by Daniel Pipes*
Soon after his election as president of Iran, on June 25, 2005, pictures of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad emerged showing him as a hostage-taker. An Associated Press photograph showed a man looking very much like a younger version of today’s Ahmadinejad holding a blind-folded man, apparently five days after the U.S. embassy in Tehran was seized on November 4, 1979.
By Andrew L. Jaffee
In an article posted today on the BBC entitled “Israel warned off nuclear ‘folly,’” the author violates standard news story writing style guidelines (e.g., AP). Frances Harrison paraphrases — puts words into the mouth of — a subject of the article, but never provides an actual quotation by said subject. This is the usual anti-Israeli bias of the Beeb:
Mohammed Ali Hosseini said if Israel indulged in such stupidity, then the response of Iranian fighters would be emphatic, crushing and immediate.
Here’s the full context:
By Andrew L. Jaffee
Just two weeks ago, “Syria and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah … rejected US accusations that they are seeking to topple the Lebanese government with Iran’s help.” Hmmm… If that is so, then why have “All five Shia Muslim pro-Syrian ministers in the Lebanese government” just resigned? Here’s more, and check out the Hezbollah sophistry:
By Andrew L. Jaffee
Is the experiment by Chinese communists with capitalism (an oxymoron in itself) starting to let the genie out of the bottle? Charging for medical treatment in the great peoples’ paradise? From the BBC:
by Daniel Pipes*
Whether the Iraqi expedition is judged a success or failure depends almost exclusively on the views of Americans—not those of Iraqis, other coalition partners, or anyone else. So, fellow Americans, let’s debate the topic. My take:
It was right to pre-empt Saddam Hussein before he could oppress his Iraqi subjects further, invade another country, deploy more chemical weapons or build nuclear weapons. The world is a better place with this abominable thug in jail, not lording it in his “presidential palaces.”
By Andrew L. Jaffee
Revelations that the German navy “provided escort protection for American and British warships” may be a scandal to the Bundestag’s left-wing opposition, but not to the ruling coalition. The majority just voted to continue supporting the Iraq war effort. From Deutsche Welle:
By Andrew L. Jaffee
Meet the new boss
Same as the old boss- Won’t Get Fooled Again, The Who
Except the Western apologists will (knowingly) get fooled again because today, “Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniya of the ruling Hamas group has said he is willing to resign if this will end a Western aid boycott,” reports the Beeb. So what? Hamas is committed to the destruction of Israel — the genocide of all Jews. In the same BBC article: “Hamas insists it will never join a government that recognises the State of Israel.” The whole point of the damn “Western aid boycott” was to force Hamas into recognizing Israel’s right to exist in peace. So some murderer steps down from office, and promises to form a coalition with another gang of murderers (Fatah)? Again, the weak hand in the West wants to let the poor Palestinians get away with murder: “Just find us some loophole to fund Palestinian terrorist groups, and then we won’t feel so guilty living the good life in Paris, Rome, Stockholm, San Francisco… Those Jews are so much trouble…”
Tells the Internal Revenue Service it doesn’t lobby or attempt to influence legislation, while telling its members that it is “fast becoming a force that our congressional representatives need to reckon with.”
by Bill Levinson
A Jewish Voice for Peace issued us a call-out or challenge at Muzzlewatch.com, a site that accuses the pro-Israel side of attempting to silence criticism of Israel. There are plenty of legends about entities whose names should not be spoken aloud, lest they turn their attention to the speaker. While the First Amendment prevents anyone from “silencing” anyone else in this country, exercise of our own First Amendment rights and the “open debate” that JVP says it wants so much may in fact encourage JVP to silence itself.
by Daniel Pipes*
Author’s note: Question asked of Jerusalem Post columnists: “What impact, if any, will the results of the US midterm elections have on US policy towards Israel and the Middle East?” For all replies, see “Burning Issues #11: Impact of US elections in Mideast“
By Andrew L. Jaffee
Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, and Howard Dean will now lead the Democratic Party with their new-found power in Congress? One can only wonder if people like Jim Webb and Joe Lieberman will be able to moderate these extremists.
By Andrew L. Jaffee
Castro will be in power until he’s dead. Hugo Chavez probably will try to do the same. Now — guess who — Daniel Ortega is back in power in Nicaragua. One can only wonder why he was elected — some kind of populist nonsense, no doubt:
This race is significant because:
(1) Jim Gerlach (R) was projected to lose to Lois Murphy (MoveOn.org Democrat)
(2) The Gerlach campaign was, as far as we know, the only one to have followed our advice to use MoveOn.org’s record of welcoming hate speech at its Action Forum to damage his MoveOn-backed opponent.
By Andrew L. Jaffee
Some more good news from Iraq? Japan wants to buy oil from Iraq. By Hisane Masaki, entitled “Japan energy: Goodbye Iran, hello Iraq,” from the Asia Times Online:
By Andrew L. Jaffee
I’ve learned to listen closely to what financial markets tell us about a nation’s economic and social well-being. If things are going so badly in Iraq, then why has the country’s currency, the dinar, been strengthening against the U.S. dollar over the last four months? I created the following chart,* which shows the Iraqi dinar/U.S. dollar exchange rate over a one year period. Note that the line curving downwards means the dinar is gaining in value:
* Data provided by SAFEDinar.com
I was hoping that Republicans would hold on to Congress for another term, not because I am a partisan, but because the Democrats have so disgusted me with their Neville Chamberlain-like placating of our Islamist enemies, and some Democrats’ decent into virulent anti-Semitism. But I have seen the Republicans get too comfortable with power, become involved in numerous scandals, and heard too much of their anti-gay and contradictory bigotry.
I was hoping that another loss for Democrats would cause their party to implode and reconstruct itself into the American mainstream. Perhaps Republicans need to do likewise — which was the message in yesterday’s elections. The big question now is: Will the Democrats’ new-found power cause them to sink back into their rut, or reform?
It is like the stock market: hard to call a top or bottom. Let us hope both parties move to the middle — evolve. John McCain summed it up best:
“We came to Washington to change government and government changed us,” lamented Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz. … “We departed rather tragically from our conservative principles.”
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