by Nidra Poller*

The play within the play

In October 2011 an extraordinary opportunity to apprehend the ill-defined “Middle East” conflict was offered in the form of a play within the play. Discourse was disabled by flesh and blood images acting out the drama with exquisite unity and perfect casting. Playing the role of Israel, Gilad Shalit, courageous survivor of five years of unspeakable deprivation, emerged frail, pale but gloriously resistant. The little that we know of the conditions of his imprisonment is already too much. Kidnapped at the age of 19 near the Kerem Shalom crossing in Israel (two IDF soldiers were killed in the cross-border attack), held in some sort of dungeon, starved of human company, starved of daylight, undernourished, not even given eyeglasses with which to see the ugly contours of his constricted world, Gilad stood before us, a miraculous survivor. The celestial light of dignity suffused his flesh and bones with metaphysical force.

What decent human being would not have misgivings about the release, in exchange for Shalit, of 1027 murderers, thieves, and thugs determined to use their liberation as a license to renew the persecution of Israeli Jews? And who could not feel, seeing the first images of Gilad roughly handled by Hamas and Egyptian intermediaries, that no price was too dear for the release of one single human being from the tomb in which he was jailed and left to slowly extinguish like a flame without oxygen.

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by Greg Callaghan*

The Australian: In Egypt, Islamist parties now hold about 80 per cent of the seats in parliament. Given the majority of demonstrators in Tahrir Square were liberal secularists, has Egypt’s Arab Spring been hijacked?

Daniel Pipes: No, because the liberals of Tahrir Square did not force Mubarak from power. The military took advantage of their mass demonstrations to dispatch a president it had had enough of, in large part because of his intent on handing power to his son, Gamal.

Is the victory of the Muslim Brotherhood bad news for Egypt’s Coptic Christians and secularists?

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A briefing by Michael Rubin*

Michael Rubin, a former editor of the Middle East Quarterly, is a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute and a senior lecturer at the Naval Postgraduate School. He formerly served as a political adviser to the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq and has written extensively about Iranian history and politics. He is the author of Into the Shadows: Radical Vigilantes in Khatami’s Iran (2001) and the co-author of Eternal Iran (2005). On March 19, Rubin addressed the Middle East Forum in Philadelphia about the efficacy of sanctions on Iran as well as the prospect and logistics of an Israeli strike.

Can sanctions against the Iranian regime be effective? Michael Rubin addressed this question by citing Tehran’s former nuclear negotiator, who revealed that previous suspensions of Iranian nuclear enrichment had merely been temporary ploys aimed at ameliorating international pressure and preventing a UN consensus on sanctions. Rubin argued that Iran’s bleak current economic outlook is due not to sanctions but to the regime’s mismanagement of the economy.

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By Barry Rubin

“It is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.”

– William Shakespeare, “Macbeth”

Whatever side you are, or aren’t, on and whether you never think about these issues or are an impassioned activist, there are three fundamental issues about Israel, its enemies, and the Middle East that tie the narrative into knots.

Each of these wrong ideas, of course, has a basis in fact. The following points might appear counter-intuitive. But I will demonstrate their accuracy. And you can’t understand events without grasping them.

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Responsible airlines like Air France, Easyjet, Jet2.com, and Lufthansa have cooperated with Israel to keep “pro-Palestinian” rabble-rousers (hypocrites) from flying into Ben-Gurion airport to cause who-knows-what kind of mayhem in the Jewish state:

More than 60 percent of the 1,500 pro-Palestinian activists due to arrive in Israel on Sunday to take part in a fly-in protest have received notifications from airlines that their flights were canceled, the spokesman for the “Welcome to Palestine” protest told Haaretz on Saturday. …

For the bigoted trash that do make it into Israel, the Jewish state’s government has prepared a reality check to be presented to them upon arrival — a the-truth-hurts message that the haters probably won’t even understand:

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In a surprise move, Jordan has decided to revoke the Jordanian citizenship of Palestinian Authority and PLO officials, sources in Amman disclosed Wednesday. …

The move coincides with a new electoral law in Jordan that seeks to limit Palestinian representation in parliament. …

In recent years the Jordanians have stripped thousands of Palestinians of their Jordanian citizenship in an apparent response to calls to establish a Palestinian state in Jordan. Nearly half the kingdom’s 6 million people are of Palestinian origin. …

The Jerusalem Post, 04/11/2012

Sounds like Arab-against-Arab apartheid to me, not “Arab Unity” or an “Arab Spring.” Let’s be clear: The Hashemite Bedouin regime ruling Jordan, led by King Abdullah II, is not “Palestinian.” Remember that in 1970, Abdullah’s father:

… King Hussein decided it was time to act. Throughout September the Jordanian military launched attacks to push the PLO [Palestinian Liberation organization] out of Jordan, attacks now called “Black September” by the PLO. Casualty reports are uncertain, but hundreds or perhaps thousands of PLO fadayeen were killed in the fighting and large numbers of Palestinian Arab civilians died as well. Arafat retreated to northern Jordan, close to his Syrian sponsors. Within 10 months the PLO were driven out of Jordan completely, and re-established themselves in Lebanon, a choice that led to eventual disaster for Lebanon.

