Israel's Anti-Boycott Law

Arab chic

Does the new anti-boycott law harm free speech? -Eugene Kontorovich

Israel’s parliament passed a law this week prohibiting economic boycotts against this nation. Since before the creation of the Jewish state, boycotts have been a major part of the Arabs’ war against any Jewish presence in the Holy Land. Today, economic boycotts have become one of the main tools for delegitimizing, intimidating, undermining and unfairly singling out Israel.

Israel’s new anti-boycott law immediately met with complaints that it violates free speech and is inconsistent with democratic values. Critics say the law itself will delegitimize Israel and alienate its supporters in Western democracies.

These criticisms are wrong as a matter of principle. More insidiously, they hold Israel to a standard never applied to other nations, and criticizes it for passing laws that are well within the western democratic mainstream.

Moreover, the outrage over the anti-boycott law carries a dose of hypocrisy, as it ignores numerous other laws in Israel that are used to restrict political speech generally associated with the right wing.

There is no universal code of free speech. Determining what gets protection involves trade-offs between the very real harm that speech can cause and the benefit of free expression. Among liberal Western democracies, how that balance is struck varies significantly, depending on legal traditions and circumstances.

The United States has far more robust constitutional speech protections than almost any Western country.  Most European nations – and Israel – have numerous laws criminalizing speech that would not conceivably pass muster under the First Amendment. This does not mean these countries deny freedom of speech; merely that there are competing ideas.

But even the US has a law against boycotting Israel. It has been on the books for decades, and has been regularly enforced, but no one has suggested it is unconstitutional – and that is for a law protecting another country’s economy. Moreover, Israel’s law, unlike the American one, applies only to organizing boycotts, not to actually adhering to one.

In any country, guarantees of free speech do not apply to speech that causes actual harm, – like yelling ‘fire’ in a crowded theater. Some countries take this quite far. Great Britain has strong libel laws that prevent people from truthfully condemning public officials. While the law is widely criticized, no one has suggested Britain has thereby lost its democratic status.

Every nation has laws against conspiracies to cause economic harm: antitrust laws prohibit speech when its purpose is to unfairly cause economic harm. And the common law makes it a tort to “interfere with prospective business advantage,” i.e. scaring off someone’s customers.

The anti-boycott law prohibits speech intended to cause economic harm to businesses solely because of their national identity. Nondiscrimination laws commonly ban plans to deny business to specified groups of certain national or ethnic origins. Israel’s new law bans discrimination against businesses because they are Israeli.

Most European states – and Israel – have laws prohibiting speech that is perceived as “hateful” or which simply offends the feelings of particular groups. Often such speech expresses important viewpoints.

A boycott of Israel promotes hatred of Israel, and certainly offends the vast majority of Israelis. To be sure, boycott supporters argue that at least when it comes to settlers, such hatred is deserved, but that is always the opinion of those whose speech is blocked by such laws.

The boycott movement is designed to imperil the State of Israel, and can actually do so. This danger outweighs the benefits of allowing such speech, especially since the law does not in any way limit advocating policies or viewpoints that such boycotts are supposed to promote. Indeed, the law has a characteristic crucial for free-speech scrutiny – it is “viewpoint neutral.” That is, it applies to boycotts of Israel whether organized by the left wing or the right wing.

Like most European democracies, Israel’s constitutional protection of speech has long been narrower than America’s.

One example is that speech restraints have long been used against right-wing groups. Just recently, a prominent right-wing activist has been prosecuted for “insulting a public official,” after denouncing those responsible for expelling Jewish families from Gaza in 2005. In recent weeks, police have arrested several rabbis for authoring or endorsing obscure treatises of religious law that discuss (allegedly too leniently) the permissibility of killing enemy civilians in wartime.

Most saliently, the far-Right party of Rabbi Meir Kahane was kicked out of the Knesset because its views were deemed racist. Such actions manifestly constitute interference in political expression, and would clearly violate freespeech norms in the US, but that does not make them unconstitutional in Israel. Nor did these actions trigger alarm among the international community.

Israel’s current practice is clearly well within the limits of an open democracy. Singling out Israel for laws that are identical to, or just as restrictive as, laws on the books in America and Europe manifests the very problem that exists with the boycotts themselves – the application of an entirely different set of standards to Israel than to the rest of the free world.
Eugene Kontorovich is a professor of law at Northwestern University, where he teaches constitutional law, and has lectured at Israeli universities.
[Jerusalem Post]

The Birth of South Sudan: And the Challenge

Sudan’s “Two-State Solution” -Barry Rubin

Good news from the Middle East is that rarest of all things. Solutions to conflicts there is equally rare. That’s why the creation of a new country, South Sudan, is so significant after years of strife between the northern and southern parts of that country due largely to their religious and racial differences.

This development also leads to an interesting question: will south Sudan be a purely African-oriented state or will it play some part in the Middle East?

Note that most of the population of south Sudan is Christian. The Muslim north decided to get rid of the region so that it could pursue its Islamist ambitions more easily and focus on repressing tribes (also Muslim) in the west.

None of the news reports on south Sudan, however, pointed out the earthshaking aspect of its creation. After all, this is a state that has come into existence because it is Christian, a sort of parallel to Israel. It is too poor, remote, and non-Arab for Islamists and Arab nationalists elsewhere to care about and they are preoccupied with other things right now.

Yet to the north, in Egypt, Christians are facing growing persecution. Will the rest of the Middle East ignore south Sudan or will it become a target in future for jihad and hatred, as an illegitimate entity allegedly created by Western imperialism that must be destroyed?

Another interesting question is whether Christians elsewhere will show any interest in the new country and try to help it survive and prosper. Western Christians spend much of their time either supporting or bashing Israel. The beleaguered Christians of Egypt, the Gaza Strip, Iraq, Lebanon, Sudan, and Pakistan are ignored. Now that there’s what is in effect a state created as a safe haven for Christians will that change any attitudes?

