The Western Word

This Week's Editorial

HOW BRITAIN WON THE WAR
By Avi Davis

The percentage of the world’s population people who still remember the events of September, 1939 may be rapidly diminishing, but even for those of us born long after that fateful month, its commemoration can still stir deep pain. We might well imagine that generation for whom the carnage of the First World War was still a relatively fresh memory, hearing Neville Chamberlain’s mournful declaration of war against Germany on the morning of September 3, 1939 with a feeling of deep dread.    They well understood that Britain was unprepared for a protracted armed conflict and were aware of the devastation that modern armaments could wreak on the home front. For over a decade they had been schooled in the knowledge of ‘total’ war and it was this awareness which had spurred the evacuation of children from England’s major cities.

It should have come as no surprise.   In March of that year, Hitler had completed the occupation of Czechoslovakia, violating, without a second thought, the Munich Agreement he had signed six months earlier and which Chamberlain had so assiduously promoted as a diplomatic safeguard against exactly the kind of armed conflict about to engulf Europe. The Soviet-German Pact of late August 1939, ensuring that Germany would not be confronted with a two front war as it had been in 1914, must have only added to the British peoples’ sense of isolation. As August made way for September, the people of Britain were staring into the dark night of a very long and very costly conflict.

The British Conservative government, which had led the ill-fated effort to stave off the eventuality of war, was now a defeated and discredited party – and it was revealed in the tone in Neville Chamberlain’s voice.   The radio recording of that moment captures the sense of a man walking to his grave – which was literally the case: within 14 months he would be dead from cancer.   But as his voice shifted into a low register, mumbling the famous words which consigned his country irrevocably to war, his self realization that it was his own failed policies which had driven his country to the brink of a catastrophe, seeped through the microphone, by the airwaves and into millions of British homes.   No one listening to that broadcast could have comfortably assumed that the British government was about to prosecute a war with vigor or was led by a leader who represented animated defiance of the Nazi threat.

And in fact, the British government was not at all committed to that cause.   Over the next eight months, as Britain and France both stood idly by as Poland was dismembered, the British preparations for war remained lack luster.   In May 1940, as France, the Netherlands and Belgium were successively invaded, Britain made a late and half hearted attempt to thwart the German advance to the English Channel , only to find its expeditionary force surrounded and, save for some very good luck and tight planning, almost annihilated at Dunkirk.

Enter Winston Churchill, who was vaulted to power by Conservative bank benchers who refused to serve under Chamberlain.   But the same young men who had shepherded him to power were not to be rewarded with ministerial positions.   Instead, Churchill retained many of Chamberlain’s appeasers, a number of whom of whom continued to connive against him and plot a return to power of either Chamberlain or his foreign minister, Lord Halifax. It was not to be for another six months, at the height of the Battle of Britain, that Churchill was finally able to rally the government and the population behind him.

Not many today are quite aware what was at stake in the summer 1940 as England stood alone against the might of the Luftwaffe and the prospect of a Nazi invasion. Had Britain fallen in those three months, the United States would have found itself eventually fighting a war on two fronts, with the Atlantic choked by unrestricted German submarine warfare and the Japanese, girding for a fight, having launched their long planned Pearl Harbor attack in December 1940, rather than 1941, seeking to ensure that the U.S. would not have the manpower nor the military hardware to successfully wage all out war.

What then stood between the United States and the likely world domination of fascism?

Britain.

Yet with such tepid and uninspired leadership, beset by a divided and incompetent parliament, how did that country finally prevail?

The obvious answers are Winston Churchill’s ebullient leadership coupled with the eventual arrival of American manpower and resources which combined ultimately to tip the Second World War in Britain’s favor.   But that would ignore one of the truly heroic episodes in the history of Western culture and civilization – and that is the fighting spirit of the British people themselves.   The country that had given birth to liberal democracy and had been regarded by the dictators as weak and pliable, proved itself nothing of the sort.   Hundreds of thousands of stories of heroism, selflessness and resilience emerged from the War, that have made their way into best selling autobiographies, novels and movies.    What they reveal is that the country which originated the very concept of individual freedom had produced a populace willing to fight to the death in defending it.    From the dog fights by Spitfire pilots over the English Channel to the immediate restoration of London buildings destroyed by the Luftwaffe, to the bravery of firefighters who risked their lives during intense aerial bombardments, there can be no doubt that the British were at their finest in the defense of their country in the crucial summer of 1940.

One questions then, whether the same qualities the British were able to summon so defiantly in the summer of 1940, would rise to the surface under similar conditions today. There is no certainty in any answer to that question.   In my piece England’s Multicultural Revolution, I wrote of what I witnessed on a visit to the United Kingdom in the summer of 2008.   There I saw the developing modern “ Battle of Britain” - the struggle to maintain English identity.   All over the country traditionalists are besieged by the pressures to conform to the multi-cultural creed. This necessarily implies the subsuming of English traditions and the demonization of traditional values and those who would uphold them.

