by Daniel Pipes
New York Sun*
May 23, 2006
http://www.danielpipes.org/article/3625
* Cross-posted with permission

Middle Eastern issues will likely play a role of unprecedented importance in the American mid-term elections less than a half-year away. Three topics head the agenda: the course of the Iraq war, the proper response to Iran’s nuclear ambitions, and the soaring price of fuel.

Despite their prominence, these are momentary issues, where voters will make decisions based on transient circumstances and without clearly defined differences between two major parties; what is the Democratic position on Iraq, anyway, or the Republican one on Iran? A fourth Middle Eastern issue, the Arab-Israeli conflict, though less high profile this year, has deeper electoral significance. It is a perennial topic that helps define the two parties.

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By David McKay

I have heard Congressman Tom Tancredo (R, CO.), assure talk radio hosts and others that he and his fellow 90 plus Congressional Immigration Reform Caucus (CIRC) members would do everything they could to make sure that any amnesty legislation is never passed by the House.

Congressman J.D. Hayworth (R, AZ.), stated on April 11, 2006 that if any amnesty legislation ever reached the floor of the House for a vote, that he “suspects there are enough “open borders” Republicans who would join the Democrats in approving a final guest worker Amnesty bill”.

I have learned that House Speaker Dennis Hastert is backing amnesty legislation and is planning or has already packed any House Conference Committee with pro-amnesty congressman to hasten any border “security”/immigration “reform” bill out of the committee and to the House floor, where he will use every trick in the book to ram the amnesty bill to House approval.

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By Bill Narvey

On the U.S. Department of State website appears an address given May 18th, 2006 by Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice welcoming to America His Royal Highness Prince Saud Al Faisal, the Foreign Minister of Saudi Arabia. The headline reads, “Secretary Rice Hosts U.S. - Saudi Strategic Dialogue.”

Reading between the lines of Ms. Rice’s address, one realizes that she avoided mentioning all the facts, circumstances and realities which contradict what Ms. Rice did say and that omission revealed just how badly Ms. Rice and the Bush administration are in denial of realities.

Anyone with just a smattering of the history of Saudi Arabia and its global role will see that the Saudis are far more enemy than friend of America.

Whatever help the Saudis might be giving America to put out the fire of radical Islam, it was the Saudis who helped start and who continue to help to fuel that fire by promoting and spreading their extreme Wahabi version of Islam turning many Muslims to radicalism and some into terrorists. Muslim radicalism with Saudi help has invaded the West and America and that poses a direct and deadly threat to Americans.

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By Andrew L. Jaffee

No, you didn’t read the title wrong; I said, “force field.” This technology isn’t sci-fi anymore. Now, it is reality, thanks to Israel. The Little Satan’s technology will be used to protect the lives of the Great Satan’s troops in Iraq. FOXNews has actual video of the “Trophy” system in action. According to The Register:

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The Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) claims to be “bridging the language gap between the Middle East and the West.” Yesterday, it posted a quote from Dr. Salah Sultan, advancing the notion that 911 was engineered by America so it could “control and terrorize the entire world:”

“This scenario… I still believe to this day… This scenario still baffles me. I share the view of many Americans, French, and Europeans, who say that 9/11 could not have been carried out entirely from outside [the U.S.] - by Muslims or others. The confessions by some people could have been edited. But even if they were not edited, I believe that these people were used in a marginal role. The entire thing was of a large scale and was planned within the U.S., in order to enable the U.S. to control and terrorize the entire world, and to get American society to agree to the war declared on terrorism - the definition of which has not yet been determined.

“The U.S. remains the only country to determine who is a terrorist, and what is the definition for terrorism, and it can pin it on anyone. The most recent instance is the case of Dr. Al-Zindani, who has been accused of terrorism, even though he is known worldwide for his refinement, virtue, and broad horizons.”

