by Efraim Karsh*

Sixty-four years after partitioning Palestine into two independent states — one Jewish, the other Arab — the UN General Assembly is set again to vote on the same issue. While this time around Palestinian leaders appear to be preaching compromise, closer scrutiny reveals this to be a tactical rather than a strategic change of heart, stemming from the different circumstances of the two votes and aimed at disguising their lingering unwillingness (or perhaps inability) to live with a two-state solution.

In 1947, prior to the first UN General Assembly vote, Palestinian leaders rejected any form of Jewish self-determination in Palestine. Hajj Amin Husseini, their most prominent leader from the early 1920s to the late 1940s, upheld that “there is no place in Palestine for two races.” All areas conquered by the Arabs during the 1948 war were cleansed of Jews.

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by Jonathan Schanzer*

In its final report of July 22, 2004, the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks upon the United States (commonly known as the 9/11 Commission) charged that Congress had failed America. In the commissioners’ judgment, Congress had “adjusted slowly to the rise of transnational terrorism as a threat to national security. In particular, the growing threat and capabilities of [Osama] bin Laden were not understood in Congress … To the extent that terrorism did break through and engage the attention of the Congress as a whole, it would briefly command attention after a specific incident, and then return to a lower rung on the public policy agenda.” Indeed, the commission was unequivocal about “Congress’s slowness and inadequacy in treating the issue of terrorism in the years before 9/11.”[1]

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by Raymond Ibrahim*

So long as the West focuses on names and faces in the so-called “war on terror” — as opposed to focusing on ideas and motivations — so long will it possibly win battles, even as it slowly loses the war.

As we approach the ten-year anniversary of 9/11, we win another battle with the recent slaying of al-Qaeda’s number 2. According to the Associated Press, “U.S. and Pakistani officials said Saturday that al-Qaida’s second-in-command, Atiyah Abd al-Rahman, has been killed in Pakistan, delivering another big blow to a terrorist group that the U.S. believes to be on the verge of defeat.”

Splendid news. However, some context:

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September 11: A Decade Later

by Dov S. Zakheim*

Everyday American images of the war on terror — the legacy of 9/11: Government buildings surrounded by ugly concrete blocks. Pennsylvania Avenue, the street that the White House — once known as the “people’s house” — faces, no longer open to traffic. ID cards required everywhere. Airline passengers waiting patiently in line to take off their shoes, belts, jewelry — and to have their bags searched and perhaps their bodies as well. Fans searched as they enter football stadiums. People on the watch for suspicious characters — including those who might take photos of bridges and tunnels. People fearing to retrieve lost bags in case they are booby trapped. Increased government surveillance of individual Americans, including their telephone calls overseas.

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By Andrew L. Jaffee

Yesterday and this morning, as I surfed the web and switched between network and cable coverage of 9/11 commemorative events, one thing I noticed that was conspicuously absent: Naming those who perpetrated this heinous crime, the Islamo-fascists. The words, “Islamist” and “terrorist,” were glaringly absent. I did stumble upon a sickening local “news” story entitled, “…Muslims recount treatment after 9/11.” Thousands of Americans incinerated and we should be commemorating a few insults hurled against a few Muslims? In fact, I found an even more sickening story that was newsworthy entitled, “Muslim Extremists Noisy Protest At 9/11 Commemoration” (in London). These perverts carried signs stating, “Islam Will Dominate the World.”

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by Daniel Pipes*

Three weeks after 9/11, I wrote an article titled “Why This American Feels Safer” in which I noted that, unlike the 2/3s of my fellow countrymen who felt “less safe” than before the atrocities, I felt more secure. Twenty-two years after radical Islam started making war on the United States (counting from the seizure of the U.S. embassy in Tehran in 1979), Americans finally took this threat seriously. “The newfound alarm is healthy, the sense of solidarity heartening, the resolve is encouraging.”

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by Aymenn Jawad Al-Tamimi*

As troops aligned with the Libyan interim government continue to advance on the few remaining strongholds of Gaddafi loyalists — such as Bani Walid (where the tribal elders are refusing to surrender) — much debate is still raging over Libya’s future. Will the country emerge as a stable liberal democracy, will it be torn by ethnic and tribal divisions, or will it transform into an Islamist state?

