A personal, historical vignette

By Cainnech Ó Sullibhain

This story begins of all places in what was then known as the Trucial Coast of Arabia, bordering on the Sultanate of Oman and Muscat in the Persian Gulf on one side and Saudi Arabia on the other.

While I was serving in the merchant navy, I had the opportunity to touch the Trucial Coast, which of course got its name because the British had signed a treaty (truce) with the local sheikhs in the seven sheikhdoms, which were later to become known as the United Arab Emirates.

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by Bill Levinson

Barack Obama’s campaign manager David Plouffe recently circulated the following complaint:

In an increasingly desperate effort to slow Senator Clinton’s slide, the focus of the Clinton campaign has moved from Barack Obama’s kindergarten years to his teenage years.

On Wednesday, their top advisor in New Hampshire tried to recycle old news by smearing Barack for experimenting with drugs as a young man — something Barack candidly wrote about years ago in his memoir and has since talked about with young people in an effort to teach them the lessons he learned from his mistakes.

Mr. Obama’s ongoing appearances with the prominent racist and anti-Semite Al Sharpton, however, say far more about his character than anything the Clinton campaign can possibly dig up or even fabricate out of whole cloth.

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By Barry Rubin

A strange malady has apparently descended on part of Israel’s, much of America’s, and most of Europe’s elite. Let’s call it Syriantoxication, the belief that there is a real chance to make peace with Syria and–in its extreme version–that Lebanon should be sacrificed for that goal.

To call this wishful thinking is understatement. Why is this happening?

Few Israelis believe that negotiations with Palestinians will lead anywhere. Those on the right think it’s dangerous, those in the center believe it can be done without harm and for limited benefit, those on the left doubt it will work but wishful thinking compels them to hope even without conviction.

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By Evagoras C. Leventis

The Waziristan Accord between Pakistan’s government and tribal leaders in that country’s Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) has failed not only to curb violence in the immediate region but also to restrict cross-border militant activity–including resurgent Taliban and al-Qa’ida cadres–between Pakistan’s "tribal belt" and Afghanistan. The purpose of this article is to examine the Waziristan Accord and to indicate why agreements of this nature will continue to fail unless there is a substantial modification in Pakistan’s internal and regional policies.

On September 5, 2006, in the town of Miranshah, on the football field of the Government Degree College, Maulana Syed Nek Zaman, a member of the National Assembly for the North Waziristan Agency and a tribal council member, read out an agreement between the Pakistani government and tribal elders that has since been known as the Waziristan Accord. The agreement, witnessed by approximately 500 elders, parliamentarians, and government officials, was signed on behalf of the Pakistan government by Dr. Fakhr-i-Alam, a political agent of North Waziristan, tribal and militia leaders from the mainly Pashtun tribes and clans of the area, and seven militants representing the Taliban shura (advisory council). The signing was witnessed by Major-General Azhar Ali Shah, the commanding officer of the Pakistani army in the region. The venue was heavily guarded by armed tribal militia members and allegedly also by armed Taliban members.^[1]

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By Phyllis Chesler

The sixteen year old was “too modern” for her fundamentalist Muslim family. She craved forbidden North American freedoms which, if practiced, would shame her immigrant family. The struggle over this issue was hot and abusive. The girl was continually attacked and closely monitored. Her own sisters envied and hated her not only because she was allowed to attend school but because her choice of modern dress could harm their own young daughters’ future marriage chances.

I am not talking about Toronto’s Aqsa Parvez who was just slaughtered by her father (may she rest in peace), but about another sixteen year old: Palestina Isa, who was honored-murdered by her father and her mother in St. Louis Missouri on November 5, 1989. Palestina (“Tina”) was murdered with primal ferocity. The forensic pathologist reported “thirteen wounds, six of them mortal. The worst one plunged into her chest wall, breaking her sternum and ribs and piercing her heart. A second gash ripped her left lung. Her liver had been slashed five times fatally.” Her breasts had been punctured seven times.

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By Jonathan Spyer

Last week’s demonstrations across the West Bank in protest of the Annapolis conference showcased the entry into the public eye of a new force in Palestinian politics - the pan-Islamic Hizb ut-Tahrir (Party of Liberation.) The party held a demonstration numbering 2,500 in Hebron, and one of its members was killed in subsequent clashes with Palestinian Authority police. Similar gatherings took place in other West Bank cities. Hizb ut-Tahrir’s slow emergence from eccentric obscurity has been a subject of note among observers of Palestinian affairs in recent years. The anti-Annapolis demonstrations are the latest stage in this process. These events may indicate deeper political currents - both in the West Bank and beyond.

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By Phyllis Chesler

I protest. Everything is too loud, too fast, too vulgar, too aggressive. POW! BAM! Only celebrities matter. Even our so-called thinkers write the same book over and over again (everything is reduced to branding) and are expected to behave like attack dogs on a short leash.

Welcome to our Comic Book Culture.