Perhaps Britain does not represent the bulwark against fascism that it did in the 1940s, but the dangers of societal collapse remains as real as it did back then. The American Freedom Alliance recognizes the vital role Britain plays in holding together Western civilization and has therefore devoted considerable resources to identifying the threats to British society and building alliances to combat them.

That campaign is based on the notion that without British perseverance and commitment to the foundations of western civilization, the freedoms we enjoy in the West - and here in America – will themselves be imperiled.

How we now address these threats will be a test of our commitment to our common values.

But for now, suffice to say the summer of 2009 is beginning to bear an eerie resemblance to that summer 70 years ago when so much that we value and treasure in our own lives, is seen to be hanging in the balance.

Want to comment on this article? See Avi Davis’ blog
Avi Davis is the president of the American Freedom Alliance in Los Angeles. He can be contacted at isdev@ix.netcom.com

At the Rifqa Bary hearing, Orlando, Florida
by Robert Spencer (more by this author)

I'm in Orlando, Florida, at the Rifqa Bary hearing. Tom Trento of the Florida Security Council, Pamela Geller of Atlas Shrugs and I held a press conference outside the courtroom a little while ago, for a skeptical and sometimes hostile press. The press conference was disrupted several times by Muhammad Lutfi, an Orlando Muslim who declared his support for the Hamas-linked Council on American-Islamic Relations; he has clearly taken a great interest in this case. We explained about the jihadist connections of the Noor mosque, about Islamic apostasy law, and about Islamic honor killing. The mainstream media flocked to Lutfi, because he was telling them what they want to hear, but he was lying openly about Islamic apostasy law, denying that Muhammad had said, "If anyone changes his religion, kill him," and when I pointed out that this was in a hadith in Bukhari, the collection of traditions of Muhammad that Muslims consider most reliable, he denied that also.I'm in an overflow courtroom now, with the proceedings from the main courtroom on closed-circuit video. Rifqa is in the courtroom now, and it will all be beginning soon. I'll keep up with what I can here, but my laptop is running out of juice, so I may not be able to liveblog even though laptops are allowed in here. In any case, I'll keep you posted. Pamela is in the main courtroom and I'm sure she will have extensive coverage. (Jihadwatch)

UK foundation to distribute textbook that lauds Muslim world's scientific and cultural heritage- Jonny Paul
An educational foundation in the UK has announced plans to distribute to high schools a free book that highlights the scientific and cultural legacies of Muslim civilization. 1001 Inventions: Muslim Heritage in Our World is the creation of the Foundation for Science Technology and Civilization (FSTC), a Manchester-based organization set up to raise awareness of the contributions of the Muslim world to modern civilization. FSTC said the contribution that Muslim and other civilizations have made to the modern world has been widely overlooked and that its team of academics has focused on debunking the myth of the so-called "Dark Ages of Civilization." "The period between the 7th and 17th centuries - which has been erroneously labeled 'the Dark Ages' - was in fact a time of exceptional scientific and cultural advancement in China, India and the Arab world," Prof. Salim Al-Hassani, chief editor of the book, said. "This is the period in history that gave us the first manned flight, huge advances in engineering, the development of robotics and the foundations of modern mathematics, chemistry and physics." (Jpost)

California Pols Break Fast with Hamas Front-IPT
Updated September 2 Dozens of California lawmakers are expected to gather in the state Capitol this evening for an Iftar dinner – the meal breaking the daily fast for Muslims during the month of Ramadan. In doing so, the politicians are partnering with a group that federal law enforcement officials say is a Hamas-front. The Council on American-Islamic Relations' (CAIR) California chapter issued a news release Monday boasting that the dinner is co-hosted by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, Speaker Karen Bass and Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg and 35 other lawmakers.
**Update A spokeswoman for Speaker Karen Bass said the Speaker's name appeared on the co-host list without their authorization or knowledge. "The Speaker has nothing to do with this event," said spokeswoman Shannon Murphy. "We have no idea how this came about." A Schwarzenegger spokesman said the governor did not attend the dinner but agreed to be listed as a co-host because he "supports elevating the holiday."
The spokesman did not know whether the governor's office was aware of the documents linking CAIR to Hamas support.** (IPT)

Exclusive: Germany Avoids Criticizing Radical Islam and Radical Muslims-Dr. Sami Alrabaa
The German media and some German public figures are soft, too soft, on radical Islam and avoid critics and critique of this violent “religion.” The audio-visual media invite only uncritical talking heads. The print media publish only articles by apologists of Islam. Here are some examples: The recent confession of the four Muslim terrorists, also called the “Suaerland Group,” who were planning to kill as many Americans in Germany as they could, was hailed by the judge, state prosecutor, and the media. The devastating terrorist attack prepared by these men was foiled from a tip by the CIA, which the German media depict as not abiding by the law and acting against human rights. The German media and some German politicians hailed the confession and deliberately ignored the ideological/religious sources of their attack, namely the Koran and Hadith, which incite Muslims to kill non-Muslims. In an interview with Al Arabiya TV (August 16th), Daniel Cohn-Bendit, a leading politician of the Green Party in the European Parliament, presented radical Muslims as “part of a socio-political religious movement across the world, like the RAF, the German terrorist group we had in the 1970s.” (Familysecuritymatters)

