by Scott Carpenter and Michael Rubin*
Within the next few months, Iraqis will once again wave purple fingers in the air as they cast ballots for provincial governments. As Iraq’s parliament debates a law to govern the elections, U.S. diplomats and international experts have an opportunity, if not to correct past mistakes, then to help put local government on the right footing.
by Daniel Pipes*
With the Democratic Party primaries over, American voters can focus on issues of political substance. For instance: How do the two leading candidates for U.S. president differ in their approach to Israel and related topics? Parallel interviews with journalist Jeffrey Goldberg of The Atlantic, who spoke in early May with Democrat Barack Obama and in late May with Republican John McCain, offer some important insights.
By Barry Rubin
While America’s secretary of state devotes her time to doomed Israel-Palestinian talks and America goes ga-ga over a candidate whose main foreign policy strategy is to talk to dictators, still another crisis strengthens radical Islamists and endangers Western friends and interests.
William Butler Yeats said it best: “Things fall apart; the center cannot hold; Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world, The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere, The ceremony of innocence is drowned; The best lack all conviction, while the worst, Are full of passionate intensity.”
by Daniel Pipes*
As Barack Obama’s candidacy comes under increasing scrutiny, his account of his religious upbringing deserves careful attention for what it tells us about the candidate’s integrity.
Obama asserted in December, “I’ve always been a Christian,” and he has adamantly denied ever having been a Muslim. “The only connection I’ve had to Islam is that my grandfather on my father’s side came from that country [Kenya]. But I’ve never practiced Islam.” In February, he claimed: “I have never been a Muslim. … other than my name and the fact that I lived in a populous Muslim country for 4 years when I was a child [Indonesia, 1967-71] I have very little connection to the Islamic religion.”
By Andrew L. Jaffee
Try as he may, Barack Obama has not separated himself from his controversial pastor of 20 years, Jeremiah Wright, whom he calls an “uncle.” Obama has been too weak and indecisive in chiding Wright; he also has waited too long to censure his “uncle.” Obama’s claims that he didn’t know about Wright’s offensive beliefs are ridiculous. Obama has been attending Wright’s church for 20 years. All I can conclude is that: 1) Obama agrees with Wright’s beliefs, 2) Obama doesn’t object to Wright’s beliefs, and/or 3) it was politically expedient for Obama to keep quiet about Wright only until recently, when the public found out what has been going on. After digesting Rev. Wright’s latest offensive outburst, it seems that the pastor actually supports the notion of “separate but equal” (Plessy v. Ferguson, 1896), which is confusing and ludicrous, as it goes against the basic tenets of the whole civil rights movement. Here’s Wright from his speech to the NAACP on Sunday:
By Andrew L. Jaffee
I have not been an Obama supporter — quite the contrary — but I applaud his statements today:
Sen. Barack Obama on Wednesday criticized former President Carter for meeting with leaders of the Islamic terrorist group Hamas as he tried to reassure Jewish voters that his candidacy isn’t a threat to them or U.S. support for Israel.
Obama told the group he had a “fundamental disagreement” with Carter, who was rebuffed by Israeli leaders during a peace mission to the Middle East this week.
“We must not negotiate with a terrorist group intent on Israel’s destruction,” Obama said. “We should only sit down with Hamas if they renounce terrorism, recognize Israel’s right to exist, and abide by past agreements.” …
by R. John Matthies*
What is to account for the success of Europe’s Far Right? The attention the news media have devoted to the story of Islam in Europe has never been greater. And displeasure over concessions granted to Europe’s Muslims, fear and loathing of Shari‘a (Islamic) law — and fears that Europe, in the rush to embrace the Other, may lose herself — appear to be driving the continent’s electoral agenda. These concerns have sprung from items as ridiculous as Fortis Bank’s decision to do away with pig mascot Knorbert (for fear of offending Muslims) to the Archbishop of Canterbury’s declaration that adoption of elements of Shari‘a law in the UK “seems unavoidable” — and would, in fact, be a great help to maintain social cohesion. In any case, it appears that a growing number are sufficiently discouraged by the imposition of the multicultural gag to take Europe’s latest war of religion to the voting booth. It is also the case, for many, that the persons who best speak to the continent’s concerns are not those moderate (or secular) Muslims who talk of assimilation, but the leading lights of Europe’s Far Right — and the growing host of Muslim-baiters who sit in public office.
By Barry Rubin
The Middle East today is driven by five big conflicts: Among states for power; the Iran-Syria alliance’s war on everyone else; the struggle between Arab nationalists and Islamists to control each country, and the Sunni-Shia and Arab-Israeli conflicts.
