By Phyllis Chesler

Please don’t call me an optimist — my view of humanity and of human events has become far too sober — but, it is plain to see: Although the forces of evil may triumph, the battle is at least joined. Good men and women are “doing something.” They are fighting. Sometimes, they are even winning.

For example: In addition to the widespread and increasing use of rape as a systematic weapon of war, even of genocide, the international trafficking in persons, mainly women and children, has also risen alarmingly. … (Continue reading…)

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From David Horowitz’s Freedom Center

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - Any time the Left’s grip on our universities can be loosened, even slightly, it is a major victory.  That’s why I want to tell you about something the Freedom Center accomplished at the College of DuPage, a prominent Community College in Illinois.

As background I should remind you of our nationwide campaign to get universities around the country to adopt our Academic Bill of Rights.  I wrote this document to end the political abuse of the university and to restore integrity to the academic mission as the objective and truthful pursuit of knowledge.  The key provision was the one demanding that faculty not use their courses for political, ideological, religious or anti-religious indoctrination.

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By Barry Rubin

Israel isn’t going to be the center of the world for the Obama administration and that’s a good, if ego-disappointing, thing. Both the pro-Israeli right’s paranoia and the wishful thinking of the anti-Israeli left in the United States (and, in the latter category, Europe plus the Middle East as well), are operating out of expectations rather than the actual situation.

What can be safely assumed is something along the following lines:

• The Obama administration will put the main emphasis on domestic issues rather than foreign policy. It faces humongous problems at home and has gigantic ambitions to change America, for better or worse.

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By Phyllis Chesler

What is Susan Rice, our future Cabinet-level Ambassador to the United Nations, planning to do about Durban II, the upcoming hate-fest against Israel that the UN is planning for April in Geneva? Does Ambassador-elect Rice (no relation to Secretary of State, Condoleeza Rice), believe that America has the power to sweet-talk evil by sitting down with it, that “not talking” is worse than “talking?”

Only Susan Rice will not be doing the “talking” in Geneva. She will be forced to listen to the wildest and most diabolical ravings against Israel (the symbol for the West, which, when last I looked, includes America) — and all in the name of anti-racism. … (Continue reading…)

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When we feel overwhelmed by constant news of terrorism, financial meltdown, foreclosures, intolerance, and poverty, where do we find hope? The answer: In the the light of joy — Chanukah. Watch this inspiring, short Chanukah film, from Aish.com:

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By Barry Rubin

The full horror of contemporary Middle East politics and debate is comprehended by few in the West, largely because they aren’t informed by their political leaders, intellectuals, and media.

Occasionally, the truth emerges, as on September 11, 2001, but soon is reburied under mountains of obfuscation. After all, Iran’s president called for Israel to be wiped off the map, according to the official Iranian translation, and the New York Times publishes an article analyzing whether this ever happened.

I imagine exchanges like this:

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By Phyllis Chesler

As I was deciding what I’d write about today, imagine my surprise and delight when I came across a certain quote in today’s lead New York Times article about Caroline Kennedy’s decision to seek Hillary Clinton’s Senate seat. Joel Klein, the Chancellor of New York City’s public schools, favors her anointment (whoops, I meant appointment), and said that Kennedy’s recent campaigning for President-elect Obama “got her blood flowing.” … (Continue reading…)

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by Tamir Sorek
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007. 239 pp. $91.

Reviewed by Sol Schindler*
U.S. Foreign Service officer (ret.)

Sorek, an Israeli social scientist (as his prose can attest), finds in soccer a rich opportunity to study Arabs living and coping in the Jewish state. He calls the world of Israeli soccer an “integrative enclave” because it is free of the interethnic animosity he finds in so much of the rest of the country.

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Symposium by MERIA Journal

Following Barack Obama’s election, experts discuss the various foreign policy issues the new administration faces and the strategies the administration might follow.

Brief biographies can be found at the end of each section.