Hat-tip to Patrick at Clarity & Resolve

By Andrew L. Jaffee

So here we have Palestinian democracy: a civil war between terrorist factions. Don’t get your hopes up, thinking that this fighting will lead to a better life for Palestinians, once the dust settles. Civil war the fruit of democracy? Not that I have any problem with Palestinians voting, but their last choice was to pick one of the world’s most feared terrorist groups, Hamas, to lead them. And those “elections” were marred by violence. Now Hamas is clashing with Palestine’s former terrorist rulers, Fatah:

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NBC’s latest ER episode on Thursday night was downright hypocritical and cynical, preaching anti-Iraq war pabulum, while exploiting graphic and gratuitous violence to pump up ratings.

I used to watch ER on and off, but realized the show should’ve been cancelled years ago, as the writers and producers had completely run out of ideas. Thursday’s show was the usual disappointment, but the political hypocrisy was over the top.

The character Neela (Parminder Nagra) attended the funeral of her husband who was killed in Iraq. She made a frothing-at-the-mouth critique of how senseless was the Iraq war.

But in a scene a few minutes later, I was subjected to an extremely graphic gunfight inside the emergency room itself. Several policemen were killed, their blood spattering on the walls. As the emergency room staff cared for the wounded, blood spurted all over the place. I stopped counting after 10 gunshots.

So here we have Hollywood’s morality: preaching non-violence (to feel superior to the rest of us dummies) while using violence to jack up ratings and make lots of money.

A strange form of morality… Actually, a lack of it…

Hoping that Iraq will finally have a government, from the Telegraph:

Iraq’s incoming prime minister says a unity government for the country has been agreed, though two key posts have yet to be filled.

Nouri al-Maliki says he will announce the new government tomorrow and fill the posts of interior minister and defence minister later.

A senior official in the main Sunni Arab Accordance Front, Adnan al-Dulaimi, said his coalition would support Mr al-Maliki’s Cabinet choices.

Mr al-Maliki, a Shia, said: “We decided on the names of the ministers and we will announce them, except for interior and defence ministries.

“Both will be acting ministers until we will choose the best ministers for those posts.”

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By Andrew L. Jaffee

>> Full Coverage on Turkey < <

Despite the fact that Recep Tayyip Erdo?an and his Islamist AKP Party hold political power in Turkey, the country’s military has remained a secularist bastion since the time of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk. Not that I’m a big fan of uncontrolled military power, but in this case, I say, “Thank G#d for Turkey’s military.” From today’s BBC:

Turkey’s chief of staff has praised the demonstration held by thousands of Turks following the killing of a senior judge by an Islamist gunman.

General Hilmi Ozkok said the protests against Islamic militancy were admirable and urged compatriots to keep up their defence of the secular state. …

The general’s comments were the first from the military since the attack by the man who, calling himself “a soldier of Allah,” opened fire in a courtroom, wounding four judges and fatally hitting Judge Mustafa Yucel Ozbilgin.

Gen Ozkok condemned the shooting as an act of terror by extreme conservatives.

“The protests and the people’s sensitivity is truly hope-giving and admirable,” he said.

“But this reaction should not be limited to a single day, to a single event. It must gain continuity and it should be followed by everyone all the time.”

The BBC’s Sarah Rainsford, in Istanbul, says some may interpret that as a call for further protests.

The military, which has led three coups in the past, is seen in Turkey as the ultimate guarantor of a secular republic, she says. The entire military leadership turned out for the funeral on Thursday.

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By Andrew L. Jaffee

Ever since Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdo?an and his AKP Party came to power in Turkey, the secular legacy of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk has been steadily eroded. But as “A man calling himself ‘a soldier of Allah’ shot dead Judge Mustafa Yucel Ozbilgin and wounded four others at a top administrative court on Wednesday,” Turkish secularists are waking up. From the BBC:

Tens of thousands of Turks have turned funeral ceremonies for a judge shot by a suspected Islamist gunman, into a mass show of support for secularism.

They waved Turkish flags and chanted for the country to remain secular on marches through the capital Ankara. …

The attack is believed to have been linked to the court’s record of strictly upholding the ban on Muslim headscarves in universities and government offices.

