari Volume 4 Book 53 Number 386

In these final prescriptive revelations, binding for all time, not to be abrogated until the Hour of Resurrection, Allah and Muhammad have determined that the true believers shall rule over the entire world and enforce divine laws, while those who persist in idolatry will be their dejected, abused slaves in perpetuity, whose laborious fruits will, through excessive taxation, be made the ongoing booty of the elect, gradually reducing the “reprobate” to misery, as Maimonides describes in his Iggeret Teiman (“Epistle to the Jews of Yemen”)…

Remember, my coreligionists, that on account of the vast number of our sins God has hurled us into the midst of this people, the Arabs, who have persecuted us severely, and passed baneful and discriminatory legislation against us, as God has forewarned us: Our enemies themselves shall judge us [Deut. 32:31]. Never did a nation molest, degrade, debase, and hate us as much as they. Therefore, when David king of Israel of blessed memory, inspired by the Holy Spirit, envisaged the future tribulations of Israel, he bewailed and lamented their lot only in the kingdom of Ishmael, and prayed on their behalf for their deliverance in the verse: Woe is me, that I live with Meshekh, that I dwell among the clans of Kedar [Ps. 120:5]. Note the distinction between Kedar and the children of Ishmael, for the Madman is of the lineage of the children of Kedar, as they readily admit. Daniel also alludes to our humiliation and degradation like the dust in threshing [2 Kings 13:7], suffered only at the hands of the Arabs, may they be speedily vanquished, when he says: And it made fall to the earth some of the host, yea of the stars, some of which it trampled [Dan. 8:10]. Although we are dishonored by them beyond human endurance, and have to put up with their fabrications, yet we behave like him of whom the prophet said: But I am like a deaf man, unhearing, like a dumb man who cannot speak up [Ps. 38:14]. Similarly, our sages instructed us to bear the prevarications and lies of Ishmael in silence. They found it in a cryptic allusion to this attitude in the names of his sons, Mishma, Dumah, and Massa, which have been interpreted to mean listen, be silent, and endure. We have acquiesced, both young and old, to inure ourselves to humiliation, as Isaiah instructed us: I offered my backs to the floggers, and my cheeks to those who tore out my hair [Isa. 50:6]. All this notwithstanding, we do not escape this continued maltreatment and pressure, which well-nigh crush us. No matter how much we suffer and elect to remain at peace with them, they stir up strife and sedition, as David describes: I am all peace; but when I speak, they are for war [Ps. 120:7].  Most certainly therefore if we start trouble, and claim power from them absurdly and preposterously, we surely give ourselves up to destruction.

The second Caliph, Umar ibn al-Khattab, is reputed to have said of the dhimmis under his domain…

Our children will live off them indefinitely for as long as they survive and these people will remain slaves to the adherents of Islam for as long as the latter endure. Therefore, strike them with the poll-tax.

These statements, of course, are congruent with authentic ahadith which exort the true believer to exploit the dhimmi — in fact, to “milk [the dhimmi] dry” through excessive taxation, the notorious jizya ‘alaa l-jamaajim (literally “the penalty on skulls”) and its associated extortion called kharaj ‘al-ard (i.e., “the land tax”, because dhimmis are unable to legally own property in the legal sense we understand — all conquered land is either ghanimaat [if taken by force] or fai’ [if taken without force] and is legally under the ownership of the mu’minin, so that the original kaffir inhabitants must pay the ruling caste in order to continue to live and work upon the land which was previously theirs but henceforth expropriated from them and redistributed to the Ummat al-Muslimin as waqf land — a sacred endowment — for eternity)…

Narrated Juwairiya bin Qudama At-Tamimi: We said to ‘Umar bin Al-Khattab, O Chief of the believers! Advise us.” He said, “I advise you to fulfill Allah’s Convention (made with the Dhimmis) as it is the convention of your Prophet and the source of the livelihood of your dependents (i.e. the taxes from the Dhimmis).

Sahih Bukhari Volume 4 Book 53 Number 388

The fiscal oppressions had the potential of being particularly tyrannical and dispiriting, as a record from the Jewish mercantile community in the Kalbid Emirate of Sicily (948-1053), found in the celebrated Cairo Geniza collection and subsequently quoted in Jeremy Johns’ Arabic administration in Norman Sicily: the royal diwan, painfully suggests…

They [the Jews] were sorry and preferred death to life. Most of them are poor and destitute. Through fear of the rulers, many went bankrupt, and unfortunately some fled overseas

Isaac ben Samuel, who sought refuge from the ravages of the Turcomen ghuzat in Israel through fleeing to Christian Italy and, later, Christian Spain, echoes Maimonides in expressing the sentiment of Jews regarding living under Islamic domination versus Christian domination, by invoking the authority of the Rabbis of the Talmud…

Rather beneath the yoke of Edom [Christendom] than that of Ishmael.

The dhimmi is to be debased, humiliated, brought low, made to be servile and obsequious towards his Muslim master.

Already within a century of the expansion of the Caliphate throughout 2/3 of Christendom, the conquerors began to fully assert the newly-forming fiqh of the deen of Islam, designed as it were as a vehicle for Arab imperialism, in order to to promote the superiority of the Arab Muslim male, first above Arab Muslim females, then non-Arab Muslims, then subjugated infidels, then enslaved infidels, then finally unsubjugated disbelievers and unrepentant apostates. The productive, mercantile peoples indigenous to the formerly-Roman and Sassanid and Visigoth land, who did not enter the fold of the Jamaat of Muhammad, were, in the name of an ideology whose most virulent adherents cause endless trouble today, mistreated beyond comprehension, and this, despite the initial “good treatment” after subjugation (because the conquerors, finding themselves unable initially to wield the strings of the complex infrastructure of a sedentary culture so different from theirs, had no other choice for this short period), became the norm for the following 12 or so centuries, continuing today. As Andre Servier, a pied-noir and and unapologetic critic of Islam, wrote in his infamous Islam and the Psychology of the Musulman

Their [initial] prosperity [at the time of the conquest] was their undoing. A century later, as the result of a change of Muslim policy towards foreigners, we see the Copts, whose property had aroused envy, abominably robbed and treated as pariahs. It went to the length of their being compelled to wear blue turbans to distinguish them from Muslims, and of their priests being branded with a red-hot iron. Later still, when religious fanaticism had increased, they were reduced to such a pitiful condition that the greater part of them had to abandon their faith.

Today, as we know, the Copts, the indigenes of Egypt, which they term Kemet, constitute “officially” 8-10% of the total population, and the discrimination which they face has recently earned the attention of sincere-minded human rights activists, especially in the wake of the Nag Hammadi Massacre, committed on January 7th, 2010. The true believers, those who have achieved taqwa and who establish the “just” rulings enjoined in the Koran and Sunna, could not, and certainly several today cannot, bear the existence of a disbeliever whose life is not marred by misery and poverty — after all, how can one who venerates idols, who shares the hukm with Allah, who imposes al-munkar upon Allah’s helpless Slaves, be rewarded in spite of his sin in taking the bounty of Allah with such ingratitude?

Ismail ibn Kathir, student of Shaykh ibn Taymiyyah, asserts that Paying Jizya is a Sign of Kufr and Disgrace.

Likewise, in Volume II of the Hanafi madh’hab jurisprudential manual al-Hedaya ["The Guidance", penned by Burhan al-Din al-Marghinani] we read that…

First, capitation-tax is a sort of punishment inflicted upon infidels for their obstinacy in infidelity, (as was before stated;) whence it is that it cannot be accepted of the infidel if he send it by the hands of a messenger, but must be exacted in a mortifying and humiliating manner, by the collector sitting and receiving it from him in a standing posture : (according to one tradition, the collector is to seize him by the throat, and shake him, saying, “Pay your tax, Zimmee!) – It is therefore evident that capitation-tax is a punishment; and where two punishments come together, they are compounded, in the same manner as in Hidd, or stated punishment. Secondly, capitation-tax is a substitute for destruction in respect to the infidels, and a substitute for personal aid in respect to the Muslims, (as was before observed;) – but it is a substitute for destruction with regard to the future, not with regard to the past, because infidels are liable to be put to death only in future, in consequence of future war, and not in the past. In the same manner, it is also a substitute and in the past.

