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THE TRUE LESSONS OF CAMP DAVID
By Avi Davis
 Jehan Sadat, the 75-year-old widow of Anwar, might have made history of her own on Thursday morning with an op-ed piece in the Wall Street Journal. Hailing the great peace treaty between Egypt and Israel signed 30 years ago today by her husband, Mrs. Sadat blithely glossed over three decades of ruined diplomacy since then and revealed herself to be a historical revisionist of the first order.
For not only did she get many of her facts wrong (Menachem Begin, not Golda Meir, was prime minister of Israel in July 1977 when Sadat made his first visit to Israel; Egypt did not win the 1973 Yom Kippur War but suffered one of the most humiliating routs in military history when its Third Army was surrounded by the IDF) - but she ignored some of the most important developments of the post -Camp David period which have expunged any realistic hope of a permanent peace between Israelis and Arabs.
That is because Mrs. Sadat, in offering her husband's achievements as the model of the kind of relations that could exist between Israelis and Arabs, has ignored some fundamental points that compromise her arguments:
- While Egypt may well have formalized diplomatic relations with the Jewish State in March 1979, full cultural, economic and social ties were never normalized.
- Today Israeli citizens risk their lives in visiting Egypt as tourists; there are no regular lines of commercial exchange between Israel and Egypt and Israeli entrepreneurs must employ surrogates and subterfuge in selling their wares in Cairo. In addition, any Egyptian who announces his intention to visit Israel risks public slurs, death threats and even imprisonment.
- Egyptian papers lead the world in the denunciation of Israel with regular editorials comparing Israel to a Nazi state; cartoonists revel in reactivating centuries-old blood libels; and reporters have no qualms about planting the blame for Egyptian social and economic woes squarely on the shoulders of the Jewish State.
- Egyptian television has also gotten into the act and become a vehicle for some of the worst examples of anti-Semitic baiting since Josef Goebbel's propaganda machine. In 2002 it produced the notorious 41-part series Horseman Without a Horse - a turgid soap opera which introduced an outrageous recalibration of the Czarist forgery The Protocols of the Elders of Zion and whipped the Arab world into a further frenzy of Jew hatred.
- On the diplomatic stage, Egypt is a world leader in denunciation of Israel on all kinds of international platforms - from the United Nations (where, in the General Assembly, it consistently votes against Israel on almost every issue) to human rights panels, to economic summits to global warming conferences.
- Most notoriously Egypt has failed, to its discredit, in its Camp David assurances to protect the Eqyptian/ Israeli border in the Sinai Desert. The rise of Hamas and its subsequent military capabilities in attacking Israel's southern townships was unquestionably aided and abetted by Egypt, whose border guards turned a blind eye to rampant smuggling of heavy armaments over a number of years. Israeli protests about the open collusion between the border guards and Hamas went unheeded and as a result Hamas transformed into a significant military threat on Israel's southern border.
But Mrs. Sadat seems to know none of this. Since she seems to believe that " for nearly 30 years, Egypt and Israel have lived side-by-side in a state of peace," as if peace is merely a non-belligerency pact that has nothing to do with the hearts, minds and will of a nation's citizens. She fails entirely to realize that the determination of the Egyptian state to maintain its economic and cultural rejection of the Jewish state, inevitably dooms the two nations to not a state of "peace" but rather to one of continued hostility with the unspoken but ever present (and, in many Egyptian circles, ever hoped for) prospect of war.
More important than even this though, is Mrs. Sadat's evasion of the most fundamental reason other peace attempts ( such as the Oslo Accords and the failed entreaties to Syria) have stalled: the rise of terrorism within Israel proper and its heady support within the Arab world. The Oslo Accords did not "fail" because of an absence of leadership on both sides, but because the Palestinian leaders never fulfilled any of the terms of their agreements and much like the Egyptians before them, continued to stir hatred of Israel through their media, schoolbooks and public pronouncements. The "shahids" of Hamas and Islamic Jihad, did not imbibe their martyr-centric ideology from their mosques alone. They were spoon-fed a continuous diet of hatred by Palestinian leaders, teachers and newscasters.