The government of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, which has Islamist roots, has been campaigning for the regulations to be relaxed or removed. …

Earlier, at least 15,000 protesters, from students to judges dressed in their robes, marched to the mausoleum of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the founder of modern, secular Turkey.

“Turkey is secular and will remain secular,” many chanted, in a procession broadcast live on national television. …

The secular President Ahmet Necdet Sezer, who was applauded as he attended the funeral, warned that “no-one will be able to overthrow the [secular] regime”.

Sometimes the worst brings out the best…

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By Andrew L. Jaffee

Too make a long story short, I submitted a letter to the editor of a local “alternative” newspaper challenging the notion that the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) was a “moderate” Muslim group. Getting my brief manifesto published took longer than normal despite the fact that I followed all the editorial guidelines for letters to the editor: “[We] strongly encourage letters to the editor. We ask that you keep your letters brief, preferably under 500 words.” I did so, and my letter was finally printed on paper and posted on the journal’s website. What dismayed me the most was the jungle of political correctness I had to cut through just to talk to somebody about getting my letter published. In other words, I had to engage in politics to get a letter to the editor printed.

Note the I have written freelance for this paper for years, sometimes even publishing front-page features, so it is not as if the editorial staff and publisher do not know me.

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By Andrew L. Jaffee

George Will, despised by many left-wingers for being an arch-conservative, and embraced by many right-wingers for being an arch-conservative, writes today for the Washington Post in a refreshingly moderate tone about what constitutes a “values voter,” a term that has become part of our political lexicon. Will points out that conservatives claim sole custody of the phrase, while they certainly aren’t the only Americans with values; that the media is distorting the phrase (what else is new?); and that now some liberals have co-opted the dreaded “values” terminology. Definitely worth the read:

…This phrase diminishes our understanding of politics. It also is arrogant on the part of social conservatives and insulting to everyone else because it implies that only social conservatives vote to advance their values and everyone else votes to . . . well, it is unclear what they supposedly think they are doing with their ballots. …

It is odd that some conservatives are eager to promote the semantic vanity of the phrase “values voters.” And it is odder still that the media are cooperating with those conservatives.

Conservatives should be wary of the idea that when they talk about, say, tax cuts and limited government — about things other than abortion, gay marriage, religion in the public square and similar issues — they are engaging in values-free discourse. And by ratifying the social conservatives’ monopoly of the label “values voters,” the media are furthering the fiction that these voters are somehow more morally awake than others.

Today’s liberal agenda includes preservation, even expansion, of the welfare state in its current configuration in order to strengthen an egalitarian ethic of common provision. Liberals favor taxes and other measures to produce a more equal distribution of income. They may value equality indiscriminately, but they vote their values.

Among the various flavors of conservatism, there is libertarianism that is wary of government attempts to nurture morality and there is social conservatism that says unless government nurtures morality, liberty will perish. Both kinds of conservatives use their votes to advance what they value. …

Attempts to assign values-seriousness can get complicated: Freedom and happiness are valuable. Arguably, governmental actions that did much to increase freedom and happiness in the past half-century were state laws liberalizing divorce. These made important contributions to the emancipation of men and especially women from mistaken marriages. Perhaps the most important of these laws — it was among the most liberal and was in the most populous state — was signed by a divorced governor, Ronald Reagan. What do socially conservative values voters make of that? …

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Middle East Quarterly*
Spring 2006
http://www.meforum.org/article/934
* Cross-posted with permission

In the aftermath of the 9-11 attacks, several U.S congressmen asked the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) to determine to what degree Saudi sources engaged in support and funding Islamic extremism. On September 16, 2005, the GAO responded with a lengthy report entitled Information on U.S. Agencies’ Efforts to Address Islamic Extremism.[1]

The report presents a mixed picture. It describes cooperation received by U.S. agencies such as the Defense Department, State Department, Treasury Department, and the U.S. Agency for International Development but does not comment on the sincerity or effectiveness of Saudi efforts. While the GAO takes pains to differentiate the Saudi government from individuals, there is very little discussion of whether Saudi officials merely use individuals as a way to advance an extremist policy but still maintain plausible deniability with the West.