From here, we note that the payment of jizya by the dhimmi preserves his life under the domination of the true believers, preventing any future resumption of the jihad against him and his property as long as he pays it and submits to the all-encompassing discriminatory regulations legislated in the Dhimma of Umar (numerous additions were made over the centuries, until it constituted a truly-extensive legal code)…

When you (Muslims) came to us we requested safety for ourselves, children, property and followers of our religion. We made a condition on ourselves that we will neither erect in our areas a monastery, church, or a sanctuary for a monk, nor restore any place of worship that needs restoration nor use any of them for the purpose of enmity against Muslims. We will not prevent any Muslim from resting in our churches whether they come by day or night, and we will open the doors [of our houses of worship] for the wayfarer and passerby. Those Muslims who come as guests, will enjoy boarding and food for three days. We will not allow a spy against Muslims into our churches and homes or hide deceit [or betrayal] against Muslims. We will not teach our children the Qur’an, publicize practices of Shirk, invite anyone to Shirk or prevent any of our fellows from embracing Islam, if they choose to do so. We will respect Muslims, move from the places we sit in if they choose to sit in them. We will not imitate their clothing, caps, turbans, sandals, hairstyles, speech, nicknames and title names, or ride on saddles, hang swords on the shoulders, collect weapons of any kind or carry these weapons. We will not encrypt our stamps in Arabic, or sell liquor. We will have the front of our hair cut, wear our customary clothes wherever we are, wear belts around our waist, refrain from erecting crosses on the outside of our churches and demonstrating them and our books in public in Muslim fairways and markets. We will not sound the bells in our churches, except discretely, or raise our voices while reciting our holy books inside our churches in the presence of Muslims, nor raise our voices [with prayer] at our funerals, or light torches in funeral processions in the fairways of Muslims, or their markets. We will not bury our dead next to Muslim dead, or buy servants who were captured by Muslims. We will be guides for Muslims and refrain from breaching their privacy in their homes.’ When I gave this document to `Umar, he added to it, `We will not beat any Muslim. These are the conditions that we set against ourselves and followers of our religion in return for safety and protection. If we break any of these promises that we set for your benefit against ourselves, then our Dhimmah (promise of protection) is broken and you are allowed to do with us what you are allowed of people of defiance and rebellion.

Whatever autonomy the dhimmis possessed, it was the autonomy of the Bantustan, which means that they were permitted to manage their internal affairs as long as such affairs remained completely private. In any and all interactions with the upper caste — that is, the Muslim citizenry — the dhimmi tributary-subjects must always defer to them in every circumstance, yielding to the every whim of the Muslim master; in all public situations the dhimmi is considered a marked inferior who can only be manumitted from his yoke through reversion to the deen of fitrah (the innate nature of mankind, i.e. Islam). The dhimmi, through payment of the jizya and subjection under the dhimma, is “rewarded” with aman (protection) on his life and property, but in exchange his rights are severely-diminished in the political and social and juridical and economic spheres, and he is made insecure because his rights and those of his millet (community) can be completely abrogated on account of a single misdemeanor in relation to the dhimma contract; this system is designed to keep the “weak in faith” from leaving Islam because seeing the degradation of the dhimmis assures the Muslim of the truth of his deen and the falsehood of those of the mushrikeen, designed to remind the dhimmis of the superiority in all realms of life of the deen of Allah over shirk and kufr, designed to punish the kuffar for their zulm against Allah and Muhammad, and designed to prevent the disbelievers from waging acts of fasad which would bring about the rule of taghut in place of shari’a and thus the feared victory of fitnah over tawheed. One of Allah’s 99 sacred names is al-Mudhill, the humiliator, the one who debases, and the dhimmi is, as a lower caste incapable of true citizenship, one who is often-intolerably humiliated, always a subject whose status resembles abject servitude, many of what we would (rightly) consider his basic rights being abrogated on virtue of his faith alone. As Malcolm MacColl writes in his 1897 study of the visibly-decaying Ottoman Caliphate, The Sultan and the Powers

Now among the irrevocable doctrines of the Sacred Law are the following:–If the Rayah refuse to become a Musulman he must choose between the cruel alternatives of death or tribute. If he become a Zimmi or Tributary it must be on certain painful and degrading conditions, of which the following will suffice as specimens:–He must pay a yearly capitation tax for the permission to live, and the form of receipt says that the tax is a ransom for the permission to wear his head that year; so that, if he is in arrear with his taxes, as the ruined Armenians are now, his life is forfeited. The Rayah’s evidence cannot be recieved in a court of law against a Musulman,  He is not allowed to bear or possess arms. He must provide three days’ gratuitous hospitality for every Musulman official or traveller who asks for it. Travelling pashas and their retinue of rapacious servants, the ruffianly police, tax-gatherers, Bashi-Bazouks, dirty Dervishes, &c., are thus mercilessly quartered on the wretched Christians of Turkey, whose women (although this is not sanctioned by law) are at the mercy of these unwelcome guests. Should a Christian convert a Moslem to Christianity, both the Christian and the convert must suffer death. The Rayah must build no place of worship. If he obtain official sanction (which he never does without heavy bribes) he may repair or rebuild such places of worship as existed in the country when the Musulman conquerors took possession of it; but it must be on the same plan, sites, and dimensions as the old buildings.

It is sometimes said by persons who know nothing about the subject that the Musulmans of Turkey are more cruelly oppressed than the Christians. That is nonsense, for although Musulmans and Christians are all abominably oppressed under the horrible rule of the Sultan, there is this difference–that the Musulmans are oppressed contrary to law, and the Christians in obedience to the law. The former possess two remedies which are partially effective, and which are denied to the Christians: they possess arms, and can appeal to the law for protection. Moreover, the Christians, in addition to the disabilities which I have described, are subject to many taxes from which the Musulmans are free. I have mentioned the yearly capitation ransom tax. But they are liable to many other imposts which do not touch the Musulmans–for instance, forced labour ad libitum and a tax on every Christian, from three months old to the day of his death, to provide a substitute in the army, from which the Christians are by law excluded.  In brief, the Christians throughout Turkey are obliged–according to the unanimous testimony of British Consuls–to pay in legal taxation 67 per cent.of the produce of their soil and toil. There are, of course, innumerable extortions in addition. So that the wretched Christians could not manage to eke out even their miserable existence except by means of cheating and bribery. And then, forsooth, highly virtuous writers and speakers in England, who have never experienced any oppression or injustice, take up their song and parable against the servile and degraded character of the Christian subjects of the porte! Who degraded them in so far as they are degraded? How many of their critics and slanderers would endure torture, death, dishonour, and barbarous death in defence of their faith, or of any doctrine in principle, or cause whatsoever? Yet that is what the Christians of Turkey have done for centuries…

I have sometimes been called a fanatic on the subject of Islam. I am no fanatic on that or on any other subject. I am an advocate of religious freedom in the widest sense consistent with the inalienable rights of mankind. My toleration ceases where the religious doctrines of one man invade the aboriginal rights of another, as they do, and have ever done, in every state, without exception, where Islam has ruled supreme. The non-Musulman can never obtain the rights of citizenship, but is irrevocably doomed to a most cruel and degrading servitude, under Musulman rule. It is no answer to this to point to Christians and Jews occupying high posts under the Sultan, who is obliged to make use of them for lack of competent Musulmans, or because he finds it good policy to employ them. It sometimes happened under the serf system in Russia that a landlord educated one of his serfs and employed him to manage his property, or permitted him to strike out a career for himself. But that did not affect the condition of the serfs in general, or even of the emancipated serf, unless he was really manumitted. So in Turkey. The rare exceptions prove the rule as regards the mass; and even the privileges of the few can be withdrawn in a moment. They have no rights. The Sultan’s present Ambassador in London, like his two predecessors is a Christian; but he is not, and cannot be, a citizen of the Ottoman Empire, for the only gate to that citizenship is the profession of Islam. The Turkish Ambassador, though a Greek Christian, is simply a Rayah advanced to a high position by the arbitrary will of the Sultan, just as a slave on an American plantation might have been by his master, and his case proves absolutely nothing as to the legal status of the non-Musulman. Indeed, the position of the Rayah is worse than that of the slave on an American plantation or in the Roman Empire; for the American planter or the Roman slave-owner could have made, and sometimes did make, his slave a freeman. But even the Sultan cannot make a single Rayah in his dominions a freeman, since that is a privilege reserved to the Musulman alone. It is because our statesmen and ambassadors have been ignorant of this fundamental fact that their policy in Turkey, from Lord Stratford de Redcliffe downwards, has been such an abject and disastrous failure. I have been preaching this truth for years, and some among us are at last beginning to recognise it. It was refreshing to read in the Morning Post, of last September 17, a leading article which clearly grasped the situation, as the following extract will show:–

