Editor and Researcher Elisa Vandernoot

American Freedom Alliance Weekly Gazette

THE WEEK AT A GLANCE

This Week's Editorial

CAN THE MEDIA HANDLE THE TRUTH?
By Avi Davis

How do we get our information?

A century ago that is a question which might have been simply answered.  Books, newspapers and experience of the world were the only viable sources of information.   Today information, the very stuff we need to make sense of our life and develop considered judgments, comes at us repeatedly from any number of sources. Television, radio, newspapers, magazines and the Internet all provide us with a incessant stream of material that our imaginations, already on sensory overload, must sift, sort and process -  a task that contributes not to clarity, but often confusion.

With such vast amounts of information flowing towards us with such unprecedented speed, how do we make sense of any of it?  What can and should we believe and what sources of information should we trust? 

These are perhaps the most pressing questions any free society can ask of itself.  Because without a balanced, fair and accurate media, committed to delivering reliable information about the world, we run the risk of creating a social compact built on lies and a moral climate governed by relativistic thinking.

For many the question of whether the real news is dead, is moribund in itself.  They would argue that not only is it dead, but already a rotting corpse, with little to recommend  its prior existence. They might shout that political bias, orientation towards entertainment rather than serious news delivery and rampant greed, have corrupted the content of most news services who play fast and loose with the truth.

I am not so cynical.   I believe that journalistic standards still exist; that there are thousands of high minded reporters, newscasters, bloggers and  radio personalities who  are thoroughly committed to presenting the news in an unfiltered manner, free of commercial or political taint.

The problem may not be as much with those who present the news, as with those who control access to it.   Who are these individuals/organizations and what are their priorities?  Are they fair minded and what level of responsibility do they maintain to the preservation of our health, morality and security? 

These questions transcend the issue of veracity and reliability and devolve to the media’s own sense of identity.    Our news organizations are, for the most part, businesses and as commercial enterprises must deal daily with questions of profit and loss.   But they also  promote themselves as guardians of freedom and liberty, watchdogs on government and protectors of free speech.

Balancing these various roles can be a tricky business.  We have seen repeatedly in recent years the growing role of celebrity in shaping televised news and the often frivolous abandonment of journalistic standards, particularly when it comes to covering  Israel and the Middle East.

The questions that swirl around the mainstream media have become all the more pressing in the Internet Age. Perhaps the Internet does indeed deserve to be praised for the way it has liberated the news.  And it is certainly possible that social media and  its relatively new vehicles of communication will open up new vistas for the news, as  witnessed in during the June 2009 disturbances in Iran.

Yet as more and more of our news is delivered to us on-line, we need to begin to understand that this protean sprouting of a ‘democratic’ news service may also bring with it the same dangers of corruption of which many stand ready to accuse our traditional media sources.   

We cannot forget that the same encomiums once sung about radio and television are now being sung about the Internet. The reality of what television and radio news became, provides hard lessons that we would be foolish to cavalierly ignore.

There is an argument made that no news can be truly objective.  All human beings possess prejudices, so how can we expect the news, written and delivered by human beings, not to be refracted through the lens of individual bias?  

Maybe that is true and maybe it is not.   But whatever the case, with the media’s aggregation of so much power and with our future at stake, we may need to reappraise our relationship with our news services.  Is there room in our society for institutional checks on the media, just as we have institutional checks on our government?   Does the power of the media to change our lives and alter history require greater surveillance and more democratic participation? 

These are questions naturally loaded with controversy.   But that will not prevent us, at this conference at least, from addressing them. We should never be afraid of asking hard questions about our media or demanding that our news services be held accountable for delivering accurate and reliable information about our world.

Information, after all, belongs to all of us. 

Can the media handle this truth?  Perhaps the equally pertinent and parallel question is – can we handle the truth about the media? 

 

Avi Davis is the President of the American Freedom Alliance in Los Angeles. His writings and blog entries can be found at The Intermediate Zone and the Los Angeles Jewish Journal Blog  On The Other Hand.

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Avi Davis can be contacted at adavis@americanfreedomalliance.org

NEWS: EUROPE AND AMERICA

FBI says Texas man called al-Qaida his 'brothers'-JUAN A. LOZANO
HOUSTON — A Texas man accused of trying to help al-Qaida referred to members of the terrorist group as his "brothers," was eager to prove his dedication to the organization and wanted to die fighting alongside them, according to court documents. Barry Walter Bujol was set to be in court Tuesday for arraignment on charges he tried to help al-Qaida by trying to supply the terrorist network with personnel, currency and other items. He was arrested last week after a two-year investigation by the FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force. Bujol, 29, is facing one charge of attempting to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization and one charge of aggravated identity theft. Bujol, who is from Hempstead, which is located about 50 miles northwest of Houston, faces up to 15 years in prison if convicted. A recently unsealed FBI search warrant application described Bujol as eager to prove his dedication to al-Qaida by engaging in physical and covert communications training. He used at least 14 e-mail addresses to hide his activities from authorities and advocated attacking U.S. facilities where military weapons were manufactured, according to the court document. The FBI task force determined Bujol had been e-mailing Anwar al-Awlaki, a U.S.-born, al-Qaida-linked cleric believed to be hiding in Yemen...(AP)

Los Angeles police ask public's help in fighting terrorism threat-Joel Rubin
A program called iWatch lets people report suspicious activity and submit video and photos. If LAPD analysts find a possible link to terrorism, the information is forwarded to a regional task force. In the years after the 9/11 attacks, Los Angeles Police Department officials trained officers to keep better watch out for activity that could be related to terrorism. Now, they are working to get the whole city involved. For months the LAPD has been rolling out the community involvement phase of its counter-terrorism efforts. Named iWatch, it offers a crash course in the types of activity the department deems suspicious and allows people to report questionable incidents to police. At a news conference Thursday, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, LAPD Chief Charlie Beck, Airport Police Chief George Centeno and community leaders announced the expansion of the campaign into the airport with fliers and posters alerting travelers to the program. "Everyone has a part to play when it comes to keeping this city safe," said Deputy Chief Michael Downing, head of the LAPD's counter-terrorism efforts. "We felt people really needed to understand the nature of this threat and that they have a significant role" to play in countering it. The iWatch program stems from an earlier revamping by the LAPD of the way officers report suspicious activity. The department was one of the first in the country to formalize a list of red-flag activities, such as bulk purchases of fertilizer that could be used in explosives and vehicles left unattended in unloading zones at high-profile buildings. Officers also fill out forms that describe any kind of potential terrorist-related activity, whether or not a crime was committed. Counter-terrorism analysts in the department put the information into a database and search for patterns and trends. (Latimes)

