Israel continues to do the work that the Palestinian Authority refuses to do — even though “Palestinian police officers have broken into the parliament in Gaza to demand a crackdown on the militant group Hamas.”

In another surgical strike, Israeli missiles took out terrorists:

Witnesses said the missiles struck a white Subaru car that was travelling between the northern refugee camp of Jabaliya and the town of Beit Lahiya.

Shadi Mohanna, Islamic Jihad’s field commander in northern Gaza, died along with his assistant, Mohammed Ghazaineh.

Israeli Prime Minister Sharon commented unequivocally:

Our activity will be wide-ranging and ceaseless, until we succeed in putting an end to terrorism.

More evidence that Iraq’s Sunnis are turning to the political process, not terrorism, appeared in the Washington Post today:

…Iraqi and U.S. analysts in Baghdad express hope that such a shift in outlook will eventually lead large numbers of radical Sunnis to abandon their weapons permanently and take part in the political process.

The article describes the exploits of one Abu Theeb, who:

…traveled the countryside just north of Baghdad, stopping at as many Sunni Arab houses and villages as he could. Each time, his message to the farmers and tradesmen he met was the same: Members of the disgruntled Sunni minority should register to vote — and vote against the constitution.

Definitely worth reading.

by Michael Rubin
Forward*
October 28, 2005
http://www.meforum.org/article/782
* Cross-posted with permission

Long home to farfetched conspiracy theories and a political culture of victimization, the Arab world is now being swept by a new emphasis on accountability. While commentators and pundits debate the merits, drawbacks and sincerity of the Bush administration’s drive for democracy, events across the Middle East suggest that the relationship between rulers and the governed has been significantly transformed.

The shift was evident on October 19, when former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein and seven high-ranking lieutenants shuffled into a Baghdad court room to face charges that they ordered a massacre of 143 Iraqi civilians following a 1982 assassination attempt against the Iraqi leader. The proceedings were broadcast in Iraq on television channels like Al Jazeera and Al Arabiya, and Arabic newspapers throughout the region splashed photos of the Iraqi dictator sitting submissively in the dock across their front pages.

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Toronto, Canada – Tuesday, 26 October, 2005 - Today, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad openly called for Israel to be wiped off the face of the earth and for the ethnic cleansing of all Jews from the Middle East. In a speech reminiscent of Adolf Hitler, he called on Palestinians to execute “the annihilation of the Zionist regime”. He threatened Muslim leaders, saying “Any leaders in the Islamic umma who recognise Israel face the wrath of their own people.”

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Whom holds the prize for post-colonial, revisionist racial slurs: academia, the professional victims, or Hollywood? Right now, academia may be in the lead.

Highest marks go to Kamau Kambon, visiting professor at North Carolina State University, who is calling for the elimination of all white people on the planet:

And the one idea is, how we are going to exterminate white people, because that in my estimation is the only conclusion I have come to. We have to exterminate white people off the face of the planet to solve this problem.

- WorldNetDaily.com, October 22, 2005

But competition for racist of the decade is stiff. Do not forget U of Colorado prof Ward Churchill calling 9/11 victims “Nazis,” or Harry Belafonte’s referral to Condoleezza Rice and Colin Powell as “Uncle Toms,” and Howard Dean’s quip that African Americans are only good for the dirty jobs as “hotel staff.”

John Kerry, his own best enemy, stuck his foot in his mouth again today:

It will be hard for this administration, but it is essential to acknowledge that the insurgency will not be defeated unless our troop levels are drawn down, starting immediately after successful elections in December.

Last year, Kerry claimed we needed more troops in Iraq, to be supplied by… someone.

Hmmm… How do we defeat an enemy by providing them with a security vaccum — and a certain timetable under which to prepare for more terror?

Iraq’s terrorists have been busy killing far more civilians than American soldiers. Certainly there is hatred for Americans by Iraq’s terrorists, but it is the democratic process they fear the most. Intimidate the civilians. An Islamic caliphate or death — no free thinking allowed.

Kerry’s argument plays to the usual sing-song: American troops are the cause of the “insurgency,” not the fear of the steady advance of democracy. So the argument goes: the Sunnis feel left out, so their only outlet is terror. But wait a minute, the Sunnis are engaged. “88 percent of the registered voters cast ballots in the Sunni province of Salahuddin,” in last week’s referendum. Sunnis are turning to the ballot box. So we cut and run just when we’re starting to win the fight?