Just as in the Christian West living things are divided into human beings and brute beasts, so where the Moslem is the master they are divided into believers and infidels, and the infidel human being is regarded as little better than the brute. And just as in a Christian country if the cattle become dangerous they would be slaughtered wholesale for the safety of the community, so in Turkey, whenever the Rayahs, have been thought to be dangerous, a clearance of them has been made. It is impracticable in a Mohammedan country to appeal to a principle of humanity, for that would be to assert a brotherhood between man and man, which it is the essence of the Mohammedan religion to deny. In a Mohammedan State the Christian can have no part, for his recognition would imply the negation of Islam. Accordingly, the most competent judges, Ranke, the historian of the modern changes in Turkey, and Moltke, the shrewd observer of the beginnings of the modern period, explained long ago that the security for the Rayahs could never be had until they were placed under their own rulers and withdrawn from the authority of the Turks.

The above assessment refers to the former Sunni Sultanate based in Constantinople, governed by the sons of Osman Ghazi, from whence the the term “Ottoman” is derived. In lands under the Shari’a as interpreted under Shi’ism, such as within the Qajar dynasty of Persia, the plight of non-Muslims was greatly exacerbated by the doctrine of najasun, whereby Jews, Zoroastrians, and Christians — called “gavours” –were deemed not only spiritually but also physically filthy; this, naturally, served to segregate them further from society than even under the dhimma legislation in Sunnidom. The Romanian Jew J. J. Benjamin observed of the Jews living under Shi’a authority…

They are obliged to live in a separate part of town…; for they are considered as unclean creatures… Under the pretext of their being unclean, they are treated with the greatest severity and should they enter a street, inhabited by Mussulmans, they are pelted by the boys and mobs with stones and dirt… For the same reason, they are prohibited to go out when it rains; for it is said the rain would wash dirt off them, which would sully the feet of the Mussulmans… If a Jew is recognized as such in the streets, he is subjected to the greatest insults. The passers-by spit in his face, and sometimes beat him… unmercifully… If a Jew enters a shop for anything, he is forbidden to inspect the goods… Should his hand incautiously touch the goods, he must take them at any price the seller chooses to ask for them… Sometimes the Persians intrude into the dwellings of the Jews and take possession of whatever please them. Should the owner make the least opposition in defense of his property, he incurs the danger of atoning for it with his life… If… a Jew shows himself in the street during the three days of the Katel (Muharram)…, he is sure to be murdered.

The actual legal decrees pertaining to dhimmis bolsters the observations of this seminal traveler and historian; in 1892, in Qajar-ruled Hamadan, Jews were obligated to submit to the following abasements [hat-tip for this one to Dr. Andrew Bostom -- many thanks]…

1. The Jews are forbidden to leave their houses when it rains or snows [to prevent the impurity of the Jews being transmitted to the Shiite Muslims]

2. Jewish women are obliged to expose their faces in public [like prostitutes].

3. They must cover themselves with a two colored izar (an izar is a big piece of material with which eastern women are obliged to cover themselves when leaving their houses].

4. The men must not wear fine clothes, the only material being permitted them being a blue cotton fabric.

5. They are forbidden to wear matching shoes.

6. Every Jew is obliged to wear a piece of red cloth on his chest.

7. A Jew must never overtake a Muslim on a public street.

8. He is forbidden to talk loudly to a Muslim.

9. A Jewish creditor of a Muslim must claim his debt in a quavering and respectful manner.

10. If a Muslim insults a Jew, the latter must drop his head and remain silent.

11. A Jew who buys meat must wrap and conceal it carefully from Muslims.

12. It is forbidden to build fine edifices.

13. It is forbidden for him to have a house higher than that of his Muslim neighbor.

14. Neither must he use plaster for whitewashing.

15. The entrance of his house must be low.

16. The Jew cannot put on his coat; he must be satisfied to carry it rolled under his arm.

17. It is forbidden for him to cut his beard, or even to trim it slightly with scissors.

18. It is forbidden for Jews to leave the town or enjoy the fresh air of the countryside.

19. It is forbidden for Jewish doctors to ride on horseback [this right was generally forbidden to all non-Muslims, except doctors].

20. A Jew suspected of drinking spirits must not appear in the street; if he does he should be put to death immediately.

21. Weddings must be celebrated in the greatest secrecy.

22. Jews must not consume good fruit.

Refusing to follow these dehumanizing strictures, as stated above, renders one’s life and possessions mubaa’ — that is, lawful to be shed and looted respectively by Allah’s Chosen; one cannot reasonably doubt the effects of literally declaring non-Muslims as najasun in not only supplementing but actively increasing the pariah-ization of the kuffar, under Shi’a sovereignty…

Returning back to admittedly-more dominant and equally-worrisome Sunnidom –

Lastly, the Turkophile-Islamophile Abdolonyme Ubicini had no qualms about describing the plight of the dhimmi as it was, empirically (hat-tip to Bat Ye’or)…

The history of enslaved peoples is the same everywhere, or rather, they have no history. The years, the centuries pass without bringing any change to their situation. Generations come and go in silence. One might think they are afraid to awaken their masters, asleep alongside them. However, if you examine them closely you discover that this immobility is only superficial. A silent and constant agitation grips them. Life has entirely withdrawn into the heart. They resemble those rivers which have disappeared underground; if you put your ear to the earth, you can hear the muffled sound of their waters; then they re—emerge intact a few leagues away. Such is the state of the Christian populations of Turkey under Ottoman rule.

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Imam Rauf called for end to Israel

by Rodan ( 37 Comments › )
Filed under Islamic Invasion, Islamic Supremacism, Islamic hypocrisy, Israel, Leftist-Islamic Alliance, Progressives, Sharia (Islamic Law), Tranzis at August 29th, 2010 - 12:30 pm

Imam Rauf of the 9/11 Ground Zero Islamic Colonial Center is beloved by Progressives and Elite Republicans. He is praised as a Moderate and is even paid by our Pro-Islamic State Department to travel overseas. Well the game is up with this Imperialist fraud and recording have come out where his true colors have come out. Mayor Bloomberg is one of his biggest supporters. In fact NYC Comptroller John Liu has said that the Islamic Center might even qualify for public funds. I wonder what Bloomberg who claims to be a supporter of Israel has to say on Imam Rauf’s views on Israel?

Meanwhile, records show Rauf has called for a “one state” solution to the Israeli-Palestinian problem — an outcome some say could lead to Israel’s disappearance.

The view, expressed in a 2005 speech in Australia, is contrary to the US government’s long-standing “two state” solution of Israel and Palestine living “side by side in peace and security.”

Imam Rauf like the all Islamic Imperialists hate Israel and wants it exterminated. Some like AL-Qaeda, Iran, Hizballah, Syria and Hamas, want to wipe it out by force. Others like the Tranzi Progressives and the Muslim Brotherhood want to eliminate it by created a Bi-National State, where Arab Muslims are the majority due to a right of return. This is what happened to once Phoenician Christian majority Lebanon, where Arab Immigrants from Iraq were given citizenship and thus now the Shiite savages are the majority. This man is evil and an enemy of America and the recording shows his nature. People that support this Islamic Center are traitors and collaborationists.
Addedum by Rodan:
Another fact the Progressives and Elite Republicans don’t mention about Imam Rauf is his refusal to condemn Hamas. This alone shows his support for Genocidal Islamic Imperialism.

