The mere thought of granting amnesty to 11 – 20 million illegal immigrants should frighten any common sense American citizen. Amnesty means that wannabe tyrants like Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, Michael Bloomberg, and Barack Obama will achieve their “dream of a permanent Democratic majority” in the U.S. The entire political, cultural, social, and economic landscape created by our Founding Fathers will be destroyed by amnesty. Concerned citizens must engage in the democratic process to stop the current immigration “reform” madness. This article provides them with all the tools they need to do so by clicking here. Please take action NOW or read on before doing so. NOW is the time to act as:

… opponents are gearing up to flood Congress with calls condemning any legislation that allows illegal immigrants to gain legal status or citizenship.

The same tactic helped defeat immigration reform the last time lawmakers considered passing bills in 2006 and especially 2007, when a flood of angry calls shut down the switchboard in Congress. …

Most of you are the descendents of immigrants who came to this great nation legally, who built decent lives by living according to decent values, and passed those values unto you. Your ancestors assimilated. Most of you were raised to believe that the American dream is the chance — the opportunity — to achieve your full potential by working hard, being honest, treating people as you would have them treat you, believing in the common sense law of the land (based on the Constitution), having core values, and having faith, all to build a better life for yourself, your family, your friends, your community, your nation, and even the whole world. Your conscientious legal citizenship — your patriotism — is about to be thrown in the trash.

(more…)

By Barry Rubin

In his speech at Ohio State University, President Barack Obama used the word “together” four times. Yet each time he defined the collective endeavor of Americans as merely that of promoting more government. Thus, while trying to turn American history and even the Constitution into precedents for his goals and policies, Obama actually reverses reality, undermining not only the conservative vision of America but also the historic liberal one.

Normally, a president would speak of the vast array of efforts made “together” to refer — or at least include — non-government activities. That means the actions of voluntarily formed communities, organizations, corporations, charities, religious groups, and trade unions. It is the freedom, energy, and enthusiasm to form such groups that marks American society as unusual in the world.

(more…)

By Barry Rubin

Secretary of State John Kerry has in his head every what-should-be-discredited cliché about the Middle East firmly ensconced in his head. Of course, he is not alone. I just briefed a European diplomat who came up with the exact formulation I’m going to deal with in a moment. What is disconcerting — though long familiar — is that Western policy makers hold so many ideas that are totally out of touch with reality.

They do not allow these assumptions to be questioned. On the contrary, it is astonishing to find how often individuals in elite positions have never heard counter-arguments to these beliefs. It is easy to prove that many of these ideas simply don’t make sense, but it is nearly impossible to get elite intellectuals, officials, and politicians to open their minds to these explanations.

(more…)

by R.R. Smith*

President Barack Obama made an interesting statement on Wednesday while speaking at the Denver Police Academy during his visit to Colorado — especially notable as his administration has announced that it “could use executive action and bypass Congress to further restrict gun ownership by private citizens.” Obama said:

(more…)

by Michel Gurfinkiel*

On March 17 of this year, François Hollande — the socialist president of France — attended the ceremonies held in Toulouse marking the first anniversary of what is now commonly referred to as “the Mohamed Merah affair.”

On March 11, 2012, this French citizen of Algerian descent, who had joined an Islamist network and had been trained in Pakistan, killed a French soldier in Toulouse. On March 15, he shot three more soldiers in Montauban: two died on the spot; the third was severely wounded in the head and is now quadriplegic.

Four days later, Merah killed three preteen children and one adult at Ozar Hatorah, a school in Toulouse.

(more…)

by Gary Gerofsky

This is the speech that Obama ought to make to Israelis during his visit to their country:

Prime Minister Netanyahu, Knesset members, the people of Israel and the Jewish people worldwide: It is an honor and privilege to be here today in Jerusalem, Israel, the undivided capital of Israel and the land of the Jewish people from the time before the establishment of the first temple of Solomon, destroyed by the Babylonians, followed by the second temple which Antiochus desecrated, Pompey looted and the Romans destroyed during the Siege of Jerusalem. Throughout history invaders and superpowers have attempted to extinguish the Jewish people and their symbols. Today is no different as we have an empire of Islamists using whatever means they can to wipe out all traces of Israel and Judaism. They too will not succeed.

(more…)

… It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us — that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion — that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain — that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom — and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

- Abraham Lincoln, Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, November 19, 1863

At the time, President Lincoln was speaking in the context of the horrors of the American Civil War. But his words are most appropriate at a time when Americans face great societal, economic, and political problems, be it health care, the national debt, and/or “gun control.” In some ways, our country is divided. It doesn’t have to be so. If people get involved with the democratic process, they can surely bring about astonishing changes for the betterment of our great nation. With a little effort, Americans can have “government of the people, by the people, for the people.” We just proved it New Mexico.

(more…)

by Raymond Ibrahim*

Remember all the hoopla the Obama administration engaged in after helping Libya’s “freedom fighters” oust (and sodomize and murder) the nation’s former president, Muammar Gaddafi? Remember the rationale used by Obama to justify using the U.S. military to help Libya’s “opposition”? In his March 28, 2011, speech, he spoke of “our responsibilities to our fellow human beings,” adding that not assisting them “would have been a betrayal of who we are.”

