Sunday, November 15, 2015

Paris & The Third World War


Welcome to World War Three  - Ron Ben-Yishai

It is time that we came to the realization: we are in the midst of World War III. A war that will differ from the others but will take place all over the globe, on land, air and sea. This is a war between jihadist Islam and Western civilization; a war between radical Islam and all those who refuse to surrender to its values and political demands.

The world war between murderous fundamentalist Islam and Western civilization – and basically anyone and anything not Muslim – will have to be waged without compromise and without half-steps on land, air and sea. Brussels may not like it – but we’re all in the same boat.
[YNET]


Obama: Say the words 'Radical Islamic Terrorists' - Sherri Mandell

Dear President Obama,

Say it. Say the word, “Islam,” say the words, “radical Islam.” Say the words, “radical Islam extremists.” Say the words, “radical Islam terrorists.” Repeat after me. Say the words, “Muslims who murder, Muslims who murder innocents.” Say the word, “jihad,” say the words, Obama. Finally, say the words.

After Paris, the free world’s narrative has changed. At least, there is the possibility that the narrative has changed.

President Obama,, do not continue to deny the reality of radical Islam terror rooted in a religious narrative. Don’t tell us about senseless killings. Because the sense is this: radical Muslim extremists employ their religion to hate everything that the free world stands for. Their ideology is to destroy. Use the words murder, jihad, Obama, use the words. Don’t obfuscate, and don’t minimize our common enemy, because maybe just maybe, the truth of the enemy we are facing can no longer be minimized.
 
Maybe the eyes of the world have been opened.

Don’t tell us that it’s because of despair. Don’t tell us it’s because of a lack of justice or economic opportunity.
 
Say the words, “war against radical Islam terror” because that is what we are fighting. Don’t tell us that terrorists attack because they are hopeless. Don’t tell us that it has nothing to do with Islam, when before the murderers kill, they praise the name of their God. Their hope is to kill us, to destroy us. Their pleasure is death and their greater pleasure is weakness, the weakness of countries and leaders like you who for too many years have tried to ignore or minimize the unpleasant reality of radical Muslim terror.
[The Times of Israel]


The Paris Massacre Will Have Limited Impact - Daniel Pipes, PhD

The murder of some 127 innocents in Paris by a jihadi gang on Friday has again shocked the French and led to another round of solidarity, soul searching, and anger. In the end, however, Islamist violence against Westerners boils down to two questions: How much will this latest atrocity turn public opinion? And how much will it further spur the Establishment to deny reality?

As these questions suggest, the people and the professionals are moving in opposite directions, the former to the right, the latter to the left. In the end, this clash much reduces the impact of such events on policy.

Public opinion moves against Islamists specifically and Islam more generally when the number of deaths are large enough. America's three thousand dead on 9/11 stands out as by far the largest mortality but many other countries have had their equivalent – the Bali bombings for Australia, the railroad bombing for Spain, the Beslan school massacre for Russia, the transportation bombings for Britain.

Sheer numbers are not the only consideration. Other factors can multiply the impact of an assault, making it almost the political equivalent of mass carnage: (1) The renown of those attacked, such as Theo van Gogh in the Netherlands and the Charlie Hebdo office in France. (2) The professional status of the victim, such as soldiers or police. (3) High-profile circumstances, such as the Boston Marathon bombing.

In addition to the over 27,000 attacks globally connected to Islam since 9/11, or more than 5 per day, a huge increase in illegal immigration from the Middle East recently exacerbated feelings of vulnerability and fear.

These cases make more Westerners worried about Islam and related topics from the building of minarets to female infibulation. Overall, a relentless march rightwards is underway. Surveys of European attitudes show 60 to 70 percent of voters expressing these concerns.

But when it comes to the Establishment – politicians, the police, the press, and the professors – the unrelenting violence has a contrary effect. Those charged with interpreting the attacks live in a bubble of public denial (what they say privately is another matter) in which they feel compelled to pretend that Islam has no role in the violence, out of concern that to recognize it would cause even more problems.

These professionals bald-facedly feign belief in a mysterious "violent extremist" virus that seems to afflict only Muslims, prompting them to engage in random acts of barbaric violence. Of the many preposterous statements by politicians, my all-time favorite is what Howard Dean, the former governor of Vermont, said about the Charlie Hebdo jihadis: "They're about as Muslim as I am."

This defiance of common sense has survived each atrocity and I predict that it will also outlast the Paris massacre. Only a truly massive loss of life, perhaps in the hundreds of thousands, will force the professionals to back off their deeply ingrained pattern of denying an Islamic component in the spate of attacks.

That pattern has the very consequential effect of shutting out the fears of ordinary voters, whose views thereby have negligible impact on policy. Worries about Shari'a, rape gangs, exotic diseases, and bloodbaths are dismissed with charges of "racism" and "Islamophobia," as though name-calling addresses these real issues.