No wonder there’s so much turmoil.
by Michael Rubin*
As Iraqis marked five years since Baghdad’s fall on April 9, Democrats — including Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama — grilled Gen. David Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker. Before the testimony, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi warned Gen. Petraeus and Mr. Crocker to avoid undue optimism: “We have to know the real ground truths of what is happening there [in Iraq], not put a shine on events.”
Among Democrats, it is conventional wisdom that the Bush administration rushed to war, botched planning and ignored dissent. “Whether out of hubris or incompetence,” Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid explained, “the president and his men willfully ignored the experts and sent our troops to battle unprepared for the consequences.”
By Isaac Kfir
This article examines Pakistan following the assassination of Benazir Bhutto and the recent parliamentary elections within the confines of the challenges that arise from the need to embrace democracy. The article accepts that Pakistan must contend with a powerful military, rising Islamism, tribalism, an unstable political system, quarreling leaders, and difficult foreign policy issues while it strives to continue to play its role in the global war on terror. The author concludes that only by uniting the different actors and seeking a stable Pakistan can the Islamist threat be defeated.
By Andrew L. Jaffee
Yeah, all us dumb, racist Midwestern (white?) folk — according to Barack Obama:
… “You go into some of these small towns in Pennsylvania, and like a lot of small towns in the Midwest, the jobs have been gone now for 25 years and nothing’s replaced them,” Obama, an Illinois senator, said.
“And it’s not surprising then they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren’t like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations,” he said. …
Talk about painting with a broad stroke. Does Harvard-educated Obama even know the folk he is stereotyping? Ad this to my long list of concerns about Obama, like his “spiritual” advisers…
By Andrew L. Jaffee
The Washington Post reported on “Obama’s penchant while serving in the Illinois legislature for merely voting ‘present’ when faced with some tough issues.” He shows no sign of clarifying what he stands for, most recently regarding Tibet and the Olympics:
… Sen. Barack Obama has said he is torn in his views on the issue.
“I’m of two minds about this,” said the Illinois senator in a CBS interview last week. “On the one hand, I think that what’s happened in Tibet, [and] China’s support of the Sudanese government in Darfur, is a real problem.”
But, he added, “I’m hesitant to make the Olympics a site of political protest because I think it’s partly about bringing the world together.” …
A definite maybe for U.S. foreign policy?
By Andrew L. Jaffee
Senator Barack Obama “seeks spiritual counsel from” Rev. James T. Meeks, a racist and homophobe. Some would say this is a personal thing for Obama (even though I find the relationship troubling). But Meeks has been actively involved in Obama’s political activities, and is now involved in Obama’s presidential bid:
… James Meeks, who will serve as an Obama delegate at the 2008 Democratic convention in Denver, is a long-time political ally to the democratic frontrunner.
When Obama ran for the U.S. Senate in 2003, he frequently campaigned at Salem Baptist Church while Rev. Meeks appeared in television ads supporting the Illinois senator’s campaign. Later, according to the same Chicago Sun Times article, on the night after he won the Democratic primary, Sen. Obama attended bible study at Meeks’ church ‘for prayer’ and ‘to say thank you.’
Since that time, not only has Meeks himself served on Obama’s exploratory committee for the presidency and been listed on the Obama’s campaign website as one of the senator’s ‘influential black supporters’, but his church choir was called on to raise their voices in praise at a rally the night Obama announced his run for the White House back in 2007. …
By Andrew L. Jaffee
Revelations about Barack Obama’s role models keeps getting worse and worse. Today, we find that:
… Rev. Meeks has been described as someone in which Obama seeks spiritual counsel from…
In a 2006 sermon, Rev. Meeks stated, “We don’t have slave masters. We got mayors. But they still the same white people who are presiding over systems where black people are not able, or to be educated. You got some preachers that are house niggers. You got some elected officials that are house niggers. And rather than them trying to break this up, they gonna fight you to protect this white man.” He later defended that sermon during an interview with a Chicago CBS 2 reporter.
Not to mention Rev. Meeks homophobic ways are well noted. A 2007 newsletter from the Southern Poverty Law Center named Rev. Meeks one of the “10 leading black religious voices in the anti-gay movement.” …
Add Meeks to the likes of Jeremiah Wright and Louis Farrakhan.
by Daniel Pipes*
The Rev. Jeremiah Wright, Jr. of Chicago’s Trinity United Church of Christ, and Barack Obama’s pastor since 1988, told his congregation in a sermon on Sept. 16, 2001 that U.S. terrorism had precipitated Al-Qaeda’s attack. “We bombed Hiroshima, we bombed Nagasaki, and we nuked far more than the thousands in New York and the Pentagon, and we never batted an eye. We have supported state terrorism against the Palestinians and black South Africans, and now we are indignant because the stuff we have done overseas is now brought right back to our own front yards.” Wright concluded that “America’s chickens are coming home to roost.”
That last phrase has a history.
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