Hamas is a shibboleth. If you want to know whether an ostensible Muslim “moderate” is really moderate, ask him if Hamas is a terrorist organization.

It is really not a hard question, even if Feisal Rauf can’t — or won’t — answer it. Rauf, the would-be imam of the controversial Ground Zero mosque, is also a stud in the State Department’s stable of ready-to-travel-on-your-dime “moderates.” That same State Department has branded Hamas a terrorist organization, and we can’t even get it to say that about the Taliban, the guys we’re fighting in the overseas contingency operation formerly known as the War on Terror.

During a WABC radio interview, Aaron Klein three times pressed Rauf to admit that Hamas is a terrorist organization. Rauf bobbed and weaved in classic Islamist style. “I’m not a politician,” he replied, as if only politicians trouble themselves over whether terrorists are terrorists. “I try to avoid the issues. The issue of terrorism is a very complex question.” Avoid the issues? You don’t say!

Imam Rauf is an evil individual who should be given no respect. This Islamic Colonial Center must be resisted at all costs. It is time to show intolerance towards our enemies.
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Let me introduce myself…

by m ( 108 Comments › )
Filed under Barack Obama, History, Israel, Leftist-Islamic Alliance at August 25th, 2010 - 8:30 am

If Israelis were the savages that the world portrays them to be, nobody would have a bad word to say about Israel. Her enemies would be gone.

From the Shoebat Foundation

Let me tell you a story about my life… First, I will begin with my name…

I am Israel.



Update not related, but also from the Shoebat Foundation:



9/11 Mosque Imam Wrote Much of the Guts of Obama’s Historic Cairo Speech!

The Shoebat Foundation obtained this shocking audio recording of Rauf’s own voice boasting in Arabic that Obama’s historic Cairo speech was provided by the Imam and the Cordova Initiative in what the Imam called “The Blue Print” which he said was the solution to the Islamic-American divide. Rauf claimed Chapter 6 of the Imam’s work engineered by the Cordova Initiative was the construct for the entire speech:

“This is an example of the impact of our work in a positive way to be used by the President.”

The famous Cairo Speech.

(h/t to iam7545)

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Sex Pistol Johnny Lydon (aka Johnny Rotten)- the voice of reason

by Speranza ( 137 Comments › )
Filed under Israel, UK at August 23rd, 2010 - 8:30 am

I got to admit that I am not now nor ever was a fan of punk rock. However stories such as this may actually turn me into one.  By the way Elvis Costello – I am glad your finances and career are  in such good shape that you could renege on a guaranteed pay day at two sold out concerts.  Isn’t  Rihanna dating L.A. Dodger Centerfielder Matt Kemp?

by Julie Burchill

I love Israel and I love Rihanna, so imagine my glee earlier this year on seeing a photo of her lying by the exact Tel Aviv swimming pool where I had been lounging just a few days before! I’m less fond of Lady Gaga so I wasn’t quite as stoked to see her mooching around the Western Wall. And I can’t stand Madonna so I wasn’t overjoyed to see her strutting around the Promised Land.

But, hey, every little helps in the war against the half-wits seeking to demonise Israel through the medium of cultural boycott.

Of course, people are free to boycott whomever they wish. For several years now, I have refused to buy the produce of, or visit, any country which practises gender apartheid.

Contrast Rihanna’s glorious Israel gigs with the extraordinary disrespect with which she was treated by Malaysian Islamists last year when scheduled to play in that country. They branded her “sexier and more dangerous than Avril Lavigne”. Fair enough, but so is my cat. But, they prissed, her appearance would be “akin to insulting Eastern culture, belittling local artistes, internationally causing losses to the country’s economy and supporting Israel’s war policy, which is supported by America”.

Previously, the joyless Malaysian fuss-buckets had been tut-tutting over the badness of Beyoncé, and fined the Pussycat Dolls promoter when the laydeez were accused of flouting Malaysia’s decency regulations.

I always think of Islamist inhumanity to women, homosexuals, blacks, Christians, Buddhists and the rest of us kaffirs when I read about the latest ill-informed crooning clown to diss Israel.

Has-been trip-hop act Massive Attack are the latest such sheep-like clod-hoppers, using their appearance at the Big Chill to show images on a screen behind them. A member of the audience told the JC last week that the screen “was flashing up statistics and political images. Various topics were touched on such as BP and economic strife but the theme was anti-Israeli… there were slogans about Israelis’ wealth compared to Palestinians’, troop numbers and armed checkpoints. The general vibe was that all hardship in Palestine was Israel’s fault… not a word about the terror attacks or fundamentalism.”

[...]

Massive Attack can join such anti-Israel heroes as Elvis Costello (so politically sophisticated that he once called Ray Charles “a blind, ignorant nigger”) and Bobby Gillespie – such a loss to the Brains Trust that he reportedly defaced a MAKE POVERTY HISTORY poster to make it read MAKE ISRAEL HISTORY. Allegedly he couldn’t spell “Israel” – “Isreal” was his Freudian version – and how extraordinarily arrogant to downgrade such an issue as world poverty simply to score a point.

[...]

Israel-haters can keep that grisly pair. In our corner, in the spirit of open-mindedness, we have the unique John Lydon, who will lead his group Public Image Limited in concert in Tel Aviv this month. “If Elvis f***ing Costello wants to pull out of a gig in Israel because he’s suddenly got this compassion for Palestinians, then good on him,” Lydon told the Independent. “But I have absolutely one rule, right? Until I see an Arab country, a Muslim country, with a democracy, I won’t understand how anyone can have a problem with how they’re treated.”

Read the rest here: Johnny is not the rotten one

On a similar note – a bunch of self-important Irish leftists who call themselves “artists” (I never heard of any of them), have also got the boycott the Jews fever.

by Marcus Dysch

Irish creative and performing artists have launched a cultural boycott of Israel, saying they will not perform or exhibit in the Jewish state “until it respects international law”.

The Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign launched the boycott with a concert in Dublin, declaring that performers “should not be used as propaganda tools by the Israeli apartheid state”.

In response, the Israeli Embassy in Dublin said the move was “regrettable and ill-informed”.

The IPSC pledge states: “In response to the call from Palestinian civil society for a cultural boycott of Israel, we pledge not to avail ourselves of any invitation to perform or exhibit in Israel, nor to accept any funding from any institution linked to the government of Israel, until such time as Israel complies with international law and universal principles of human rights.” Ireland-based Israel supporters said around 100 of the boycotters were well-known “troublemakers”, but that another 50 were “unknowns”.

Few of the signatories are household names. They include poets, playwrights, singers and musicians. Actress Sinéad Cusack, folk singer Christy Moore and artist Robert Ballagh are among the better-known boycotters.

Classical composer Raymond Deane said: “We have set an example here that will be followed in every part of the world by thousands of artists who will refuse to allow themselves to be used as propaganda tools by the Israeli apartheid state.”

A spokesman for the Israeli Embassy in Dublin said: “These artists are lending their names to an ongoing propaganda war against Israel, rather than lending their talents to the far more important and practical effort of building peace and understanding between peoples.

“Vilifying and ostracising Israel and promoting a lose-lose programme of boycotts is not the way to secure legitimate Palestinian rights.”

Read the rest here: A lot of hot Eire as Irish do boycott jig

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Negotiations over what?

by Speranza ( 50 Comments › )
Filed under Barack Obama, Gaza, Iran, Israel, Palestinians at August 22nd, 2010 - 10:00 am

The upcoming Middle East peace talks will have the same fate as the previous talks. This is because negotiations presume give and take and the only thing the Palestinians want to negotiate is how long it  will take  for them to destroy Israel. I hope that Netanyahu realizes this. Obama seems to think that the best way to deter Iran is  to solve the phony “Palestine” issue. He does not know or forgets that before the June 1967 War there was no peace. By insisting that the key issue to be resolved is “Palestine” – we are playing  into the Islamic Imperialist  narrative, because the key issue that needs to be overcome is the Arab worlds refusal to come to grips with the idea of a non Islamic state in the Middle East, and not a second Palestinian nation (Jordan is the first).

by George F. Will

‘Twas a famous victory for diplomacy when, in 1991 in Madrid, Israelis and Palestinians, orchestrated by the United States, at last engaged in direct negotiations. Almost a generation later, U.S. policy has succeeded in prodding the Palestinians away from their recent insistence on “proximity talks” — in which they have talked to the Israelis through American intermediaries — and to direct negotiations. But negotiations about what?

