by Cinnamon Stillwell*

It was often said after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, that everything had changed. And for a few years afterwards, indeed it had. After decades of denial, America and its allies went on the offensive against Islamic terrorism, both militarily and morally. Most importantly, there was no hesitancy to name the enemy or to condemn his inhumanity.

But if the lack of outrage over the Islamic terrorist assault on Mumbai, India last month was any indication, everything has changed back.

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By Phyllis Chesler*

Most Jews do not recognize themselves in what Madoff did; they still expect to be judged on their own merits. I doubt this will happen. I think Jews will be judged as if we are all guilty, whether or not we are innocent or poor, and whether or not we fight for justice for Palestinians or for justice for murdered Chabadniks in Mumbai. Here’s one reason why.

For days now, I have been following the media coverage of the Madoff scandal. I could not help but note that the New York Times kept emphasizing that he is Jewish and moved in monied, Jewish circles; not once, but time and again, in the same article, and in article after article. ‘Tis true, alas, ’tis true, the rogue is a Jew: But how exactly is Madoff’s religion more relevant than Rod Blagojevich’s religion? The Times has not described Blagojevich (or Kenneth Lay of Enron) as "Christians," nor do they describe the Arab or south Asian Muslim terrorists as "Muslims."

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By Andrew Whitehead

A jury has found the remaining defendants know as the “Fort Dix Six” guilty of conspiring to kill American military personnel at Fort Dix. The jury found that the men had made an agreement to attack soldiers at the base “and had taken at least one step toward carrying it out.”

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In record time, CAIR and their stooge James Yee rose to the defense of Islamist jihadists who wanted to kill fellow Americans, and to insult the integrity of FBI and law enforcement personnel who acted quickly and bravely to defend our countrymen from a terror attack.

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By Mark Krikorian

Apologists for mass immigration have been telling us for years that immigrants worked in “segmented labor markets” and “niche occupations” — really just fancy terms for “jobs Americans won’t do.” Well, so much for that theory; as the Wall Street Journal points out, “U.S. Workers Crowding Out Immigrant Laborers:”

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By Phyllis Chesler

I attended a fairly large Bar Mitzva this past Shabbos. Hundreds of Jewish writers, editors, rabbis, scholars, lawyers, therapists, deans, foundation heads and opinion-makers were gathered together — none of whom seemed especially worried about the Madoff scandal. One intellectual said that, “in the past, things had been a lot worse for the Jews.” The Director of a philanthropic foundation pointed out that “many non-Jews have also been responsible for financial cons and that non-Jews have also been victimized by Madoff.” … (Continue reading…)

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By Barry Rubin

If you can understand why Hamas is ending its ceasefire with Israel, you can comprehend Middle East politics. And if you can’t, you can’t.

From of a Western moderate pragmatist standpoint, Hamas’s decision makes no sense for several reasons:

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by Philip Jenkins
Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007. 340 pp. $28.

Reviewed by Daveed Gartenstein-Ross*
Foundation for Defense of Democracies

Europe’s religious crisis, referenced in Jenkins’s title, is actually a demographic crisis. For a society to maintain its existing population size, it requires a fertility rate of 2.1 children per woman, and the fertility rates in most European countries fall well below that number. Along with the birth dearth, for decades Europe has been home to large-scale immigration, particularly from Muslim societies, and an immigrant population whose birthrate outstrips that of native Europeans. Warnings that the continent will become home to a Muslim majority before the next century are underscored in Europe’s Muslim communities by a strong extremist voice, a reluctance to assimilate, widespread support for Shari’a (Islamic law), and homegrown terrorism.

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By Andrew Whitehead

The Atlanta Journal Constitution/CBS46.com recently carried stories about a Muslim woman who had been refused entry to a courtroom due to her refusal to remove the scarf covering her head.

From the articles, we learn that the Muslim woman, Lisa Valentine, was stopped before going through the metal detector and informed by the bailiff that she would not be permitted into the courtroom unless she removed her head covering.

After informing the bailiff that wearing the head-covering was “her right,” Valentine (known by her Muslim name, Miedah):

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By Walid Phares*

Over the past nine months, a major campaign promoted by member-states in the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) and its Secretariat General has been aiming at forcing a declaration on “defamation of religion” on the United Nations. The OIC, influenced by radical ideologues including the International Union of Clerics headed by Sheikh Yusuf Qardawi, wants the UN to vote a law banning and punishing any criticism of religion in general and of critical debates about Islam in particular. Aside from obstructing reformers and suppressing democratic movements within Muslim societies, the OIC move will be used by Jihadi Terror networks to further their ideological indoctrination.

