An inspiring 1-minute Rosh Hashana video from Aish.com, with music from Brian Eno’s “Music for Airports:”

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by Daniel Pipes*

Question asked of Jerusalem Post columnists: “As Kassam rockets continue to pound Sderot, Minister Haim Ramon has suggested responding to the salvos by cutting off vital infrastructure such as water, electricity and gasoline to Gaza for a specific time frame, while the ‘price’ of such measures will be ‘determined by Hamas and its actions’. What is your opinion of this proposition?” For all replies, see “Burning Issues #34: Cut Gaza’s power?“

Believing that if you don’t win a war, you lose it, I have long encouraged the Israeli government to take more assertive measures in response to attacks.

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By Adel Guindy

The following article discusses the impact of the Egyptian Family Status Law of 1955 (which is still in effect) on the country’s Coptic population. It provides a concise overview of these laws, especially in light of the dearth of resources in English on the topic. While the Family Status Law is considered part of the "civil" code of law, it still has religious elements, referring to the Shari’a as a basis for Muslims, and to the corresponding religious principles or regulations for each of the non-Muslim communities. However, due to the general constitutional stipulation "Islam is the religion of State and principles of Shari’a are the main source of legislation," courts quite often ignore the law and rule based on Shari’a. Thus the situation is a reflection of the difficulties of being a non-Muslim minority in an "Islamic" country and society.

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by Daniel Pipes*

New York City’s Arabic-language public school, the Khalil Gibran International Academy, opens its doors this week, with special security, for 11- and 12-year-old students. One hopes that the prolonged public debate over the school’s Islamist proclivities will prompt it not to promote any political or religious agendas.

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By Andrew L. Jaffee

Dear Ms. Whoopi Goldberg, don’t tell me that torturing animals (dog-fighting) — “hanging, drowning, and slamming at least one dog’s body to the ground” — is an integral part of Southerners’ “cultural upbringing.” I’ve lived in the Deep South for about 5 years, visited family there many times, and vacationed there more times than I can remember. My experiences? Good, decent people, and beautiful cities, countryside, and beaches. So how did this dog-fighting controversy get started?

Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Vick was busted red-handed running a chamber of horrors for canines. Not only was he fighting dogs, but torturing them too, presumably for his own pleasure. From the Smoking Gun, including the federal indictment against Vick:

…After a March 2003 loss by a female pit bull, codefendant Purnell Peace, “after consulting with Vick,” electrocuted the animal. In April, prosecutors allege, Vick, Peace, and Quanis Phillips, “executed approximately 8 dogs that did not perform well in ‘testing’ sessions.” These animals, the indictment claims, were killed “by various methods, including hanging, drowning, and slamming at least one dog’s body to the ground.”

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By Andrew L. Jaffee

Hamas, supposedly a “religious”-based group, has banned all public prayers in the Gaza Strip — in an attempt to ban political dissent by Fatah. My, what a twisted web the Palestinians are weaving. “Fatah leaders say they have been forced to hold the public prayers in downtown Gaza City because they no longer feel welcome in Gaza’s mosques.” And the civil war between Hamas and Fatah continues, albeit at a lower decibel. More, from the JPost:

The Hamas on Tuesday banned public prayers in the Gaza Strip, moving to halt growing dissent by supporters of the rival Fatah movement.

Fatah supporters have held public prayers over the past two weeks in downtown Gaza City that have quickly turned into violent demonstrations against Hamas’s rule in Gaza. The demonstrations occurred on Fridays, when Muslims traditionally gather for prayers.

“The government decided to ban any gathering under the pretext of performing Friday prayers,” Hamas announced. “They went beyond the aim of prayers and they were used for the purpose of chaos, strife, rioting, and practicing terrorism. The government will take all necessary measures to support security and public order in Gaza.”

After weeks of silence, Fatah sympathizers have become increasingly bold in expressing displeasure with Hamas rule.

In the first public prayer session last month, Fatah worshippers marched to Hamas security compounds and threw stones, prompting security men to fire in the air to disperse the crowd.