President Obama compares Gulf of Mexico oil leak to 9/11
President Obama predicted a wholesale rethink of America’s love affair with oil today, saying he believed the Gulf disaster would have as profound an impact on the American psyche and policy as 9/11. On the eve of his fourth trip to the region and ahead of a national address from the Oval Office, Mr Obama vowed to seize the opportunity to push for “a visionary energy policy that we so vitally need and has been absent for so long”. “In the same way that our view of our vulnerabilities and our foreign policy was shaped profoundly by 9/11, I think this disaster is going to shape how we think about the environment and energy for many years to come,” Mr Obama told the influential news website Politico. “One of the biggest leadership challenges for me going forward is going to be to make sure that we draw the right lessons from this disaster.” Mr Obama is under fire from all sides over his handling of the spill and this week he faces what could be the defining week of both the crisis and his presidency, with a two-day trip to the new frontline states at risk from the slick and a national address from the Oval office, the first of his presidency. (Timesonline.co.uk)

Women’s Rights: Inspired by Muhammad? Edmund Standing
A new Islamic propaganda campaign called ‘Inspired by Muhammad’ [1] has been launched, and advertising posters are now going up in London featuring slogans such as ‘I believe in social justice. So did Muhammad’ and ‘I believe in women’s rights. So did Muhammad’.[2] It’s hard to tell if this campaign is run by sadly deluded people who actually believe the slogans are accurate or if this is an example of dissimulation for a kufr audience. Either way, the idea that Muhammad ‘believed in women’s rights’ in the sense in which we in the 21st Century understand that concept is utterly absurd, as anyone who has taken an honest look at the Qur’an should be aware. The readership of the Qur’an is clearly presupposed to be male, and this is a book for men, by men. We find numerous examples of the audience being given information and instructions about women, in texts that speak of women in the third person.[3] Women are not directly addressed, but rather men are directed as to what they should tell their wives (plural). (Familysecuritymatters.org)

Release terms eased for man accused of lying about alleged terrorist ties-SALVADOR HERNANDEZ
Inside a federal courtroom nearly 16 months ago, prosecutors asked a judge to hold Ahmadullah Sais Niazi in federal prison without bail, arguing that the Tustin man had links to extremist organizations, was a flight risk and a danger to the community. Though Niazi faces immigration, not terrorism-related charges, Assistant U.S. Attorney Dierdre Eliot argued in February 2009 that Niazi had ties to terrorist groups, including al-Qaida, Hezb-e-Islami Gulbuddin, the Taliban. Also, Niazi's brother-in-law is believed to be a security coordinator for Osama bin Laden, according to prosecutors. But as the date nears for Niazi's trial this year, the U.S. Attorney's Office and Niazi's defense attorney jointly request a judge to loosen the terms of Niazi's release, asking the court to lift its order keeping Niazi under house arrest. Earlier this month, U.S. District Judge Cormac J. Carney granted the request, allowing Niazi to leave his home under GPS monitoring and a curfew of 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. The U.S. Attorney office's request stands in sharp contrast to its earlier petition, which stressed Niazi's alleged Islamic-extremist views and ties. Those views were recorded by a man working as an FBI informant, prosecutors have said. Niazi is charged with lying about those ties, including two counts of perjury, one count of lying in his citizen application, one count of lying in his passport application and one count of making a false statement. (Ocregister)

Anti-Islamisation 'pork and wine' Paris party slammed-AFP
Anti-racism activists on Monday condemned plans to hold a "pork sausage and wine" party in a multi-ethnic Paris district to protest against what the organisers call the area's "Islamisation." SOS Racisme called for the event scheduled for Friday in the Goutte d'Or area of north Paris to be banned because it sent out a "message of hate and of violence towards groups of people because of their real or supposed origins."
The opposition Communist Party said in a statement that "this disgusting joke seeks to exacerbate the differences that make for the richness of the 18th arrondissement (district)." The idea came from Sylvie Francois, a local resident who told French radio that she set up a Facebook page for the event to fight against what she saw as the increasing "Islamisation" of her area. The project has been publicised on internet social networking sites by a small far-right group that calls itself the Bloc Identitaire.
Paris police said they will meet with the event's organisers on Tuesday to consider their official request for permission to hold the event. (Expatica)

Barcelona plans Islamic veil ban-AFP
MADRID — Barcelona plans to be the first large city in Spain to ban the use of the full-face Islamic veil in public buildings, its mayor announced Monday. Jordi Hereu said he will sign a decree which will apply in all public spaces such as the city hall and municipal covered markets and creches. "It should not be possible that someone enters into a place without being identified," the Socialist mayor said. He said the measure is not aimed at "any particular religious group" and would also apply to people wearing crash helmets and balaclavas. Two other towns in the northeastern region of Catalonia, Lerida and El Venrell, have recently imposed bans on the use of the Islamic veil in public buildings. Two more, Tarragona and Gerona, are considering similar measures, as is Coin in the southern region of Andalucia. Spain's conservative opposition Popular Party has said it plans to present a proposal in Catalonia's regional parliament to ban the full-face veil in public places throughout the region. Authorities in 11 mosques in Catalonia have vowed to challenge the bans in Spain's Constitutional Court. Immigration from Muslim countries has grown dramatically in Spain since the 1990s, with Catalonia in particular being home to a large community of Pakistani origin.There are now about one million Muslims among Spain's population of 47 million. (AFP)

ACADEMIC FREEDOM

Shut Up, They Explained-Peter Wood
Last week the Chronicle of Higher Education reported on the new NAS study, Beach Books: What Do Colleges Want Students to Read Outside Class? We are grateful for the attention, even though The Chronicle decided that what was most newsworthy about our analysis of the extra-curricular reading assignments of 290 colleges was our finding that a large majority (70 percent) of the books reflected liberal political and cultural themes. In our own view, our most important observation is the lightweight intellectual and literary quality of the readings. But the Chronicle reported that too, so we’re not complaining. The Chronicle’s news account summoned forth a small army of comment-makers, among them some readers who got right to our point. Someone writing as “amnirov,” for example, expresses heartfelt disdain for our organization (“I cannot stand the NAS”) but is captured by the facts we reported: “Let’s all thank them for exposing the absolute banality of bridge readings.” Amnirov uses more vivid language than we did: “This I Believe? God almighty! I'd rather drink a cup of battery acid. Outliers? The Last Lecture? Neither of those titles is even remotely worth read[ing] by any stretch of the imagination.” We merely pointed out that the readings seldom pose even a modest intellectual challenge to students and that quality of the works is generally thin. (NAS)