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by Daniel Pipes*

With the Dec. 3 publication of a completely unexpected declassified National Intelligence Estimate (NIE), “Iran: Nuclear Intentions and Capabilities,” a consensus has emerged that war with Iran “now appears to be off the agenda.” Indeed, Iran’s president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, claimed the report dealt a “fatal blow” to the country’s enemies, while his foreign ministry spokesman called it a “great victory.”

I disagree with that consensus, believing that military action against Iran is now more likely than before the NIE came out.

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By Barry Rubin

My favorite sentence of the week is this one: “Asking for record $5.8 billion in aid through 2010, Palestinians promise fiscal reform.” Karen Laub wrote on this subject for the AP, December 5, 2007. The request came from “Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas” to double projected aid to the Palestinian Authority (PA).

What is funny about that opening sentence is that the PA has received so much money before and squandered it. Reform promises have been made and broken for more than 13 years. It is hard to remember the PA has existed that long with so little positive achievement. If Palestinians have such a bad economy it is not due to the “occupation” or to Israel but to their own leaders’ greed, incompetence, failure to end violence, inability to present an attractive investment climate, and unwillingness to impose stability on their own lands.

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By Walid Phares*

Here are few remarks about the bombings in Algeria today:

An Al Qaeda link?

Most experts in Algeria and the Arab world believe this terror campaign is either inspired or ordered by al Qaeda in the Maghreb. Even if the execution is perpetrated by local Jihadist groups it is part of the Salafist general offensive against Algeria’s Government and an extension to the North African operations by al Qaeda Maghreb in Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Mauritania and possibly later Libya. This attack in Algeria today is linked to the regional strategy of weakening the Algerian Government in general and resuming the 1990s warfare against Kufr (infdidel) institutions, society and Government. But unlike in the past decade, today’s operations are strategically coordinated with al Qaeda central, not in terms of operations but policies and international decision making. However I believe that this particular attack is a response to the recent visit by French President Nicholas Sarkozy to Algeria. It is directed against the number of agreements signed by the Government of Abdelaziz Bouteflika with the Paris presidential delegation. The Jihadist incitement against the Algerian authorities, including mostly via the al jazeera shows, usually indicates the trends to come. Algiers was accused by the Salafi forces as “betraying the Muslim world and associating with French kuffar.” The strikes came in line with this incitement.

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By Phyllis Chesler

Some people insist that America has lost all moral credibility. In my view, those who judge America (and Israel) by higher and different standards are the ones whose credibility and perhaps sanity remain highly questionable. Yes, I am talking about the western intelligentsia, international human rights organizations, Islamic world despots, Islamist terrorists, the United Nations, and the non-governmental organizations which have attached themselves to the allegedly crumbling edifice on the East River of Manhattan known as the United Nations. All these groups view “the international community,” as a sacred deity whose wisdom and benevolence is merciful and all-encompassing.

I kid you not. Yes, the same “international community” which refuses to stop the genocide and mass gang-rapes in Sudan is still viewed as humanity’s Savior. Only America and Israel are singled out for condemnation. PRESS HERE.

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by Philip Carl Salzman*

Conflicts within the Middle East cannot be separated from its peoples’ culture. Seventh-century Arab tribal culture influenced Islam and its adherents’ attitudes toward non-Muslims. Today, the embodiment of Arab culture and tribalism within Islam impacts everything from family relations, to governance, to conflict. While many diplomats and analysts view the Arab-Israeli dispute and conflicts between Muslim and non-Muslim communities through the prism of political grievance, the roots of such conflicts lie as much in culture and Arab tribalism.

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The following is the personal opinion of Andrew Whitehead, founder of Anti-CAIR.

On 5 December, JihadWatch posted an article referring to an online posting made by IslamOnline.

As I do not speak/read Arabic, I am relying on the translation provided by JihadWatch.

According to JihadWatch’s translation, IslamOnline has implied that Anti-CAIR is engaged in activities on behalf of Michael Savage in his lawsuit against the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR).

While Anti-CAIR supports Savage’s free speech rights, we are not spearheading any coalition nor organizing opposition to CAIR’s newest group, “Hate Hurts America” (HHA).

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By Andrew L. Jaffee

I believe that we are experiencing global warming. It is an issue that both the developing and developed worlds need to address right now. But what I’ve seen over the last week is farcical: 1) a UN “climate change” conference whose participants pumped an “equivalent to what a Western city of 1.5 million people, like Marseilles, France, would emit in a day” into our atmosphere; 2) a new Australian Labor leader whose “negotiating stance” on the Kyoto Protocol is the same as President Bush’s; and 3) the fact that China and India, “among the biggest contributors to the problem, both say they will not sign any climate change treaty that would slow the pace of their development.” Here are the goodies (insert your own, canned laugh-track):

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A judge in India has summoned two Hindu gods, Ram and Hanuman, to help resolve a property dispute. …

Talk about appealing to a higher power:

… Judge Singh sent out two notices to the deities, but they were returned as the addresses were found to be “incomplete”.

This prompted him to put out adverts in local newspapers summoning the gods.

“You failed to appear in court despite notices sent by a peon and later through registered post. You are herby directed to appear before the court personally”, Judge Singh’s notice said. …

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