Finally, the Obama Administration probably deserves a large measure of credit for the Sudan solution. It cozied up to the dictatorship but in this case, a contrast to other situations, actually achieved some positive result.
[Pajamas Media]
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The Iraqi Model

Iraq Weathers the Political Storm -Sterling Jensen

The Middle East political storm of early 2011 has had an interesting impact on Iraq. Though the government was confronted with demonstrations, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki felt sufficiently confident to boast that "Iraq has become the most stable country in the region."

While this may seem a bold claim given the recent past, Maliki is not alone in showing confidence in Iraq's prospects. The Sadrists, Kurds, and leaders of the primarily Sunni Iraqiya bloc have been equally upbeat about the country's prospects while many Iraqi insiders believe that their battle-torn country will not only weather the instability but will also serve as a model for democracy.

Indeed, the democratic system established in Iraq through its second elected government in six years is becoming more representative and responsive to the people. While the country still has many sectarian and political differences to resolve in order to ensure its long-term stability, this system is likely to last due to four main elements: a representative government, an independent and transparent media, a professional security force, and a close relationship with the United States.

If Baghdad is able to resolve its internal disputes peacefully and improve government efficiency through modest reforms, its future will be bright.
[Middle East Quarterly]
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The Palestinian & Arab Psyche

6 in 10 Palestinians Reject Two-State Solution -Gil Hoffman

Only 34% of Palestinians accept, while 61% reject, two states for two peoples as the solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, according to a survey of 1,010 Palestinians completed this week by American pollster Stanley Greenberg.

92% said Jerusalem should be the capital of Palestine, while just 3% said it should be the capital of both Palestine and Israel.

72% backed denying the thousands of years of Jewish history in Jerusalem, 62% supported kidnapping IDF soldiers and holding them hostage, and 53% were in favor of teaching songs about hating Jews in Palestinian schools.
The poll was conducted with the Palestinian Center for Public Opinion and sponsored by the Israel Project.
(Jerusalem Post)
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Can Israel Be a "Jewish State?" -Elliott Abrams

The Palestinians refuse to acknowledge Israel as a "Jewish state." Their argument is that if Israel is a "Jewish state," it will necessarily discriminate against non-Jews. The problem with this debating point is that those who use it apply it only to Israel; none ever voices any concern about states based on Islam and discriminating in favor of Muslims.

There are four states whose very name contains a religious reference: the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, the Islamic Republic of Iran, the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, and the Islamic Republic of Mauritania. But beyond those, in every Muslim-majority country the constitution asserts a special role for Islam. The Jordanian constitution says, "Islam is the religion of the State" and "No person shall ascend the Throne unless he is a Muslim…of Muslim parents." The religion of the state is Islam in Oman, Qatar, and Kuwait.

Muslim states are not alone in their religious ties. The constitution of Denmark states that "The Evangelical Lutheran Church shall be the Established Church of Denmark, and, as such, it shall be supported by the State," and "The King shall be a member of the Evangelical Lutheran Church." Same for Norway. So the usual arguments against the acknowledgement of Israel as a Jewish state are hypocritical and specious. Every Arab state is far more Islamic than the "Jewish state" of Israel is Jewish.

When Arab political leaders say they will never acknowledge Israel as a Jewish state, it is a reminder of their continuing refusal to make peace with the very idea that the Jews can have a state in what they view as the Dar al-Islam ("abode of Islam").
(Council on Foreign Relations)
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Iran's Internal Strife: Wolves eating wolves

The Rise and Fall of Iran's Ahmadinejad -Karim Sadjadpour

Given the youthful Iranian public's desire for change, Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Khamenei, seemed to have lost the war of ideas within the country by the early 2000s. Yet his saving grace was Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, whose pious populism resonated among Iran's working classes, and his revolutionary zeal and willingness to attack Khamenei's adversaries endeared him to the supreme leader, whose backing of Ahmadinejad in the 2005 presidential election proved decisive.

What Khamenei failed to realize was that Ahmadinejad and his cohorts had greater ambitions. In "private" meetings - which were bugged by intelligence forces loyal to Khamenei - Ahmadinejad's closest adviser, Rahim Mashaei, spoke openly of designs to supplant the clergy. Then Ahmadinejad tried to take over the Ministry of Intelligence, whose vast files on the financial and moral corruption of Iran's political elite are powerful tools of political persuasion and blackmail.

The supreme leader was publicly nonchalant about Ahmadinejad's insubordination; privately, however, he unleashed the jackals. The Revolutionary Guards - who helped engineer Ahmadinejad's contested 2009 reelection - swiftly declared their devotion to Khamenei, and several of the president's advisers were arrested.

By accentuating the country's internal rifts and breaking previously sacred taboos - such as challenging the supreme leader - Ahmadinejad has become an unlikely, unwitting ally of Iran's democracy movement. He is likely to be remembered by historians as the man who hastened the Islamic Republic's decay.
(Washington Post)
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Jihad's Money Woes

Hizbullah Facing Financial Problems -Erich Follath

In recent months, Hizbullah has become involved in disastrous investments, losing almost $1.4 billion.

The Iranians, who are now feeling the brunt of UN sanctions, have made it clear that they cannot provide Hizbullah with additional funding at this time. 

This is embarrassing for Hizbullah, whose image in Lebanon depends in large part on its generous social services. It is now falling behind in the rebuilding of homes it had promised to Hizbullah's Shiite followers after the destructive 2006 Lebanon war.
(Der Spiegel-Germany)
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Chicago Hosts Jihad Conference



This poster and video promoted a radical-Islam group's conference in Chicago

Hizb ut-Tahrir: Islam Has Replaced Communism as Top U.S. Enemy -Steven Emerson

Hizb ut-Tahrir (HT), a radical Islamist group which claims a presence in nearly 50 countries, is so confident it can help establish a global Muslim government - or caliphate - that it distributed a draft constitution during a recent conference outside of Chicago that drew more than 300 people on June 26. It calls for the death penalty for apostates, and for creating a government department dedicated to jihad.