More surprising yet, the professionals respond to the public's move to the right by themselves moving to the left, encouraging more immigration from the Middle East, instituting more "hate speech" codes to suppress criticism of Islam, and providing more patronage to Islamists.

Eventually, to be sure, voters' views will make themselves heard, but decades later and more weakly than democratically should have been the case.
Placing the murderous rampage in Paris into this context: it will likely move public sentiments substantially in one direction and Establishment policies in quite the opposite way, therefore ultimately having only a limited impact.
[National Review Online]


Has France's All-Out War on Terror Really Begun? - Freddy Eytan

For the first time since the Second World War, except for a few days during the Algerian War, Paris is under curfew and looks like a city of devastation, a ghost town. Why is it happening?

The French-born children of North African immigrants harbor a deep resentment toward the authorities and have been joining the ranks of the Islamic State and other Islamic movements with vengeance as their aim. The presence of eight to ten million Muslims in France strongly influences governmental decision-making as well as intelligence work.

Numerous French intellectuals, opinion leaders, and radicals still see the terrorists as freedom fighters, as underground activists who wage a just fight against all occupation and repression.

Terror has crossed the Mediterranean and is striking Europe. France must unhesitatingly change its strategy and its naive attitude toward radical migrants.

Amb. Freddy Eytan, a former Foreign Ministry senior advisor who served in Israel's embassies in Paris and Brussels, has written 20 books about the Israeli-Arab conflict and the policy of France in the Middle East.
(Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs)

UPDATES:

King Abdullah: We are facing a Third World War

The world is facing another global conflict and a fast response is needed to deal with the threat, Jordan's King Abdullah said on Tuesday. 
King Abdullah of Jordan

"We are facing a Third World War against humanity and this is what brings us all altogether," he told a news conference in Kosovo's capital Pristina.

"This is a war, as I said, repeatedly within Islam and unfortunately over 100,000 Muslims have been murdered by Daesh (Islamic State) alone over the past two years, and that doesn't also count for the atrocities like-minded groups have also done in Africa and Asia," he said after meeting Kosovo President Atifete Jahjaga.

King Abdullah said the world must "act fast to tackle the response to interconnected threats"...


"The atrocious Paris attacks shows that scourge of terrorism can strike anywhere and any time," King Abdullah said.
[Jerusalem Post]
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The Slaughter in Paris: Motives and Implications
- Oded Eran and Adam Hoffman

In executing and taking responsibility for the Nov. 13, 2015, terrorist attacks in Paris, the Islamic State has three objectives: revenge against France for its military involvement in the international coalition to eliminate the Islamic State; an undermined sense of security in France and evidence to the Western world that the struggle with the Islamic State is not restricted to Iraq and Syria; and aid to the Islamic State in its efforts to attract new recruits.
    

While some may hope that the events in Paris will add to Europe's understanding of the constraints involved in coping with Palestinian terrorism, and help mitigate the criticism of Israel voiced by various EU institutions and member states, similar events in the past indicate that this will not occur, and that no significant change in the European attitude on this question can be expected
Dr. Oded Eran served as Israel's ambassador to the EU and Jordan. Adam Hoffman is a research associate in the INSS Terrorism and Low Intensity Conflict Program who studies the use of social media by jihad organizations. 
(Institute for National Security Studies)
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2 comments:

LHwrites said...

The cartoon is pretty apt.
However, Sherri Mandell has shown she's another confused pundit. She says; "Don’t tell us about senseless killings. Because the sense is this: radical Muslim extremists employ their religion to hate everything that the free world stands for. Their ideology is to destroy."
That isn't true. That's the kind of nonsense we heard from W. Bush. They don;t care about our way of life, if we keep it to ourselves. What they care about is when we interfere in their affairs. Not to say we shouldn't because their affairs often hurt others with differing views, but we helped create these issues when we supported the Shah of Iran who brutalized his people, the Taliban and Osama bin Laden when he was fighting Russia, Saddam Hussein when he was fighting Iran (except when we were supplying Iran with weapons under Reagan). They don't like Israel, think the West inflicted it on the MidEast and then think the West supports Israel, sometimes over it's neighbors interests. Where did they get those ideas? Are they right not to like Israel? Obviously we don;t think so, but they're going to think what they think and dislike those who differ. Just as we do about radical Islam and the life they want to lead. Simplistic platitudes work for news stories on FOX news but won;t actually fix the world.

Bruce said...

I get your points, but I must give you context for Ms. Sherri Mandell. She is no political pundit. She is a rebbitzen whose son Kobe Mandell was murdered [stoned to death] a few years ago. She and her husband run The Kobe Mandell Foundation in his memory. When she writes, she speaks for many Israeli parents who have had their kids murdered. You'll still disagree with her, but I consider her a saint. Her book [The Blessing of a Broken Heart] is the best book on grief ever written. Really.
Bruce :}