Italy: Ramadan may be used to 'recruit militants' in prison-AKI
Rome, 4 Sept. (AKI) - The holy fasting month of Ramadan may provide fertile ground for recruiting militants in Italy's already overcrowded prisons, according to a senior police official. Secretary-general of the Italian penitentiary police union (SAPPE), Donato Capace, said authorities were concerned that foreign prisoners may become radicalised due to the difficult conditions. "Of the 27,000 foreign detainees, one third of them are Muslim," said Capace told Adnkronos. "The increase in tension in the situation of Afghanistan and Iraq could (also) have repercussions. "Due to the overcrowding in the cells and the high number of foreign detainees, with so many of them of the Islamic faith, the prison cell could become a place where petty criminals are tempted by jailed members of terror organisations," said Capace. Although many of the detainees face restrictions such as not being able to pray beside their friends and family and have no access to traditional food during Ramadan, prison authorities are sensitive to the religious requirements of the inmates. (AKI)

No classmate to speak Swedish with Hampus-Henrik W
School has begun. But not for Hampus, aged 7. He would have been the sole Swedish kid in his class at the Gustaf Hellström School. His family finds this unacceptable and keeps him home.Hampus Kristoffersson waves to the neighbour boy who has just returned from the kindergarten. He’s been home all day long, despite school having started last Tuesday. “School is supposed to be a happy time. I won’t let him go there if he’s going with tears in his eyes and a sinking feeling in his stomach,” says Agnetha Nilsson. Last fall, Hampus and his mother Anna Nilsson moved from Knislinge to Österäng. He began at a new school. To begin with, he had a few Swedish classmates, but they eventually moved away, one by one. Hampus was left alone. And did not like it. During breaks, the other children spoke their native tongues. Hampus could not join the games and felt excluded. (GatesofVienna

Libya called for Switzerland to be abolished-The Telegraph
Col Muammar Gaddafi's Libya proposed a UN motion calling for the abolition of Switzerland after a dispute over the arrest of one of the president's sons, it has emerged. The Alpine country should be folded into France, Germany and Italy, according to the bizarre proposal.
However, the motion never came before the council because it was dismissed as against the principals of the UN charter, a spokesman for the multi-national body said. According to the charter, no member country can threaten the existence or sovereignty of another. The incident followed a diplomatic dispute after Hannibal Gaddafi and his wife Aline, were held by police in July 2008, accused of assaulting their servants at a Geneva hotel. The couple were freed on bail after two days in custody. The complaint against them was dropped after a lawyer for their servants, a Moroccan and a Tunisian, said they had received an undisclosed amount in compensation. Gaddafi retaliated by closing Swiss businesses in Libya, arresting Swiss nationals and throwing the country's diplomats out. He also suspended oil deliveries to Switzerland and withdrew assets worth nearly £4 billion from Swiss banks. The Swiss Foreign Ministry described it as a single-minded campaign against Swiss interests. Swiss president Hans-Rudolf Merz, travelled to the Libyan capital, Tripoli, to deliver a personal apology, infuriating many Swiss who felt their country should have stood its ground. (Telegraph.co.uk)

In Loco Parentis-Joy Tiz
“Liberals have long realized that, if they can win the battle over what is taught in schools, they will win elections.” -Phyllis Schlafly, Townhall. Barack Obama’s plans to reach out to millions of suggestible school children has met with parental consternation. Their collective alarm is a bit tardy. Radical Leftists already have control of the public school system. The grand doyen of public education is Obama’s cherished comrade, Bill Ayers.
Dumbing down of an entire nation. Decades of entrusting the federal government with our children’s education has led, inevitably, to the dumbing down of an entire nation. Our public school system has failed to provide the most basic and elementary skills, while at the same time functioning as a ministry of propaganda for left wing causes. Nobody can seriously argue that our kids are getting smarter. Teachers unions have done yeoman’s work tirelessly crusading against accountability. Standardized tests, we are told, are inherently biased against disadvantaged students. Social promotions are essential to safeguard self-esteem. Bill Ayers is a leading advocate of social justice teaching. Even young evangelicals, that is the children of the religious right, have been deluded into believing in “social justice”; 18 to 29 year old evangelicals voted for Obama, in spite of his record on abortion. Many of these young people claimed that it was the pursuit of social justice that put them in the Obama camp. (Eagleforum.org) (Candafreepress)

NAS Helps Students Argue Against the Sustainability Movement-Peter Wood Press Release
PRINCETON, NJ—The National Association of Scholars today published “Sustainability is a Waste,” which provides ten reasons for college students to oppose the sustainability movement on campus. Among the ten reasons are that “sustainability shrinks freedom,” “sustainability tries to program you,” and “sustainability is wasteful.” NAS published this list after a year of research into the campus sustainability movement and what it means for American higher education. When asked about the results of the research so far, NAS President Peter Wood explained, “Sustainability is a term we hear all the time today. It sounds like a good thing—a call to take care of the environment—but the sustainability movement is really much more about advancing unpopular political ideas under a green umbrella.” Dr. Wood said, “Sustainability advocates have succeeded at imposing their ideology on colleges and universities without debate and with no real examination of its merits. The NAS would like to change that. This catalog of the sustainability movement’s abuses in the academy is a good place to start.” “Sustainability is a Waste” can be found at the National Association of Scholars website at http://www.nas.org/polArticles.cfm?Doc_Id=997. (NAS)

