by Jonathan Spyer

In a speech last week broadcast at the Sayed al-Shohada Mosque in south Beirut, Hizbullah General Secretary Hassan Nasrallah promised his supporters that Israel’s ‘disappearance’ was an ‘established fact.’

The Hizbullah leader railed from his unknown hiding place against the ‘robbing and murdering Zionists’, whom he accused of killing prominent Hizbullah official Imad Mughniyeh. Behind the Hizbullah leader’s customary defiant rhetoric, however, his movement currently faces a series of dilemmas.

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by Stephen Schwartz*

The involvement of Muslim physicians in the London and Glasgow airport terror conspiracy on June 29-30, 2007, forced both non-Muslims and moderate Muslims to question how those trained to heal could embrace terrorism. The doctors involved in the attempt to detonate car bombs in London and blow up a passenger terminal at the Glasgow airport did not represent an isolated phenomenon. Many Muslim doctors have adopted the extremist doctrines espoused by the Muslim Brotherhood, Saudi Wahhabis, and Pakistani jihadists. Groups such as Al-Muhajiroun, a group banned but still active in Britain and famous for celebrating the 9-11 terror attacks, recruit medical students. Tablighi Jamaat,[1] an Islamist movement prominent in Great Britain among Muslims of South Asian origin, also welcomes Muslim medical students. Medical professionals represent an elite in Muslim societies. They have moral and social standing that can influence others to stray from the observance of traditional, mainstream, and spiritual Islam toward radical ideologies.

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By Barry Rubin

Ironic, isn’t it, that radical forces threaten a wide range of violence, sanctions, and other behaviors against democratic states while insisting–along with their Western apologists–that any attempt by their victims to put any kind of pressure on them is useless.

Think about it. Every time someone proposes, say, economic sanctions (on Iran or Syria), an international tribunal investigating its involvement in terrorism (on Syria), military operations or killing terrorist leaders (against Hamas, Hizballah, Iraqi insurgents, al-Qaida, the Kurdish PKK, or the Taliban), diplomatic isolation, or even not giving financial aid (Hamas), a chorus of voices says: it won’t work.

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by Jonathan Spyer

The Lebanon war of 2006 failed to resolve any of the issues over which it was fought. Ultimately, the  war may be understood as a single campaign within a broader Middle Eastern conflict–between pro-Western and democratic states on the one hand, and an alliance of Islamist and Arab nationalist forces on the other. The latter alignment has as one of its strategic goals the eventual demise of the State of Israel. While such a goal may appear delusional, the inconclusive results of the 2006 war did much to confirm the representatives of the latter camp in their belief that they have discovered a method capable of eventually producing a strategic defeat for Israel.

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by Amos N. Guiora and Asaf Romirowsky*

In 1993, after the Oslo peace accords, the Palestinian Liberation Organization was transformed into the Palestinian Authority. The PA was to assume governing responsibilities for the Palestinian people, the first step toward statehood.

The dream of joining the family of nations was tangible.

What went wrong? In reality, Yasser Arafat continued to foster the status quo victim message of Palestinian oppressing as the direct result of Israeli occupation and Western (primarily U.S.) indifference, if not acquiescence - despite the fact that the PA had responsibility for civil affairs and security in the Gaza Strip and parts of the West Bank.

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By Barry Rubin

In the course of Hizballah’s threats against Israel, following the assassination of that group’s international terrorism director, Imad Mugniyah, there was an extremely important point that speaks to the Middle East’s future.

The statement came from General Muhammad Ali Jafari, head of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards, the Tehran regime’s main military force (and future guardians of Iran’s nuclear weapons). He predicted, “In the near future, we will witness the destruction of Israel, the aggressor, this cancerous microbe Israel.”

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by Steve Shamrak

For centuries, with the exception of the Dark Ages, scientists and the intellectual elite have been considered a vanguard of humanity. They are a leading force not just of technical or medical advances, but have greatly influenced and contributed to the political and social fabric of the society. All of this is achieved by dedication of their lives to their chosen fields, usually with no or little personal involvement in politics.

The recent phenomenon whereby celebrities such as Hollywood stars, between drug rehabilitation clinics and plastic surgery, express their unqualified views about anything, particularly politics, and influencing public opinion using their celebrity status, has become contagious. Unfortunately this trend is spreading and seriously affecting Israeli scientists and intellectuals who are craving acceptance and recognition by the wider fatuous politically-correct and generally anti-Semitic international audience. As a result many of them, although some are quite brilliant in their chosen fields of expertise, have joined the Israel-bashing choir, blaming Israel for not doing enough for the peaceful resolution of the Arab-Israeli conflict. Strangely, as scientists, many of them do not consider that factual knowledge and understanding of the history and dynamic of the conflict is essential in order to take an educated and qualified position.