Perhaps these are the true "lessons of Camp David." Egypt led the way in demonstrating how much political and diplomatic juice could be squeezed out of faux peace agreements that do little to actually generate peace but go a long way to ensuring a public state of open hostility, the necessary ingredient to keep citizens focused on a common enemy. Jordan, a country that signed its own peace treaty with Israel in 1994, has learned this lesson well, doing almost nothing over the past 15 years to alter the commonly held Jordanian view of Israel as a racist, elitist and irredentist state.
A reading of any Egyptian or Jordanian newspaper today gives one the sinking feeling that, despite the existence of formal peace treaties, both countries remain culturally and diplomatically at war with Israel and peremptorily reject the very notion of a Jewish state. One despairs at the prospect of the fall of their secular governments and the omnipresent potential of theocratic rule. For then, the Jehan Sadats of the Arab world will be quickly relegated to irrelevance and her husband's supposed dream of "a fair, just and comprehensive peace" will be crushed beneath the wheels of a steamrolling hatred that he and many other Arab leaders did nothing to quell.
Want to comment on this article? See Avi Davis’ blog
Avi Davis is the Executive Director and Senior Fellow of the American Freedom Alliance in Los Angeles. He can be contacted at isdev@ix.netcom.com
Returning to Jihad in Iraq
by Robert Spencer
 The United States is closing Camp Bucca, a prison camp in Iraq, releasing hundreds of prisoners into the general Iraqi population. The camp once held 26,000 inmates; now only 9,600 remain, and the camp will be closed this summer. Saad Nema, mother of one of the freed prisoners, asserted: “Most of the prisoners are innocent, just like my son. I cried today in happiness.” But not everyone is weeping for joy. Not all those who have been released are innocent -- among them was Mohammed Ali Mourad, formerly the late Iraqi Al-Qaeda leader Abu Musab Zarqawi’s driver. Fallujah’s deputy police chief, Col. Daoud Hammoud, says that “we have information that he and his cell are behind” a December bombing that killed fifteen people at a police station. Nor is Mourad alone. According to the Washington Post, Col. Saad Abbas Mahmoud, police chief of the Iraqi town of Garma, estimates that 90% of the released prisoners have returned to the jihad, joining Sunni or Shi’ite insurgent groups. Hammoud is more sanguine, saying that only 60% of the freed prisoners in his area have returned to the front. (Humanevents)
Watch Robert spencer at Pajamas TV : Global Headlines & Defining Dhimmitude
Watch Robert Spencer on YouTube More jihad news, Home and aboard
NEWS: EUROPE AND AMERICA
Extremists use 'civil rights' group front to push agenda- Steven Emerson The Desert Sun (Palm Springs)
Note: This article originally appeared March 24 in the Desert Sun.
Earlier this month, I spoke before the World Affairs Council of the Desert on the threat of radical Islam to the West. My remarks focused on radical Islamic groups, which, posing as "civil rights" groups, try to suppress free speech and intimidate critics by calling them "Islamophobes" and, in some cases, actually threatening and killing such critics. I detailed the history of the Muslim Brotherhood, which is the parent organization of terrorist groups such as al-Qaida and Hamas. I described a secret infrastructure of Muslim Brotherhood groups in the United States who promote their radical agenda through a network of front groups that falsely claimed to be "moderate." The bottom line: Radical Islamic groups committed a grand deception by anointing themselves "civil rights" groups or "charities" when, in fact, they were secret political, financial or military fronts for terrorists. (Investigativeproject)
 Hazel Blears cuts ties to Muslim Council of Britain after it refuses to condemn controversial senior member-James Slack
Ministers have severed links with Britain's leading Muslim group in a blazing row over extremism.