Middle East Studies Profs Usurp New Roles to Censure Israel over Gaza Flotilla-Brendan Goldman
"The martyrs of the [Gaza flotilla] ships are heroes," writes Mark LeVine, professor of history at the University of California, Irvine. "They are warriors every bit as deserving of our tears and support as the soldiers of American wars past and present." In the aftermath of the death of nine mercenaries on the deck of the Gaza-bound Turkish vessel, the Mavi Marmara, professors of Middle East studies lined up to denounce the Jewish State. Ignoring overwhelming video anddocumentary evidence of the activists' radical agenda and affinity for violence, these professors asserted that the "Freedom Flotilla" of the six Gaza-bound vessels were on a purely "humanitarian" mission. "Those ships were just bringing aid to the impoverished Palestinians," said New York University professor of modern Middle Eastern History Zachary Lockman. "It's not [the Palestinians'] fault they are under Hamas rule." Has Lockman already forgotten that Hamas was democratically elected by the Palestinians in January 2006? Even professors who managed to recall the Palestinian elections were determined to demonstrate that the terrorist group has been falsely maligned. Georgetown University's John Esposito, director of the Prince Alwaleed bin Talal Center for Muslim Christian Understanding, tried to whitewash the terrorist group's reputation by declaring, "Hamas simply does not steal ... thus any aid delivered to the UN will be respected." Yet even traditionally anti-Israel institutions like the U.N. and the left-wing British Guardian have noted that Hamas has illegally seized aid intended for Gaza's poor. (Americanthinker)

Irvine Muslim student union suspended-E.B. SOLOMONT
Group placed on probation after student calls Michael Oren a "killer."
NEW YORK -­ The University of California at Irvine has suspended a Muslim student group whose members called Israeli Ambassador Michael Oren a "killer" during a speech on campus. The Muslim Student Union was suspended for one year and placed on disciplinary probation for an additional year, following a campus judicial review of Oren's February 8 speech, which spurred chaos and protests. During Oren's address, MSU members interrupted nearly a dozen times, shouting, "Propagating murder is not an expression of free speech!" and "How many Palestinians did you kill?" Police arrested 11 students in the tumult that ensued.
On Monday, the university released a letter from a student affairs disciplinary committee, saying the group had been found guilty of disorderly conduct, obstructing university activities and other violations of campus policy. The decision against the student group was praised by the local federation, which ­ along with national groups ­ sought to penalize the MSU and change an anti-Israel culture on campus. "We commend the university for its judicious decision in support of free speech and civil discourse," said Shalom Elcott, president and CEO of the Jewish Federation of Orange County. "The university's disciplinary action regarding the MSU establishes an important and appropriate precedent and sends a powerful message to other universities across the nation." (Jpost)

MEDIA BIAS

MSM Lies and Lies and Lies Some More About Arizona-Dr. Gina Loudon
Unfortunately, the mainstream media (MSM) in their coverage of Arizona isn’t telling the whole story. This battle has been portrayed as a racial issue, when in fact, it is not at all. As the originator of the BUYcott concept, I have been asked to speak at BUYcott events in recent weeks. This allowed me to spend time in shops, restaurants, and hotels in Arizona, and to speak to many people of all races regarding SB1070. I put on my investigator hat and even I was surprised at how little we really know about the situation on the ground in Arizona. The facts: The hotel where we stayed had Native Americans, Latinos, Hispanics, Middle Easterners, and Asians. I used my down time to interview them about SB 1070 and I was shocked to learn that not one person I spoke with of any national or ethnic origin was opposed to SB 1070. They know that dangerous terrorists have established an entire entry strategy utilizing the advantage of our broken borders, and as one Native American told me, “I would rather be asked for my ID than have my people blown to bits by a terrorist.” Simple enough. He added that virtually everyone in Arizona knows that you can go to New Mexico, and get a driver’s license without proof of citizenship. If that is true, that means that all the whining about people having to produce ID is simply manufactured. If I, a citizen journalist can uncover such profound facts, where is the forthrightness of the media who must know this? (Bigjournalism)

Government Takes On Journalism’s Next Chapter-JEREMY W. PETERS
Looking for the federal government to come to the rescue of newspapers? Don’t hold your breath.
The Federal Trade Commission has set out on the somewhat quixotic journey of trying to identify ways to save journalism as we know it from possible extinction. Through a series of public forums, the last of which will take place in Washington on Tuesday, the commission has been gathering and analyzing an array of suggestions to help make the business of gathering and reporting news profitable again. A broad range of ideas — loosening antitrust statutes to allow news organizations to start charging for online content all at once; imposing a tax on iPads and other electronic devices to subsidize the cost of reporting; creating a public fund akin to AmeriCorps to pay young journalists — have been suggested. But the commission could easily sidestep making any recommendations to Congress or invoking its regulatory powers, and instead issue something along the lines of an analysis of its findings.The commission is expected to produce a final study late this year. (NYT)

French Court Grants Al-Dura Whistle-Blower Another Victory-Hillel Fendel
A French court has upheld a suit by journalist Phillipe Karsenty, ruling that a French documentary about him and the death of 12-year-old Muhammed Al-Dura in 2000 was defamatory and prejudiced. Karsenty, a French media commentator, has now been twice vindicated in his fight against the France-2 television station’s version of the boy’s death. Karsenty was sued for libel in 2004 by France 2 for saying that the film of Al-Dura’s death, which accused Israeli forces of killing him, was distorted and false. Though the case is now being heard by the French Supreme Court, the status quo is that in May 2008, the Paris Court of Appeals overturned a lower court’s ruling against Karsenty from 2006. In the weeks preceding the Paris Court of Appeals’ decision, an attempt was made to sway public opinion against Karsenty when private French television channel Canal + broadcast a documentary about the case. “The verdict found that the Canal + news documentary was defamatory,” Karsenty wrote late last week, “and that the journalist who made it wasn't objective, even though he had access to all the necessary information to know the truth about the al Dura hoax.” “Here are some statements that were made about me in the documentary,” Karsenty continued. “According to this film, I am - faking information, pressuring journalists to self-censor themselves, manipulating the information in order to promote extremist political views without any interest in the truth, using the internet to dupe, falsify facts and to serve a cause and promote a despicable ideology,” etc. (INN)