HT preaches a virulent brand of hatred for the U.S., and for Western democracy in general. Its alumni include such violent Islamists as Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, mastermind of the 9/11 attacks, and the late Iraqi jihadist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.
(Algemeiner)


The Hizb ut-Tahrir Threat -Muhammad Amir Rana

HT has been linked to a number of terrorist plots in Pakistan, including an attempt to assassinate former president Gen. Pervez Musharraf.
(Dawn-Pakistan)
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IDF: Women lead Hummer Teams

Female Combat Hummer Operatives

The female soldiers who serve in the Hummer Operators' Unit - there are no male Hummer operators - spend their days in the field, training other soldiers how to use military Hummer vehicles in real-life combat scenarios.
(Israel Defense Forces)
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A Call to "Park the Peace Process"

It's Time to Park the Peace Process -Gideon Rachman

•A meeting of the Quartet saw yet another effort to drag the unwilling parties back to the negotiating table. Yet with the Middle East in turmoil, starting a new round of Israeli-Palestinian talks is completely pointless.

•Some European diplomats cling to the idea that the Palestinian issue remains at the heart of the instability in the Middle East. But that is a theological position that can only be upheld by resolutely ignoring actual events. If there is one thing that the uprisings across the Middle East have in common, it is that they have very little to do with the Palestinians.

•The main bearing that the Arab spring has had on the Palestinian issue is to change the calculations of both sides to the conflict, in ways that make them even less likely to risk negotiating a peace settlement.

•It is simply too risky for the leadership of Fatah, the Palestinian faction in control of the West Bank, to enter into tortuous negotiations with the Israelis that will inevitably lead to accusations that they are selling out their own people.

•Israel's regional policy was built around a peace treaty with Egypt, cordial relations with Turkey, a cold peace with Syria and a shared interest with Saudi Arabia in the containment of Iran. The upheavals across the Middle East raise questions about the durability of all of these arrangements.
(Financial Times-UK)
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Jihad in Brooklyn, New York?

Is the Muslim Brotherhood Coming to Brooklyn? -Erick Stakelbeck

The proposed mosque at Ground Zero has sparked a heated national debate in recent months. But just a few miles away in Brooklyn, another mega-mosque controversy is brewing.
[CBN]
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Killing the Music

Syrian Protest Singer Slain for Anti-Assad Tune -Roee Nahmias

Ibrahim Kashush became the latest symbol of the ongoing Syrian uprising. Equipped with a megaphone, Kashush started singing in front of hundreds of thousands of demonstrators in Hama last Friday, in a song titled "Be Gone," in reference to Syrian President Bashar Assad.

"Come on, get lost, ya Bashar," Kashush chanted, "Take your brother Maher with you and take off!" "Your legitimacy has vanished, Bashar the liar....Bashar, be gone."

The song became an instant hit and one of the main anthems of the protests. Four days later Kashush's body was discovered with his throat slit.
(Ynet News)
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UPDATE: Video added



Except for the reference about Bashar being an agent of the United States, this chant is fairly catchy...may its brave author rest in peace

The Yasir Arafat School of Public Communication

The Yasir Arafat School of Speaking and Public Communication -Barry Rubin

Teacher: OK, now assume you’re on CNN. What do you say about Israel?

Student: The evil satanic Jews are enemies of Islam and must be wiped out!

Teacher: No, no. [Points at the teacher’s pet]. Can you tell us what the answer should be?

Student 2: Yes, teacher. We would like to live in a just and lasting peace with Israel but the Zionists are aggressive and oppress our people. The Palestinians are the new Jews.

Teacher: Excellent!
[Pajamas Media]
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Palestinian Flotilla Sinks: Victory at Sea [with video]

Flotilla Diplomacy Proves Importance of Hard Power  -Evelyn Gordon

With diplomatic efforts to stop this year's flotilla to Gaza a seeming success, a new myth has arisen: The success of this year's effort proves Israel could also have stopped last year's flotilla without bloodshed had it only been a bit smarter. But the sorry truth is Israel's diplomatic efforts succeeded this time only because of its willingness to use force last year.

Last year Israel tried desperately to stop the flotilla peacefully. It negotiated frantically with Turkey, but Ankara reneged at the last minute. It begged the countries whence the ships were sailing (Turkey, Greece and Ireland) not to let them depart, but to no avail: The unanimous response was democracies can't bar [supposedly] peaceful demonstrators from sailing the high seas.

So why was it suddenly okay for democratic countries to intervene this year? Because this year, they had an excuse: The intervention was meant to prevent bloodshed.
(Commentary)


The Flotilla Flop -Roz Rothstein & Roberta Seid

The "Free Gaza" Flotilla II campaign appears to be a flop. Leaders of the international community essentially pulled the plug on what they recognized as a potentially dangerous anti-Israel publicity stunt. The International Red Cross said there is no humanitarian crisis in Gaza and whatever goods are needed can be delivered through legal, official entry points. It is now clear that members of the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas organized and raised money for the flotilla.
(Los Angeles Jewish Journal)


Face the Enemy -Mario Loyola

Many of the flotilla supporters are pitifully innocent activists who believe that the Palestinians are a subjugated people. There are few conflicts in history in which one side was more clearly in the wrong, and the other more clearly in the right, than in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. On one side, there is a diverse coalition of people dedicated to peace, tolerance, democracy, and the rule of law, which has been mercilessly abused and attacked for 100 years.

On the other is an obscurantist, homophobic, racist, misogynistic, fascistic, and murderous political movement that persecutes homosexuals, represses women, and glorifies the murder of children in their sleep.

The activists are right - the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is about good vs. evil. They're just confused as to which is which.
(National Review)
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The Threat of Jihad Physicians: death docs to help evade bomb detection

Beware of Dr. Jihad -Michelle Malkin

[H]omeland security officials have sent fresh warnings to foreign governments that "human bombs" may try to board planes with surgically implanted explosives. The ticking terrorists are reportedly getting help from murder-minded Arab Muslim physicians trained in the West.

Infidels beware: Dr. Jihad's version of the health care oath omits the "no" in "Do no harm."

The death docs may be using their expertise to play "Hide the IED" [improvised explosive device] in body cavities that bomb-detection equipment cannot penetrate. At least one Saudi operative has been nabbed with explosives in his bum, and British intel picked up on Arab website chatter last year about possible breast-bomb inserts. Officials are now said to be on the lookout for physicians' notes requesting that passengers be allowed to carry syringes — which could carry detonation chemicals.