Although it was common knowledge that al-Qaeda and other fiercely anti-American forces were involved in the Libyan jihad, this did not shake Obama’s “responsibilities” to his “fellow human beings.” Predictably, the thanks the U.S. received was an al-Qaeda attack on the American consulate in Benghazi and the murders of four American officials, including Ambassador Chris Stevens (an attack the Obama administration tried to frame as a product of an amateur YouTube video that had “offended” Muslims).

(more…)

Waves of Islamic fundamentalism have engulfed Russia; the Kremlin continues to woo the Islamists with Hamas among them

By Alexander Maistrovoy

Following prayers at the Moscow Cathedral Mosque, during his visit in February 2010, Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal admitted that, in the Council of Muftis of Russia, it felt like home. While his statement probably pleased Russian leaders, in reality these words should have alerted them. Whether it was Mashaal’s intention or not, this acknowledgment could be perceived as a prophecy: The dawn of Islamic fundamentalism in the northern superpower.

Islam is the second religious denomination in Russia after the Orthodox Church. According to the official census, there are about 15 million Muslims — 10% of the population — in Russia. The Spiritual Board of Muslims claims 20 million. Most of these Muslims are concentrated in the North Caucasus (Chechens, Ingush people, etc.) and in the Volga region (Tatars, Bashkirs, Chuvash people, etc.). The natural growth of Muslims is traditionally higher than that of rest of the population.

(more…)

by Ilias I. Kouskouvelis*

Under the Justice and Development Party (Adalet ve Kalkınma Partisi, AKP), Turkey’s foreign policy has been associated with the prescriptions and efforts of three men: Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, President Abdullah Gül, and Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu. Davutoğlu, a former international relations professor, has been the most articulate exponent of the troika’s ideas, penning perhaps the most authoritative summary of its worldview in his 2001 Stratejik Derinlik (Strategic Depth)[1] and coining its foremost article of faith: a “zero-problems policy” with Turkey’s neighbors because Ankara “wants to eliminate all the problems from her relations with neighbors or at least to minimize them as much as possible.”[2]

This might all be well and good if such words were supported by actions. But Davutoğlu has also described Turkey as a “heavyweight wrestler,” hinting that it may use “the maximum of its abilities” when dealing with its neighboring “middleweight wrestlers.”[3] A survey of Ankara’s relations with these “middleweight wrestlers” reveals its “zero problems policy” to be little more than a cover for the AKP’s reasserted “neo-Ottoman” ambitions.

(more…)

By Barry Rubin

The Book of Esther, which is read on Purim and to which that holiday is dedicated, has been interpreted many ways. Yet there is much to be understood by analyzing the story in terms of political ideology and strategy.

Ahasuerus is the powerful king over Persia and much more. He holds a banquet and invites the leaders of all of the provinces to come in order to wield together his diverse empire by showing his wealth, strength, generosity, and bringing together his political elite in terms of fellowship and equality with each other.

(more…)

By David North, CIS.org

Those interested in or advocating “comprehensive immigration reform” should examine the thoroughly researched, well-documented findings of a federal commission that spent more than five years — and numerous hearings — dealing with exactly that subject.

This was the U.S. Commission on Immigration Reform, created by Congress as part of the Immigration Act of 1990.¹ The Commission had impressive credentials, access to millions in federal funds, and was served by a highly competent staff. It had four Democratic appointees and four Republican ones, and with three chairs who were, in turn, a then-member of the College of Cardinals, a former member of the U.S. House of Representative, and a former member of the president’s cabinet.

(more…)

The rabid gun-control kooks trying to disarm law-abiding American citizens don’t understand — or care — about the sanctity of the U.S. Constitution. Have they even read our Constitution? Case in point, state lawmakers in Olympia, Washington have drafted legislation that violates both the Second and Fourth Amendments. For those who don’t remember, the Second Amendment ensures that the “the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed,” while the Fourth Amendment insists that:

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

(more…)

by Steven Shamrak

Not long ago over 1000 people came to Jerusalem and participated in the 3rd Conference on Israeli Sovereignty.

During his speech at the conference, Moshe Feiglin, head of the Manhigut Yehudit (Jewish Leadership) faction of the Likud party, informed delegates that the amount of money Israel has spent on security since the Oslo Accords could pay every Arab family $500,000 to relocate from Jewish land (most of them would have happily moved out for much less). The need for such expenditure is clear evidence that, in spite of all efforts and concessions Israel has made, the walls it has built and advanced weapons it has developed, Arabs will never agree to peaceful co-existence with Jews – and not just Jews, but all “infidels” (non-Muslims).

(more…)

By Barry Rubin

I’ve just put the full text of 13 books which I’ve written onto the Internet. You can access them all for free with a single click. This project has prompted me to think a lot about what I’ve been trying to do these last forty years.

The main goal has been trying to explain the Middle East as it actually exists, how its politics work, and how its history can be understood. My basic overview is contained in my The Tragedy of the Middle East. In structural terms, the Middle East can be seen as paralleling the history and politics of other regions in the world. But along with that is the all-important factor of its specific development.

(more…)