How the Media Got It Wrong Re the Helen Thomas Affair-Jeff DunetzMuch has happened since Rabbi Nesenoff emailed me his video interview of Helen Thomas containing her now-famous declaration that Jews should get the hell out of Palestine and go back to their homes in Germany and Poland. Upon first watching the interview, I saw it a big story and was determined to make it go viral. The objective was not to go after the 89-year-old newswoman per se, as a teaching opportunity, showing that anti-Semitism still permeated through normal American society. That teaching moment didn’t really happen; instead I was the one who did the learning, and the lesson was all about how the media really worked. The White House Press corps seemed very reluctant to touch the story. On one hand it was understandable as Thomas was a respected colleague. Most of them had worked with her for a very long time. On the other hand it was big news, and if the Rabbi’s interview subject were a senior member of the Administration those same reporters would have been all over the story. When they got around to covering the story, media got the “facts” of the incident wrong. I am not talking about Rosie O’Donnell’s idiotic statement dismissing the anti-Semitism displayed by Thomas’s call for Israeli Jews to return to the scene of the concentration camps, or her ignorant belief that no Jews lived in the Holy Land before 1948. The traditional media’s biggest factual mistake was reporting that the controversy surrounded Thomas making an anti-Israel comment. (Bigjournalism)

FREEDOM OF SPEECH

PayPal.com Targets Conservative Blog as 'Hate' Site-Robert Stacy McCain
Conservative blogger Pamela Geller says she has been threatened with discontinuation of her online payment account by PayPal, the most widely used service of its kind. On her popular Web site, Atlas Shrugs, Geller posted the text of an e-mail notice she received Saturday morning from PayPal's Acceptable Use Policy Department. "[A]fter a recent review of your account, it has been determined that you are currently in violation of PayPal's Acceptable Use Policy," the PayPal e-mail said. "Under the Acceptable Use Policy, PayPal may not be used to send or receive payments for items that promote hate, violence, racial intolerance or the financial exploitation of a crime." Geller said similar "acceptable use" violation notices were also sent by PayPal to two organizations she helped establish, the Freedom Defense Initiative (FDI) and Stop Islamicization of America (SIOA). PayPal is a division of the online market eBay, whose former CEO Meg Whitman recently won the Republican gubernatorial nomination in California. (The American Spectator)

I’ve Become an Enemy of the People for Speaking the Truth About Islam-Bruce Bawer
When it comes to the right to speak one’s mind about Islam, the record of the last few years makes it clear which direction the West is moving in. In France and Italy, Oriana Fallaci is put on trial for disparaging Islam. In Canada, Mark Steyn and Ezra Levant are hauled before “human rights commission” tribunals for criticizing Islam in print. In Australia, an Islamic organization sues two pastors for “vilification of Muslims.” In Britain, a Daily Telegraph columnist is arrested on charges of hate speech for having written negatively about Islam, and the Archbishop of Canterbury proposes that Parliament pass stronger laws against such speech acts. And in the Netherlands, Geert Wilders, the head of the Freedom Party, which performed so well in the June 9 general elections that Wilders may end up in the governing coalition, still faces trial for having made a film about the Koranic foundations of terrorism. Then there’s Norway, where I live, and where the last few days have seen yet another dark development. By way of background, permit me to begin by quoting myself. On pages 230-31 of my book Surrender: Appeasing Islam, Sacrificing Freedom I sum up the more alarming aspects of Norway’s Discrimination Law, passed in 2005: (Pajamasmedia)

YouTube removes ‘We Con the World’ video-NOAH RAYMAN
Clip gets over 3 million views.
The parody video “We Con the World,” which mocked the international media coverage of the Gaza-bound “aid” flotilla that was stopped by Israeli naval commandos, has been removed from YouTube, where it received over 3 million views since it went up on June 3. In removing the video from on Friday, YouTube posted a comment citing copyright infringement concerns from Warren Chappel Music Inc., which owns the rights to the 1985 charity fundraiser song “We Are the World.” The video, made by the satirical Web site Latma TV depicts a mock crew of the flotilla, some wearing keffiyehs and speaking in faux Arab accents, performing a song to the tune of “We Are the World.” The parody, which received international – and often critical – acknowledgement, is available on other Web sites, while a Hebrew subtitled version is still available on YouTube. “It’s not as if a clip that has been seen by 3.5 million viewers is just going to disappear,” said Caroline Glick, the editor-in-chief of Latma, who is also a senior contributing editor of The Jerusalem Post. Neither YouTube nor Warren Chappel Music Inc. has elaborated on the decision, and representatives did not respond to requests for comment. (Jpost)

ANTISEMITISM

Remarks by Rabbi Marvin Hier delivered at the Los Angeles Solidarity Rally in Support of Israel attended by 3,000 people
Once again, my friends, Israel is under siege. Even the White House Correspondent, Helen Thomas thought it’s an opportune time to show off her bigotry telling the Jews to “get the hell out of Palestine” and “go back to Poland and Germany.” Helen, I got two things to say to you – first, the Jews are not in Palestine, they’re in the state of Israel where they belong and where their ancestors lived for two thousand years before Mohammed. Second, you’re the one who should go home – there should be no place for bigots in the White House press room. The whole world is talking about a few ships that were en route to Gaza. From the media, you get the impression that the entire Arab-Israeli conflict is about a flotilla. No wonder, the great commentator Rashi begins his comments on the Torah by asking the question, why do we begin with the Book of Genesis? Why not skip directly to the exciting chapters in Exodus, like the chapter on the flotilla when Pharaoh’s chariots charged the Israelites in the middle of the sea? Wouldn’t that be more interesting to the student and certainly more exciting to the New York Times or the BBC? No, cautions Rashi, you can’t study history without a proper context, without Genesis because, if you start in Exodus, you won’t know the circumstances, you won’t know there was a Joseph who once saved Egypt and, despite that, the Pharaoh’s pretended he never existed. (Simonwiesenthalcenter)