Idle talk about a “binational state” has long since died. Even disregarding the recent fates of multinational states — e.g., the former Soviet Union, the former Yugoslavia, the former Czechoslovakia — binationalism is impossible if Israel is to be a Jewish state for the Jewish people. No significant Israeli constituency disagrees with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu: “The Palestinian refugee problem will be resolved outside Israel’s borders.”

Rhetoric about a “two-state solution” is de rigueur. It also is delusional, given two recent, searing experiences.

The only place for a Palestinian state is the West Bank, which Israel has occupied — legally under international law — since repelling the 1967 aggression launched from there. The West Bank remains an unallocated portion of the Palestine Mandate, the disposition of which is to be settled by negotiations. Michael Oren, now Israel’s ambassador to the United States, said several years before becoming ambassador:

“There is no Israeli leadership that appears either willing or capable of removing 100,000 Israelis from their West Bank homes. . . . The evacuation of a mere 8,100 Israelis from Gaza in 2005 required 55,000 IDF [Israel Defense Forces] troops — the largest Israeli military operation since the 1973 Yom Kippur War — and was profoundly traumatic.”

Twenty-one Israeli settlements were dismantled; even the bodies of Israelis buried in Gaza were removed. After a deeply flawed 2006 election encouraged by the United States, there was in 2007 essentially a coup in Gaza by the terrorist organization Hamas. So now Israel has on its western border, 44 miles from Tel Aviv, an entity dedicated to Israel’s destruction, collaborative with Iran and possessing a huge arsenal of rockets.

Rocket attacks from Gaza increased dramatically after Israel withdrew. The number of U.N. resolutions deploring this? Zero.

The closest precedent for that bombardment was the Nazi rocket attacks on London, which were answered by the destruction of Hamburg, Dresden and other German cities. When Israel struck back at Hamas, the “international community” was theatrically appalled.

Read the rest Many possible Israeli concessions would be suicidal

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Winning the clash of civilizations

by Speranza ( 185 Comments › )
Filed under Barack Obama, Egypt, Iran, Islam, Islamists, Israel, Turkey at August 20th, 2010 - 8:30 am

Samuel Huntington’s book”The Clash of Civilizations”  is prescient because as the courageous Ayaan Hirsi Ali states,  he sees the world as it is – not as it ought to be, and that he believed that Western civilization is actually worth defending. Unfortunately the man in the White House does not feel the same way.  As I personally see it, civilizations do not clash, they compete. Islam therefore is not a civilization because it is incapable of competing without violence.

by Ayaan Hirsi Ali

What do the controversies around the proposed mosque near Ground Zero, the eviction of American missionaries from Morocco earlier this year, the minaret ban in Switzerland last year, and the recent burka ban in France have in common? All four are framed in the Western media as issues of religious tolerance. But that is not their essence. Fundamentally, they are all symptoms of what the late Harvard political scientist Samuel Huntington called the “Clash of Civilizations,” particularly the clash between Islam and the West.

Huntington’s argument is worth summarizing briefly for those who now only remember his striking title. The essential building block of the post-Cold War world, he wrote, are seven or eight historical civilizations of which the Western, the Muslim and the Confucian are the most important.

The balance of power among these civilizations, he argued, is shifting. The West is declining in relative power, Islam is exploding demographically, and Asian civilizations—especially China—are economically ascendant. Huntington also said that a civilization-based world order is emerging in which states that share cultural affinities will cooperate with each other and group themselves around the leading states of their civilization.

The West’s universalist pretensions are increasingly bringing it into conflict with the other civilizations, most seriously with Islam and China. Thus the survival of the West depends on Americans, Europeans and other Westerners reaffirming their shared civilization as unique—and uniting to defend it against challenges from non-Western civilizations.

Huntington’s model, especially after the fall of Communism, was not popular. The fashionable idea was put forward in Francis Fukuyama’s 1989 essay “The End of History,” in which he wrote that all states would converge on a single institutional standard of liberal capitalist democracy and never go to war with each other. The equivalent neoconservative rosy scenario was a “unipolar” world of unrivalled American hegemony. Either way, we were headed for One World.

President Obama, in his own way, is a One Worlder. In his 2009 Cairo speech, he called for a new era of understanding between America and the Muslim world. It would be a world based on “mutual respect, and . . . upon the truth that America and Islam are not exclusive and need not be in competition. Instead, they overlap, and share common principles.”

The president’s hope was that moderate Muslims would eagerly accept this invitation to be friends. The extremist minority—nonstate actors like al Qaeda—could then be picked off with drones.

Of course, this hasn’t gone according to plan. And a perfect illustration of the futility of this approach, and the superiority of the Huntingtonian model, is the recent behavior of Turkey.

According to the One World view, Turkey is an island of Muslim moderation in a sea of extremism. Successive American presidents have urged the EU to accept Turkey as a member on this assumption. But the illusion of Turkey as the West’s moderate friend in the Muslim world has been shattered.

A year ago Turkey’s President Recep Erdogan congratulated Iran’s Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on his re-election after he blatantly stole the presidency. Then Turkey joined forces with Brazil to try to dilute the American-led effort to tighten U.N. sanctions aimed at stopping Iran’s nuclear arms program. Most recently, Turkey sponsored the “aid flotilla” designed to break Israel’s blockade of Gaza and to hand Hamas a public relations victory.

[...]

The greatest advantage of Huntington’s civilizational model of international relations is that it reflects the world as it is—not as we wish it to be. It allows us to distinguish friends from enemies. And it helps us to identify the internal conflicts within civilizations, particularly the historic rivalries between Arabs, Turks and Persians for leadership of the Islamic world.

But divide and rule cannot be our only policy. We need to recognize the extent to which the advance of radical Islam is the result of an active propaganda campaign. According to a CIA report written in 2003, the Saudis invested at least $2 billion a year over a 30-year period to spread their brand of fundamentalist Islam. The Western response in promoting our own civilization was negligible.

Our civilization is not indestructible: It needs to be actively defended. This was perhaps Huntington’s most important insight. The first step towards winning this clash of civilizations is to understand how the other side is waging it—and to rid ourselves of the One World illusion.

Read the rest here: How to win the clash of civilizations

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A flying pig moment – a BBC documentary on the “flotilla” that actually is fair to Israel!

by Speranza ( 148 Comments › )
Filed under Hamas, IDF, Israel, Turkey at August 18th, 2010 - 6:00 pm

After watching this, please check out the Beeb’s website and note that so many people now claim that the BBC is pro Israel -- which is a real hoot considering that the BBC has been viciously anti Israel for decades. Nevertheless this is an excellent documentary.  Please take the time (1/2th an hour) to watch the whole thing.  It is remarkably fair, with proper scrutiny and proper balance -- a rarity in the British media.

Panorama -- What happened on the flotilla to Gaza

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Motivated by ideology

by Speranza ( 184 Comments › )
Filed under Israel at August 18th, 2010 - 8:30 am

Obama’s decision to support the Ground Zero mosque is not based on cynical politics but purely on a left-wing liberationist  theology. Obama’s concern for civil rights is strictly theoretical because some peoples civil rights resonate more with him then others.

by Caroline Glick

US President Barack Obama’s warm endorsement of the plan to build a mosque by the ruins of the World Trade Center tells Israel – and its enemies – everything we need to know about the president of the United States of America.

Speaking during a Ramadan fast breaking meal at the White House to an audience of people affiliated with various Muslim Brotherhood- related groups in the US, Obama couched his support for the mosque at Ground Zero in constitutional terms.