Communities Secretary Hazel Blears is angry that the Muslim Council of Britain has refused to condemn a senior member who signed a public declaration in support of Hamas. The document, signed by the council's deputy secretary-general Daud Abdullah, also seemingly advocated attacks on the Navy if it tried to stop arms intended for Hamas being smuggled into Gaza. Mrs Blears has said that until the MCB - which was once considered the Muslim group closest to Labour - takes a firm stance against Dr Abdullah, relations with the Government will be suspended. In response, the MCB said it was 'appalled by the highhanded and condescending action' of Mrs Blears. Yesterday, the council - which has received at least £150,000 in Whitehall grants - released a provocative statement in response to the Government's anti-terror strategy, which threatens a tougher line against groups which promote extremist views. (Dailymail.co.uk)
Report: Iran has assembled network of lobbyists that has 'penetrated' administration
WASHINGTON — The number of significant pro-Iran lobbyists has grown and key players have gained access to the new administration of President Barak Obama, a report said. The Center for Security Policy said veteran Iranian lobbyists, several of them former government officials, have been granted access to the Obama administration. "A complex network of individuals and organizations with ties to the clerical regime in Teheran is pressing forward in seeming synchrony to influence the new U.S. administration's policy towards the Islamic republic of Iran," the report, titled "Rise of the Iran Lobby," said. "Spearheaded by a de facto partnership between the National Iranian-American Council (NIAC), the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) and other organizations serving as mouthpieces for the mullahs' party line, the network includes well-known American diplomats, congressional representatives, figures from academia and the think tank world." (Worldtribune)
Sharia Banking Conquers Europe-Thomas Landen
All over Europe Islamic banks are establishing branches, Western banks are offering Sharia-compliant financial services, and European governments are trying to outcompete each other in welcoming them. Proponents of banking along the lines of Sharia (Islamic law) claim that the Islamic banking system is “more ethical” than the West’s capitalist system. This is not true. Unfortunately, however, in our age of crashing financial markets, many Westerners – not just the traditional anti-capitalist European left – seem very eager to buy that argument. Early this month, even the Vatican newspaper Osservatore Romano voiced its approval of Sharia banking. “The ethical principles on which Islamic finance is based may bring banks closer to their clients and to the true spirit which should mark every financial service,” the paper said in a downright stupid and “unethical” article published on March, 4. (Brusselsjournal)
German General Prosecutor Raises Charges against Muslim Leaders on Corruption and Funding Militant Organizations-Dr. Sami Alrabaa
Islamists in Germany Preach Peace among Infidels and Violence among Muslims Muslim Leaders in Germany are corrupt. They abuse tax-payer money and have smuggled millions of euros for Jihadists across the world.
At last, the German authorities are acting against radical Muslims in Germany. The German Media reported on March 20, 2009 that the general prosecutor raised charges against Oguz Ücüncü, the secretary general of "Islamische Gemeinschaft Milli Görüs" IGMG (Islamic Community of Milli Görüs), an Islamist Turkish organization, and Ibrahim el Zayat, chairman of the “Islamische Gemeinschaft Deutschlands (IGD) (Islamic Community of Germany). Both men were born in Germany and have the German citizenship. Both men, not only incite to hatred and violence against Germans, but also fund radical Muslim organizations across the Arab and Muslim world, in particular in Egypt, Gaza, Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan. The money is not transferred via banks, but transported by fellow Muslims traveling to these countries. (Islam-watch)
Ruling By A Radical-Melanie Phillips