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By Fern Sidman

“We are facing a new holocaust, and people of all faiths must demand that the truth be heard”, declared Oscar winning American actor Jon Voight on Monday evening, August 22nd in Jerusalem. Voight, 72, joined FOX news personality Glenn Beck as the featured speaker at the central train station in Jerusalem in an event commemorating the Holocaust. As a lead up to Beck’s “Restoring Courage” rally on August 24th, Monday evening’s event, which was carried on Beck’s new television network, featured a powerful film about Holocaust survivor Rudy Wolf’s visit to his childhood home in Germany. Other speakers at the event noted the significance of holding a Holocaust themed evening at the former Jerusalem train station after world armies did not bomb the tracks to Auschwitz in World War II.

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By Gary Gerofsky

We heard crowds in Egypt chant, “allahu akbar.” We heard the crowds in Yemen chant allahu akbar. We heard crowds in Bahrain chant allahu akbar. We hear the crowds in Syria chant allahu akbar. We hear the crowds in Libya chant allahu akbar. The same chant can be heard all over the Muslim world from troubled people in countries that are themselves in deep trouble. Literally, allahu akbar means “God is great” in Arabic, in the context of the Islamic religion. I am certain that the God to whom they are referring and envisioning is a very harsh deity with a very Islamo-specific agenda in mind; a celestial leader who refuses to include or acknowledge those outside of Islam in his vision of the world order.

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By Barry Rubin

“I do not understand Norway’s position, and I say that as a friend of Norway. If they shoot, if they fire rockets, why doesn’t Norway believe that they are terrorists? What else do they need to do? Let us not forget that Norway and the other Scandinavian countries called in Yasir Arafat and said: ‘If you want a deal, you must first renounce terrorism. You must recognize the state of Israel, and you must commit yourself to peace.’ Why is all this forgotten? What is the difference between the PLO at that time and Hamas today?”
– President Shimon Peres, May 2011

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by Efraim Karsh and Asaf Romirowsky*

As September approaches, many are waiting with bated breath to learn if Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas will deliver on his threat to unilaterally declare an independent Palestinian state and seek recognition of it through the U.N. But in putting the Palestinian demand for statehood to a vote, Abbas will end up subverting the international organization’s longstanding solution to the Arab Israeli-conflict — U.N. Security Council Resolution 242 — with unpredictable results.

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by Steven J. Rosen*

In a few weeks, an overwhelming majority in the United Nations General Assembly will likely vote for collective recognition of a Palestinian state. But which Palestinian state? Of the three Palestinian states the assembly could recognize, two are real and arguably could meet the requirements for statehood. But it is the third, purely imaginary one that the assembly will endorse, one that neither has a functioning government nor meets the requirements of international law.

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By Gary Gerofsky

All forms of mass murder and terrorism are evil and repugnant, whatever the source, whether from Tim McVeigh, Anders Behring Breivik, a German Third Reich gone mad under Hitler or a huge representative group of Islamists who think that their holy books command them to commit violent jihad against the infidels. The Islamist situation dominates the terror scene today notwithstanding the exceptions such as this recent insane mass murder by Breivik in Norway. Yet the mainstream media (MSM) go out of their way to avoid using terms like “terrorism” (banned by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation or “CBC” in Canada) and the Obama administration (specifically Janet Napolitano) has advised the government to use “man-caused disaster” so as not to offend Muslims by stating the truth about terrorism and calling it what it actually is. This manipulation of truth and language is a tactic to close debate and discussion about immigration, Islamic terrorism, misogyny, sharia, and jihad. In a similar way, debate is being closed down by labeling this tragedy a right-wing Christian conspiracy.

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By Fern Sidman

According to combined news sources, just two days before gunman Anders Behring Breivik opened fire on teenagers participating in Norway’s ruling party youth camp on the island of Utoya, the campers met with Norwegian Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere and demanded he recognize the establishment of an independent Palestinian state.

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By Fern Sidman

Introduced by Pastor John Hagee, the founder and chairman of Christians United For Israel (CUFI), Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed a gathering of thousands of ardent Christian Zionists via satellite from Jerusalem on Tuesday afternoon, July 19th at a special “Middle East Briefing” session at the sixth annual CUFI national summit in Washington.

Greeted with over 10 minutes of applause and enthusiastic cheers, Mr. Netanyahu extended his appreciation to Pastor Hagee for his, “unwavering support and commitment for Israel,” and for those Christian supporters of Israel who have the, “courage to stand up and speak the truth.” Sharing the same sentiments that he did in his speech before the Joint Sessions of Congress in late May, Netanyahu said, “Israel is not what’s wrong with the Middle East; it’s what is right about it. Israel is a country that draws from the same well as you. Both America and Israel were forged on the same principles, the same ideas and so we have shared values and common hopes for the future.”

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