Lest you shrug off reports of these literal booby-traps as empty fear-mongering, listen up:  "It's more than aspirational," one U.S. official told The Wall Street Journal. "They're trying to make this happen."

There should be no shock at the role of purported healers in these and other hellish plots to destroy masses of innocent lives in the name of Allah. [R]adical Islam's bloody perversion of the medical profession traces back to the Egypt-based Muslim Brotherhood, the global terror operation that wooed wealthy young docs and other intellectual elites with cushy union benefits...
[Jewish World Review]
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Christian Bible Comes to Life in Israel

2,000-Year-Old Priestly Burial Box Real

Israeli scholars have confirmed the authenticity of a 2,000-year-old burial box [pictured] bearing the name of a relative of the high priest Caiaphas of the New Testament.

The ossuary bears an inscription with the name "Miriam daughter of Yeshua son of Caiaphas, priest of Maaziah from Beth Imri."

The Israel Antiquities Authority said that tests have confirmed the inscription is "genuine and ancient."
[Fox News]
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Watering Jihad: Obama to court Muslim Brotherhood

Obama and the Muslim Brothers -Editorial

The administration is reaching out to Egypt’s radical Muslim Brotherhood ahead of parliamentary elections scheduled for September.

“The political landscape in Egypt has changed, and is changing,” [said] an unnamed White House source. “It is in our interests to engage with all of the parties that are competing for parliament or the presidency.”

As President Obama’s previous attempts at outreach to Islamists have failed, there is little reason to believe this effort will succeed. Egypt’s Islamist political parties seem set to play a role in the new government.

The secular parties obviously are a better choice from the U.S. perspective. This educated, upper- and middle-class cohort could help usher in a future of peace, prosperity and tolerance in the region.

Rather than coddling Islamists, the administration ought to be working actively to strengthen Egypt’s secularist, moderate and relatively pro-Western political classes. Hedging bets by reaching out to groups that do not share U.S. values or interests only makes it harder for the more liberal parties at a time when they already face numerous handicaps. Unlike the secularists, the Islamist parties will never be in America’s corner.

The White House appears to be blind to the schizophrenic message it is broadcasting throughout the Middle East. The Islamists will not compromise, which means the White House pandering that undermines U.S. national interests is ultimately fruitless.

Mr. Obama has fewer friends in Egypt than he used to have. According to the IPI poll, his favorability in Egypt has plummeted from 25 percent in 2008 to 12 percent today, whereas confidence in bin Laden and his message increased from 18 percent to 21 percent. This is not an opportunity for outreach; this is a problem, and promoting the political fortunes of the Muslim Brotherhood will only make it worse.
[Washington Times]
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Is Obama losing Jewish Support?

Obama may be losing the faith of Jewish Democrats -Ben Smith

Obama’s speech last month seems to have crystallized the doubts many pro-Israel Democrats had about Obama in 2008 in a way that could, on the margins, cost the president votes and money in 2012 and will not be easy to repair.

Most of those interviewed were center-left American Jews and Obama supporters — and many of them Democratic donors.

Some of these traditional Democrats now say, to their own astonishment, that they’ll consider voting for a Republican in 2012. And many of those who continue to support Obama said they find themselves constantly on the defensive in conversations with friends.

[T]op Democrats say the storm will pass. 
[Politico]
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Bankrolling Palestinian Intransigence

Are U.S. Taxpayers Funding Palestinians' Dangerous Unilateralism?
-Jonathan Schanzer

In the coming weeks, "Palestinian delegations will make the rounds of nearly a dozen countries to try to drum up more support for their bid to have the United Nations recognize a Palestinian state," AP reports.

Later this summer, Palestinian ambassadors will all fly to Madrid to discuss their European strategy. Here's a question for Congress: where is the travel money coming from? Diplomatic junkets don't grow on trees. The U.S. forks over an estimated $600 million to the Palestinians each year. It is reasonable to assume that Congress has been paying for the Palestinians' diplomatic end run around Washington.
(The Hill)
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Palestinian Celebrations and the Coming UN Vote

A poignant video from Aish HaTorah

Cutting Edge Israeli App for Android & iPhone

New Israeli Android app

A new app by an Israeli software developer named Nir Yaniv does...nothing. It costs 99 cents. You can read an interview with the developer in Hebrew on YNet, where he reveals plans for an iPhone version of Nothing.

[W]e can expand on this concept. For example, a deluxe edition of Nothing that shows:

*Every Palestinian Arab concession since 1988
*Every example of Mahmoud Abbas' "moderation"
*Every Palestinian Arab "human rights group" that calls for an unconditional release of Gilad Shalit
*Every benefit that a Palestinian Arab state would bring to the world
*Every mention of Jerusalem in the Koran
*How important Jerusalem was considered to the Arab world between 1949 and 1967
*How much the PA has reduced incitement on TV since Oslo
[Elder of Ziyon]
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Tom Friedman skewered by Israeli News Spoof

New York Times pundit Tom Friedman is skewered in the video above. 
The Friedman clip runs from 1:39 thru 7:11...enjoy, Bruce

Scathing cartoon on Obama's Afghanistan policy

Cartoon critique of President Obama's Afghanistan policy

Shakira in Israel: VideoBite

Obama's Lasting MidEast Legacy

Obama circa 2009 in Cairo, surrounded by flowers

Washington's Weakened Middle East Influence -Lee Smith

Perhaps our eagerness to see the upheavals as one wider movement is less a representation of reality than a reflection of how the Middle East is [wrongly] understood by large segments of the American intelligentsia—a habit of mind that of late was most powerfully expressed by President Barack Obama [in his] 2009 Cairo speech.  

Obama describ[ed] the region in terms of Muslims, a Muslim world that is by definition borderless, transnational, and not specific to the particular circumstances of history, geography, and politics that give nation-states their character. Obama's Muslim world is amorphous, more like a sentiment than a physical fact, something perhaps similar in nature to the "Arab Spring." The onetime, popular notion that all these opposition groups are united in their calls for democracy is starting to fade in light of the evidence.