'FOX News Reporting: Do You Know What Textbooks Your Children Are Really Reading?' [incl. Islamic Saudi Academy]-Fox News
FOX News Reporting investigated the $10 billion dollar-a-year textbook industry and how the drive to be politically correct might be taking over American schools. Host Tucker Carlson, asked experts, teachers, publishers and parents the same question: "Do you know what is inside your children's textbooks?" From kindergarten through college, we found staggering errors and omissions which may be pushing agendas, hidden and otherwise. We spoke to the author of "The Language Police," education historian Diane Ravitch, who said textbook publishers censor images or words they deem to be controversial in children's textbooks. She told us that publishers pander to special interest groups, and assemble bias and sensitivity review committees. These committees decide what words to ban or redefine, and even what images are deemed offensive. And we examined some college textbooks both in print and in digital forms. We found a glaring mistake in an expensive history book written by Alan Brinkley, Provost at New York's Columbia University. And in Fairfax County Virginia, questions remain about what textbooks are used in the private Islamic Saudi Academy. The ISA teaches about 1000 students each year pre-K — 12. Questions have been raised about its textbooks at least since 2006. (Foxnews)

MEDIA BIAS

Media Ignoring Conservatives' Return to Dominance of Political Book Market Lachlan Markay
Conservatives are resuming their historically dominant position atop the New York Times [1] and Amazon.com [2] bestsellers lists after a short hiatus that coincided, not coincidentally, with George W. Bush's tenure in the White House. While the mainstream media raved about a new era of leftist intellectual supremacy during the liberal ascendance on the bestsellers lists, the return of conservative books to the tops of those lists seems to be going unnoticed. Amazon, which, unlike the New York Times, ranks books according to the number of actual copies sold, shows Glenn Beck's Common Sense rounding out the top, with Michelle Malkin's Culture of Corruption coming in a close second. Ron Paul's End the Fed comes in at number seven, Mark Levin's Liberty and Tyranny is at number nine, and at number 22 is Dick Morris and Eileen Mcgann's Catastrophe, which carries the blunt sub-heading, "How Obama, Congress, and the special interests are transforming... a slump into a crash, freedom into socialism, and a disaster into a catastrophe... and how to fight back."(NewsBusters)

Lies about Bush's record on science- Zbigniew Mazurak
Even though President Bush has left office, the media don't stop lying about his record. But it is surprising that one of the leading anti-Bush media has been the self-proclaimed conservative Daily Telegraph newspaper, which calls itself Britain's #1 quality newspaper. One of the worst lies made against President Bush was that he was an enemy of science, and it must be refuted - not for Bush's sake, but for the sake of the truth and the Republican Party. If it is to win future elections, the myth that the GOP is anti-science must be refuted once and for all. And that requires debunking the lies about Bush's record on science.
In a March 2009 article in the Daily Telegraph, Ian Douglas made a series of false assertions, which will be debunked here one after another.
Claim #1: Bush banned stem cell research.
This is a lie repeated by the Telegraph (and other media) many times, yet even repeating it 100 times hasn't made it true. Douglas asserted that Harold Vamus has been campaigning against the effect of America's religious right-wing lobby groups in politics, including the ban on stem cell research. But Bush never banned any kind of stem cell research, whether adult stem cell, cord blood cell, or embryonic stem cell research. He has signed no such law -- whether an Act or an exec order. (Americanthinker)

Obstacles in Liberating Islam-Wafa Sultan
As an Arab woman who suffered for three decades living under Islamic Sharia, it is clear to me that Islam’s political ideology and Sharia must be fought relentlessly by Western civilization to prevent its application in a free society. However, I have found myself fighting on two fronts. The first front is against Islamists, a daunting fight indeed. But the other front is one shaped by too many uninformed individuals who like to view themselves as open minded “progressives”. They seem to somehow claim superiority on compassion, on peace, on open-mindedness and on appreciation of other cultures. Regarding themselves as tolerant, free thinking individuals, they avoid questioning Muslims’ harmful intentions. They restrict themselves to self-criticism, and make politically-correct excuses for Islamism. Regrettably, they show their indisputable acceptance of ‘others’ at the expense of the public’s responsibility to learn the truth about Islam’s detrimental tenets. It is crucial for these so called “progressives” to realize that Islam is indeed based on an anti-liberal system. They need to awaken to the inhumane policies and practices of Islamists around the world. They need to realize that Islamism oppose the liberal values they cherish. And equally important, they must not take for granted the respect for human rights and dignity that we experience in America, and in the West, today. (Hudson