In his words, “As a citizen, and as president, I believe that Muslims have the same right to practice their religion as everyone else in this country. And that includes the right to build a place of worship and a community center on private property in Lower Manhattan, in accordance with local laws and ordinances. This is America. Our commitment to religious freedom must be unshakable. The principle that people of all faiths are welcome in this country and that they will not be treated differently by their government is essential to who we are. The writ of the Founders must endure.”

Of course, none of those who have voiced opposition to the mosque project at Ground Zero have claimed that the Islamic group behind the mosque project is acting unlawfully in seeking to construct a mosque. The nearly 70 percent of Americans who oppose building a mosque at Ground Zero oppose the mosque because they believe it is wrong to build a mosque at the site where less than a decade ago Muslims acting in the name of Islam murdered nearly 3,000 people in an act of war against the US and an act of terror against the American people.

Obama has been pilloried by his opponents for his position. And his fellow Democrats, facing the likelihood of massive defeats in the Congressional elections in three months, are reportedly deeply frustrated by his statements. Indeed, the uproar Obama’s pro-mosque remarks has unleashed has been so harsh it raises the question of why he made it.

THERE ARE two possible explanations for Obama’s move. Either he was motivated by politics or he was motivated by ideology. The view that Obama was motivated by politics is easily dismissed. With more than two-thirds of Americans telling pollsters they oppose the Ground Zero mosque project, it makes no political sense for a politician to strike out a position in favor of the mosque. Indeed, major Democrats have either refused to state a position on the issue or, like New York Governor David Paterson, they have recommended that the mosque builders construct their mosque elsewhere.

Perhaps Obama thought he could he could get away with making his statement. However, with his polling numbers consistently eroding, it is hard to imagine Obama’s advisers would have told him that was a realistic view.

This leaves ideology. But what ideology motivates Obama to embrace such an unpopular initiative at such an explosive political juncture? Obama and his supporters would like us to believe this is a civil rights issue. In his defense of the Ground Zero mosque, Obama claimed his position was based on the American values such as, “The laws that we apply without regard to race, or religion, or wealth, or status. Our capacity to show not merely tolerance, but respect towards those who are different from us.”

[...]

What this means is that Netanyahu and his deputies must concentrate on defending Israel and advancing its national interests. It is in Israel’s national interests to guarantee the civil rights and property rights of Jews. It is in Israel’s national interests to forthrightly set out and defend Israel’s legal rights in Judea and Samaria and its sovereignty in united Jerusalem. It is in Israel’s national interest to enforce its laws without prejudice towards all its citizens and expect all its citizens to respect its laws.

We are dealing with a self-consciously radical President who intends to remake the US relationship with the Muslim world. We will find no understanding from him.

Read the rest Standing on a landmine

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Proposal to build Serbian Orthodox Church at Srebrenica and Synagogue on the Temple Mount

by Rodan ( 132 Comments › )
Filed under Bosnia, Islamic Supremacism, Islamic hypocrisy, Israel, Leftist-Islamic Alliance, Progressives, Serbia, Tranzis at August 15th, 2010 - 5:00 pm

The Progressive-Islamic axis is pushing the 9/11 ground zero Islamic Colonial center as a symbol of tolerance. They know very well the majority of Americans view this as a disrespect, but are shoving it down our throats anyway. Well if they want to build bridges and promote tolerance, I say let’s call their bluff.

I am making two proposals to see if the Ummah really wants to build bridges of tolerance. The first is a Serbian Orthodox Church should be built near the site of the Srebrenica execution. At that site Serbian forces executed several thousand Islamic Bosnian and their Arab Jihadi allied fighters. The Islamic world views this as a terrorist act, but in the name of tolerance they should accept a church. The 2nd is building a Synagogue on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. The original Jewish temple was there, but now it is occupied by Al Aqsa Mosque. Well, as a sign of tolerance, Jews should be permitted to build a synagogue there as well.

With these two proposals, We will see whether Dar Al Islam really are about tolerance. Something tells me, they will not react very well to these ideas!

Update: In related news, Progressive Florida Senate Candidate Charlie Crist has come out in support of the 9/11 ground zero Islamic colonial center.

Panama City, Florida (CNN) – In a boost for President Obama on a red-hot controversy, Florida Gov. Charlie Crist told CNN Saturday that he fully supports Obama’s decision to back construction of an Islamic center and mosque near New York’s ground zero.

“I think he’s right – yeah,” Crist, who was elected governor as a Republican but is now running for Senate as an independent candidate, told CNN. “We are a country in my view that stands for freedom of religion. You know, respect for others. I know there are sensitivities and I understand that, but I think Mayor Bloomberg is right and I think the President is right.”

Charlie Crist who is now running behind Marco Rubio in the latest polls are Democrats are now supporting their front runner Kendrick Meeks, has handed us a weapon to hammer him with. The American people are against this insult and Barack Hussein Obama’s support of it will cost many Democrats their seats. This is the perfect club to hit the Progressives with, thanks Obama and Democrats!

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Why Barack Obama will never attack Iran’s nuclear facilities under any circumstances

by Speranza ( 25 Comments › )
Filed under Barack Obama, Iran, Israel at August 14th, 2010 - 11:30 am

There is no way that Obama will attack Iran. First off he does not feel that Iran threatens us, second, even if he did feel that Iran was a threat, his default position is to appease the threat, third, his left-wing base will never allow him to use weapons against any enemies of America, fourth, as Rodan has mentioned – he actually views Iran sympathetically and his lack of support for the student protesters last year made that manifest.

by Caroline Glick

Israel’s leaders are reportedly concerning themselves with one question today. Are there any circumstances in which US President Barack Obama will order the US military to strike Iran’s nuclear installations before Iran develops a nuclear arsenal? From Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu down the line, Israel’s leaders reportedly raise this question with just about everyone they come into contact with. If this is true, then the time has come to end our leaders’ suspense.
The answer is no.

For all intents and purposes, there are no circumstances in which Obama would order an attack on Iran’s nuclear installations to prevent Iran from developing and fielding nuclear weapons. Exceptions to this statement fall into two categories: Either they are so implausible that they are operationally irrelevant, or they are so contingent on other factors that they would doom any US attack to failure.
Evidence for this conclusion is found in every aspect of Obama’s foreign policy. But to prove it, it is sufficient to point out point three aspects of his policies.

First of all, Obama refuses to recognize that an Iranian nuclear arsenal constitutes a clear and present danger to US national security.

Obama’s discussions of the perils of a nuclear Iran are limited to his acknowledgement that such an arsenal will provoke a regional nuclear arms race. This is certainly true. But then, that arms race has already begun. Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Egypt, Turkey, the UAE and Kuwait have all announced their intentions to build nuclear reactors. In some cases they have signed deals with foreign countries to build such facilities.

And yet, while a nuclear arms race in the Middle East is bad, it is far from the worst aspect of Iran’s nuclear program for America.

America has two paramount strategic interests in the Middle East. First, the US requires the smooth flow of inexpensive petroleum products from the Persian Gulf to global oil markets.

Second, the US requires the capacity to project its force in the region to defend its own territory from global jihadists.

Both of these interests are imperiled by the Iranian nuclear program. If the US is not willing to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons, it will lose all credibility as a strategic ally to the Sunni Arab states in the area.

For instance, from a Saudi perspective, a US that is unwilling to prevent the ayatollahs from fielding nuclear weapons is of no more use to them than Britain or China or France. It is just another oil-consuming country. The same goes for the rest of the states in the Gulf and in the region.

The Arab loss of faith in US security guarantees will cause them to deny basing rights to US forces in their territories. It will also likely lead them to bow to Iranian will on oil pricesetting through supply cutbacks. In light of this, the Iranian nuclear program constitutes the greatest threat ever to US superpower status in the region and to the well-being of the US economy.

Then there is the direct threat that Iran’s nuclear program constitutes for US national security. This threat grows larger by the day as Iran’s web of strategic alliances in Latin America expands unchallenged by the US. Today Iran enjoys military alliances with Venezuela, Nicaragua, Ecuador, Brazil and Bolivia.

As former US ambassador to the UN John Bolton has argued, at least the Soviets were atheists. Atheists of course, are in no hurry to die, since death can bring no rewards in a world to come. Iran’s leaders are apocalyptic jihadists. Given Iran’s Latin American alliances and Iran’s own progress toward intercontinental ballistic missile capabilities, the prospect of a nuclear-armed Iran makes the Cuban missile crisis look like a walk in the park.