[But] the various and often conflicting narratives surrounding events seem to suggest that the "Arab Spring" is a misnomer. The belief that there is some deeper trend underlying the recent wave of political upheaval in the region, something uniquely Arab tying them all together, is [similar to] the discredited pan-Arab notion that the three hundred million inhabitants of the Arabic-speaking Middle East constitute a unified Arab nation.

In effect, the "Arab Spring" is a series of civil wars, sectarian and tribal conflicts.

The U.S. position in the region, an area of vital interest since the end of World War II, has been weakened. The erosion has taken place gradually over time and is a factor of many forces not attributable to any single episode or administration, but one can nonetheless identify a defining moment—Obama's Cairo speech.

The main flaw with Obama's Cairo speech is not simply that it contravenes the norms of political and diplomatic practice or that the belief in the existence of a unified Muslim world ignores the reality of 1,400 years of Muslim sectarianism; nor is it that the leader of a secular republic should avoid categorizing the world's inhabitants by their religious beliefs. No, the biggest problem is that Obama played into the strategic communications campaign of Washington's chief regional adversary, the Islamic Republic of Iran. For it is Tehran that insists that for all their divisions, there truly is one factor uniting all the world's Muslims: resistance to the United States and its regional allies.

[B]y describing the region as an amorphous body of believers, Obama strayed into a minefield without a map—or no map other than the one that confirmed the Iranian view of the Middle East.

So far, all Washington has reaped from the uprisings in the Middle East, the "Arab Spring," is the whirlwind.
[Middle East Quarterly]
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Palestinian hate app for iPad

The logo

Israel Asks Apple to Remove "3rd Intifada" Application -Herb Keinon

Public Diplomacy and Diaspora Affairs Minister Yuli Edelstein sent a letter to Apple CEO Steve Jobs requesting the removal of an application called the "3rd Intifada" that gives information about protest activities, some of them violent, planned against Israel.

The same organization, Edelstein wrote, opened a Facebook page three months ago "calling for an uprising against the State of Israel by use of lethal force, while using hateful material based on wild and groundless accusations."

Facebook removed the page after it became convinced of the page's "harmful nature" and its potential of leading to the loss of life.
(Jerusalem Post)
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UPDATE:


Apple Removes Intifada App -Nick Bilton

Apple removed "The Third Intifada" application from its App Store after a Jewish human rights group and a top Israeli official said it contained anti-Semitic content and promoted violence against Israel.

"We removed this app from the App Store because it violates the developer guidelines by being offensive to large groups of people," an Apple spokesman said.
(New York Times)
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Brilliant VideoBite: Flotilla Thugs Not Peaceniks

This creative video uses the classic hit "Get Together" by The Youngbloods to take a shot at the bizarre view that the Turkish Flotilla passengers were "peace activists"

[Elder of Ziyon]

VideoBite: Understanding the legal status of the "occupied" West Bank

A cogent video [above] explains the legal status of the "occupied" West Bank.
Note: If the video does not automatically play with the English translation, turn on the closed caption feature by clicking the red CC

UPDATE:
The above video was produced by the Yesha Council.  A new version of the video was released by the Israeli Government featuring a similar script read by Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Danny Ayalon. 

Teach your children well

An excellent offering from Elder of Ziyon

Where did Arab "Palestinians" come from?

George Gilder, author of The Israel Test

The Economics of Settlement -George Gilder [pictured]

•In the mid-19th century, before the arrival of the first groups of Jewish settlers, Arabs living in what became the mandate territory of Palestine numbered between 200,000 and 300,000. Their population density and longevity resembled today's conditions in parched and depopulated Saharan Chad. The fact that some 5.5 million Arabs now live in the former British Mandate, with a life expectancy of more than 70 years, is mainly attributable, for better or worse, to the work of those Jewish settlers.
•In draining swamps, leaching saline soils, redeeming dunes into orchards and poultry farms, in planting millions of trees on rocky hills, in constructing elaborate water works and terraces on the hills, in digging 548 wells and supporting canals in little more than a decade and irrigating thousands of acres of land, establishing industries, hospitals, clinics, and schools, the 500,000 Jewish settlers who arrived before the creation of Israel massively expanded the very absorptive dimensions and capacity of the country. It was these advances that made possible the fivefold 20th-century surge of the Arab population by 1940.

•The new opportunities in Palestine attracted hundreds of thousands of Arab immigrants from Iraq, Syria, Jordan, and the desert. By 1948, the Arab population in the Mandate area had grown to some 1.35 million, an increase of 60% since the 1930s. With wages for Arab workers double or more the wages in Syria, Jordan, and Iraq, in 1936, a British Royal Commission could report: "The whole range of public services has steadily developed to the benefit of the [Arab] fellaheen...the revenue for those services having been largely provided by the Jews."

•The spurious ideology of Palestinian victimization by Israel blinds nearly all observers to the actual facts of economic life in the region. Following 1948, the Palestinians continued to benefit heavily from Israeli enterprise and prospered mightily compared to Arabs in other countries in the region. During the era of Israeli "occupation" from 1967 to 1993, the number of Arabs in the territories tripled to some 3 million, with the creation of some 261 new towns, a tripling of Arab per capita incomes, and a rise in life expectancy from 52 to 73 years.

•Far from effecting any displacement of Arabs, the Jewish settlements enabled a huge increase in both the number and wealth of the Palestinian Arabs.
The writer is a founding fellow of the Discovery Institute and author of 15 books, most recently The Israel Test.
(American Spectator)
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Truth, Not Narrative -Shlomo Avineri

Claims have been made that there are two "narratives," an Israeli one and a Palestinian one, and we should pay attention to both of them. But above and beyond these claims is the simple fact - and it is a fact, not a "narrative" - that in 1947, the Zionist movement accepted the United Nations partition plan, whereas the Arab side rejected it and went to war against it.

But just as nobody, even in German schools, would dream of teaching the German "narrative" regarding World War II, the 1948 war should also not be taught as a battle between narratives. In the final analysis, there is a historical truth.
(Ha'aretz)
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A Witty Iran Joke



A witty offering, no?