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… one boycotts totalitarian regimes, not democracies. One can boycott Sudan, guilty of the extermination of part of the population of Darfur. One can boycott China, guilty of massive violations of human rights in Tibet and elsewhere. One can and should boycott the Iran of Sakineh and Jafar Panahi, whose leaders have become deaf to the language of common sense and compromise. One can even imagine, as we once did with regard to the fascist generals’ Argentina or Brezhnev’s USSR, boycotting those Arab regimes whose citizens’ freedom of expression is forbidden and punished, if necessary, in blood. One does not boycott the only society in the Middle East where Arabs read a free press, demonstrate when they wish to do so, send freely elected representatives to parliament, and enjoy their rights as citizens. …

Bernard-Henri Lévy, HuffPost News, January 25, 2011

The Boycotts, Divestment and Sanctions or “BDS” movement has once again failed to affect Israeli policies in order to “help” the “Palestinian” cause — another failure in a long line of failures. BDS’ latest setback known to me just took place in Minnesota:

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By Yoram Ettinger
Israel Hayom Newsletter, April 06, 2012

Israeli leaders are able to repel President Obama’s relentless pressure to refrain from pre-empting Iran, Hizballah and Hamas; to freeze Jewish construction in eastern Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria; to retreat to the 1949 cease fire lines, including the repartitioning of Jerusalem; and to placate Mahmoud Abbas, while ignoring the PA hate-education, non-compliance and terrorism.

In contrast to the ironclad US public and congressional support of Israel, presidential pressure has always been part of US-Israel relations.

Therefore, contemporary Israeli leaders should emulate Israeli prime ministers who served from 1948 (Ben Gurion) to 1992 (Shamir). While they rejected — in most cases — presidential prescriptions for Israel’s national security, bilateral strategic cooperation surged unprecedentedly in spite off, and probably due to, their steadfastness.

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by Phyllis Chesler

We are living at a time in history when the demonization of the Jews and of the Jewish state has become a fait accompli. The Big Lies have been internationalized and legalized; the poisonous propaganda has begun its real work as Jewish blood flows in the streets and the world’s heart remains indifferent or worse—joyous.

But, we are also living in an era of unending miracles.

Remember when five Arab armies attacked the tiny Jewish state—and lost?

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by Yoram Ettinger
Straight from the Jerusalem Boardroom #160, April 05, 2012

IMF Country Report on Israel, April 2012:

“Israel’s economy remains strong with GDP growing 4.7 percent in 2011, led by robust private consumption and buoyant investment. However, the global downturn is slowing Israeli growth, with 2012 GDP growth expected at 2.8 percent.

“Israel’s fundamentals are strong: inflation and inflation expectations are squarely within the 1-3 percent target range; unemployment is at historic lows; the net international investment position is a surplus; and public debt has fallen steadily to below 75 percent of GDP.

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by Cinnamon Stillwell and Judith Greblya*

Academic self-congratulation reached new heights at the University of California, Los Angeles on March 21, 2012, with “An Event Honoring Professor Khaled Abou El Fadl.” Abou El Fadl—Omar and Azmeralda Alfi Distinguished Professor in Islamic Law and chair of the Islamic Studies Interdepartmental Program at UCLA—was feted by the UCLA Center for Near Eastern Studies, the UCLA School of Law Journal of Near Eastern and Islamic Law, the UCLA School of Law Muslim Law Students Association, and the UCLA School of Law Critical Race Studies Program. Eighty students, professors, and community members gathered to commemorate “the world’s leading authority on Islamic law and Islam, and the prominent scholar in the field of human rights,” according to the event description. In reality, Fadl is an apologist for radical Islam who routinely denies valid concerns over the human rights abuses inherent to Sharia (Islamic) law while charging its critics with “Islamophobia.”

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By Barry Rubin

While you probably already know what I’m about to say, it is useful to reinforce and pull together the pieces of reality we face.

It is the year 2012, which seems to be going by very fast and is already one-fourth finished. People are walking around with smart phones and all sorts of electronic devices undreamed of not long ago. There has been what is called an “Arab Spring” stoking fantasies about instant democracy. An African-American was elected president of the United States, and that was after his party’s nomination, and thus probably the White House, almost went to a woman!

Times have changed.

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by Aymenn Jawad Al-Tamimi and Phillip Smyth*

A recurring question of the past year has been whether Israel can come out of the unrest of the “Arab Spring” with any new allies. The point is hardly immaterial: The future of Israel’s peace treaty with Egypt hangs in the balance, as Egyptian political parties call for a referendum on the Camp David Accords. Observers also point to the possibility of a revolt against Hashemite rule in Amman instigated by Bedouin tribes and/or Palestinians in Jordan. This too could derail that country’s peace treaty with Israel.

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By Fern Sidman

On Thursday evening, March 22nd, tension filled the air at the Student Activities Center at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey as two Israeli reservists addressed an audience of both pro-Israel supporters and ardent Israeli detractors. The evening called “StandWithUs’ Israeli Soldiers Stories: Real Israelis - Real Stories” was co-sponsored by StandWithUs, (a pro-Israel student advocacy organization), Rutgers Hillel and the Israel Center. Amid the din of conversation, audience members filed in to the center lounge and, according to one member of Rutgers Hillel who chose to remain anonymous, “Judging by the large number of Muslim students here, we can expect some kind of protest or walk out.”

   
Israeli army reservists Lital and Adam.

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Thanks to HonestReporting, you can easily speak your mind to the UN and sign the “We demand the dismissal of Khulood Badawi” petition (click on this link):

Dear Head of UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA),

We, the undersigned, demand that the UN immediately terminate its association with Khulood Badawi, an employee at the OCHA.

Badawi has proven unreliable as a source of information by using her Twitter account to spread false and harmful information about Israel. She has refused to acknowledge any wrongdoing or apologize for spreading propaganda. It is inappropriate for a UN employee to engage in political activism and the UN must disassociate itself from her immediately.

SIGN THE PETITION

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