Last week, Hamas forces beat and detained dozens of Fatah members. Hamas said it continues to hold about 60 “subverters,” many of whom have been unable to post the $250 bail. …

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By Andrew L. Jaffee

Palestinian “freedom fighters” showed their true colors again today. The Palestinian “government,” run by Hamas, is not inclined to put a stop to this madness. In fact, it is joining in:

A Palestinian rocket exploded Monday next to a day care center crowded with toddlers in southern Israel, sparking anger and panic in the frequently targeted town of Sderot and bringing warnings of retribution from Israeli leaders. …

Hamas overran Gaza in June, vanquishing forces loyal to moderate President Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah. Hamas, which does not recognize Israel and has sent dozens of suicide bombers into the Jewish state, has made no effort to stop the rocket barrages, instead joining in with its own rocket squads. …

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By Andrew L. Jaffee

I hope the Lebanese are stepping up to the plate. Having vast swaths of their country under the control of thugs — Palestinian/al-Qaeda terrorists, Hezbollah, Syria, and Iran — must get old, and be really frustrating. But today, Lebanese people backed up their military in helping to clean things up:

Lebanon’s army crushed the last remnants of a militant group in a ferocious gunbattle Sunday that killed 39 of the fighters, ending a bloody three-month siege at a Palestinian refugee camp that was the country’s worst internal violence in years.

Nearby villages celebrated with fireworks, drumming and dancing after the government declared victory. …

Residents of nearby villages, armed with guns and sticks, fanned out to protect their houses and prevent the fighters from seeking refuge and melting into the local population, state TV reported. Smoke billowed from fields where the army set fires to deny militants a hiding place.

Mohammed Khodor Najib, 65, boasted about how he captured a militant in Mohammara, a farming community near the camp.

“I found one of them hiding in my garden,” he said. Using a hunting rifle, he opened fire. “I hit him and handed him over to the army.” …

One must wonder where Hezbollah stands regarding the following statement, as their own elimination would be the logical conclusion of the current course of events:

The joy cut through the deep political divisions in the country, with supporters of both the government and opposition praising the army.

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By Barry Rubin

Lebanon may be beginning one of the most turbulent periods in its all-too-tumultuous history. As the world looks on with apparent indifference, Islamist and Iran-led forces may be on the verge of a new victory over Arab nationalists and just about everyone else.

With what can only be called astounding courage, most Lebanese Christian, Druze, and Sunni Muslim politicians have stood up to the Shia Muslim group Hizballah as well as its Iranian and Syrian backers. Hizballah is well-financed from Tehran and Damascus; the government–and even less its constituent elements–receive relatively little international help.

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By Steven Emerson*

In an article titled Terror trial hurts group’s funding, AP reporter David Koenig gives a megaphone to Parvez Ahmed, the current chairman of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), to complain about his organization’s inclusion as a an unindicted co-conspirator in the trial against the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development (HLF).

Piggybacking on CAIR’s filing of an incredibly disingenuous amicus brief in an effort to have the organization removed from the list, Ahmed proceeds to whine about how prosecutors are on a mission to shut his organization down, without acknowledging any of the plentiful reasons as to why CAIR ended up on the Department of Justice’s radar screen as a co-conspirator in the first place.

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By Andrew L. Jaffee

Ramadi is one of Iraq’s success stories. Can the U.S. and Iraqis leverage this lesson into future successes? From the Times Online:

How life returned to the streets in a showpiece city that drove out al-Qaeda
An American ‘martyr’ is being hailed in the Sunni Triangle for restoring peace to a town where soldiers now fight only water leaks

…Captain Patriquin played a little-known but crucial role in one of the few American success stories of the Iraq war.

He helped to convert Ramadi from one of Iraq’s deadliest cities into arguably the safest outside the semi-autonomous Kurdish north. This graveyard for hundreds of American soldiers, which a Marine Corps intelligence report wrote off as a lost cause just a year ago, is where the US military now takes visiting senators, and journalists such as myself, to show the progress it is making. Ramadi will be Exhibit A when General David Petraeus, the US commander in Iraq, appears before Congress in two weeks’ time to argue that the country as a whole should not be written off.

In Ramadi last weekend I did things unthinkable almost anywhere else in this violent country. I walked through the main souk without body armour, talking to ordinary Iraqis. Late one evening I strolled into the brightly lit Jamiah district of the city with Lieutenant-Colonel Roger Turner, the tobacco-chewing US marine in charge of central Ramadi, to buy kebabs from an outdoor restaurant – “It’s safer than London or New York,” Colonel Turner assured me. …

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