CONTENTS

Barry Rubin, "The Administration’s Theme: Conciliation with Enemies"
Patrick Clawson, "Obama, the Gulf, and Iran"
Norvell B. De Atkine, "Iraq: The Chimera of the 16-Month Withdrawal"
David Schenker, "Syria, Israel, and Lebanon"
John S. Duffield, "The Obama Presidency, Oil, and the Middle East"
Mark N. Katz, "What Obama Should Do About Russia in the Middle East"
Barry Rubin, "The Region’s Dilemma: How to Deal with Obama"
Jeffrey Azarva, "Obama and Egypt’s Coming Succession Crisis"
Tony Badran, "Syria Sets Its Traps for the Obama Administration"

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By Kenneth M. Pollack*

This article discusses the current situation in Iraq and U.S. policy on that country. It discusses current plans for a U.S. withdrawal and Iraqi politics, putting them also in the context of the likely policy of the Obama administration and the coming challenges in Iraq.

All across America, people increasingly seem to believe that the war in Iraq is won. Republicans proclaim it triumphantly. Democrats acknowledge it grudgingly and then try to change the subject to Afghanistan.

There is only one problem. The war in Iraq is not won. Despite the remarkable progress since 2006, the situation in Iraq remains extremely tentative and could easily fall apart again.

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By Andrew L. Jaffee

For the last seven days, childish, bored, and spoiled Greek brats, calling themselves “anarchists,” have gone on a violent and expensive rampage, supposedly protesting what they claim to be “economic oppression.” It is sad to have watched Greece, one of the cradles of democratic philosophy, become a third-rate banana republic, populated by scores of politically-correct cry-babies, unable to maintain law and order, and unable to preserve the basic principles of civilized societies. There is a stark contrast between responsible, mature societies and weak, decadent ones: Populations who hold the principles of common decency, compassion, and peacefulness work hard and constructively to overcome hard times; complacent, spoiled, and nihilistic societies go on childish rampages when faced with adversity.

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By Barry Rubin

Dear President Obama:

They say that you prefer the name Barry and so it pleases me no end that another Barry is finally president of the United States. In addition, I once worked as a community organizer so we have two things in common.

On that basis, then, I hope you don’t mind my making some suggestions about how you might think about the Middle East. I’m not looking for a job in Washington. In fact, as I look back on my life, I note that if I’d been successful in some obsession for a U.S. a government post I would have been a proud participant in such endeavors as the catastrophic mishandling of Iran’s revolution, the failed U.S. dispatch of troops to Lebanon, the botched trade of arms for hostages with Iran, the crashed peace process, and the Iraq war.

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by Andrew M. Hollin*

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s September 24, 2007 speech at Columbia University largely resonated with the audience, perhaps in reaction to university president Lee Bollinger’s stern introduction.[1] Of all Ahmadinejad’s assertions, only his declaration that “in Iran, we don’t have homosexuals”[2] was met with widespread disbelief.

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By Andrew L. Jaffee

A $14 billion emergency bailout for U.S. automakers collapsed in the Senate Thursday night after the United Auto Workers refused to accede to Republican demands for swift wage cuts. …

- Associated Press, 12/11/08

The Big Three U.S. automakers, Chrysler, Ford, and GM, now “teeter on collapse,” as both their management and labor long ago willfully missed all opportunities for making the systemic changes necessary to remain competitive with foreign rivals. Now, the Big Three’s only chance for survival, and their workers’ only hope for staying employed, is entirely dependent on a hand-out from Washington. Despite the glaring red warning lights — the massive writing on the wall (”doom”) — it seems that the United Auto Workers (UAW) are so intransigent that they would rather lose their jobs than cooperate with lawmakers and make some long-overdue wage concessions.

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By Barry Rubin

In explaining why he was too fearful to vote in Jerusalem’s mayoral election, an east Jerusalem Palestinian shopkeeper, Issam Abu Rmaileh, said, “I would have liked to vote because it’s in our interest, but who’s going to protect me and my family afterwards?”

So let’s call it the Abu Rmaileh principle, and it is extraordinarily important in the Middle East. Why should someone support you if you cannot protect them? Because if they cannot depend on you to be tough, they might as well play it safe by doing nothing or make their own deal through appeasement and shout radical slogans.

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