Kerry is shilling for a loss in Iraq. But hey; anything to pander to the radical Left. Forget the center where the power lays. Kerry’s advice is a recipe for disaster, just as was his presidential campaign.

by Michael Rubin
Aspenia*
October 2005
http://www.meforum.org/article/781
* Cross-posted with permission

On June 28, 2005, Lebanon’s parliament selected Fuad Siniora to be prime minister. Siniora was a close associate of Rafiq al-Hariri, a former prime minister and Sunni powerbroker who was assassinated on February 14, 2005 as his motorcade drove down a Beirut street. Like Hariri in his later years, Siniora has taken an increasingly defiant stance in opposition to Syrian domination of Lebanon.

While Lebanon’s Cedar Revolution has already reverberated throughout the region, the transformation it sought to unveil is tenuous. Syria’s nearly three-decade occupation of Lebanon may have ended, but the country remains susceptible to Syrian domination. During the years of occupation, Syrian proxies altered the Lebanese legal system to undercut the ability of political society to transform through elections. Syrian intelligence operatives continue to permeate Lebanon, killing and intimidating dissidents and independent-minded politicians. Syrian interests continue to dominate Lebanon’s black market. Lebanon’s political position remains precarious. Hizbullah remains a Syrian proxy and, flouting U.N. Security Council resolution 1559, has refused to disarm. While many Lebanese officials privately say they would like the group to lay down its weapons, the Lebanese government remains too weak to broach the subject publicly.

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While the historic passage of Iraq’s first democratically approved constitution was barely a footnote to mainstream evening news programs, the Washington Post today admitted some positives:

But while there is still anecdotal evidence of vote tampering, no credible evidence of widespread fraud has yet emerged. Western diplomats say they hope that the Sunnis’ strong voter turnout — 88 percent of the voters cast ballots in the Sunni-majority province of Salahaddin, for instance — indicates their rejection of violence and support for political means to bring change. And some Sunnis said Tuesday they are looking forward to improving their membership in parliament in December’s elections.

It galls me to no end that terrorist violence is front-page news, but Iraqis braving that same violence is not. Some 63% of Iraq’s million registered voters cast ballots — that’s 9.765 million people.

This discovery of democracy by Arabs/Muslims is no less significant than the revolution inspired by John Locke and set in motion by our Founding Fathers.

Not only does Israel’s vibrant $129-billion-per-year free market economy help keep its citizens safe, it helps keep commuters in London and New York safe, too. From ISRAEL21c.org:

One of the ways in which the people of New York, London, and the residents of other major cities are being protected is via an Israeli-developed technology which provides ’see-all’ video, audio and data surveillance from multiple locations across a mass transportation system.

Launched last month on AirTrain JFK - the 8.1-mile light rail labrynthe that connects JFK Airport to the New York City area’s mass transit setup - the Nextiva Transit System developed by Verint Systems Inc. captures unattended bags, theft, loitering and other suspicious activities on tracks, passenger platforms, cars, buses, switching facilities and equipment depots.

Toronto, Canada – Tuesday, 25 October, 2005 – A report prepared by Detlev Mehlis, a German prosecutor for the UN Security Council, suggests that Bashar al-Assad, President of Syria, and members of his inner circle were responsible for the murder of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.

“The report is particularly damaging to Prime Minister Paul Martin and Foreign Affairs Minister Pierre Pettigrew who have supported Assad and his puppet regime,” said Francois Hachem, Director, Canadian Coalition for Democracies.

A few days before Hariri’s murder in February 2005, Foreign Affairs Minister Pettigrew visited Lebanon and Syria, bestowing official recognition on the Assad regime and their Lebanese puppets, while ignoring the Lebanese opposition. Prime Minister Paul Martin went further, publicly declaring that the Syrians were in Lebanon “to keep the peace”.

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by Daniel Pipes
New York Sun*
October 25, 2005
http://www.danielpipes.org/article/3075
* Cross-posted with permission

An Islamist group named Hizb ut-Tahrir seeks to bring the world under Islamic law and advocates suicide attacks against Israelis. Facing proscription in Great Britain, it opened a clandestine front operation at British universities called “Stop Islamophobia,” the Sunday Times has disclosed.

Stop what, you ask?

Coined in Great Britain a decade ago, the neologism Islamophobia was launched in 1996 by a self-proclaimed “Commission on British Muslims and Islamophobia.” The word literally means “undue fear of Islam” but it is used to mean “prejudice against Muslims” and joins over 500 other phobias spanning virtually every aspect of life.