David Chamberlain and the reprise of historical infamy-Melanie Phillips
For those who still don’t get it, let me spell out just why the response by Cameron, Clegg and Hague to the Turkish terrorist flotilla incident is so despicable and so terrifying. At a time when much of the western world has turned itself into a kind of global Nuremberg rally – this time with not Jews as people but as a collective people being singled out for attack while those who are gathering to destroy them are appeased, rewarded and strengthened -- the British government has refused to defend the Israeli target of this appalling reprise of historical infamy and has instead placed itself squarely on the side of this truly diabolical inversion of reality and justice.The convoluted pieties of Cameron Clegg and Hague, professing to support Israel’s need for security while denouncing it for defending its troops from kidnap and butchery, constitute in fact the most stomach-turning hypocrisy. For these men are not merely condemning Israel for its flotilla interception which, although undoubtedly botched, nevertheless saw Israel under attack from Islamists – you know, the kind which Britain and America are killing in their thousands in Afghanistan and elsewhere, along with countless civilians about whom no-one ever says a word because no-one cares a tuppenny damn if Israel isn’t in the frame -- but are also calling for an end to the blockade of Gaza. (Spectator.co.uk)

Obama threatens our future: President threatens Israel’s security with his statements, acts, and silence-Yiron Festinger
While tens of thousands of Turkish protestors chant anti-Semitic Nazi-style battle cries, on top of Prime Minister Erdogan’s wild incitement (which even outdid Ahmadinejad’s rhetoric,) and while all Muslim world radicals join forces in a venomous, unprecedented anti-Israel campaign, the deafening silence of the Obama-led United States is especially conspicuous. This is the same US Administration that only months ago raised a hue and cry over the “grave insult to America” as result of the declaration of Ramat Shlomo construction, a neighborhood in no-man’s land that is not even located in east Jerusalem, turning the affair into a direct, hypocritical, deliberate, and ugly confrontation with the Israeli government. Yet as it turns out, the calls forIsrael’s destruction in the wake of the Turkish incitement campaign do not constitute an “insult” for America. They are merely a great “success” for Obama’s policy of currying favor with radical Islam; in the president’s view, as long as the protestors burn Israeli flags rather than American flags, his “success” is proven beyond any reasonable doubt. Ever since he emerged from the radical margins of the American Left and managed to win the presidency on the strength of his rhetorical talents, Obama had been acting methodically in order to undermine America’s status as the world’s lone superpower. (Ynetnews)

Israel denounces Castro "swastika" remarks-Robert Evans
GENEVA, June 14 (Reuters) - Israel denounced comments on Monday by former Cuban president Fidel Castro, who compared the Israeli treatment of Palestinians to the Nazi extermination of Jews, an example of heated rhetoric at a U.N. body's debate. Castro's remarks were issued by Cuba's diplomatic mission in Geneva amid debate in the 47-nation United Nations Human Rights Council on Israeli action in the occupied territories. "The hatred felt by the state of Israel against the Palestinians is such that they would not hesitate to send the one and a half million men, women and children of that country to the crematoria where millions of Jews of all ages were exterminated by the Nazis," the ex-Cuban leader said. "It would seem that the Fuehrer's (Nazi leader Adolf Hitler's) swastika is today Israel's banner," the 83-year-old Castro declared in the latest of a series of articles dubbed "reflections" in the communist-ruled island's media. His remarks were not cited in the Council itself, but diplomats said Cuba had sent the comment to other foreign missions in Geneva as well as to journalists. "With these outrageous comments, Fidel Castro shames his old-time companions and the ideals he always pretended to serve. Che Guevara must be spinning in his grave," Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor said in Jerusalem. (Alernet)

A Simple Song for Israel (See video) Lyrics by Mitch Julis & Sam Glaser

Cyber Jihad Tribute to Flotilla 'Martyrs' on the Web-Hana Levi Julian
A musical tribute to the so-called “flotilla martyrs,” written and performed by cyber jihadist Asadullah Alshishani, is making the rounds of the Muslim Internet. Entitled "When the Jew's Blood Reds my Knife, then my Life is Free from Strife" the nasheed -- an Islamic-oriented song traditionally sung a cappella, or accompanied only by a frame drum -- is sung in a complete monotone, with an electronic music bed in the “techno” style. Sung in American English without an accent, it is a stunning example of anti-Semitism. (See full text below.) English lyrics are posted on an Islamist website, accompanied by a prayer for the terrorist “martyrs” of the flotilla who died after they attacked the Israeli SEALs who boarded the Mavi Marmara last week. The prayer also includes curses for the Israelis. According to “Views from the Occident” blogger Christopher Anzalone, the singer's name translates as Lion of God, The Chechen. Anzalone, a graduate student in Middle Eastern and Islamic studies at Indiana University, specializes in researching Islam and “jihadism”. He revealed in a report written earlier this year that he had tracked down the jihadi singer's location “based on his IP address” to a village located near a major U.S. city less than seven hours from Bloomington, Indiana. Anzalone remarked with some irony that the location was “a place not famed for being 'Ard al-Jihad wa'l Ribat,' a land of struggle and guardianship.” lshishani apparently also recorded a similar “tune” in praise of Osama Bin Laden recently, repeating the refrain, “Amir of the Ansaar, How beautiful you are! You fight AmeriKKKa, and terrorize the Jews...Osama bin Laden, O, how I love you! You sold your soul for Jannah, to Allah you are true.” (INN)

Israel, Disarmed-Charles Kruathammer
If even a blockade, the most passive and benign of defenses, is impermissible, what defenses does Israel have left? The world is outraged at Israel’s blockade of Gaza. Turkey denounces its illegality, inhumanity, barbarity, etc. The usual U.N. suspects, Third World and European, join in. The Obama administration dithers. But as Leslie Gelb, former president of the Council on Foreign Relations, writes, the blockade is not just perfectly rational, it is perfectly legal. Gaza under Hamas is a self-declared enemy of Israel — a declaration backed up by more than 4,000 rockets fired at Israeli civilian territory. Yet having pledged itself to unceasing belligerency, Hamas claims victimhood when Israel imposes a blockade to prevent Hamas from arming itself with still more rockets. In World War II, with full international legality, the United States blockaded Germany and Japan. And during the October 1962 missile crisis, we blockaded (“quarantined”) Cuba. Yet Israel is accused of international criminality for doing precisely what John Kennedy did: impose a naval blockade to prevent a hostile state from acquiring lethal weaponry.Oh, but weren’t the Gaza-bound ships on a mission of humanitarian relief? No. Otherwise they would have accepted Israel’s offer to bring their supplies to an Israeli port, be inspected for military materiél, and have the rest trucked by Israel into Gaza — as every week 10,000 tons of food, medicine, and other humanitarian supplies are sent by Israel to Gaza. (Nationalrevew)

