by Daniel Pipes*
Israel’s war against Hamas brings up the old quandary: What to do about the Palestinians? Western states, including Israel, need to set goals to figure out their policy toward the West Bank and Gaza.
Let’s first review what we know does not and cannot work:
by Raymond Ibrahim*
By analyzing what al-Qa’ida preaches to Muslims regarding Islam’s relationship to the non-Muslim world at large, and what it states to the West are its reasons for battling it, this essay seeks to highlight the many disparities behind al-Qa’ida’s words. Juxtaposed in themes, the following excerpts are all derived from Usama bin Ladin’s and Ayman al-Zawahiri’s writings and speeches as found in The Al Qaeda Reader
by Michael Rubin*
As the crisis in Gaza enters its second week, international diplomats are seeking a cease-fire. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has called the situation “unacceptable” and demanded that “regional and international partners [do more] to end the violence and encourage a political dialogue.” Amnesty International has demanded that the United States pressure Israel to stop its aerial bombardment. European and Arab diplomats hope that other states — perhaps Syria and Iran — will pressure Hamas to agree to a cease-fire.
by Daniel Pipes*
1) Arab-Israeli warfare is not the conventional battle to control territory of old. Since 1982, the primary goal in this theater is to persuade the world of the righteousness of one’s cause. (I.e., who has the more affecting casualties?)
2) Palestinians have proven themselves more competent at the p.r. battle than the Israeli government, winning public support everywhere — with the lone but decisive exceptions of Israel and the United States.
By Phyllis Chesler
Try to imagine sitting in a bomb shelter, shaking with terror, day after day, year after year. No, try to imagine having to run to get to that shelter; once the siren screams, you’ll have only one minute before the rocket will strike. Imagine that you’re elderly or disabled, imagine that you’re diabetic but have forgotten your insulin, imagine that your children are freaking out or that you can’t find them. … (Continue reading…)
By Barry Rubin
A major problem in debating about international issues nowadays is that it is so often hard or even impossible to respect our adversaries. It is quite possible to disagree with someone but to be impressed with their ability in constructing arguments, their grasp of logic and facts, their getting things partly right to the point that it makes you adjust your own thinking. Yet nowadays one is so often confronted with deliberate lies, huge factual errors, and just totally illogical claims.
By Phyllis Chesler
I knew that Israel was going into Gaza with “boots on the ground” at least a day before they finally did so. Two Israeli mothers, who do not know one another, each have sons in the elite Golani and Givati Brigades. Both sons had been ordered to turn in their cell phones; there would be no more “haimishe” (comforting, familiar) contact with home.
Another mother in Israel, Bonna Devora Haberman, who is a dear friend, a feminist professor, a religious woman, and the mother of five, emailed me last night. With her permission, I am sharing her words with you. Hers is the voice of a mother in Israel. … (Continue reading…)
by Jonathan Schanzer*
In recent years, Campus Watch (CW) analysts have leveled a barrage of criticism against the Middle East Studies Association (MESA) as a bastion of groupthink for scholar-activists peddling a politicized agenda. CW’s current director, Winfield Myers, noted that its “reputation has been shattered by years of politicized scholarship, one-sided teaching, and bullying students.” Jonathan Calt Harris, formerly with CW, called the organization a “hive of academic opposition to America, Israel, and, in the larger sense, rationalism itself.” After years of responding to such criticism with cries of “McCarthyism,” MESA just might be owning up to a few of its failures.
The 2008 MESA conference, held in Washington, DC in November, consisted of 12 sessions over four days with more than 1,500 scholars and professionals in attendance.
By Barry Rubin
Israel didn’t want to attack the Gaza Strip from the ground or from the air. Hamas, which had long broken the ceasefire, canceled it altogether. Then it began large-scale attacks on Israel. This is a war of defense. And it is being conducted just 30 miles from here, Israel’s main city.
By Phyllis Chesler
For the second time since I began blogging, I’ve decided not to publish a comment, not because the writing is illiterate or filthy with curses, (I’ve jettisoned some of those in the past), but because, like Israel, I’ve decided that “Enough is enough.” I am tired of putting up with the written equivalent of screaming street corner hate speech at my own blog. … (Continue reading…)
By Fern Sidman
New York - (Dec 30) - Bellicosity and hubris filled the cold night air in New York City, as hundreds of demonstrators gathered in front of the Israeli Consulate on East 42nd Street and Second Avenue to voice their perspective on the Israeli assault on Hamas terrorist strongholds in Gaza. The Israeli air strikes continue unabated for a fourth straight day, with no clear end in sight as Hamas terrorists and their Palestinian supporters fired long range Kassam rockets into southern Israel. Today, a Kassam rocket hit a kindergarten in the city of Be’er Sheva but the building was vacant at the time. Thus far, six Israelis have been killed by the Hamas rockets; five civilians and one solider.
By Phyllis Chesler
The war against Israel has gone global, not at the United Nations, (that’s old and terrible trouble), but at a new, grassroots level. The goon squad demonstrations against Israel that are taking place on every continent are not composed of peaceful demonstrators. The hate-Israel and hate-America protesters are essentially attackers on the march who are spoiling for a hot verbal and even hotter physical confrontation with their opponents. They mean to empty the streets of anyone with views that differ from their own. … (Continue reading…)
By Elie Elhadj*
INTRODUCTION
To set the stage, certain facts need to be stated. First, foodstuffs are an encapsulation of water, virtual water. Generally, 1,000 tons of water (1,000 cubic meters (m3)) are needed to produce a ton of wheat, and 16,000 m3 of water is needed to produce a ton of red meat.[1] Further, a ton of rice requires 3,400 m3 of water to grow; a slice of bread, 40 liters (kilograms); a cup of tea, 30 liters; an apple, 70 liters; and a glass of beer, 75 liters. It follows that the composition of one’s diet determines the volume of water embedded in the food consumed. The more meat in a diet, especially red meat, the more water an individual consumes. The term virtual water and food will be used in this paper interchangeably.
By Andrew L. Jaffee
Just Monday I documented an article by CNN which used the word “terrorist” to describe Hamas. But the news giant then redacted all use of the T-word, re-wrote the story, yet kept the article’s URL the same. This morning, the AP released a story via Yahoo! News entitled, “Israel kills top Hamas figure, escalating campaign,” in which it wrote:
… Israel launched the offensive to crush militants who have been terrorizing southern Israel with rocket fire from Gaza. It began after more than a week of intense Palestinian rocket fire that followed the expiration of a six-month truce. …
Wonder of wonders, the AP seems to be laying the blame for the current conflict at the feet of Hamas. Will the AP hold its ground, or will some editor step in to sanitize the writer’s terminology? I saved the original story to disk plus took a screen-shot of the quote shown above. Stay tuned…
Update 01/02/09: Yahoo! News has redacted the AP story using the word terrorizing, but left the link unchanged. Here’s a screen-shot of the original Yahoo! News story.
USAToday has kept a version of the AP story using the word terrorizing on its website. Good for USAToday.
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