In the face of this grave and gathering threat, Obama canceled plans to deploy antiballistic missile shields in Poland and the Czech Republic. He has shunned the pro-American Honduran and Colombian governments in favor of Nicaragua and Venezuela. He has welcomed Brazil’s anti-American president to the White House. He cancelled the F-22.

THE FACT that Obama fails to recognize the danger an Iranian nuclear arsenal poses to the US does not in and of itself prove that Obama would not attack Iran’s nuclear installations.

Read the rest Guide to the perplexed

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Restraint in the face of relentless agression is a prescription for disaster; and “The anti-Obama”

by Speranza ( 93 Comments › )
Filed under Barack Obama, Hamas, Hezballah, Israel, Lebanon, Progressives, Tranzis at August 12th, 2010 - 7:00 pm

Face it, to a good part of the Western and non Western world, any Israeli (or for that matter American) attempt to defend itself against Islamic aggression will be denounced as “disproportionate” so the best thing for them to do is to ignore the carping critics and vigorously go after those who seek to harm you. Winners never make apologies and only those who have doubts about the rightness of their cause seek to constantly explain and plead for understanding.

For whatever shortcomings he may have, Benjamin Netanyahu is everything that Obama is not. He is a capitalist, a patriot, and resolute in the face of his nations enemies. No wonder he makes Obama uncomfortable.

by Isi Leibler

A recent editorial in Haaretz reprimanded the IDF for cutting down a tree inside Israeli territory near the Lebanese border on the absurd grounds that the authorities should have been more restrained and sensitive to the political tension in Lebanon.

If this approach were adopted by our government, it would result in a total collapse of Israel’s deterrence. Rather than discouraging our enemies from conducting acts of aggression and terror out of fear of reprisal, we ourselves would become reluctant to take any defensive measures out of concern that they could be construed as aggressive acts or provocations by our hostile neighbors. In such a bizarre climate, we would be failing to carry out the minimal steps required to maintain the security of our borders and the welfare of our citizens.

A FEW days before the unprovoked attack by the Lebanese army, a grad rocket had been launched from the Gaza Strip which could easily have led to major loss of life in the heart of Ashkelon. Subsequently, missiles were launched on Eilat, again fortunately not resulting in Israeli casualties but killing an innocent Jordanian.

These terrorist attacks took place shortly after we agreed, under enormous pressure from the Obama administration, to participate in a UN investigation of May 31’s flotilla incident when Turkish Islamic extremists sought to break our legitimate naval blockade of Gaza.

Ironically, that took place simultaneously with widespread media coverage of classified documents released by WikiLeaks about the inadvertent killing of civilians by US and allied forces in Afghanistan.

Needless to say, there were no calls from UN Secretary General Ban Ki- Moon for an inquiry or any suggestion that the death of these innocent civilians were war crimes.

[....]

OVERALL, IT would seem that we have still not internalized the lessons of the past. We live in a region of scorpions, in which compromise and goodwill extended in the face of aggression has time and again encouraged our enemies to intensify their acts of terror until a full-scale war erupts.

We should surely have absorbed the lessons of the Kassams. Those who belittled their impact and derisively referred to them as primitive “Kassam Shmassams,” failed to appreciate that our failure to respond vigorously allowed the world to view such attacks as part of the Middle East routine.

Had we responded initially with vigor, the attacks would not have escalated and we may well have avoided the Gaza war.

[...]

If we respond swiftly and demonstrate that Hamas and Hizbullah will pay a major price if they attack us, we will almost certainly incur the wrath of the UN, Europe and regrettably, probably also the US. Yet the lessons of the past decade demonstrate that Hamas and Hizbullah are afraid of being held responsible by the people they rule for any suffering inflicted on them as a result of unprovoked aggression against Israel. This is a brutal area in which alas, paradoxically, might and swift reprisal against terror attacks are far more likely to avert a full-blown war than vacuous dialogue and restraint.

Our deterrent policy should be spelled out.

Netanyahu must avoid repeating the hollow threats of reprisals that transformed us into loudmouthed bluffers and a regional laughing stock over the past decade. He must proclaim that we will respond vigorously to any threats against our civilian population and, unlike his predecessors, commit himself to implementing such a policy.

We no longer have any illusions. The world does not accept our right to defend ourselves, but we cannot afford to await intervention or retribution from third parties when our civilians are endangered. It will represent a continuation of former government follies if we stand by with folded arms and fail to immediately respond to acts of terror. On the other hand, if we convey a strong message to our foes that if they deliberately spill Israeli blood there is a major price to pay, we may in fact avert the worst scenario of another brutal all-out war.

Read the rest here: Restraint or deterrence

George Will notes that Benjamin Netanyahu is the anti-Obama

by George F. Will

Two photographs adorn the office of Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu. Together they illuminate a portentous fact: No two leaders of democracies are less alike — in life experiences, temperaments and political philosophies — than Netanyahu, the former commando and fierce nationalist, and Barack Obama, the former professor and post-nationalist.

One photograph is of Theodor Herzl, born 150 years ago. Dismayed by the eruption of anti-Semitism in France during the Dreyfus Affair at the end of the 19th century, Herzl became Zionism’s founding father. Long before the Holocaust, he concluded that Jews could find safety only in a national homeland.

The other photograph is of Winston Churchill, who considered himself “one of the authors” of Britain’s embrace of Zionism. The Balfour Declaration of 1917 stated: “His Majesty’s Government view with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people.” Beginning in 1923, Britain would govern Palestine under a League of Nations mandate.

Netanyahu, his focus firmly on Iran, honors Churchill because he did not flinch from facts about gathering storms. Obama returned to the British Embassy in Washington the bust of Churchill that was in the Oval Office when he got there.

[...]

The Cairo speech came 10 months after Obama’s Berlin speech, in which he declared himself a “citizen of the world.” That was an oxymoronic boast, given that citizenship connotes allegiance to a particular polity, its laws and political processes. But the boast resonated in Europe.

The European Union was born from the flight of Europe’s elites from what terrifies them — Europeans. The first Thirty Years’ War ended in 1648 with the Peace of Westphalia, which ratified the system of nation-states. The second Thirty Years’ War, which ended in 1945, convinced European elites that the continent’s nearly fatal disease was nationalism, the cure for which must be the steady attenuation of nationalities. Hence the high value placed on “pooling” sovereignty, never mind the cost in diminished self-government.

Israel, with its deep sense of nationhood, is beyond unintelligible to such Europeans; it is a stench in their nostrils. Transnational progressivism is, as much as welfare state social democracy, an element of European politics that American progressives will emulate as much as American politics will permit. It is perverse that the European Union, a semi-fictional political entity, serves — with the United States, the reliably anti-Israel United Nations and Russia — as part of the “quartet” that supposedly will broker peace in our time between Israel and the Palestinians.

Arguably the most left-wing administration in American history is trying to knead and soften the most right-wing coalition in Israel’s history. The former shows no understanding of the latter, which thinks it understands the former all too well.

[....]

No one is less a transnational progressive, less a post-nationalist, than Binyamin Netanyahu, whose first name is that of a son of Jacob, who lived perhaps 4,000 years ago. Netanyahu, whom no one ever called cuddly, once said to a U.S. diplomat 10 words that should warn U.S. policymakers who hope to make Netanyahu malleable: “You live in Chevy Chase. Don’t play with our future.”

Read the rest here: Netanyahu, the anti Obama

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A descent into barbarism plus the sad legacy of Tony Judt

by Speranza ( 78 Comments › )
Filed under Iran, Israel, Progressives at August 10th, 2010 - 8:30 am

I doubt very much that the Left understands or cares about the details regarding the horrors of an Iranian stoning. This column by Shmuley Boteach is not for the squeamish.

by Shmuley Boteach

My father was born in Iran and remains firmly attached to his Iranian heritage. He loves the food, the music, the language and the culture. It’s something I have witnessed with most Iranian exiles. Their country travels with them.

