By Phyllis Chesler*

Psychologically, we tend to believe that what we see with our own eyes, especially if it is “acted out” for us, is the “truth.” Our brains are wired so that visual images assume a permanent reality–even if that reality is a computer-generated or photo-shopped Big Lie. Mohammed al-Dura did not die in his fathers’ arms even though that carefully staged image was seen round the world. Israel did not massacre anyone in Jenin even though that Big Lie has also taken on a life of its own.

I’m glad that America’s Most Wanted chose to dramatize the honor killing of Sarah and Amina Said in Dallas on Jan 1, 2008 by their father Yaser Abdul Said, who has been missing ever since. I hope the program helps aid in his capture. I applaud on-camera narrator John Walsh, who has turned his own grief at the loss of his child into something positive for so many others.

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By Olivier Guitta*

I wrote an article for the Middle East Times on Hezbollah’s capabilities around the world. You can find the full article here. Here is an excerpt:

CIA Director Michael Hayden said last week that al-Qaida was still the largest threat to the United States. He added, “If there is a major strike on this country, it will bear the fingerprints of al-Qaida.”

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By Andrew Whitehead

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) held its 14th annual banquet this evening at the Marriott Crystal Gateway Hotel tonight (Washington, DC). The annual banquet is held to raise funds and honor supporters.

Several senior officials of the organization were served subpoenas for various civil and criminal offenses.

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By Andrew L. Jaffee

The border fence being built along the U.S.-Mexican border is stemming the tide of illegal immigrants into America, despite claims to the contrary. The U.S. cannot absorb the political and economic problems of Latin America, nor is it obligated to do so. Some people in the politically-correct crowd oppose the border fence, probably because they feel guilty about living well while millions suffer in the developing world. Their feelings of guilt may be very real, but these emotions are based on faulty assumptions. America is doing its part on the world stage.

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By Douglas Farah*

The good news yesterday was the conviction on all counts of Monzar al Kassar, the international weapons trafficker and friend of numerous terrorist organizations.

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By Andrew L. Jaffee

Jamaal Young writing for the New York Press impressed me with his deep introspection into the psyche of the African-American community — looking from the inside out, and inside in. He postulates that Barack Obama’s election has changed the political landscape for the better, for example, ending the domination of Black America’s public “voice” by charlatans, bigots, and shakedown artists like Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton. Here are some snippets from Young’s article, but you should read the whole thing:

… The presence of Obama on the national stage has led the mainstream media, long distrusted by black America, to fill its programming with a more diverse array of black voices — CNN, PBS and Fox News regularly feature anchors and opinion-makers like Donna Brazile, Juan Williams, Suzanne Malveaux and Tavis Smiley. Spike Lee has been on MSNBC’s Morning Joe so many times I’m starting to think that he and conservative co-host Joe Scarborough might have a hot lil’ interracial bromance going on. … [Continues below...]

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By Phyllis Chesler

The news today is not all one might desire. At home, The National Intelligence Council, a body of analysts from every spectrum of the American intelligence community, has issued a report that is quite bleak. … (Continue reading…)

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By Andrew L. Jaffee

During a visit in June 2008 to a site in Syria which was bombed by Israeli aircraft, UN inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) found “traces of uranium,” and concluded that features of the now-demolished complex “are similar to what may be found in connection with a reactor site.” Hey, this is confirmation from the UN. Will wonders never cease? From Haaretz:

A Syrian complex bombed by Israel bore features that would resemble those of an undeclared nuclear reactor and Syria must cooperate more with UN inspectors to let them draw conclusions, a watchdog report said on Wednesday.

According to the report, nuclear inspectors took samples from the site, which was bombed by Israel Air Force jets in September 2007, on their lone visit in June 2008. Lab results showed traces of uranium, according to the report, which stressed that the traces had undergone chemical processes. …

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Aish.com has produced a short and inspiring film entitled, “Heroes of Israel - Chief Rabbi Lau.” It recounts the story of Rabbi Lau, Buchenwald concentration camp’s youngest survivor. The camp’s Gestapo Commander Kissling gathered the child prisoners and told them, “I do not need you. You are useless… and you are a waste to the German war effort.” Lau convinced Kissling that he could indeed work as a child, and started carrying water for the adult slave laborers. Rau survived to see the camp’s liberation and then emigrated to Israel. Rau’s father was a rabbi in a long line of 37 generations of rabbis. Rau decided to continue the line, become a rabbi, and carry the torch of Judaism forward. He concluded, “Yet there is something in the soul of the Jew — some inner point that binds him to tradition. This is the essence of Jewish identity.” I can only agree and tip my hat to Rabbi Lau. Please watch the film and get inspired:

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By Andrew L. Jaffee

It is disconcerting to see how many American manufacturers went from world dominance to fading flowers in the span of 30 years. While there are some niche/boutique manufacturers, and of course powerhouses like Boeing and American Apparel, things look bleak for labor-intensive producers, especially the U.S.’s “Big Three” automakers, General Motors Corp., Ford Motor Co., and Chrysler LLC, who all now “teeter on collapse.” The automakers’ systemic failure is a result of both labor and management’s dysfunctions, and we’ll explore both in this article. It is common to hear blame for the Big Three’s woes laid solely at the feet of corporate management, but these companies’ workers have also played a significant role in their near-demise. You would never know that if you only listened to labor’s side of the story — case in point: United Auto Workers President Ron Gettelfinger:

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By Andrew L. Jaffee

There’s good news on the economic front which should help pull our great nation out of recession. Interest rates have been coming down, making it cheaper for individuals, small and mid-sized businesses, and large corporations to borrow money. The credit markets are loosening up, meaning that banks are getting less fearful about lending — especially after being burned by the mortgage meltdown — and are increasingly loaning money. Kudos for thawing of almost-frozen borrowing and lending activity goes squarely to the Bush administration and Federal Reserve’s economic stimulus (”bailout”) package. Lending and borrowing of cash plays an important role in our economy — when done wisely, that is. From CNNMoney.com:

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by Sherry Jones
New York: Beaufort Books, 2008. 432 pp. $25

Reviewed by Robert Spencer*

Muhammad and Aisha, a Love Story

Jones, correspondent for the Bureau of National Affairs news agency, never expected her novel about Aisha, daughter of Abu Bakr, the first caliph, and favorite wife of the prophet of Islam, to become a battleground in the war over free speech between the West and the Muslim world. Rather, as she explained, “I have deliberately and consciously written respectfully about Islam and Mohammed … I envisioned that my book would be a bridge-builder.”[1]

The Jewel of Medina became a cause célèbre when Random House dropped it in August 2008 just before publication, citing fear of threats from Muslims — threats, it bears noting, that had not yet materialized. Subsequently, three Muslims were arrested in London for firebombing the offices of the book’s new British publisher, Gibson Square, which also then dropped the book.[2] It has now been published in the United States by Beaufort Books, which, in a press release, said that it “knows how to look for trouble.”

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By Andrew L. Jaffee

Some Senate Democrats are seeking to punish Joe Lieberman for being the independent, honest man he is. So Lieberman supported John McCain, an old friend. This is a crime? Lieberman “was re-elected in 2006 as an independent after losing his state’s Democratic primary. He remains a registered Democrat and aligns with the party inside the Senate.” It was his own state’s Democrats who tried to drum him out of the party. Some Democratic extremists recently wanted to strip Lieberman of his “chairmanship of the Senate Homeland Security Committee,” but it looks like Barack Obama wants to keep his promise of uniting the country:

… Anger toward Lieberman seems to have softened since Election Day and there’s strengthening sentiment that taking away his chairmanship might drive him from the Democratic caucus and send the wrong signals as Obama takes office on a pledge to unite the country. …

Obama has reportedly told Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada it would hurt the message of unity that he wants for his new administration if Lieberman leaves the Democratic caucus. …

This is one “change I can believe in” from Obama, and I applaud his effort to rebuild unity.

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By Jon Feere*

Illegal-alien and open-borders advocates may succeed in getting the Arizona Supreme Court to ban numerous immigration-related phrases, including “illegal alien” and “open-borders advocates.”

In a significant blow to the First Amendment and the use of legally-correct terminology, Arizona Supreme Court Chief Justice Ruth McGregor has advanced the demands of the Arizona Hispanic Bar Association by moving to ban the following language from all of the state’s courtrooms:

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By Mark Krikorian*

Now that we know who’s going to be in the White House and Congress next year, what are the prospects for immigration?

Despite big Democratic gains in Congress, the results aren’t as bad for the cause of immigration enforcement as a simple partisan approach to the issue might suggest. After all, one of the ways Democrats have been picking up formerly Republican seats over the past few elections has been to nominate immigration hawks like Heath Shuler of North Carolina and Brad Ellsworth of Indiana.

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