Yemen Changes Hands



Saleh was injured and then fled Yemen



Yemini President Flees: Saudi Arabia's Silent Battle to Halt History -Susanne Koelbl

Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh landed in Saudi Arabia with two wives, an entourage of 59 people, including three cabinet ministers - and a 3 inch piece of shrapnel in his chest.

Saleh, 69, is the third autocrat to be swept out of office by the tide of Arab unrest in the region, and the second to find refuge in Saudi Arabia.
(Der Spiegel-Germany)
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Yale cows to Arab Lobby

The Hebrew words "Urim" and "Thummim" appear on the Yale seal

Saving the Yale Anti-Semitism Institute -Walter Reich

Yale just killed the country's best institute for the study of anti-Semitism - the Yale Initiative for the Interdisciplinary Study of Anti-Semitism. Why? The answer is simple.
The institute held a three-day conference last August on "Global Anti-Semitism: A Crisis of Modernity," where more than a hundred scholars delivered papers. Some spoke, inevitably, about the fastest-growing and most virulent manifestation of contemporary anti-Semitism - the anti-Semitism in the Arab/Muslim world.

The conference provoked a firestorm. A Syrian American law student published a broadside in the Yale Daily News attacking the institute and the conference as fueling "anti-Arab bigotry and Islamophobia." The PLO representative to the U.S. wrote to Yale's president accusing the conference of demonizing Arabs.

Yale administrators and faculty quickly turned on the institute, accusing it of being too critical of Arab and Iranian anti-Semitism. A requisite five-year review of the institute was held five months after the conference. Its director was told that the institute would be shut down and its staff fired.

[S]hould Yale maintain its decision on closure, the institute should quickly be grabbed as a scholarly and policy gem by another university. A great university in Washington — George Washington, Georgetown, American, Maryland, Catholic — or other research institution, such as the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, would be an outstanding venue where scholars and policy-oriented audiences could hear the products of its vital contemporary focus.
The writer, professor of international affairs, ethics and human behavior at George Washington University, is a former director of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum.
(Washington Post)
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Is Obama continuing to bully Israel?

Obama bullies Israel; so much for promises at AIPAC -Jennifer Rubin

Eli Lake published a story for the Washington Times. Lake reported:

The White House is pressing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to publicly adopt President Obama’s view that Israel’s pre-1967 border should be the basis for future peace talks. The request of Mr. Netanyahu was made Monday to the prime minister’s top peace negotiator, Yitzhak Molcho, at a meeting with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton at the National Security Council, according to an Israeli diplomat based in Jerusalem.

Is the U.S. president pressuring Israel to adopt a position that is not its own and diminishes its bargaining position? And what happened to the statements in President Obama’s speech to AIPAC that Israel could not be expected to sit down with those who want to destroy it? After all Hamas has not yet agreed to the Quartet principles, nor has Mahmoud Abbas separated himself from the unity government.
I contacted the White House [and] asked multiple times:
“1.Can you confirm that the president’s position is that Israel should come to the table even without a commitment by Hamas to the Quartet principles and without Abbas breaking with Hamas? 2.If he is asking for 1967 borders from Israel, has anything been asked of Abbas before coming to the table?”

Thomas Vietor, the NSC spokesman, refused to give a direct answer, referring me back to Obama’s speech.  But that didn’t answer the question[s].

Is the administration now asking Israel to sit down with Abbas absent a commitment by Hamas or a break-up of the unity government? [T]he administration won’t say.

This is a very, very big deal. Former deputy national security adviser Elliott Abrams explained to me: “I hope news reports of what the Obama White House is privately demanding of Israel are wrong. If the reports are right, the U.S. is now abandoning the Quartet Principles — and asking Israel to negotiate with a Palestinian side that includes Hamas without Hamas taking one single step away from terror."

To be clear, Israel is being pressured to give up prior understandings that the Western Wall and the Jerusalem suburbs, for example, would never be part of a Palestinian state.

Congressional friends of Israel are likely to be enraged.
[The Washington Post]
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Israel, White House Send Signals on New Peace Talks Plan -Laura Rozen

Israeli leaders seem to be sending a signal to Washington that they will not be pushed by the Palestinians' UN bid to accept Obama's proposed terms for renewed Israeli-Palestinian negotiations - '67 lines with mutually agreed swaps.
(Yahoo News)
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UPDATE:

Obama’s Ludicrous Proposal to Israel Unpacked -Barry Rubin

Could President Barack Obama’s strategy possibly be more obvious to Israel?

Here’s a summary: Due to the Obama Administration’s ineptness, the Palestinian Authority (PA) is planning to ask the UN to give it unilateral independence in September. But rather than use its leverage against the PA–including pointing out that what it’s doing is contrary to every U.S.-guaranteed agreement that the PA signed with Israel during the last 18 years–the Obama Administration wants to use its leverage on Israel to force it to save Obama.

You see, Obama will find it hard to escape vetoing the PA’s bid in the Security Council before it ever gets to the General Assembly. This will not make Obama or the United States more popular with Muslims or Arabs. So Obama wants Israel to pay the price in exchange for…nothing.

To avoid the PA declaring unilateral independence without making any concessions, Obama wants Israel to accept what amounts to the PA getting independence without making any concessions! But it won’t be unilateral, right?
[Rubin Reports]
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Turkey kisses democracy goodbye

Erdoğan, AKP's head & the most polished Islamist on the planet

Turkey's Last Free Election Daniel Pipes

As someone who has been sounding the alarm ever since the AKP won its first election in 2002, I now warn: Elections taking place today are likely to be the last fair and free ones in Turkey.

With Turkey's leading Islamist party controlling all three branches of the government and the military sidelined, little will stop it from changing the rules to keep power into the indefinite future. And should the AKP manage to gain a 2/3s parliamentary majority, either on its own or in alliance with others, it will change the constitution, speeding up this process. 
[Daniel Pipes Blog]
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Turkey's Election: An Islamist Revolution -Barry Rubin

The elections in Turkey mark a revolution. When Iran’s revolution happened and the Islamists took over in 1979, everyone knew it. In contrast, Turkey’s revolution has been a stealth Islamist operation. It has succeeded brilliantly, while Western governments have failed shockingly to understand what has been going on.