Exclusive: When Will It End?-Gadi Adelman
There is a well-known song in Hebrew by the Israeli Hip-Hop artist “Subliminal” along with the Violinist, Miri Ben Ari titled “God Almighty when will it end”. Although the song is about the Holocaust, the lyrics point out such things as “so many endings… that was just the beginning…” and “Anti-Semitism, how could that happen?” This past week, once again Israel and the Jews were in the news. Once again, it was all Israel’s fault anonce again the world is screaming at the Jews. Although this is nothing new, there is no doubt that anti-Semitism is on the rise worldwide and I find myself asking: “God Almighty when will it end?” I remember, before my family moved to Israel while I was still in Elementary school, coming home one day and asking my father what the word “Kike” meant. I don’t think in all my years I have ever seen my father react to anything the way he did the day I asked that question. That was my first experience with anti-Semitism, and it undoubtedly was one of the deciding factors in my family making “Aliyah” or moving to Israel. Over the years I have heard many anti-Semitic remarks, from “the Jews control all the banks and have all the money” to “the Jews were really the ones behind 9/11”. This past week I heard once again: “The Jews control the media.” Well, let me tell you something. If the Jews had any control over the media you can bet that the video interview of the Turkish Captain, Mehmut Tuval , of the Mavi Marmara and his first mate would have been on every news outlet. The pair admitted that the so called “activists” had prepared an attack against the IDF in advance. (Familysecuritymatters)

TERRORISM, security and policy

Our World: Hamas rises in the West- CAROLINE GLICK
By backing the terrorist group against Israel, western countries are backing Hamas against Fatah and Islamist states against ME moderates.
Since the navy’s May 31 takeover of the Turkish-Hamas flotilla, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and his advisers have deliberated around the clock about how to contend with the US-led international stampede against Israel. But their ultimate decision to form an investigatory committee led by a retired Supreme Court justice and overseen by foreign observers indicates that they failed to recognize the nature of the international campaign facing us today. Led by US President Barack Obama, the West has cast its lot with Hamas. It is not surprising that Obama is siding with Hamas. His close associates are leading members of the pro-Hamas Free Gaza outfit. Obama’s friends, former Weather Underground terrorists Bernadine Dohrn and William Ayres participated in a Free Gaza trip to Egypt in January. Their aim was to force the Egyptians to allow them into Gaza with 1,300 fellow Hamas supporters. Their mission was led by Code Pink leader and Obama fund-raiser Jodie Evans. Another leading member of Free Gaza is James Abourezk, a former US senator from South Dakota. All of these people have open lines of communication not only to the Obama White House, but to Obama himself. (Jpost)

Jordan's Nuclear Ambitions Pose Quandary for the U.S.-Jay SolomonSAWAQA, Jordan—The Kingdom of Jordan is in a sprint to become the Arab world's next nuclear power. And America wants to help it succeed. U.S. and Jordanian officials are negotiating a nuclear-cooperation agreement that would allow American firms to export nuclear components and know-how to the Mideast country, America's closest Arab ally in the volatile region. The Obama administration views Jordan as a key potential partner in its global program to promote the nonmilitary use of atomic energy—part of a broader plan to increase pressure on other Middle East countries, particularly Iran and Syria, to bring transparency to their own nuclear programs. "I believe nuclear energy in Jordan will be done in such a way where it is a public-private partnership so everyone can see exactly what's going on," Jordan's King Abdullah II said in an interview. "If we can be the model of transparency, it will push others." But it's a partnership that puts the Obama administration in a bind: It is trying to make good on its pledge to promote greater civilian use of atomic energy, without angering Israel and risking a Mideast arms race. (WSJ)

'Al-Qaeda grooming Muslims for Mumbai-style attack in UK'
Young British Muslims are being groomed by al-Qaeda for a Mumbai-style attack on targets in Britain, the country's spy agency has warned. Britain's internal intelligence agency MI5 has warned that a new generation of British extremists is being radicalised by Middle East-based Anwar al-Awlaki, who recruited the Detroit plane bomber. They are concerned that Awlaki's followers could unleash a wave of easily planned guerrilla-style terrorist attacks similar to the massacre in Mumbai, The Daily Telegraph reported. Such small-scale attacks could be carried out cheaply by individuals with little terrorist training and without the need for the support of a large organisation, it said. According to the report, al-Awlaki caught the headlines with one of his statements in March, in which he said: "Isn't it ironic that the two capitals of the war against Islam, Washington DC and London, have also become among the centres of Western Jihad (holy war). Jihad is becoming as American as apple pie and as British as afternoon tea." Awlaki, born in America but of Yemeni descent, is in hiding in Yemen, where he spent his teenage years. He is known for his English language sermons delivered over internet. In the past few weeks, al-Qaeda has released a 45-minute interview with him in which he admitted involvement in 14 plots in the US, Canada and Britain, the report said. The British security forces have become so worried about Awlaki's rising influence that they have alerted ministers to their fears. He is being regarded as one of the world's most wanted terrorists, the report said. (Hindustantimes)

Why Is the State Department Covering for a Known Terror Group?-Moshe Dann
Why is the U.S. government covering for IHH, a Turkish “charity” organization with ties to terrorists [1]?
A State Department spokesman told [2] Fox News that the IHH (Humanitarian Relief Foundation) has not been designated as a foreign terrorist organization. He added:
We are fully committed to taking appropriate action against foreign groups engaging in terrorist activity in order to prevent such groups from obtaining the resources and support needed to undertake terrorist activity. The Treasury Department, which is mandated to implement Executive Order 13224 [3], was even more evasive. Asked if they had seen Danish, French, and Turkish intelligence reports and other information on the IHH, a Treasury official acknowledged that the NGO is not on their “Specially Designated Nationals List,” and would not “comment on other governments’ intelligence.” This is not about Israeli security; it is about threats to American homeland security. A foreign NGO with a documented history of contacts with terrorists has been directly linked with Islamist terrorist organizations like al-Qaeda, and government agencies tasked with protecting America have suddenly become impotent and ignorant. Concerns about keeping Turkey pro-Western and in NATO [4] are legitimate, but they do not override American security needs. An important U.S. ally, Turkey is increasingly moving towards radical Islamism, embracing Iran and its own jihadists. The role of IHH was only exposed because of its attack on Israel, but how many other organizations are given a pass to satisfy political agendas? And who is next? Instead of leading the fight to stop IHH, the American government is ambiguous, and this sends a dangerous signal. (Pajamasmedia)