“Caliphate or Republic”-Shireen Qudosi
How the Exchange Between CAIR and ACT! For America Highlights the Importance of Free Speech and Conservative Values.
On July 11, 2009, the San Diego Public Library hosted CAIR’s SD Director Edward Hopida’s presentation on Islam. During the presentation, Mr. Hopida took a moment to list a number of authors whose work he felt should be avoided because (according to him) they possessed “no expertise” on Islam and were published because they were exploiting 9-11. The list included Steven Emerson, Hirsi Ali, Noni Darwish, Brigitte Gabriel, Robert Spencer, and an array of other writers whose work is of a controversial nature within the Muslim community. Whatever one’s opinion may be of these writers, we cannot ignore the grand irony of suggested book banning in a public library - an event that, at the end of the day, was sponsored by tax payers. Hopida’s actions also ignore the efforts dedicated to Islam pre 9-11. His dismissal of Ali, Darwish, and Gabriel draws attention to a larger problem of the failure of such associations and ‘experts’ to value women as witnesses. Having attended Hopida’s presentation, San Diego ACT chapter leader Mike Hayutin took it upon himself to offer a counter argument. He approached San Diego Public Library Director Deborah Barrow and requested the same time and sponsorship to speak of radical Islam. Unlike Hopida, Hayutin was not on a payroll and invested his own time and resources to exercise his belief in balanced representation. The request was initially reluctantly received by Barrow, who had likely perceived CAIR as a civil rights group and was unaware of the controversy surrounding them. However, considerable community pressure, as well as a call from the mayor’s office, facilitated Hayutin’s request. Hayutin was finally granted his opportunity to present a two hour presentation on radical elements in Islam. (Qudosi)

Anti-Semitism Thrives on Dutch Social Media- Nissan Ratzlav-Katz
(IsraelNN.com) Virulent anti-Semitic content thrives on a Dutch social media website used by nearly half of the entire population of Holland, according to a report released Thursday. Yet, many of the online instigators appear to be Dutch-speaking Arabs. The report, produced by investigators from Yad VaShem, the Dutch-language Israel Facts Monitorgroup and the Network on Anti-Semitism based in the Netherlands, was provided to all the political parties in the Netherlands, as well as to members of the Dutch government. As the Internet is becoming an increasingly important and influential facet of Dutch life, the investigators are hoping to provide some insight into how it is used in the Netherlands to propagate anti-Israel rhetoric and anti-Semitic views. "Anti-Semitism and hatred toward Israel containing anti-Semitic content is a common phenomenon on the Internet in the Netherlands," the report declares. "Remarks which were unthinkable only ten years ago are now common practice and do not seem to raise eyebrows anymore." In fact, after three months of regular monitoring, the investigators concluded, "The climate in which the public debate about Israel and the Middle East conflict is taking place on the Internet is deteriorating." (INN)

Chavez: Israel's gov't is 'genocidal'-Associated Press , THE JERUSALEM POST
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez told the Israeli people not to support their government, which he described as "genocidal" on Friday, the second day of his trip to Syria. Chavez is on an 11-day trip to Libya, Algeria, Syria, Iran, Belarus, Russia and Spain in what he is describing as a bid to build a multi-polar world and decrease US influence in the region. The Venezuelan president has singled out Israel for criticism during his visit to Syria, slamming it for mistreating the Palestinians and being an agent of US imperialism. "The state of Israel has become a murderous lackey at the service of imperialism," Chavez said. "It's a genocidal government. I condemn that Zionist government that persecutes the heroic Palestinian people." Chavez, whose remarks were broadcast by state television in Venezuela, added that "the people of Israel shouldn't support a genocidal government."(Jpost)

Dutch to Prosecute Muslim Group Over Holocaust Caricature-David Lev
Prosecutors in the Netherlands have decided to charge an Arab group for publishing a caricature on its website that insults the memory of the six million Jews killed in the Holocaust. The caricature, according to prosecutors in the Dutch city of Utrecht, insults Jews as a group and is therefore banned for publication in the country. According to prosecutors, the offending group, the Arab European League, would likely face a fine for publishing the caricature, although the offense carries a maximum penalty of a year in jail. The caricature depicts what appear to be two Jewish men standing near a pile of skeletons. Next to them is a sign that reads "Auswitch," a reference to the Auschwitz concentration camp. In the cartoon, one of the men pokes a bone with a stick, and says to his fellow, "I don't think they're Jews," while the other responds, "We have to get to the six million somehow" - implying that the number of Jews killed in the Holocaust was somehow inflated by Jews for political purposes. The case came to the attention of Dutch prosecutors after Ronny Naftaniel of the Center for Documentation on Israel filed a complaint with police, saying that the picture was discriminatory and racist. In response, the Arab group says that while it does not agree with the cartoon, it placed it on its website to show the "hypocrisy" of European officials. (INN)

