By Barry Rubin

For more than four months the U.S. government has been celebrating Israel agreeing to stop construction on settlements in the West Bank while continuing building in east Jerusalem as a great step forward and Israeli concession deserving a reward. Suddenly, all of this is forgotten to say that Israel building in east Jerusalem is some kind of terrible deed which deserves punishment.

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From the Middle East Quarterly*

Following a lengthy period during which Hamas bombarded southern Israel unopposed, Israel finally attacked Gaza in an attempt to cripple Hamas’s fighting capabilities. The ensuing conflict in December 2008 and January 2009 led to a high casualty count on the Palestinian side. Even before the war ended, the U.N. Human Rights Council, a body thought biased against Israel, met at the behest of the Organization of the Islamic Conference in a special session to condemn the Israeli assault and to call for a mandate to carry out a fact-finding mission designed to investigate the conflict.

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WASHINGTON (March 10, 2010) — After the collapse of the Senate amnesty bill in 2007, the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) joined with the National Council of La Raza and others to launch a campaign to smear the three largest mainstream groups making a case for tighter enforcement and lower immigration. At the center of this campaign was the designation of the Federation for American Immigration Reform as a ‘hate group’ and the spread of that taint to Numbers USA and the Center for Immigration Studies. The announced goal was to pressure journalists and policymakers not to meet or speak with these organizations. Touted as an effort to ’stop the hate,’ it was a thinly disguised move to stifle debate.

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By Barry Rubin

I’m not going to bash or rant about a Newsweek article about Turkey by Owen Matthews–shocking and dangerous as it is–but rather talk about what is wrong and inaccurate about it. That article is part of a new wave of defeatism sweeping the West, though it still remains subordinate to the more ostensibly attractive idea that there is no real conflict or at least one easy to fix by Western concessions.

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by Daniel Pipes*

Joe Biden’s trip to Israel fits neatly into the context of the Obama administration’s internal struggle over Israel policy.

The far left prevailed initially, as evidenced by Hilary Clinton’s May 2009 declaration that Obama “wants to see a stop to settlements — not some settlements, not outposts, not natural growth exceptions.” But this approach bombed, permitting the center left to take over in about September 2009.

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By Fern Sidman

Chants of “Free, Free Palestine” and “Israel Is Here To Stay” resounded along New York City’s Park Avenue, as both anti-Israel forces and pro-Israel supporters squared off in front of the Waldorf Astoria Hotel on Tuesday evening, March 9th, while inside the hotel the organization known as The Friends of the Israel Defense Forces gathered for their annual gala fund-raising dinner. The guest of honor and keynote speaker for this year’s dinner was Lt. General Gabi Ashkenazi, Chief of Staff of the IDF.

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The International Solidarity Movement expressed motives for wanting peace activist Rachel Corrie dead.

by Bill Levinson

We use the word “murder” only because the International Solidarity Movement has accused Israel of murdering peace activist Rachel Corrie, who died after she knelt in front of an IDF bulldozer. When an accusation of murder is on the table, it is very poor judgment to express motives for wanting the decedent dead, but two members of the International Solidarity Movement and a Hamas terrorist have done exactly that. Let’s begin with Joseph Smith, one of the witnesses who contends that Rachel Corrie was “murdered.”

The spirit that she died for is worth a life. This idea of resistance, this spirit of resisting this brutal occupying force, is worth anything. And many, many, many Palestinians give their lives for it all the time. So the life of one international, I feel, is more than worth the spirit of resisting oppression.

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by Johanna Markind*

Is Muhammad more deserving of reverential treatment than Jesus? The New York Times seems to think so.

A Times article reporting on the collapse of Christian communities in the Middle East contains two references to Jesus. Not “Christ,” which is a religious title, or “Jesus Christ,” but simply “Jesus,” who was (or may have been) a historical figure. The same is true of other Times stories and wire service articles published by the Times which no longer appear on its website (but still appear on other sites under different titles and are linked below). A December 21 story entitled “First Jesus-Era House Discovered in Nazareth” (AP byline) contains ten references to Jesus and none to Christ. Ditto another item, “Mass. School Denies Suspending Student for Drawing” (also AP), about a second grader who may have been suspended for drawing a figure of Jesus on the cross. Three references to Jesus, none to Christ.

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By Barry Rubin

The story of the U.S. engagement with Syria and the sanctions issue regarding Iran’s nuclear program are fascinating. Each day there’s some new development showing how the Obama Administration is acting like a deer standing in the middle of a busy highway admiring the pretty automobile headlights.

Or to put it a different way, it is like watching the monster sneak up behind someone. Even though you know he’s not going to turn around, you can’t help but watch in fascinated horror and yelling out: “Look out!” But he pays no attention.

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A briefing by Magdi Khalil*

Magdi Khalil is an Egyptian-born human rights activist and prominent figure on Arabic media, such as Al Jazeera and Al Ahram. He is director of the Middle East Freedom Forum, an Egyptian think-tank that campaigns for human rights, secularism, and democracy. On February 26, Mr. Khalil addressed the Middle East Forum via conference call on the situation of Egypt’s Copts.