I have written before – here and here -- about the way in which the First Community Organiser was assembling a permanent force from among the American public to act as a potential means of subverting the American Constitution. As I wrote here, straight after he was elected President Obama launched Organising for America, a formal infrastructure of activism built upon his campaign’s extensive database of supporters. This was ostensibly all about encouraging the public to tell Obama about the issues that concerned them. I wrote then: But as I pointed out here, such use of community organisation also follows to the letter the template for social revolution laid down by Saul Alinsky, the Marxist ideologue and activist who set out in his book Rules for Radicals how capitalism would be overthrown by the mobilisation of the masses and the whipping up of their discontent. The strategy revolved around creating apparently moderate local organisations that would be manipulated by community organisers -- effectively deniable political agitators -- to foment grievance and dissent. Alinsky’s thinking permeates ACORN and other community groups that in the past were associated with or funded by Obama, and which push an agenda that is as coercive and corrupt as it is seditious. America’s First Community Organiser promised ACORN during his campaign that within his first 100 days in office he would invite them in to discuss how they could help him change America. (Spectator.co.uk)
Academic freedom
On Campus: The Pro-Palestinians' Real Agenda-Khaled Abu Toameh
During a recent visit to several university campuses in the U.S., I discovered that there is more sympathy for Hamas there than there is in Ramallah. Listening to some students and professors on these campuses, for a moment I thought I was sitting opposite a Hamas spokesman or a would-be-suicide bomber. I was told, for instance, that Israel has no right to exist, that Israel’s “apartheid system” is worse than the one that existed in South Africa and that Operation Cast Lead was launched only because Hamas was beginning to show signs that it was interested in making peace and not because of the rockets that the Islamic movement was launching at Israeli communities.I was also told that top Fatah operative Marwan Barghouti, who is serving five life terms in prison for masterminding terror attacks against Israeli civilians, was thrown behind bars simply because he was trying to promote peace between Israelis and Palestinians. Furthermore, I was told that all the talk about financial corruption in the Palestinian Authority was “Zionist propaganda” and that Yasser Arafat had done wonderful things for his people, including the establishment of schools, hospitals and universities. (Hudsonny)
Uni rejects demand for Muslims' prayer room-Milanda Rout
AUSTRALIAN universities are responsible for providing quality education, not consecrated religious spaces, according to a university involved in a bitter dispute over Muslim prayer rooms.
Dozens of Islamic students plan to protest today to demand that a dedicated Muslim prayer room replace an existing multi-faith centre at Melbourne's RMIT. But acting pro vice-chancellor Maddy McMaster said it was not for universities to provide consecrated religious spaces. "A university's responsibility to its students is to provide them with a quality education," she said. "Recognising that the educational experience is not confined to the classroom, RMIT offers other services, including prayer rooms. It falls to religious communities to provide the consecrated spaces." The dispute over prayer rooms at RMIT's Swanston Street campus began when a Muslim prayer room was demolished in late 2007 as part of renovations. The university's Islamic student association claims it was promised new rooms but that the institution reneged on its promise by making them multi-faith. They are now campaigning to have the multi-faith rooms declared Muslim-only. (Theaustralian)
Media Bias
 "War Crimes" and Shoddy Journalism
Ha'aretz and The Guardian's war crimes allegations debunked.
Browsing the Israeli press can provide a broader and more informed picture of events in Israel than the narrower and sometimes slanted international media coverage. Indeed, Israel's press is hardly monolithic with a variety of competing political narratives and a penchant for self-criticism, so much so that many of the most negative stories appearing in the international press are first broken by the Israeli newspapers.
Unfortunately, Israeli journalists, like their Western counterparts, also have their own biases and journalistic lapses. Such is the case of a recent Ha'aretz story alleging "war crimes" and serious ethical failures on the part of the IDF in Gaza. Predictably, many international media outlets, including the New York Times, The Guardian, The Independent, Australian, and Globe & Mail to name but a few, repeated the allegations without bothering to do any rudimentary checks.