[T]he AKP is [now] entrenched in power and can now proceed with the fundamental transformation of Turkey.

The AKP has become famous for the subtlety of its Islamism, disguised as a "center-right" reform party. Some people in the Arab world are starting to talk about this as a model. Notably the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt is fascinated by the strategy. Yet as the Islamist party gains more and more power and support--Turkey has demonstrated this--it becomes more ambitious, daring, and extreme.

[M]any will not want to face these unpleasant realities. There will be no shortage of soothing analyses and encouraging talk about Turkish democracy succeeding, moderate Muslim politics, and how “great” it is that the army’s political power is destroyed.

Don’t be fooled.
[Jerusalem Post]
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UPDATE:

Erdogan: Ottoman Echoes Growing Louder -J.E. Dyer

Tayyip Erdogan's Justice and Development Party (AKP) won a comfortable majority in Turkey's parliamentary election on 12 June...

In his victory speech, Erdogan alluded to Turkey's aspiration to be a voice in the West for Muslims: "Sarajevo won today as much as Istanbul, Beirut won as much as Izmir, Damascus won as much as Ankara, Ramallah, Nablus, Jenin, the West Bank, Jerusalem won as much as Diyarbakir."

It is imperialist at worst, absurdly arrogant at best, to speak of your electoral victories as conferring benefits on foreign humanity - especially on those once occupied by your nation in its days of empire.

Erdogan knows perfectly well that naming cities in the West Bank and concluding with "Jerusalem" (which he called Al-Quds) implies a direct Turkish interest in the disposition of these cities that evokes the era when they, too, were under Ottoman rule.
(Hot Air)
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Unchaining the Internet

U.S. Underwrites Internet Detour Around Censors -James Glanz & John Markoff

The Obama administration is leading a global effort to deploy “shadow” Internet and mobile phone systems that dissidents can use to undermine repressive governments that seek to silence them by censoring or shutting down telecommunications networks.

The effort includes secretive projects to create independent cellphone networks inside foreign countries, as well as one operation out of a spy novel in a fifth-floor shop on L Street in Washington, where a group of young entrepreneurs who look as if they could be in a garage band are fitting deceptively innocent-looking hardware into a prototype “Internet in a suitcase.”

Financed with a $2 million State Department grant, the suitcase could be secreted across a border and quickly set up to allow wireless communication over a wide area with a link to the global Internet.

The American effort, revealed in dozens of interviews, planning documents and classified diplomatic cables obtained by The New York Times, ranges in scale, cost and sophistication. Some projects involve technology that the United States is developing; others pull together tools that have already been created by hackers in a so-called liberation-technology movement sweeping the globe.

The State Department, for example, is financing the creation of stealth wireless networks that would enable activists to communicate outside the reach of governments in countries like Iran, Syria and Libya, according to participants in the projects.

In one of the most ambitious efforts, United States officials say, the State Department and Pentagon have spent at least $50 million to create an independent cellphone network in Afghanistan using towers on protected military bases inside the country. It is intended to offset the Taliban’s ability to shut down the official Afghan services, seemingly at will.
[New York Times]
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Success: Somalis kill Top Al Aaeda Leader

Fazul Abdullah Mohammed and another terrorist were killed by Somali soldiers

During better days

Somalis Kill Mastermind of 2 U.S. Embassy Bombings -Jeffrey Gettleman

Fazul Abdullah Mohammed, Al Qaeda’s leader in East Africa and the mastermind of the American Embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania, was killed in a late-night shootout at a security checkpoint in Mogadishu, Somalia’s capital, Somali and American officials said.

The killing, after Mr. Mohammed accidentally encountered a Somali checkpoint, was a major loss for the terrorist network, still reeling from the assassination of its founder, Osama bin Laden, in Pakistan last month.

“Fazul’s death is a significant blow to Al Qaeda, its extremist allies and its operations in East Africa,” Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said. “It is a just end for a terrorist who brought so much death and pain to so many innocents in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam and elsewhere — Tanzanians, Kenyans, Somalis and our own embassy personnel.”

Mr. Mohammed, who was one of the most wanted men in Africa and had a $5 million bounty on his head from the United States government, and another militant mistakenly drove up to a checkpoint run by Somali government soldiers late on Tuesday night.

The Somali soldiers fired on their truck, a black Toyota four-by-four, and the men fired back, Somali officials said. Seconds later, Mr. Mohammed and the other militant were dead.
[New York Times]
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Senators Follow Through: Rebuke Obama on tension with Israel

Oren Hatch announces the rebuke of Obama.  Senators Lieberman & Hatch began organizing this resolution right after Obama's Arab Spring & AIPAC speeches.

Senators Reaffirm Defensible Borders

U.S. senators proposed a resolution Thursday opposing any Israeli withdrawal to 1967 lines. "It is contrary to United States policy and national security to have the borders of Israel return to the armistice lines that existed on June 4, 1967," read the text introduced by Senators Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) and Joe Lieberman (Conn.-I).

The resolution enjoys the support of some 30 other senators...

"Boundaries that existed on June 4, 1967, placed Israel in a precarious military situation that threatened regional stability," Hatch said in a statement.
(AFP)
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What Accounts for Israel's Popularity in Congress?  -Jeffrey Goldberg

How can you explain the reception Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu received in Congress? The most powerful lobbies, over time, are those that lobby for causes that are already popular among the American people. Walter Russell Mead explains: "What Netanyahu demonstrated in Congress was not that he has the backing of the Israel Lobby. It was something much more important...he has the backing of the American people."
(Atlantic Monthly)
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Poignant: Summary of Obama's MidEast Policy

Obama receiving Nobel Peace Prize

200 Words: How Obama Destroyed Any "Peace Process" And Sabotaged Himself in the Middle East
-Barry Rubin

1. Obama demands freeze on all Israeli construction in existing settlements, undoing 16 years of U.S. and Palestinian Authority (PA) acceptance of that policy. PA makes that its basic demand and won't talk.
No sanctions by Obama against PA. No talks.