Hate Speech on Campus-Fern Sidman
Stand With Us, the pro-Israel advocacy organization that focuses its energies on countering disinformation and slander against Israel and Jews on college campuses, has produced a powerful and must-see documentary on the proliferation of rabid Jew hatred that has permeated today's college campuses.
It is that time of the year once again. The new school term will begin in a matter of weeks. As the excitement and anticipation escalates for some, entering college or university for the first time can be a daunting and intimidating experience for the Jewish student. Always a minority, the secular Jewish student faces the foreboding prospect of living on a campus that has morphed into a raging hotbed of anti-Israel fanaticism. Stand With Us, the pro-Israel advocacy organization that focuses its energies on countering disinformation and slander against Israel and Jews on college campuses, has produced a powerful and must-see documentary on the proliferation of rabid Jew hatred that has permeated today's college campuses. The introduction to "Hate Speech on Campus" unequivocally states that the objective of this film is not to thwart the rights of free speech on campuses or to initiate a campaign against academic freedom, but rather to spotlight the rampant plague of Islamic demonization of Israel that has become a ubiquitous phenomenon. (Intellectualconservative)

TERRORISM, security and policy

Military source warns of North’s EMP bomb-Kim Min-seok, Yoo Jee-ho
North Korea is developing a bomb that emits an electromagnetic field upon explosion and damages nearby electronic devices, a South Korean military source has revealed to the JoongAng Ilbo. The source said North Korea has been working on the electromagnetic pulse bomb, or EMP bomb, since the mid-1990s, with help from Russian scientists, adding that the weapon may be near completion. The EMP bomb produces a short but strong electromagnetic pulse that, if exploded 40 kilometers (25 miles) above ground, would affect equipment within a 700-kilometer radius, including exposed electrical conductors, such as wires. According to Australia-based defense analyst Carlo Kopp and his paper at the GlobalSecurity.org Web site, the EMP effect can cause irreversible damage to electrical and electronic devices, such as computers, radio and radar. He noted that EMP devices can render many modern military platforms useless because they are packed with electronic equipment. He argued that the damaged inflicted by such a bomb is akin to the harm caused by powerful bolts of lightning. The EMP bomb is not known to cause casualties. The U.S. forces used them at the onset of the war on Iraq in 2003. (Joongangda

Sanctions Won't Work Against Iran-John Bolton
The mullahs are addressing their vulnerability to a gasoline shortage.
Last week, International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director General Mohamed elBaradei attempted to whitewash Iran's nuclear weapons program by issuing a report ignoring substantial information about weaponization activities and downplaying continued noncooperation. Even the Obama administration apparently now understands that resuming the long-stalled "Permanent-Five plus-one" negotiations (the U.N. Security Council's permanent members plus Germany) with Iran is highly unlikely to halt Tehran's nuclear ambitions. Accordingly, President Obama is readying two alternatives. One is to characterize "freezing" Iran's nuclear program at existing levels as a "success." However, this less than complete termination of Iran's nuclear program would run contrary to years of determined clandestine efforts. Such a freeze is utterly unverifiable and amounts to surrender. This will result in a nuclear-armed Iran. The other Obama administration ploy is "strong sanctions" imposed by the United States and other countries. This will also be a "success" only in the sense that it will allow the administration to claim a win. It won't actually prevent Iran from getting nuclear weapons. (WSJ)

A Dangerous Delusion-Andrew C. McCarthy
We go to war to defend our interests, not to encourage democracy.
Right after 9/11, Pres. George W. Bush made a succinct demand of the Taliban: Hand over Osama bin Laden and his cohorts or face horrific consequences. The demand, the president emphasized, was non-negotiable. The Taliban refused, insisting that the U.S. produce evidence against al-Qaeda. Because Islamists — not just terrorists but all Islamists — believe the United States is the enemy of Islam, the Taliban also floated the possibility of rendering bin Laden to a third country. No deal, Bush replied. As promised, the consequences were swift and severe. Yet, two weeks into the first bombing raids, the president offered the Taliban a “second chance.” Mullah Omar declined to take it. The invasion proceeded and the rest is history. It’s now a long, confused history. The distance we’ve traveled from the clarity of the first days is manifest in the Right’s ongoing intramural skirmish over the eminent George Will’s latest column. (Nationalreview)

Time's up on Iran-Caroline Glick
Over the past few weeks evidence has piled up that Iran is not years away from being capable of building nuclear bombs at will. It is months away. As the latest report by the International Atomic Energy Agency on Teheran's nuclear program makes clear, at its present rate of uranium enrichment, Iran will have sufficient quantities of enriched uranium to build two atomic bombs by February. What is most notable about this IAEA finding is that it comes in a report that does everything possible to cover up Iran's progress and intentions. Israel responded angrily to the report, alleging that the agency's outgoing director, Mohamed ElBaradei, suppressed information that confirms the military nature of Iran's program. In a statement released last Saturday, the Foreign Ministry alleged that the report "does not reflect the entirety of the information the IAEA holds on Iran's efforts to advance their military program, nor their continued efforts to conceal and deceive and their refusal to cooperate with the IAEA and the international community." (Jpost)
Two weeks before the IAEA released its report, the US State Department published its assessment that Iran won't have the wherewithal to develop a bomb until 2013. According The Washington Post, this conclusion is based on the State Department's analysis of Iran's "technical capability." (Jpost)