Separately from Ha'aretz but only a few days later, The Guardian published its own claims of evidence of alleged Israeli "war crimes" (repeated in Australia's The Age). Online videos and accompanying articles accused Israeli forces of using human shields, deliberately firing on Palestinian medical staff and indiscriminate killing of Palestinian civilians with unmanned aerial vehicles, as well as claims that Israel had used a variety of weapons in "illegal ways." (See section below for more on The Guardian.) (Honestreporting)
Muslim Hate -Nonie Darwish
Western media vigorously report on politically incorrect speech, except the type coming from Muslim leaders. Such outrageous speech is a daily diet on Arab TV. The following is a recent statement: “The Jews are the Enemies of Muslims regardless of the occupation of Palestine; we will fight, defeat and annihilate them until not a single Jew remains on the face of the earth.” (January 2009, Egyptian cleric Muhammad Ya’qoub). On February 1, 2009, prominent sheikh Yousef Al-Qaradhawi, on Al Jazeera TV, called the holocaust "divine punishment" for the Jews and encouraged Muslims to do same by saying: "Allah willing, the next time will be at the hand of the believers [i.e. Muslims]." He then added that he would "shoot Allah's enemies, the Jews."
In September 2008, Sheikh Nabil Al-'Awadhi, a Kuwaiti government-appointed preacher said that "Europeans are immoral, unclean and cowardly.” Egyptian Cleric Alaa Said said in January: “Jews spread wars, homosexuality and corruption in the world.” (Frontpagemag)
Freedom of Speech
 France: Human rights organization sues Wilders
A French human rights organization is summoning Geert Wilders to court. The head of the PVV party is accused of inciting to hatred of Muslims. "Wilders made statements about French Muslims, about Muslims in Paris and Marseilles, which incite to racial hatred," says lawyer Yassine Bouzrou. He lodged the complaint on behalf of the organization, which is being studied by the public prosecution. If Wilders is found guilty, he can be sentenced for one year in prison. Wilders was not aware of the complaint yesterday evening. "I hear this for the the first time," he said. "The wold is becoming small with trials and procedures everywhere: from the Netherlands, Jordan and England to France. Dreadful. But I'll naturally fight back judicially. They won't prevail over me." Last week the PVV head signed an official appeal against the UK's refusal to let him into the country. (Islamineurope)
Islamic States Push to Criminalize 'Defamation of Islam'-Peter C Glover
A powerful bloc of 57 Islamic states is again pushing for the UN to make it a criminal offense to criticise or ‘defame' Islam. In a new resolution circulated at a session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva on March 11, a paper entitled "Combating Defamation of Religions" was circulated ahead of the Council's next meeting on March 26-27, when the resolution will be voted on. Though the 57 nations of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC), a bloc which also dominates the UN's Human Rights Council, have been lobbying for the move since 1999, the signs this time are that the resolution could well be made binding. While the resolution calls for protection against "defamation" of all religions, it only mentions Islam by name.
The resolution deems offending Islamic sensitivities a "serious affront to human dignity" which could lead to "social disharmony", "violations of human rights" and "incitement to religious hatred in general and against Islam in particular". If passed, the resulting binding resolution would find its way into various UN documents all of which would require that UN member states at "local, national and international levels" start restricting the free speech of citizens to prevent public criticism of religious beliefs, particularly Islamic belief. (Americanthinker)
ANTISEMITISM
How to eradicate racism, anti-Semitism and build the future of Europe?-EJP
BRUSSELS (EJP)---Senior politicians, diplomats, religious and communal leaders, experts , intellectuals, victims of racism, from around Europe will take part next Monday in Brussels in a one-day symposium on fighting racism and anti-Semitism and fostering tolerance in Europe.
