By Barry Rubin

For the second time in a few months we have seen a crazy global Israel-About-to-Attack-Iran Story. I don’t want to go into all of the details but this tale is an example of how the media has just lost it completely due to a combination of laziness (reporters don’t really do research or check sources); agenda; ignorance; and good old sensationalism. Partly, too, it arises from the difficulty of the mass media in dealing with the Internet media era and the difficulty of the Internet media in achieving decent journalistic standards.

A couple of months ago a level of hysteria was reached on the basis of three stories:

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by Daniel Pipes*

It is the far-flung, easternmost island of Greece, 80 miles from Rhodes, 170 miles west of Cyprus, but just 1 mile off the coast of Turkey. Kastelorizo (in Greek, Καστελόριζο; or officially Megisti, Μεγίστη) is tiny, comprising just 5 square miles, plus some yet smaller, uninhabited islands. Its 430 inhabitants are way down from 10,000 in the late nineteenth century. The Lonely Planet travel guide has picked it as one of the four best Greek islands (out of thousands) for diving and snorkeling. There’s no public transportation from nearby Anatolia, only from distant Rhodes by airplane or ferry.

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by Daniel Pipes*

It’s not every day that someone like the U.S. secretary of defense forecasts an ally’s move but this just happened when Leon Panetta said that he believes, in the paraphrase of a Washington Post reporter, that “there is a strong likelihood that Israel will strike Iran in April, May or June.” Thoughts on this unusual statement:

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Reports emerged yesterday warning that, “Iran had been working on developing a missile capable of striking the United States.” In addition, one source claims that, “Iran’s nuclear arms program is complete, its missiles can reach US.” The general consensus already assumes that the Islamist regime has missiles, “capable of reaching Israel and Europe.” This obvious existential threat to Israel and the West has been confirmed by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)’s, “growing concerns of possible military dimensions to Iran’s nuclear program,” bolstered by the fact that the the European Union (EU), U.S., and to some part Japan and South Korea, have imposed an oil embargo on Iran. It must be emphasized that the EU, South Korea, and Japan all depend at least partially on Iranian oil, meaning the Western bloc takes Iran’s nuclear program seriously. All the above evidence is even more worrisome considering the fanaticism of the Islamist regime:

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By John Thompson* and Sara Akrami*

The recent deaths of Iranian defence scientists have allowed the Iranian regime in Tehran to weep copious tears and sputter outrage about the inequity of assassination as a political tool. One might think that they would react with envy. Assassination has been one of the “outreach” tools of the ayatollahs and their regime in Iran since the early days of the Revolution. When the Islamic Republic of Iran was established in 1979, it had two strategies to eliminate its opponents. At home, it killed its internal opponents — murdering 7,900 of them in its first five years alone using techniques many totalitarian regimes have employed, such as mass executions, torture, “disappearances,” and “accidents.” Abroad, it used its embassies and cultural offices to host killers and sent them out after prominent critics. Many of these critics living overseas were Iranian intellectuals and activists who had escaped from Iran after the establishment of the regime. In addition to employing terror against its own citizens and émigrés, the Iranian government has also claimed victims from other nationalities. The Islamic Republic of Iran is one of the world’s most significant sponsors of terrorism. During its 33 years of existence, it has continually instigated violence elsewhere and pursued indirect war through the use of terrorism throughout the Middle East, Africa, and both North and South America.

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By Sara Akrami and Saeed Ghasseminejad

As long as the priority of democratic governments is the establishment of freedom and democracy rather than financial gain, then the roots of authoritarianism will gradually dissolve throughout the world, and equality and justice will replace authoritarianism. Democratic governments must function as role models for authoritarian regimes and provide the hope of freedom and dignity for citizens living under oppressive rule.