Islamist terror still serious threat to Europe: EU expert-DPA
Brussels - The threat of an Islamist terror attack is still serious and should not be underestimated, the bloc's anti-terrorism coordinator warned Thursday. "It would be a mistake to believe that the threat level has decreased significantly," Gilles de Kerchove told a public hearing of the Interior and Economic Committee of the EU parliament. Introducing his annual report, de Kerchove stressed that the global economic and financial crisis had exacerbated the threat. And he pointed to this month's general election in Germany as a potential risk. De Kerchove, appointed to the post in 2007, told parliamentarians "the threat of Islamist terrorism in Europe remains serious." The anti-terror chief pointed to failing states such as Yemen and the Sahel-region of Africa as potential breeding grounds for terrorists. Although the last successful terror attacks in Europe were the tube and bus bombings in London in 2005, de Kerchove warned that it was only due to intelligence work that there had not been further incidents. He also pointed to the increased radicalisation of some Muslim youths, and the called for more drastic measures to protect the internet from cyber-attack. (Earthtimes)

Hizballah’s Possible Back Door into the UN-W. Thomas Smith, Jr.
Though barely registering a blip in Western media this week, there have been several reports – primarily throughout a variety of Middle East media – that Lebanon may well be a candidate for membership (though non-permanent) on the United Nations Security Council (UNSC). According to several publications this week, Lebanese foreign minister Fawzi Salloukh says the UNSC membership would comply with a “contract” between members of the Arab League and the rotation of seats in the UNSC every two years, adding that the Arab League “has supported Lebanon's application.” This of course would have huge implications for any future strategic decisions on Lebanon by the UNSC, because the Lebanon-based terrorist group, Hizballah, controls vast tracts of territory in that country, illegally maintains a vast array of weaponry from rifles to rockets, has infiltrated all levels of the Lebanese Army, holds parliamentary seats, has time-and-again shown its willingness to take up arms against the Lebanese people to achieve its political goals (we must never forget May 2008), and the group continues to conduct terrorist training, operations, and related smuggling of arms, cash, and men worldwide (Familysecuritymatters)

Green zealots and muddled ministers are leading Britain to blackouts-Christopher Booker
Power-cut Britain, to anyone who remembers it, will seem utterly antediluvian. It predated home computers and mobile phones, and colour televisions were only then beginning to appear. Those who were young in the early Seventies will remember poring over their homework by candlelight, and there was a clear division between people who liked the reek of paraffin lamps and people who didn’t. Then, along with the three-day week and crippling industrial disputes, powercut Britain disappeared into the past, never to return. That is, until now. Once again we are being warned that within a few years this country could be facing its worst wave of power blackouts since those far-off days more than three decades ago — and that even the Government itself now admits these might be inevitable. For seven years it has been glaringly obvious to energy experts that Britain will soon be facing a colossal energy gap, as the ageing power stations which currently supply 40 percent of our electricity are forced to close down. Eight of our nine nuclear power plants are coming to the end of their life. And half of our coal and oil-fired power stations are rapidly running out of the hours they are allowed to keep running under the EU’s Large Combustion Plants directive, designed to stop the pollution blamed for acid rain. By 2015, or even earlier, we shall thus begin to lose two-fifths of our present electricity supply, and the question energy experts are asking is: how do we propose to fill this yawning gap? (Dailymail.co.uk)

The Science of Global Warming: Saving the World or Hunting for Ghosts?- Larrey Anderson
If we wanted to know how to cure a sick cow we could ask the scientist known as a veterinarian. The veterinarian has studied the biology, physiology, anatomy, etc., of animals and could probably help us with our sick cow. Veterinarians know about cows and cow diseases. Vets can back up their knowledge with thousands of experiments and the accumulation of mountains of incontrovertible data.[i] On the other hand, there are people who pretend to be scientists and pretend to have explanations for how certain things work -- things that either don't exist or aren't anything like the phenomena that the pretend scientist claims that the things are. Take "ghost hunters" as an example. What is their science? Does it have a name?[ii] How does one become a ghost-hunting scientist? What evidence qualifies for proving that ghosts exists? How do ghost hunters cure us of the ghosts? (By mumbling some words and then telling their gullible clients that the ghost is gone?) Doesn't the "science" of ghost hunting presume, without any credible evidence, the existence of ghosts? How do these ghost scientists even look for something that probably doesn't exist? Notice that veterinarians don't assume that cows are sick and that there is only one cow sickness. They study the cow for symptoms and then render a diagnosis. (A diagnosis, I should add, that the vet might change if the symptoms of the cow change.) Now to our topic: What about the science of global warming? Is it more like the science of healing cows or the "science" of ghost hunting? For starters, let me make it clear that the leaders of the AGW movement claim that there is a global warming science. Al Gore's official web site is called: "An Inconvenient Truth Official Site: Global Warming Science, Climate Change Science, Facts and Evidence." [Emphasis added.][iii] (Americanth)

