By Barry Rubin

The Middle East is a region where so many things seem to happen, so little appears to change, and far too much is said about it all.

Partly this is due to the area’s turbulence; partly to obsessive hyper-reporting in an era when everyone claims to be a Middle East expert and the most basic exercise of logic is often absent. Yet, at the same time, silly ideas and policies often also correspond to real needs.

Here’s a list of examples:

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by Michael Rubin*

During his February 5 testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee, Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell backpedaled from the December 2007 National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) and its claim that, “in fall 2003, Tehran halted its nuclear weapons program.”

Not only did McConnell testify that the Islamic Republic was working to master the enrichment of uranium - “the most difficult challenge in nuclear production” - but he also acknowledged that, “because of intelligence gaps,” the U.S. government could not be certain that the Iranian government had fully suspended its covert nuclear programs. “We assess with high confidence that Iran has the scientific, technical, and industrial capacity eventually to produce nuclear weapons,” he testified. “In our judgment, only an Iranian political decision to abandon a nuclear weapons objective would plausibly keep Iran from eventually producing nuclear weapons - and such a decision is inherently reversible.”

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by Bill Levinson

There is a general perception that John McCain is a Republican In Name Only (RINO). While we are likely to vote for Romney if Pennsylvania actually gets a voice in selecting the Republican nominee, we will stand squarely behind McCain if he is the alternative to Clinton or Obama. We can meanwhile make a tongue-in-cheek suggestion to dedicated Democrats that they can vote for a DIF (Democrat In Fact) without voting for someone who kisses Suha Arafat or consorts with George Soros, MoveOn.org, anti-Semites like Al Sharpton, and/or racists like Jeremiah Wright.

Is McCain really a RINO, though? Let’s take a look at what the Americans for Democratic Action have to say about him. A higher ADA rating means that the legislator has voted with the ADA on selected issues (i.e. left-wing) while a low rating means he or she has voted against the ADA’s position. Here are McCain’s ADA ratings. (The 2007 ratings have apparently not been issued)

2004: 35% versus Clinton (95%)
2005: 10% versus Clinton (100%) and Obama (100%)
2006: 15% versus Clinton (95%) and Obama (95%)

In addition, several issues on which McCain sided with the ADA are not really that objectionable, and we even agree with a couple of them.

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by Bill Levinson

What you are thunders so loudly that I cannot hear what you say to the contrary.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Much has been made by the National Jewish Democratic Council about Barack Hussein Obama’s purported support for Israel. Obama’s actions, however, thunder so loudly that we cannot hear his lip service to Israel’s basic security and right to exist. After soliciting the support of the prominent racist and anti-Semite Al Sharpton, Barack Obama just accepted the endorsement of MoveOn.org. Let’s see what this official MoveOn.org bulletin has to say about Israel and the Palestinians.

MoveOn Bulletin
Friday, June 20, 2003
Noah T. Winer, Editor
noah.winer “at” moveon.org

NTRODUCTION: WHERE DOES THE ROAD MAP LEAD?
In July, 2000 Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak broke off talks with Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat at the Camp David summit hosted by U.S. President Bill Clinton. That September, Ariel Sharon, chairman of the Likud party, made a provocative visit to the Haram al-Sharif/Temple Mount in Jerusalem. Control over this holy site for both Muslims and Jews is contested by Palestinians and Israelis. The visit implied Israeli sovereignty over all Jerusalem, the eastern portion of which is considered occupied territory by the international community. So began the second intifada, or Palestinian uprising.

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By Andrew Whitehead

On 21 January, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), a Washington, D.C. based Islamist terrorist supporting front group, issued an “Action Alert” calling on readers to contact American political leaders in order to pressure Israel to lift a “humanitarian crisis” in Gaza.

The “humanitarian crisis” developed when Israel reduced deliveries of fuel, food, and medicines in response to rocket attacks by members of the Hamas terrorist group. Hamas terrorists have been firing rockets into Southern Israel since taking power by force in June.

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By Andrew L. Jaffee

The worst economic/political experiment in human history — communism and Nazism (National Socialist German Workers Party) — was great at killing millions of poor souls. Now the Chinese version of the über-nanny-state wishes to extend its control to… life after death:

A SENIOR Tibetan lama and Chinese government advisers have defended contentious rules banning reincarnations of “living Buddhas” without approval.

The rules are apparently aimed at empowering China to name the next Dalai Lama when the 14th and current Dalai Lama dies.

Last July, China’s State Administration of Religious Affairs issued regulations banning reincarnations of living Buddhas, or holy monks, who failed to seek government approval, ostensibly to manipulate the centuries-old practice and legitimise future appointments by the atheist Communist Party. …

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By Barry Rubin

T.S. Elliot wrote memorably in “The Hollow Men”: Between the idea/And the reality/Between the motion/And the act/Falls the Shadow

In the case of the peace process and all the great ideas for fixing everything in Arab-Israel relations, the Shadow has been Palestinian leaders’ unwillingness–and now also inability–to make a compromise agreement ending the conflict.