Will Homegrown Terrorists Turn the Big Apple Into 'New Yorkistan'?-Judith Miller
We continue to get more evidence that Americans will increasingly face a challenge from “homegrown” terrorism. The grim statistics can no longer be denied.They had ambitious dreams, these guys. They would astonish the world, making it big by killing lots of American soldiers overseas in Somalia or at home in America. Worst case: they would die as holy warriors and become, if not rich, famous.“My soul cannot rest till I shed blood,” Mohamed Mahmood Alessa, the 20-year-old, American-born son of Palestinian parents, told his putative partner in crime, Eduardo Almonte, 24, according to the criminal complaint filed in federal district court this week. Alessa considered fellow Muslim Major Nidal Malik Hasan, the naturalized U.S. Army psychiatrist who gunned down 13 fellow soldiers and civilians at Fort Hood last November, a nut and an amateur. “I’ll do twice what he did,” Alessa vowed. “I wanna, like, be the world’s known terrorist.”Fortunately, Alessa was plotting not only with Almonte, but also with an undercover officer from the New York Police Department’s Intelligence Division, who was recording every word. As a result, the duo were arrested Saturday night as they tried boarding separate Cairo-bound planes on their way to Somalia, where they intended to join an Al Qaeda-affiliated, Somalia-based terrorist group called Al Shabab, or “the guys” in Arabic. On Monday, they were arraigned in federal court in Newark, accused of conspiring to commit murder, kidnapping, maiming, and mayhem in the name of God. (Foxnews)

Who's the Enemy in the War on Terror?-Joseph I. Liberman
The U.S. is at war with violent Islamist extremism, and the Obama administration does moderate Muslims no favor by refusing to recognize this.
In the new National Security Strategy released by the White House last month, the Obama administration rightly reaffirms that America remains a nation at war. Unfortunately, it refuses to identify our enemy in this war as what it is: violent Islamist extremism. This is more than semantics. As military strategists since Sun Tzu have appreciated, the first rule in war is to know your enemy so you can defeat it. The 2006 National Security Strategy did this: It correctly identified our enemy as "the transnational terrorists [who] exploit the proud religion of Islam to serve a violent political vision." The Obama administration removed those accurate and important words. One argument administration officials use to defend their avoidance of terms like "violent Islamist extremism" is that they are imprecise and lump together a diverse set of organizations with different goals, motivations, and capabilities. Yet the administration's preferred alternative term—"violent extremism"—is much more vulnerable to such criticism. To state the obvious, there are many forms of "violent extremism" with which America is not "at war." The strategies and capabilities needed to counter the specific threat of violent Islamist extremism are very different from those needed to deal with white supremacist extremists in the U.S. or genocidal militias in sub-Saharan Africa. Yet at no point does the 2010 National Security Strategy explain or defend its repeated use of the nebulous euphemism "violent extremism," which also has appeared in other strategy documents over the last year. (WSJ)

Top Cleric: Iran Has Right to 'Special Weapons'-AP
Spiritual Advisor to President Ahmadinejad Writes that Iran Has the Right to Produce Nuclear Weapons
The hardline spiritual mentor of Iran's president has made a rare public call for producing the "special weapons" that are a monopoly of a few nations - a veiled reference to nuclear arms. The Associated Press on Monday obtained a copy of a book written by Ayatollah Mohammad Taqi Mesbah Yazdi in which he wrote Iran should not deprive itself of the right to produce these "special weapons." Iran's government, as well as its clerical hierarchy, have repeatedly denied the country is seeking nuclear weapons, as alleged by the U.S. and its allies. The Security Council last week imposed a fourth round of sanctions in response to Tehran's refusal to halt uranium enrichment, which Iran maintains is only for its nuclear energy program, but could conceivably be used to produce material for weapons. The new U.N. sanctions call for an asset freeze of another 40 additional companies and organizations, including 22 involved in nuclear or ballistic missile activities. Yazdi's hardline views, including devotion to the Mahdi, a messiah-like figure to reappear ahead of judgement day, have had a strong impact on Ahmadinejad, who shows him more respect than any other senior cleric. (Cbsnews)

GLOBAL GOVERNANCE AND RADICAL ENVIRONMENTALISM

How doubts about global warming are on the rise after 'big freeze' winter and emails row-Daily Mail Reporter
Global warming scepticism is rising, a major poll shows. It found that 78 per cent of Britons believed the world's climate was changing, compared to 91 per cent five years ago. Researchers said the growing doubts had been fuelled by the coldest winter in three decades and the row over leaked emails from the University of East Anglia's Climatic Research Unit. These appeared to show that scientists manipulated data on temperature records, although two inquiries ruled out malpractice. The Ipsos Mori survey of 1,822 people for Cardiff University found 40 per cent believed the seriousness of global warming was exaggerated. But the vast majority believed in climate change and that human activity was to blame. Only 18 per cent thought it was mainly or entirely caused by natural processes. Almost two-thirds would be willing to cut their energy use to help tackle the problem, and 40 per cent would pay significantly more for energy-efficient products. Professor Nick Pidgeon, of Cardiff University's school of psychology, said the fall in belief in climate change could be down to people's 'finite pool of worry' and greater concern with the financial crisis. He added: 'The short-term effects are more obvious - the emails and the fact we had a very cold winter - and people think "where is global warming when we're sitting here in 3ft of snow?".' (Dailymail.co.uk)