And why not? Iran was once one of the world’s greatest civilizations and the Middle East’s most highly educated state.

Then came Ruhollah Khomeini, and the slow descent into barbarism began.

To see what Shi’ite technocrats have done to Iran is tragic. I do not speak only of the violent clown Mahmoud Ahmadenijad, who can look an Ivy-League audience in the eye and say there are no homosexuals in Iran. Rather, I speak of a country so riddled with hate that it thinks nothing of producing cartoons, available on a website promoted by the semi-official Fars news agency, denying the Holocaust and portraying Jews as hook-nosed vermin. Have the Iranians been taught to hate Jews so much that they can caricaturize the gassing of one million children? When I visited Poland I walked into a clearing near Tarnow where 800 Jewish orphans had been murdered, mostly by having their brains dashed against trees. The Iranians would make fun of this as well? What level of humanity must be compromised before one feels that wholesale slaughter is a matter of comic relief? I forced myself to watch all of The Stoning of Soriah M by Iranian director Cyrus Nowrasteh. Based on a true story, it’s final scene – depicting an innocent woman buried up to her neck and having her skull slowly crushed by average men including her own father, husband and son throwing stones large enough to injure but not to immediately kill – is easily one of the most brutal events ever depicted on film.

If only it were an exaggeration.

[...]

IN HIS speech last week from Governor’s Island about why the ‘Ground Zero’ mosque ought to be built, Mayor Mike Bloomberg said the 9/11 attacks were committed by ‘fanatics.’ He refused to mention even once that the attackers were Muslims. Are we doing our Islamic brothers and sisters a favor when we whitewash crimes committed by Islam, or should we be encouraging them to cut out the stubborn cancer in global Islam?

[...]

Read the rest: Iran’s desecent into barbarism

Historian Tony Judt died this past weekend of “Lou Gehrig’s disease”. I knew someone who died of A.L.S. and I would not wish it on anyone.  Judt – a brilliant historian  of 20th century European affairs had a blind spot when it came to Israel and wrote an execrable piece for the left-wing vomit paper “The New York Review of  Books” calling for Israel to be replaced by a bi-national state – yeah right, bi-nationalism has worked out so well in Lebanon, Sri Lanka, and Rwanda. Essentially a call for bi-nationalism is a call for the extermination of the Jews of Israel. For decades the “one-state solution” was the official policy of the P.L.O. Muslims really have a history of religious tolerance and equality with non Muslims – right? I guess not. This Jerusalem Post editorial nails it.

The death of Tony Judt, historian of contemporary Europe, offers an opportunity to revisit a case of strongly anti-Zionist sentiments held by a prominent Jewish intellectual.

The London-born Judt – who passed away on Friday at the age of 62 at his home in Manhattan, after being diagnosed two years ago with Lou Gehrig’s disease – produced remarkably lucid and readable studies of 19th and 20th century social history. However, it was the New York University lecturer’s polemical essays and public statements against Zionism, and his rejection of the legitimacy of the Jewishness of the State of Israel, that thrust him onto the public stage.

In a much-cited October 2003 essay in The New York Review of Books, Judt called to dismantle the state and to replace it with “a single, integrated, bi-national state” between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea – a recipe for national suicide for the sovereign Jewish entity.

This categorical rejection of Zionism put him in a class with other contemporary Jewish intellectuals of the Diaspora such as Jacqueline Rose, Michael Neumann and Joel Kovel, who have chosen to single out Israel for opprobrium that is rarely, if ever, directed at other countries that choose to adopt unique religious or cultural-based nationalities.

At the center of Judt’s attacks on Israel was a stubborn refusal to accept the right of the Jewish people to self-determination in a distinctly Jewish state. In the above-mentioned article, entitled “Israel: The Alternative,” Judt posited that Israel artificially imported “a characteristically late-19th-century separatist project into a world that has moved on, a world of individual rights, open frontiers and international law.”

[...]

Read the rest here: So farewell then, Tony Judt

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True friends as opposed to fake ones

by Speranza ( 144 Comments › )
Filed under Israel, Lebanon at August 9th, 2010 - 2:00 pm

From the GOP side – ringing support for Israel against unprovoked Lebanese aggression.  From the Democratic aisle – silence.  Even normally pro Israel Democrats being forced to choose between Obama and the safety of the Jewish state – remain silent. For all you bubbelahs living in comfortable Florida retirement dreaming of FDR – elections have consequences!

by Jeff  Dunetz

Within twenty-four hours of the Lebanese attack on a team of Israeli Army tree trimmers, Congressman Peter Roskam (R-Ill) issued the following statement in support of Israel’s actions during the incident:

Lebanon’s unprovoked attack on Israeli Defense Forces earlier this week during UN planned tree trimming is just one more example of the tenuous security situation Israelis live with every day. Assistance from the United Nations to quell tensions this week was a welcome change, but serves as a constant reminder that true peace is only possible when both parties work together and are willing to negotiate directly with one another.

After receiving the press release early that afternoon, I held it in order to include possible statements coming from the Democratic side. I was sure that Chuck Schumer would say something just as powerful, or Congressman Gary Ackerman, both of whom have been supportive of Israel their entire careers. If not those Democrats, maybe Jerrold Nadler made a statement, or one of the other pro-Israel members of the Democratic Party. Strangely there was no voice coming out of the Democrats in Congress.

Since Barack Obama was inaugurated and began to implement his anti-Israel policies, the Democratic Party has been strangely silent about Israel and while the GOP has been cheerleading for the Jewish State. Sure most Democrats signed non-binding letters in support of Israel (Republicans also), and Chuck Schumer complained on a small Jewish-targeted radio station (he backed off his comment when it reached the general media), but with few exceptions, members of the President’s party have refused to stick their head above the cloak of anonymity provided by a  letter with the signatures of  300+ colleagues  to publicly support Israel or to disagree with the President’s misdirected one-side policy on Israel.

[...]

J-Street claims to be pro-Israel, but the next time it takes a stance that matches that of the majority of Israelis it will be the first time. The group openly campaign against Israel on the grounds that it possesses a superior understanding of what is best for Israelis. Seeded with dollars by progressive kingpin George Soros, the group was generally ignored by mainstream Israel advocates until Barack Obama gave it legitimacy, because he agrees with their anti-Israel position. J-Street works to lobby the US Government to pressure Israelis, contrary to their will, to take steps that could have life and death implications.

During the conflict with Hamas at the end of 2008 which was a response to thousands of missiles sent into Israeli civilian areas. J Street called Israel’s “escalation in Gaza counterproductive” and was “disproportionate.” It also made a moral equivalency argument between the policies of Israel and Hamas, stating they found difficulty in distinguishing “between who is right and who is wrong” and “picking a side.”

[...]

Today Mike Pence R-Ind, and Chairman of the House Republican Conference, was interviewed by the Christian Broadcasting Network. Pence had the guts to say what no Democrat would, that the Obama Administration is “the most anti-Israel administration in the modern history of the state of Israel.”

Walter Winchell once said that “A friend is one who walks in when others walk out.” Since President Obama began implementing his anti-Israel policies the Republican Party has walked in to support Israel, the Democratic Party has exited—Stage Left.  Hopefully supporters of Israel will take both the entry and exit into account when they vote in the mid-term elections.

Read the rest: GOP Leaders Continues To Rally Support For Israel, Democrats Continue To Hide Their Heads In The Sand

The New York Post weighs in with this short  but excellent editorial

Obama flubs response to Israel-Lebanon skirmish

Why did it take the State Department 24 hours to figure out that Israel was the victim in last week’s clash on the Lebanese border?

After all, even the United Nations – where hatred of Israel seems a prerequisite for membership — absolved Israel of any blame.

It took a protest by Jerusalem’s ambassador to Washington for the Obama administration to finally say publicly that an attack that killed one Israeli soldier and seriously wounded another was “totally unjustified and unwarranted.” Earlier, the State Department had simply called on both sides to show restraint.

[...]

In recent weeks, Washington has been trying hard to mend fences with the Israeli government, following last spring’s disgraceful White House snub of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

This was an unfortunate backslide.

Read the rest here: Insulting Israel — again

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