Titled "Building Together the Future of Europre“ and organized by the European Jewish Congress (EJC) under the patronage of the EU Czech Presidency, the symposium will be held at the European Parliament premises. Community and religious leaders, MEPs, presidents of political groups, experts, intellectuals and victims of racism will meet to discuss how to face the challenges posed by intolerance and to promote co-existence. Experts will define the state of anti-Semitism in Europe and call upon the MEPs to take immediate action to combat racism, anti-Semitism and intolerance in Europe. (EJP)
Wiesenthal Centre-Backed French National Bureau Against Antisemitism Takes Legal Action against Anti-Israel Boycotters
Paris, 23 March 2009 The Simon Wiesenthal Centre-backed National Bureau Against Antisemitism (BNVCA), together with the French Association for Assistance to Israel (SFSI) and the Jewish Communities Council of Seine-Saint Denis (CCJ 93), on 20 March, took legal action against "persons instigating, promoting, or complicit, in the boycott of Israeli manufactured products." Registering with the Public Prosecutor of the Bobigny district, their complaint noted: - "Numerous calls from our members and the general public, regarding the invasion of Paris suburban supermarkets by anti-Israel boycotters." (SWC)
 Anti-Semitism on Arab media: the popular Qatari TV channel Al-Jazeera is still used as a venue for blatant anti-Semitism. The reputable cleric Sheikh Yussuf al-Qardawi presents the conflict with Israel as a campaign between Islam and the Jews and says that Jews should be killed, citing a well-known Islamic tradition-IICC
Overview
1. The show “Religious Law and Life” ( “Al-Shari'a wal-Hayat” ) is broadcasted every Sunday on the popular Qatari TV channel Al-Jazeera . The show featured (March 15) the religious scholar Sheikh Dr. Muhammad Yussuf al-Qardawi , a reputable Muslim Sunni cleric, who is now the source of religious authority for many Sunni Muslims in the Middle East and elsewhere. During the show, whose topic was the righteous men of Islam, one of the viewers addressed a question to Sheikh Yussuf al-Qardawi about the role of the righteous ( al-salihun ) in the Quran in the liberation of the holy places of Islam and the victory of the (Muslim) nation. 2. Al-Qardawi used the opportunity to give a distinctly political reply, which included blatantly anti-Semitic rhetoric against the Jewish people based on a well-known Islamic tradition ( hadith ) which says that Jews must be killed. In response to the question, Al-Qardawi said that the righteous were the salt of the earth, those who were always responsible for liberating the lands. He said that the righteous were the source of hope and aspiration and they would bring about the liberation of Jerusalem , as well as Palestine , Gaza , and all the lands ruled by the enemies of Islam. He continued to describe his views on the subject, stressing that the war against the Jews was not only for the Palestinians to fight, but rather a war of all the Muslims. (Terrorism-info.org)
TERRORISM, INTERNET, JIHAD
CAIR’s Well-Deserved Expulsion-Andrew C. McCarthy
Terrorism is only one expression of jihad — there are others as dangerous.
A week ago, the FBI officially announced that it has cut ties with the Council on American-Islamic Relations. The self-styled civil-rights organization is characteristically squawking, but the FBI’s move was patently overdue — so much so that we ought to be asking: Why on earth did the FBI have ties with CAIR in the first place? While we should applaud the government for finally doing the right thing, we also must seize this moment to consider why this action was necessary, and what it says about the threat we are up against. That threat is not, essentially, about terrorism. Given the life-and-death stakes involved, it is understandable that government is preoccupied by terrorism (or what Obama’s homeland-security secretary, Janet Napolitano, absurdly calls “man-caused disasters”). But jihadist terror is merely the means to a specific end: the installation of sharia, the Islamic legal code, which Muslim fundamentalists regard as the necessary precondition for the achievement of Islam’s universalist ambitions. (Nationalreview)
Fanatics 'could use roadside bombs to kill VIPs in Britain'-Matthew Hickley
Terrorists could use Iraq-style roadside bombs to target VIPs in Britain, officials fear.
An attack by a nuclear 'dirty bomb', which spreads radioactive material, is also becoming more likely, according to an official report yesterday. The latest counter-terrorism document claimed Al Qaeda has 'failed' in its goal of creating mass movements and overthrowing governments and may not survive in its current form. But it added that splinter groups will continue to spread Osama Bin Laden's ideology and could prove just as dangerous for years to come. Roadside bombs emerged as a major threat in Iraq after the 2003 invasion and have killed and injured scores of troops. Insurgents learned to build powerful 'improvised explosive devices' which can knock out armoured vehicles and are triggered by remote control.