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Despite all the hand-wringing by news agencies like the BBC (e.g., here and here), Iraqis have approved a draft constitution – with none other than the United Nations lauding the results:

Election results showing Iraqis have ratified a new US-backed constitution by a large margin are accurate and should be trusted, a senior UN official has said.

Speaking after Iraq’s Electoral Commission released final results showing 79 per cent approval for the constitution in the October 15 referendum, Carina Perelli said the balloting process adhered to the highest standard.

“Yes, it has been audited, controlled. It has been done really in a very professional way,” Ms Perelli, head of the UN team providing technical assistance to the Iraqi government, told reporters.

“The result is accurate. It has been checked according to the processes that we all follow when we have elections.”

Yes, many Sunnis voted against the charter, but they voted. Instead of pinning for the glory days of ruling Iraq under Saddam, maybe they will get used to airing their grievances in parliament – not on the street with car bombs.

by Michael Rubin
La Rivoluzione Democratica Contro Il Terrorismo*
October 14, 2005
http://www.meforum.org/article/780
* Cross-posted with permission

This essay is the original English version of Michael Rubin’s book chapter in La Rivoluzione Democratica Contro Il Terrorismo, edited by Fiamma Nirenstein (Rome: Panorama 2005).

Speaking before the National Endowment for Democracy on November 7, 2003, President George W. Bush argued that the Middle East was capable of democracy. “Are the peoples of the Middle East somehow beyond the reach of liberty?” he asked. “Are millions of men and women and children condemned by history or culture to live in despotism…? I, for one, do not believe it.” he declared.

Many have ridiculed Bush’s ideas. There is a tendency on both sides of the Atlantic to equate neoconservative moral clarity with, in the words of former French foreign minister Hubert Vedrine, “simplisme.” Such questions are no longer academic, but rather of blood and treasure. More than 100,000 American troops remain in Iraq, with thousands more in Afghanistan. The U.S. government has expended billions of dollars, for both military operations and reconstruction.

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by Patrick D. O’Brien
Clarity & Resolve*
October 23, 2005
http://clarityandresolve.com/archives/2005/10/islam_a_religio.php
* Cross-posted with permission

It really doesn’t take much of a spark to light the fuse on the Religion of Peace bomb, and then the bodies start hitting the floor. Seriously, my kafir friends, when provoked—by the most mundane and absurd matters!—this religion provides a direct neural line to the amygdala, effectively bypassing all points in the cerebral cortex relating to morality and rational thinking. Rumors of a Quran near a toilet—seethe, rage, kill! Photos of naked mujahideen human pyramids—seethe, rage, kill! A DVD of a Christian play which might be critical of Islam sold in an Egyptian church—seethe, rage, kill! (salute to Sharku)

CAIRO (AFP) - At least three people have been killed and around 60 injured in violent clashes between Muslims and police in Alexandria amid mounting tensions in the Egyptian Mediterranean city over a Christian video considered anti-Islamic.

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Interview with Alexander Downer
Middle East Quarterly*
Fall 2005
http://www.meforum.org/article/779
* Cross-posted with permission

Alexander Downer has served as Australia’s minister for foreign affairs for nearly a decade. Born in 1951, he received a bachelor’s degree in politics and economics from the University of New Castle-on-Tyne in the United Kingdom. He entered the Australian diplomatic service in 1976, serving at his government’s representation to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and the Australian embassy to Belgium and Luxembourg before becoming the senior foreign affairs representative in South Australia. In 1982 and 1983, he was a political adviser to Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser and, after the election of March 1983, to Andrew Peacock, the federal leader of the opposition. In 1984, he entered parliament as the representative for Mayo, a seat he has since held without interruption.

Prior to Prime Minister John Howard’s March 1996 election, Downer held a number of senior opposition portfolios, serving as shadow minister for arts, heritage, and the environment (1987), housing and small business (1988-89), trade and trade negotiations (1990-92), defense (1992-93), and treasurer (1993-94). After serving seven months as leader of the opposition, he became John Howard’s shadow minister of foreign affairs in January 1995, then foreign minister upon Howard’s election. He is married and has three daughters and one son. Colin Rubenstein and Ted Lapkin, respectively executive director and director of policy analysis at the Australia/Israel and Jewish Affairs Council, interviewed him by e-mail on May 20, 2005.

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