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By Phyllis Chesler

I lived in Kabul nearly fifty years ago. It was enchanting and dangerous. I lived on a wide and gracious street lined with trees. We had electricity, phones, hot and cold running water, and marble bathrooms. There was a movie theatre and an American-style cafeteria restaurant. Bazaars flourished, mosques shimmered, a thousand (all male) tea-houses thrived. Barefoot boys scurried bearing tea for businessmen all day long.

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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 Barry Rubin

Rather than unite in the face of the Hamas challenge and the task of gaining support from the West Bank’s people, Fatah seems to be collapsing.

Or perhaps the feuds are not only over power but who gets to control the almost $7 billion scheduled to be given the Fatah-controlled Palestinian Authority (PA) over the next three years. A contributing factor is that Fatah has said it will hold a congress in March, the first full such meeting in almost 20 years.

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By Andrew L. Jaffee

Islamists have proven once again how anti-social, anti-Western, and anti-education their “movement” really is:

Gunmen have attacked the Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA) in Gaza City and blown up its library, burning thousands of books, its director says.

Eissa Saba said 14 men overpowered the centre’s two security guards before placing bombs in the library and main office. The latter did not explode.

The guards said the gunmen had asked them why they worked for “infidels”. …

Keeping the people dumb in the name of Islam?

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by Cinnamon Stillwell*

Georgetown professor John Esposito, director of the Saudi-financed Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding has a reputation as an apologist for radical Islam. And it’s one he lived up to with a Stanford University speech last week titled, “Dying for God? Suicide Terrorism and Militant Islam.”

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By Andrew L. Jaffee

Al Qaeda has proven once again what a heinous group it is by burning prisoners alive, in the name of Allah, on video tape:

Al Qaeda’s latest display of terror has made its way onto the Internet, showing horrifying images of what appear to be prisoners in Iraq being doused with an inflammatory liquid and then burned alive. …

“And now that we have captured these scums who committed this dreadful crime, we will burn them with this fire,” the Al Qaeda leader says in Arabic. “The same fire which they committed their crime with.

“And I swear by God almighty that, I swear by God almighty that we will have no mercy on them,” he continues. “Allahuakbar, Allahuakbar.”

As he speaks, two of the insurgents pour liquid on the blindfolded prisoners. Then they push the bound men into the pit, where they are engulfed in flames.

Click here to see the video on a Turkish news site (WARNING: Very disturbing Images).

Click here to see the full video on Google (WARNING: Very disturbing images).

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By Andrew L. Jaffee

Imad Mughniyeh, aka “The Fox,” a Hezbollah murderer, may have been “an inspiration to bin Laden,” but he is now a dead one. Thanks most likely go to the Israeli Mossad, although the Jewish state is not commenting. Better to keep twisted, Palestinian terrorist master-minds guessing about their fates. Lest people bemoan the “assassination” of another “freedom fighter,” the National Post today pointed out what kind of an evil man Mughniyeh was:

… Mugniyeh cemented his dark reputation in 1983, when he orchestrated the vehicle bombing of the American embassy in Beirut and, six months later, similar attacks at the barracks of French and American peacekeepers.

He followed up with a spate of kidnappings, the 1985 hijacking of a TWA plane flying from Athens to Rome, the 1992 bombing of the Israeli embassy in Buenos Aires and the bombing two years later of the city’s Jewish community centre. Some 500 died in his attacks in just over a decade. Osama bin Laden has called Mugniyeh’s tactics in Beirut his inspiration for “destroying towers in America.”

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Despite UN Designation, Arab Culture Deserves Better ‘Capital’ Than Syria

By Jonathan Spyer and Nir Boms

The ancient city of Damascus received another mark of recognition last week. Following in the wake of Liverpool - which was recognized as the European Capital of Culture, and Stavanger in Norway, which was named the non-EU European Capital of Culture, UNESCO last week designated Damascus as the Arab Capital of Culture for 2008.

In a speech celebrating this decision, Syrian President Bashar Assad chose to highlight a very specific element of his capital city’s culture — namely, Damascus’s self-appointed role as the center of Arab ‘resistance.’ “Damascus is the capital of resistance culture by symbolizing Arab culture” he declared, and went on to define ‘resistance culture’ as “the culture of freedom and defending freedom.”

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