While the GAO report is more descriptive than analytical, it does suggest that, more than four years after 9-11, U.S. government efforts to counter Islamic extremism are hampered by the lack of a common definition of Islamic extremism. Likewise, determining progress in the fight against Islamic extremism is made more difficult because most U.S. agencies still do not specifically analyze or report on the problem.?The Editors.

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By Andrew L. Jaffee

Ayaan Hirsi Ali is a Dutch parliamentarian, a signatory to the “Together facing the new totalitarianism” manifesto, who fled Somalia to escape her father’s attempt to arrange her marriage a la Sharia, and who helped Theo van Gogh make a movie about the Muslim mistreatment of women. (Van Gogh was murdered in downtown Amsterdam for making the film.) Because of her criticism of Islam’s backward tendencies, she is being betrayed by her own politically-correct Dutch parliament, ostensibly for legal reasons, but implicitly because the Netherlands wants to placate extreme Islam. From Expatica News:

Outspoken Dutch MP Ayaan Hirsi Ali has reacted with shock to the news she was never a citizen of the Netherlands. If true, she was not entitled to be a member of parliament since 2002.

“I am speechless,” the native of Somalia told the New York Times. Dutch Immigration Minister Rita Verdonk informed her by telephone on Monday evening that a preliminary investigation has found she probably never attained the status of a naturalised Dutch citizen. This is because she lied to get asylum five years earlier. She has six weeks to reply to the Minister’s ruling.

There is legal precedent in the Netherlands for the argument that a person who lies to get asylum

automatically invalidates that status and any subsequent naturalisation.

Hirsi Ali, who has received death threats for her criticism of aspects of Islam, said Verdonk’s decision was an attempt to silence her. “I was totally devoted to my work in the [Dutch] parliament and I have taken many risks. Others will think twice before they speak out,” she warned.

And where will Hirsi Ali find peace now? Of course, in the Great Satan, home of the brave, land of the free:

Friends revealed on Monday afternoon that Hirsi Ali plans to resign from parliament in September and relocate to the US to take up a job with a conservative Washington think tank.

Within hours the situation had changed. She is to give a press conference on Tuesday when she is expected to announce she is resigning with immediate effect as an MP and moving to the US.

Hat-tip to Jerry Gordon.

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By Andrew L. Jaffee

If I didn’t know the BBC better, I might see its article, “Hamas gives mixed signals on Israel,” in a more positive light. Rather, I see this news story as a politically-correct attempt to put lipstick on the Hamas terrorist group, hoping to paint the organization as in the process of moderating. Putting the words “Hamas” and “moderate” together equals an oxymoron. From the BBC:

A senior figure in the militant Islamic group Hamas has said it and its long-standing rival Fatah should unite to fight Israel.

But at the same time prominent members of the two groups have produced a document - from their Israeli prison cells - which implicitly recognises Israel’s right to exist.

“Implicitly” is the keyword here. Implicitly is akin to the fanfare over Yasser Arafat’s “moderation” during the Oslo years, or the BBC speaking of the Iranian “reform” movement under President Mohammad Khatami.

The Beeb continued:

Meanwhile a document appeared - hammered out by Hamas and Fatah members serving time in Israeli jails - which said Palestinians should work to establish a state in the territories that Israel has occupied since 1967.

This is the formula that Fatah has long accepted and Hamas has long opposed.

It also said “resistance” should be limited to the occupied territories, thus by implication excluding attacks on Israel itself.

Fatah has “long accepted” the recognition of Israel? Fatah’s own al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade kept killing innocent Israeli civilians with firebombs packed with nuts, bolts, nails, and screws all throughout Oslo. Hamas hasn’t changed its commitment to exterminate all Israelis.

Hope of hopes. Dream of dreams. Dream on…

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