By Douglas Farah*
I am not a Russia expert and defer to Robert Kagan and others to paint the macro picture of what Russia’s incursion into Georgia means.
But there are several issues, outside of these, that need to be looked at in terms of Russia in the greater world, and our relationship to Russia, particularly in counter-terrorism and weapons proliferation issues.
By the Center for Immigration Studies
WASHINGTON (August 13, 2008) — The findings of a new study indicate that future levels of immigration will have a significant impact on efforts to reduce global CO2 emissions. Immigration to the United States significantly increases world-wide CO2 emissions because it transfers population from lower-polluting parts of the world to the United States, which is a higher-polluting country.
The report, entitled “Immigration to the United States and World-Wide Greenhouse Gas Emissions,” is available at this link and a video regarding the report is available at this link.
Among the findings:
By Canadian Coalition for Democracies
Ottawa, Canada - Russia’s invasion of Georgia has made public the brutal face of the Russian bear. Again, Russia has set out to crush independence, undermine sovereignty and mock the democratic aspirations of its former vassal states. The disintegration of the Soviet Union had set back the Russian bear only momentarily, its weakness and lies exposed. But the Russian bear has returned menacingly and turned the clock back to 1968 when it crushed the Prague spring as it is doing today in Georgia.
By Barry Rubin
For those who don’t know, "Fifty First Dates" is a comedy film undistinguished except by its brilliant premise. It describes the dilemma of a man in love with a woman who has short-term memory loss. Each day she forgets she has ever met him and he must start the relationship all over again from the beginning. No matter how kind, funny, or romantic he is it doesn’t really matter. Like Sisyphus in the legend, he has to roll the boulder up the mountain from the bottom and never–at least until the Hollywood-style happy ending–gets to the top.
Actually, I don’t know if he succeeds since I lost interest before the end. Even if I knew, why should I ruin the film for you?
by Cinnamon Stillwell*
This weekend, the “Popular Palestinian Conference 2008” will be held in Chicago, and if past is prologue, a slew of anti-Israel propaganda will be part of the repertoire. The organizers make no effort to conceal their nefarious intentions, titling one of the workshops [emphasis added], “Inserting Palestine into High School Curricula in the US & Empowering Students to Challenge Dominant Narratives” and subtitling the conference, “Palestinians in the US: Reclaiming Our Voice, Asserting Our Narrative.” Unfortunately, this “narrative” is a false one in which Israel is the oppressor, the Palestinians its perpetual victims, and the United States an accomplice in crime.
By Jonathan Spyer
Lebanese President Michel Suleiman is to visit Syria next week, to discuss the opening of diplomatic relations between the countries, a Lebanese official told reporters this week.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy last month hailed President Bashar Assad’s expression of willingness in principle to establish diplomatic relations with Lebanon as “historic progress.”
by Michael Rubin, republished with permission from the August 2008 issue of Mideast Monitor*
Last month, Turkish prosecutors issued a 2,455-page indictment detailing an alleged plot to overthrow Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan by an elaborate network of retired military officers, journalists, academics, businessmen, and other secular opponents of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP). Although the precise facts of the case are not yet clear, the so-called Ergenekon conspiracy appears to be a largely fictionalized construct, with an ongoing investigation geared mainly to warding off constitutional challenges to the ruling party, not coups.
By Barry Rubin
A nineteen-year-old man is to be beheaded for a bad joke interpreted as blasphemy. A father is accused of killing his son because he converted to another religion. They are not Muslims but Christians; the place is France in the mid-1700s.
There was a time when Europe often behaved in ways parallel to that of Muslim-majority countries today. Yet by the 1700s this was changing. In the former case, the king and even Catholic bishops failed to save the unfortunate Chevalier de la Barre but the outcry led to the end of such actions. In the latter, the immediate reaction was to sentence the father, Monsieur Calas, to death for murder, soon changed–by outraged public opinion–to freeing him as victim of an unjust frame-up merely because he was a Protestant.
By Jonathan Spyer
A fourth round of indirect talks between Syrian and Israeli representatives was concluded in Istanbul this week and as the Turkish mediators kept themselves in shape conveying messages between the hotel rooms of the two countries’ delegations, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert was keen to stress the urgency of the hour.
The time was approaching, the prime minister said, when gestures would no longer be enough. Rather, it would soon be time for the Syrians to make their choice between the “Iranian grip” and their partnership in the “axis of evil,” and rejoining the “family of nations” in pursuit of peace and “economic development.”
By Andrew L. Jaffee
It’s bizarre. We hear all this belly-aching about how awful it was to dump Afghanistan after the Soviets were evicted. And it was awful to leave Afghanistan in the hands of the Mujahideen.
But now we hear that we should abandon Iraq “immediately.” The result would be the same as abandoning Afghanistan: the vacuum would be filled by Islamist terrorists.
By Phyllis Chesler
Folks: I am getting many articles on the Balkan Mess. I am still no expert but what must be admitted is this: The West, including America, has been “had” in terms of signing on to only one acceptable narrative: The Christian Serbs are the evil aggressors and the Muslim separatists and imperialists are the innocent victims. (Where have we heard this before?)
The truth: That all sides committed war crimes but not genocide is apparently too complicated to bear. Anyway, I am reposting an entire article that has just appeared. Once again, dear reader, tell me what you know and what you think about this. … (Continue reading…)
by Michael Rubin*
Press and pundits applauded George Bush’s decision last month to send a representative to Geneva to join a meeting with Iran’s nuclear negotiator. Barack Obama, the 2008 presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, said, “Now that the United States is involved, it should stay involved with the full strength of our diplomacy.” Sen. John Kerry, the 2004 Democratic presidential nominee, said the decision might be “the most welcome flip flop in diplomatic history”.
By Andrew L. Jaffee
I’ve often wondered why Russia freed itself from communism, only to slide back to the paternalistic ways of authoritarian rule (e.g., Putin). Even though there’s been obvious vote rigging, and squelching of the media, it’s probably fair to say that the major of Russians voted for Putin because he makes them feel secure. While skimming some headlines this week, I finally found some insight into Russia’s love for paternalism — literally.
Recently, a Russian judge threw a woman’s sexual harassment case out of court on the grounds that, “If we had no sexual harassment we would have no children.” Huh? Read the statistics — and weep. From the Telegraph:
By Phyllis Chesler
Who can understand Balkan history–that cursed region whose fiery nationalisms led to World War One? Not I. East Europeans remember how especially brutal Muslim Nazi- and Arab-empowered soldiers were during World War Two. Yes, there once were some pockets of European-style assimilation and sophistication among Caucasus-based Muslims, Jews, and Christians in the region. Has anyone read the incomparably charming and popular novel, Ali and Nino: A Love Story written by the very Jewish Lev Nuissimbaum whose pen name was Khurbain Said? The romance captured everyone’s longing for operatic harmony between Christians and Muslims. (For the Jews, it was always more complicated). Tom Reiss has written a must-read biography of Nuissembaum titled The Orientalist: Solving The Mystery of A Strange and Dangerous Life. … (Continue reading…)
by David J. Rusin*
Persuading Western Muslim leaders to repudiate Shari’a-sanctioned violence against apostates can be a frustrating exercise, as Prince Charles discovered in 2004. Troubled by the treatment of Muslims who convert to Christianity in Islamic nations, the prince convened a summit of senior figures from both religious communities. It ended in disappointment. The Islamic representatives failed to issue a declaration condemning the practice, which the Christians had requested; they also cautioned non-Muslims not to discuss such matters in public, arguing that moderates would be more likely to make progress if the debate were kept internal.
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