Conspiracy Czar- Ben Johnson
IT MUST MARK A NEW LOW IN PRESIDENTIAL HISTORY when the fact that someone is a self-described Communist is not the most damning thing that can be said of a presidential adviser entrusted with federal power. Not only is Green Jobs Czar Van Jones a 9/11 Truther, but his organization believes Hurricane Katrina was a Bush conspiracy, as well. His unique combination of radicalism and irresponsibility provides a remarkable window into Barack Obama’s own radicalism. After a string of embarrassing revelations, yesterday the press reported that Jones had joined such notable leftists as Cynthia McKinney, Ralph Nader, and Howard Zinn in signing the 9/11 Truth Statement (signature #46), which called for a federal investigation whether President Bush knew about – or perhaps colluded in – the destruction of the World Trade Center. This is somewhat ironic, since on the evening after 9/11, Jones stood in the streets with the Maoist-communist organization he founded – Standing Together to Organize a Revolutionary Movement (STORM) – to denounce the United States for having brought the disaster on itself. (Frontpagemagazine

Using the power of light to deliver sound-Karin Kloosterman
When they needed a non-electrical, state-of-the-art device to facilitate communication in the MRI room, top US companies turned to Israel for the solution. We rely on electricity to power up most of our communications devices, but in some environments a different solution is required. On an oil rig, one spark can lead to a destructive inferno. And in a hospital MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging) room, electrical interference disrupts both scanning and communications equipment. Optoacoustics of Israel has what it describes as the only system available that enables effective communication in interventional MRI environments. With its device that uses the power of light to deliver sound, medical professionals can work smoothly and quietly during procedures and converse easily with both technicians and patients. Since medical intervention using MRI scanners is increasingly common, the need to communicate with patients during procedures is becoming ever more important. "It [MRI] gives off no radiation, unlike CTs and x-rays, and the resolution is high," says Yuvi Kahana, CEO of Optoacoustics, who runs a slim and trim crew of seven based in Or Yehuda, near Tel Aviv. Founded in 2006, the self-funded company has optical-based communications systems in about 250 centers around the world that help to sync brain imaging and speech. (Israel21c)

The Bishop of Rochester farewell interview-Martin Beckford
The Bishop of Rochester, the Rt Rev Michael Nazir-Ali, spoke of the dangers facing the Church of England and British society in a final interview published in The Daily Telegraph last week.
In addition to questions about secularism, Islam and the future of the Anglican Communion, he was also asked about his views on the conflict in Afghanistan, his new role helping persecuted Christians overseas and the environment.
Dr Nazir-Ali’s full comments, made before he stepped down after 15 years in Rochester, can be found below.
: On how his diocese has changed
What stands out about the dioceses is the huge demographic changes in the Thames Gateway. We have been concerned with the coming into being of what I call a liquid city - it’s got no centre.
People should experience community operating – how are local young people going to benefit from Bluewater? How are older communities going to feel included?
:: On upheaval in the Church
The Anglican Communion has grown a great deal in many parts of the world, such as Nigeria, Uganda, Singapore but obviously we’ve had negative developments.
I’ve always been a believer in principled comprehensiveness. The Anglican Communion and the Church of England are comprehensive – they embrace people of different ideas like evangelicals and Anglo-Catholics and the principled bit is important.
There was a basic belief in doctrine and worship but the difficulty has been that that consensus has been overturned. (Telegraph.co.uk)

Meet the Beatles (Again)-Katherine Rosman
New package keeps Ringo chatting, deletes mechanical hiss
You still can't buy "Can't Buy Me Love" from iTunes. But the Beatles' music is taking a step toward catching up with technology. After four years of audio engineers working from Abbey Road Studios in London with the original Beatles recording tapes, on Sept. 9, Apple Corps Ltd. and EMI Music are debuting the digitally remastered Beatles' studio-produced albums. All told, 29 CDs, in one of two box sets will go on sale. They "have the integrity of the original master tape, they're just phonically superior" to previously released recordings, says Kevin Howlett, a radio producer who consulted on the project. Diehard Beatles fans have been complaining about the lackluster quality of Beatles CDs since they were released 22 years ago, with one reviewer calling the audio "tinny and desperately malnourished." Apple Corps Ltd., which was created by the Beatles in 1968, and EMI Music control the Beatles catalog. They are betting that they can benefit from the hype surrounding the release the same day of The Beatles: Rock Band, a video game that lets players simulate recording and performing with the band. So far, the move is paying off: Pre-order sales for all the new Beatles CD box sets are among the top 15 pre-order music best-sellers in Amazon.com's history. The retailer has sold out during pre- order sales and says it will restock. To attract musical purists as well as more casual fans, they are releasing two versions: a limited-edition "mono" box set of recordings as they were originally configured by the band and producer George Martin; and a "stereo" box set of the same songs mixed later by Mr. Martin to satisfy the growing demand for the new "stereo" medium in which vocals and instrumentation could be separated and fed into different speakers. The CDs in the stereo box set will also be sold individually. (WSJ)