These have been copied and updated in Afghanistan and Britain's armed forces have spent hundreds of millions of pounds on better-protected vehicles and electronic devices to combat IEDs. (Dailymail.co.uk)
Irish Trading Firm and Its Officers Charged in Scheme to Supply Iran with Sensitive U.S. Technology-USDOJ
WASHINGTON – An Irish trading company and three of its officers have been charged with purchasing helicopter engines and other aircraft components from U.S. firms and illegally exporting them to Iran using companies in Malaysia and the United Arab Emirates. Among the alleged recipients of these U.S. goods was an Iranian military firm that has since been designated by the United States for being owned or controlled by entities involved in Iran’s nuclear and ballistic missile program. The 25-count indictment, which was filed under seal in federal court in the District of Columbia in July 2008 and unsealed today, was announced by Matthew G. Olsen, Acting Assistant Attorney General for National Security; Jeffrey A Taylor, U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia; Miguel Unzueta, Special Agent in Charge of the San Diego Office of Investigations, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Department of Homeland Security; and Richard W. Gwin, Special Agent in Charge for the Defense Criminal Investigative Service, Western Field Office. (USDOJ)
 Iran-Linked Terror Group May be Connected to Haifa Bomb-Hana Levi Julian
(IsraelNN.com) The Iranian-linked Hizbullah terrorist group may be connected to the operatives who planted explosives weighing approximately 100 kg (220 lb) underneath a Haifa mall on Saturday night. A massive tragedy was narrowly avoided when a passerby noticed a small explosion in the underground parking lot and immediately notified security personnel. According to a report published Monday in the Hebrew-language Haaretz newspaper, a source in the Palestinian Authority said Hizbullah has been actively recruiting members of PA terror groups for operations against Israel. The Fatah, Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorist organizations have all been contacted by the Lebanon-based terror group and were urged to carry out attacks within Israel, according to the source. This is not the first news of “outside” terrorist groups recruiting operatives from within Israel to carry out attacks on citizens in the state. Shortly after the 2006 Second Lebanon War, Hizbullah secretary-general Sheikh Naim Qassem told the Christian Science Monitor that small groups "can infiltrate in and out very quickly… It is not complex. These are not large groups of people. Just two or three who plan for a while…" (INN)
Hezbollah: Narco-Islamism- Matthew Levitt
Earlier this month, the United Kingdom announced that it is reopening dialogue with the political wing of Hezbollah. Unlike the United States, the United Kingdom has only banned Hezbollah's terrorist (External Security Organization) and military wings. Meanwhile, the European Union has not yet designated any part of Hezbollah -- military, political or otherwise -- although it did label Imad Mughniyeh, the late Hezbollah chief of external operations, and several other Hezbollah members involved in specific acts of terrorism. But despite the differences between U.S. and European perceptions of and policies toward Hezbollah, there is one critical area where all parties' mutual interests converge, namely law enforcement. Regardless of divergent political considerations or definitions of terrorism, combating crime and enforcing sovereign laws are straightforward issues. More than any other Islamist group, Hezbollah has a long record of engaging in criminal activity to support its activities. The United States and its European counterparts have a particularly strong shared interest in combating the group's increasing role in illicit drug trafficking. (Counterterrorismblog)
Radical ENVIRONMENTALISM and Science
‘Green Hell’ Coming Soon to a Life Like Yours-Marc Morano
Don’t say you were not warned. A new book has debuted just in time to help save the humans from the “save” the Earth crowd. The book serves as a chilling warning to modern society. Be prepared the next time your child comes home from school with some nice “green” project or attempts to lecture you about how you “should” be doing more “sustainable” activities to “save” the Earth. You will be ready to confront teachers, political leaders, neighbors, and annoying aunts with the astounding new book by Steve Milloy titled Green Hell: How Environmentalists Plan to Control Your Life and What You Can Do to Stop Them. Milloy, the publisher of the daily must read JunkScience.com, has issued the most startling warning to human civilization: that the “green” agenda is in reality an anti-human agenda. The book serves as a comprehensive detailed guide to the command and control agenda of the environmental movement. Green Hell sounds the alarm unambiguously: “Make no mistake: Living green is really about someone else micro-regulating you -- downsizing your dreams and plugging each one of us into a brand new social order for which we never bargained.”