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by Dore Gold
Washington, D.C.: Regnery Publishing, Inc, 2007. 372 pp. $27.95

Reviewed by Eric H. Cline*
George Washington University

The Fight for Jerusalem is not written for academics but for a general audience. In it, Gold, a former Israeli ambassador to the United Nations, argues that Jerusalem must remain under Israeli sovereignty and only then can “peace be safeguarded,” for “Muslim Palestinians are looking to obliterate other faiths” from the city. The first two-thirds of the book contain historical material on the relationship between Jerusalem and Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, respectively, from antiquity through the Middle Ages and beyond, and then the physical and diplomatic struggle over Jerusalem from 1948 to 2000. Much of this data has been presented previously, and with more authority and fewer errors, by other scholars—upon whom Gold is heavily dependent.

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By Andrew L. Jaffee

Egypt is not doing anything to help ease the isolation of Palestinians in Gaza. In fact, it is re-enforcing the blockade by keeping the Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt closed. So says the Ma’an News Agency, which claims to be “…among the most browsed websites in the Palestinian territories, with over 3 million visits per month. Considered the main source of independent news from Palestine, MNA has become the first choice for online information for many Palestinians, and is also attracting a growing international readership and interest from prominent international news organizations and agencies.” Another example of Arab solidarity with the Palestinian people? From today’s edition of Ma’an:

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By Isaac Kfir*

This article examines Pakistan’s role in the "war on terror" in light of the transition from the Musharraf presidency to that of Zardari. It opens with Musharraf’s tenure and proceeds to discuss some of the key challenges faced by the current administration in this respect.

On August 18, 2008, Pervez Musharraf, Pakistan’s beleaguered president, resigned from office, allowing the Speaker of Senate, Muhammad Mian Sumroo to assume the position of interim president. What was surprising was not so much Musharraf’s decision to step down, but rather how smooth the transition from military to civilian rule was: there was no violence or commotion. This was largely due to the fact that both Musharraf and the army had accepted that it was time for a change and that Musharraf’s position had become untenable.^[1] Within weeks, Asif Ali Zardari was elected president by the Pakistani parliament and Sumroo stepped down. Just a year earlier, Zardari, much maligned as "Mr. Ten Percent," had been a convicted felon. Now he was head of the Pakistani state and was hobnobbing with world leaders.^[2]

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By Douglas Farah*

This interesting study by the U.S. Army’s Strategic Studies Institute of the 2006 Hezbollah-Israel wars offers some important insights not only into that conflict, but why Hezbollah matters and how their actions can affect how future wars develop.

The study, first brought to public attention by the Haaretz newspaper, concludes that Hezbollah fought the war not as an “information age guerrillas,” but as a prototype of a new hybrid force that also relies on conventional tactics and structures.

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by Janice Boddy
Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2007. 402 pp. $65 ($24.95, paper).

Reviewed by Arvid Vormann*
WADI

Recent years have seen serious debates in leftist and feminist circles over the practice of female genital mutilation (FGM), which prevails in parts of Africa as well as in the Middle and Far East. The debate has been shaped by the old tension between universalism and cultural relativism: For many of those who adhere to the latter, FGM has become an anti-imperialist, feminist symbol, an expression of female pride and self-determination, like the head scarf.[1] Among such analysts, the oppressive aspects of these traditions tend to be neglected. Their endorsement of FGM’s cruelties may be the most cynical way yet of challenging the universal claims of Western values.

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Panel Discussion*

On November 6, 2008, in light of Barack Obama’s election as forty-forth president of the United States, the Global Research in International Affairs (GLORIA) Center and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce held a panel discussion on the prospects for U.S-Israeli relations under the Obama administration. Those participating were Prof. Barry Rubin, Ambassador Daniel Ayalon, Ambassador Dan Halpern, and Zvi Rafiah. Brief biographies can be found at the end of the article.

Prof. Barry Rubin: Do you think that President Obama is going to be bound to a very large extent to the historic Israel-United States relationship and by the special aspects of that relationship?

Amb. Danny Ayalon: The short answer to this is, "yes, absolutely." I think that he would be very much bound by it for two reasons.

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