If Islamists failed to terrorize America on Christmas Day, they amply succeeded in terrorizing the Copts, Egypt’s indigenous Christian minority, when they shot and murdered six Copts leaving church after Christmas mass. But according to Mr. Khalil, not only are the Copts increasingly being persecuted by Islamists; the Mubarak regime increasingly scapegoats them in order to redirect public anger from its own corruption and onto the Copts, exasperating an already intolerable situation for Egypt’s Christians. (Considering that Egypt bases its constitution on Shar’ia law, which mandates the subjugation of Christians, this is only to be expected.)

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From the ADL:

Right now, Israeli Apartheid Week (IAW) is taking place in more than a dozen cities and on many college campuses. In past years, IAW has been marked by extreme anti-Israel rhetoric, including accusations of Israeli racism and apartheid, and calls for boycott and divestment campaigns against Israel. We anticipate similar efforts to delegitimize Israel at this year’s events.

Your college student may encounter demonstrations or hear extreme anti-Israel protests in conjunction with IAW. To help students, parents and grandparents respond to these demonstrations in strategic yet powerful ways, ADL experts have developed and distributed resources on dealing with anti-Israel rallies on campuses.

We are closely monitoring the events and ADL Regional Office staff are available if your student needs help creating a response or is not receiving appropriate support from college administration officials.

Find your ADL regional office.

ADVICE TO STUDENTS

• While anti-Israel protests are protected by free speech rights, protestors can’t obstruct access to school buildings or physically intimidate or threaten students. When protests violate these standards, students should ask administrators to act.
• Students should be vigilant in responding to anti-Israel articles, op-eds and letters-to-the-editor in campus papers. ADL Regional Offices can help create an appropriate response.
• If anti-Semitic materials appear on campus, students should publicly condemn the materials and ask the administration to combat the atmosphere of hate on campus.
• Students should use social networking tools like YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and campus blogs to post positive messages about Israel.

Visit our site to download “Fighting Back,” a comprehensive handbook for strategically responding to demonstrations on campuses. You will also find a range of resources on how people can support Israel.

IAW is scheduled to continue until March 14 and ADL will closely monitor events. You can stay up to date on IAW activity by visiting our Web site.

ADL regional staff are also here to help students respond to anti-Israel rallies on campuses. This is an example of the expertise and “on-the-ground” work of the Anti-Defamation League.

At ADL, we monitor, we advocate and we work to protect the Jewish people, but we cannot do so without your help.

Please consider donating to the Anti-Defamation League to help us always be ready to respond.

Contact

by Phyllis Chesler

For years now, newly arrived refugees have been contacting me. They write to tell me that they’ve lost nearly everybody they once knew. Their whole world is gone now. Some whisper over the phone. Others write long letters. They ask me how I’ve managed.

I am talking about ideological refugees from feminism, leftism, gay liberation, socialism, and progressivism.

Yesterday, I received a letter from someone in Berkeley. She tells me that, earlier this week, she was “overjoyed to see the feisty Tikvah students on the steps of Sproul Plaza giving out Israeli flags and t-shirts and dancing in circles,” and how afterwards, some “went to confront the theatre of the absurd, enacting the checkpoints.” Referring to the feminist movement in Berkeley, she asks: “Could you ever have believed it? From anti-patriarchy to pro-Hamas in a few decades?” Her letter continues: Continue reading…

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By Barry Rubin

International relations isn’t a popularity contest. But public opinion polls can be useful in countering myths and examining the impact of policymaker, elite, and media campaigns on the masses.

Which brings us to Gallup’s latest poll measuring how Americans feel about different countries. The more one examines the results, the more amazing they are. Americans two favorites are, not surprisingly, fellow English-speakers Canada and the United Kingdom. Then come–Americans are very forgiving–two former enemies, Germany and Japan.

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By Andrew Whitehead

On Wednesday, March 3, Chicago’s WLS-TV I-Team reported that the Illinois State Police have reconsidered the appointment of Kifah Mustapha as a Muslim Chaplain. Terrorism expert Steven Emerson of the Investigative Project on Terrorism (IPT) is identified as the leading cause of Mustapha’s reconsideration.

Apparently, Kifah Mustapha was slated to become the State Police’s first Muslim Chaplain after completing a course he paid for himself. Completing the course, he was issued a state police ID card and bulletproof vest as part of his uniform package for use in the field and on ride-alongs.

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By Fern Sidman

Hip Hop artists and graffiti virtuosos from New York painting their way throughout Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and Sderot? Who’d a thunk it, but it appears that a new organization called Artists 4 Israel will be doing just that. Founded about a year ago following Operation Cast Lead in Gaza, young artists in the New York area had just about enough of the incessant anti-Israel propaganda being spewed forth by the “politically correct” denizens of the radically left-wing enclaves that figure so prominently in the eclectic world of the New York artist and decided to do something about it.

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