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by Aymenn Jawad Al-Tamimi*

As U.S. military operations in Afghanistan drag on inconclusively, it is becoming increasingly apparent that the Taliban insurgency is gaining ground. In the first six months of 2010, for example, there was a 31 percent rise in civilian casualties while the Shari’a was implemented in areas hitherto inaccessible to the Taliban.[1] Insurgent attacks in the first quarter of 2011 grew by 51 percent compared with the previous year[2] while the Afghan security forces have been increasingly penetrated by the Taliban.[3]

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By Gary Gerofsky

As Canada (my country) knows all too well, when you get in bed with an elephant, you get squashed. Canada now has a semi-independent foreign policy with respect to Israel (we favour Israel over violent Islamic states but the USA has begun to distance itself away from Israel) and Canada has found a way to make its own decisions despite having such a large and domineering neighbour. We have found a way to develop our own economy and society while finding mutually beneficial arrangements with our largest trading partner (and we are the USA’s largest trading partner).

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By Barry Rubin

For the first time in forty years, Israel is not the American president’s favorite Middle Eastern ally. Instead, that role is played by Turkey’s government.

This would not be such a bad thing if we were talking about the “old” Turkey, the secular republic. Unfortunately, President Barack Obama’s favorite adviser among the regional leaders is Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Pretend all you want but Obama really dislikes — hates? — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and truth be told Netanyahu has done nothing to deserve that treatment.

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So the Palestinian Authority and Hamas, both known genocide-promoting, Israel-hating, and Jew-killing bands of thugs have signed a “reconciliation deal.” So what? They hate each other as much or more than they hate Jews. They’ll never make with peace with Israel, no matter that morons like Defense Secretary Leon Panetta scream that Israel, a civilized democracy, is the party which needs to, “Get back to the damn [negotiating] table,” with two, not just one, group of homicidal maniacs. Palestinian blood-hatred against Israelis has been well-documented for years; they’ve been killing Israeli Jews, Arabs, Druze, Christians, etc., for years — yet the drum-beat persists that Israel needs to make concessions. Don’t believe me? Listen to the latest evil vitriol of Hamas in its own words (e.g., “We harvest the skulls of the Jews”) for yourself, courtesy of MEMRI:

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by Daniel Pipes*

It’s not every day that the leader of a brand-new country makes his maiden foreign voyage to Jerusalem, capital of the most besieged country in the world, but Salva Kiir, president of South Sudan, accompanied by his foreign and defense ministers, did just that in late December. Israel’s President Shimon Peres hailed his visit as a “moving and historic moment.” The visit spurred talk of South Sudan locating its embassy in Jerusalem, making it the only government anywhere in the world to do so.

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by Raymond Ibrahim*

The so-called “Arab Spring” continues to transition into a “Christian Winter,” including in those nations undergoing democratic change, such as Egypt, where the Muslim Brotherhood and the Salafis dominated the elections — unsurprisingly so, considering the Obama administration has actually been training Islamists for elections.

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by Svante E. Cornell*

Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party (Adalet ve Kalkınma Partisi, AKP) was reelected to a third term in June 2011. This remarkable achievement was mainly the result of the opposition’s weakness and the rapid economic growth that has made Turkey the world’s sixteenth largest economy. But Ankara’s growing international profile also played a role in the continued public support for the conservative, Islamist party. Indeed, in a highly unusual fashion, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan began his victory speech by saluting “friendly and brotherly nations from Baghdad, Damascus, Beirut, Amman, Cairo, Sarajevo, Baku, and Nicosia.”[1] “The Middle East, the Caucasus, and the Balkans have won as much as Turkey,” he claimed, pledging to take on an even greater role in regional and international affairs. By 2023, the republic’s centennial, the AKP has promised that Turkey will be among the world’s ten leading powers.

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By Barry Rubin

There is a constant effort — especially by the anti-Israel left–to portray those who express mainstream  Israeli public opinion and the views of professional analysts as “right-wing” or “Likudnik.” This leads me to wonder what one would have to say to please these people. What would be the equivalent of a “liberal” position for Israel according to them? What kinds of positions would they see as legitimate?

What follows is not meant to exaggerate in any way but is, I believe, a genuine list of what they demand. To please them, I presume one would have to say the following:

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By Gary Gerofsky

The obsession of the EU, the USA, the UN, the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC), Russia and even the Vatican to interfere in Israel’s domestic and foreign policy reminds me of the treatment of a Big Brother who has failed to do right in his past and thinks that he can make amends by forcing little brother to make all the sacrifices that Big Brother never has and never will make to satisfy a guilty conscience.

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