Close examination of the movement’s ideology, organization, and structure shows why this is true. Exactly forty years ago, in 1968, Yasir Arafat and Fatah took over. That same year he laid down two principles dominating the movement ever since.

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By Barry Rubin

Hundreds, perhaps thousands, of articles have been written on President George Bush’s visit to the Middle East and the Israeli-Palestinian issue. And not a single one that I’ve seen has mentioned the ridiculously obvious point that goes so far in explaining everything.

To paraphrase the nursery rhyme about circling endlessly, Bush is merely taking us around the mulberry bush once more. Namely, this is an exact replay of Bill Clinton’s presidency. Eight years ago, in his last twelve months in office, Clinton, too, decided that the conflict must be resolved right away. Result: total, humiliating failure and a five-year-long bloody Palestinian war on Israel.

As if this were not enough, whether or not even more violence will follow, Bush, through no fault of his own, is in a far worse position to play this game than was his predecessor.

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by Daniel Pipes*

The Palestinian “right of return” entered the lexicon of American policymakers in December 2006, when the Iraq Study Group Report urged the U.S. government to support Israel-Palestinian negotiations that addresses what it termed a “key final status issue.” That recommendation came as a mild shock, given that the “right of return” to Israel is transparently a code phrase to overwhelm Israel demographically, thereby undoing Zionism and the Jewish state, and so never before a goal of official Washington.

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By Barry Rubin

What should President George W. Bush, currently visiting the Middle East, expect to achieve during his last year in office, even as the American people begin to choose his successor?

The answer could not possibly objectively clearer and subjectively more obscure. The gap between the real Middle East and how it is perceived by all too many people in Washington and in the academic-journalistic elite is far too wide.

Three quick examples are useful to underline this point. First, the Annapolis summit was widely hailed throughout America and the West as a big success, even by Bush’s biggest enemies. (That means, of course, it achieved the main goal, which was not primarily about the Middle East itself.) In the region, however, less than one-fifth of Israelis and Palestinians thought it had done any good. People in the region knew better.

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The following is the personal opinion of Andrew Whitehead, founder of Anti-CAIR.

On 5 December, JihadWatch posted an article referring to an online posting made by IslamOnline.

As I do not speak/read Arabic, I am relying on the translation provided by JihadWatch.

According to JihadWatch’s translation, IslamOnline has implied that Anti-CAIR is engaged in activities on behalf of Michael Savage in his lawsuit against the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR).

While Anti-CAIR supports Savage’s free speech rights, we are not spearheading any coalition nor organizing opposition to CAIR’s newest group, “Hate Hurts America” (HHA).

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By Andrew L. Jaffee

I believe that we are experiencing global warming. It is an issue that both the developing and developed worlds need to address right now. But what I’ve seen over the last week is farcical: 1) a UN “climate change” conference whose participants pumped an “equivalent to what a Western city of 1.5 million people, like Marseilles, France, would emit in a day” into our atmosphere; 2) a new Australian Labor leader whose “negotiating stance” on the Kyoto Protocol is the same as President Bush’s; and 3) the fact that China and India, “among the biggest contributors to the problem, both say they will not sign any climate change treaty that would slow the pace of their development.” Here are the goodies (insert your own, canned laugh-track):

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by M. Zuhdi Jasser*

On November 20, 2006, airline officials in Minneapolis removed six imams from U.S. Airways flight 300 to Phoenix after their behavior raised the suspicion of fellow travelers.[1] The imams decried the incident as racist and evidence of discrimination. On March 12, 2007, they filed suit against the airline, airport, and fellow passengers. Some of the imams’ claims are exaggerated; many are false. In reality, the incident was a tactical move to support the imams’ claim to leadership over the American Muslim community. Indeed, the “flying imams” case, Ahmed Shqeirat et al. vs. U.S. Airways,[2] appears to mark just the latest front in the war between Islamists and mainstream, pluralistic American Muslims.

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by Michael Rubin*

Congressional Democrats have seized upon the latest National Intelligence Estimate - which says Iran stopped pursuing nuclear weapons in 2003 - with great relish. They suggest it proves that not only did the Bush administration exaggerate the threat of a nuclear Iran, but that the White House, in its drive for hard-line sanctions backed by military force, has been far too skeptical of diplomacy.

In a statement yesterday, Sen.Joseph Biden (D-Del.), chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, chastised President Bush, saying his “actions are doubly dangerous because they undercut the cooperation we need from other countries for dealing with the real problems Iran continues to pose.”

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By Andrew Whitehead

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), has petitioned a court to have the label of “un-indicted co-conspirator” removed. CAIR, among many other Islamist groups, was labeled an un-indicted co-conspirator in the recent Holy Land Foundation (HLF) trial held in Texas.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/
article?AID=/20071121/NATION/111210046/1002

CAIR wrote to House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers asking for help in pressuring the Justice Department to remove the designation. CAIR is also asking why the Justice Department publicly named all 306 co-conspirators in the HLF indictment.

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