(HumanEvents)
 Weizmann scientists see largest ever exploding star-Judy Siegel-Itzkovich
In the first observation if its kind, scientists at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot and San Diego State University in California have watched what happens when a star the size of 50 suns explodes. As the scientists continued to track the spectacular event, they found that most of the star's mass collapsed in on itself, resulting in a massive black hole. While supernovae (exploding stars) have been viewed with everything from the naked eye to high-tech research satellites, no one had previously directly observed a giant star going nova. Dr. Avishay Gal-Yam of Weizmann's physics faculty and Prof. Douglas Leonard of San Diego State University recently located and calculated the mass of a gigantic star on the verge of exploding, following through with observations of the blast and its aftermath. Their findings have given support to the popular scientific theory that stars ranging from tens to hundreds of times the mass of our sun all end up as black holes.
Society and CULTURE
Sex Workers Art Show on Campus-Mona Charen
Restraint has become an alternative lifestyle.
The “Sex Workers Art Show” returned for the fourth time to the campus of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia, this week. Described by USA Today as an “eye-popping evening of visual and performance art created by people who work in the sex industry,” the show has been touring the country (and particularly college campuses) for the past several years. A Duke student publication reports that the show begins with a cast member leading the audience in a chant of “‘Naked Ladies.’ The remainder of the event featured political statements, musical theater, a mild dominatrix act, the elaborate removal of clothing, and an anal sparkler for the grand finale.” The college president wasn’t thrilled about the show, but declined, as he put it, “to be a censor.” Instead of forbidding the performance on campus, W. Taylor Reveley III insisted that audiences as well as those who find the show “offensive and degrading” participate in a forum to discuss issues raised by the show at its conclusion. Here are a few ideas for discussion: Doesn’t presenting such a show trivialize and possibly even encourage the degradation and exploitation of women inherent in “sex work” (a.k.a. prostitution in the real world)? How does presenting a show like this encourage the search for truth and knowledge that universities claim to advance? (Nationalreview)
 The New Humanism-Roger Scruton
The family in which I was raised was, in the matter of religion, typical of postwar England. There was no objection to the children receiving Christian instruction at school, and performing there a daily act of worship. There was no objection to chapel and Sunday school—indeed, provided these institutions were gloomy enough, my parents thought, their children could only be improved by them. But the home was a religion-free zone: no grace before meals, no prayers at bedtime, and the Bible wedged firmly on the shelf between the Oxford Dictionary and Winston Churchill's History of the Second World War. Our parents called themselves humanists. They had been raised as Christians, but had lived through the Second World War and lost faith in the God who permitted it. They regarded humanism as a residual option, once faith had dissolved. It was not something to make a song and dance about, still less something to impose on others, but simply the best they could manage in the absence of God.
All around me I encountered humanists of my parents' kind. I befriended them at school, and was taught by them at Cambridge. And whenever I lost the Christian faith which had first dawned on me in school assemblies I would be a humanist for a spell, and feel comforted that there existed this other and more tangled path to the goal of moral discipline. Looking back on it, I see the humanism of my parents as a kind of rearguard action on behalf of religious values. They, and their contemporaries, believed that man is the source of his own ideals and also the object of them. There is no need for God, they thought, in order to live with a vision of the higher life. (AmericanSpectator)
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