Renewable Energy: There Ain’t No Free Lunch- Chris J Kobus
Catch words these days for the favored form of energy include “green,” “clean,” “renewable,” and “sustainable” — among others. Yet nobody can quite quantify what exactly “green” means. Examples pointed to by proponents include wind and solar, with a few pointing to hydroelectric power, biomass, and fuel cells. But those examples, and the logic behind them, fail the very definition of renewable (or clean, green, or sustainable for that matter). As the logic goes, there will always be wind, and the sun will always shine (I’ll ignore for now that wind, just like hydro power and biomass, is just another form of solar). That logic, however, is short sighted and inaccurate, because to harness that raw energy and convert it to a more useful form, we have to manufacture the means to do so, and that in and of itself is not renewable. It appears that the hopes and dreams of proponents are for a mythical creature that cannot coexist with physical law, specifically, the First and Second Laws of Thermodynamics. The First Law, also called conservation of energy, is most familiar especially in its implication that energy cannot be created nor destroyed. We can only convert energy from one form to another, and transport it from one place to another. (Pajamasmedia)

SCIENCE, SOCIETY AND CULTURE

Safety: Distracted Driving as a Medical Condition-RONI CARYN RABIN
Family doctors routinely ask their patients whether they smoke, watch their diet, remember to fasten their seat belt. Now, in an essay in The New England Journal of Medicine, a doctor suggests adding a question to that litany: Do you drive while texting or talking on a cellphone? The physician, Dr. Amy N. Ship, a primary care doctor and assistant professor at Harvard Medical School, called on her colleagues to initiate these discussions, saying they are well worth the time and effort. “This is such an easy way to keep people healthy — it’s prevention, and it’s such low-lying fruit,” Dr. Ship said in an interview, adding: “As physicians, we have an opportunity to counsel patients. It’s an enormous power, and we should take advantage of it.” In her essay, Dr. Ship says she often initiates the discussion by asking about texting while driving, using that as an opening to mention that talking on the phone actually causes more accidents. When patients ask why a phone conversation should be any more dangerous than talking to a passenger in the car, she said, she talks about the difficulties of multitasking. “When patients aren’t convinced,” she said, “I ask them, ‘How would you feel if your surgeon talked on the phone — hands free, of course — while operating?’ “ (NYT)

Medical Radiation Is a Growing Concern-AP
It's true that we get too much radiation, but not from the sources we fret about—airport scanners, power lines, cell phones, even microwaves. It's from too many medical tests. Americans get the most medical radiation in the world—even more than folks in other rich countries—and the average American's dose has grown sixfold over the last couple of decades. Too much radiation raises the risk of cancer. The risk is growing as people in everyday situations get imaging tests far too often. A New Hampshire teen was about to get a CT scan to check for kidney stones until a radiologist, Dr. Steven Birnbaum, discovered he'd already had 14 of these powerful X-rays for previous episodes. Adding up the total dose, "I was horrified'' at the cancer risk it posed, Dr. Birnbaum says. After his daughter, Molly, was given too many scans after a car accident, Dr. Birnbaum took action. He asked the two hospitals where he works to watch for patients who had had 10 or more CT scans, or patients under 40 who' had had five—clearly dangerous amounts. They found 50 people over a three-year period, including a young woman with 31 abdominal scans. When other radiologists tell him they've never found such a case, Dr. Birnbaum replies, "That tells me you haven't looked." The U.S. accounts for half of the most advanced procedures that use radiation, and CT scans—"super X-rays'' that give fast, extremely detailed images—have soared in use over the past decade, often replacing ultrasound and MRI (magnetic resonance imaging), tests that don't require radiation. (WSJ)

The rise and fall of the sonnet-Katherine Duncan Jones
(NB: The Times now requires a supscription to read articles)
From Sir Philip Sidney to Peter Porter, sonnets can serve as a container for absolutely any subject matter, from fish to philosophy. The sonnet alone, of the many verse forms originating in Sicily and the Languedoc in the Middle Ages, flourishes in the present century. Other forms were deftly deployed by the late great Peter Porter, who surpassed even his master Auden in poetic versatility, as he pointed out in a quartet of triolets (1987): “The nearly mindless triolet, / the only form that Auden shirked”. But these forms now enjoy small currency outside literary competitions. Despite bold experiments by Wyatt and Surrey, sonnets were slow to reach anglophone literature. They arrived in the late 1580s, with a bang ignited by Sidney’s Astrophil and Stella. Single sonnets were deployed for many purposes, including dedications, commendations and memorials, but the form proliferated in Petrarchizing “sequences”, collections of linked sonnets, sometimes rounded off with a complementary poem of “complaint”. Usually amorous, bearing the fictive name of a female addressee, they were so numerous that, after a decade or so, mockery and neglect were bound to ensue. Richard Nugent’s Cynthia (1604) appeared during the closing sputter of the sonnet-sequence explosion, as did some interesting Scottish examples. Its date must be among reasons why Shakespeare’s Sonnets (1609) received neither admiring comments nor a second printing within the poet’s lifetime. The speaker’s apologies for his trite, old-fashioned style – “Why is my verse so barren of new pride? / So far from variation or quick change?” – should not be taken for mock modesty. By 1609, sonnet sequences really were old-fashioned in England. Donne, Herbert and Milton composed fine free-standing sonnets, and Herbert tried to reclaim the form for the purposes of devotion to God – “Why are not Sonnets made of thee?”. But for well over a century thereafter the form was despised and ignored. (Timesonline.co.uk)

So Many Links, So Little Time-John Horgan
Try not to check your email before you get to the end of this sentence. See? That wasn't so bad.
While toiling over what you are now reading, I scanned my three email accounts dozens of times and wrote a handful of emails; I responded on my cellphone to a score of text messages from my girlfriend and kids; I checked the balance of my bank account to see if a promised payment had arrived . . . and so on. Yet I'm relatively unwired. I don't do Twitter, Facebook or Skype. And I did all this digital darting hither and thither even though I found the subject I was supposed to be writing about—Nicholas Carr's "The Shallows"—quite absorbing. And disturbing. We all joke about how the Internet is turning us, and especially our kids, into fast-twitch airheads incapable of profound cogitation. It's no joke, Mr. Carr insists, and he has me persuaded. The Internet has transformed my professional and personal lives in many positive ways. Writing about, say, the biology of aggression, I can find more high-quality information in minutes than I could have dug up in weeks when I was beginning my science-writing career in the early 1980s. I can post material online and start receiving feedback—not all of it inane—within minutes, all the while conversing with colleagues, friends and family members by email. Who would regret these advances? (WSJ)

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