2. Israel calls bluff and freezes; PA won't talk. Obama demands freeze extended to Jerusalem. Israel complies. PA still won't talk. Freeze expires and PA won't talk unless new freeze.
No sanctions by Obama against PA. No talks.

3. Obama calls for 1967 borders with swaps. His plan: Israel turns over the entire West Bank, then they talk about the swaps! PA makes that their basic demand and won't talk. (You can fill in the next two sentences).

4. PA makes merger deal with Hamas, antisemitic, anti-American, terrorist group that advocates genocide; expels Christians from the Gaza Strip; teaches children to be suicide bombers; rejects the peace process; and is client of Iran, Syria, and Muslim Brotherhood. (You can fill in the next two sentences).

5. PA forces Obama to veto unilateral independence demand at the UN making US "more unpopular" in Arab and Muslim world, destroying what has been just about his highest foreign policy priority. (You can fill in the next two sentences).
[RubinReports]
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Obama Hands Abbas Another Unearned Victory...declines to promise a future embassy move to Jerusalem

PA Praises Obama -Khaled Abu Toameh

The Palestinian Authority welcomed as "encouraging" President Obama's decision not to [ever] move the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. Obama invoked U.S. national security interests to notify Congress that he will not move the embassy to Jerusalem.

Obama's notification did not include a commitment to moving the embassy at some point in the future, unlike his predecessors, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush.
(Jerusalem Post) 


A Symbol of Obama's Hostility to a United Jerusalem -Jonathan S. Tobin

President Obama's decision to speak of Jewish neighborhoods in Jerusalem as "settlements" that must be frozen and his insistence on using the 1967 lines as the starting point for future negotiations - as opposed to Bush’s frank acknowledgment that those neighborhoods and the surrounding settlement blocs will always be part of Israel - has put the status of Jerusalem back on the political front burner.
(Commentary)
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Syria Allows Storming of Israel Border

IDF Prevents Breach of Syrian Border

A firebomb thrown by Syrian demonstrators towards IDF forces on Sunday caused a brushfire in Syrian territory, which led to the explosion of four mines on the Syrian side of the Quneitra crossing in the Golan Heights.

IDF forces used riot dispersal means against demonstrators from Syria who tried to breach the international border. After demonstrators ignored warnings not to approach the border, IDF soldiers were forced to open fire towards the legs of a number of demonstrators who attempted to breach the border fence.
(Israel Defense Forces)


IDF: Syrian Protesters Caused Their Own Deaths -Hanan Greenberg

The IDF said that many of the Syrian protesters who stormed the border fence and Quneitra crossing Sunday were responsible for their own deaths by igniting fires in mine fields on the border.

Protesters were killed as a result of the Red Cross's inability to reach them, due to protesters' refusal to cease violence in order to allow for medical evacuations. IDF officials say commanders ordered three ceasefires, each of which were taken advantage of by the protesters in order to gain ground.
(Ynet News)
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Syria May Have Exaggerated Number of Casualties -Amos Harel & Avi Issacharoff

[T]he Syrian government - through its media - has a clear interest in exaggerating the number of casualties to have the border incidents overshadow President Assad's ongoing massacre of [his own] anti-government protesters. On Sunday, according to opposition forces, at least 35 Syrians were killed by their own security forces during protests.
(Ha'aretz)
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Israel's Seriousness over Sovereignty -Yaakov Lappin

The IDF's well-planned and cool-headed response to the new threat of flooding the nation's borders with civilian rioters sent a firm message to hostile neighbors on Sunday that Israel takes its sovereignty seriously.

The IDF's Northern Command has fortified the northern border with a second barbed-wire perimeter and new lookout positions, and positioned senior commanders on the ground, who could quickly respond to developments and issue new orders.

Soldiers were instructed beforehand to only open fire after issuing repeated warnings to activists against trying to breach the border. Observers are united in the belief that hostile elements will try to organize larger border incidents soon.
(Jerusalem Post)


Israeli Preparations, Lack of Palestinian Enthusiasm  -Ron Ben-Yishai

The minor coverage by Arab media and the relatively low number of participants at Sunday's protests attest to the failure of Naksa Day, a weak imitation of Nakba Day events some three weeks ago. The deterrence produced by Israel's decisive response during Nakba Day made clear to potential protestors that they may pay a terrible price for a brief TV appearance, the first and possibly last of their lives.

Syria's fingerprints were evident in every detail: Starting with driving the protestors to the site, through Syrian TV, which set up several broadcast points and covered the events live, and including the ambulances and medical teams deployed in advance at points of friction.
(Ynet News)
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BiPartisan Agreement on Israel

VideoBite: The video above celebrates Congressional unity on Israel.  

Peter Wallsten noted in the Washington Post that President Obama "is largely isolated politically in raising the issue of boundaries."

Syrian Child Torture Ignites Protests

Torture of Boy Reinvigorates Syria's Protest Movement  -Liz Sly    

Hamza Ali al-Khateeb [pictured] was 13 years old. And since a video portraying the torture inflicted upon him was broadcast on al-Jazeera on Friday, he has rapidly emerged as the new symbol of the protest movement in Syria. 

In Hama, thousands swarmed a central square holding pictures of the boy and chanting "Hamza, Hamza." In Aleppo, people climbed onto rooftops Saturday, chanting, "God is great. Hamza, Hamza." In Darayya, a suburb of Damascus, children took to the streets Sunday to denounce his torture.
(Washington Post)
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UPDATE:

Assad Regime Will Eventually Succumb to Syria Protests -Amos Harel

The regime of Syrian leader Bashar Assad will not survive and will eventually collapse under the pressure of demonstrations. This is the assessment of Israel's military establishment - and this view is gaining strength.

A senior security source told Ha'aretz this week that "Assad is becoming weaker. It may take a few months, or a year or more, but the regime will probably fail to recover."

"Assad has lost his legitimacy in the eyes of his people and therefore his fate is sealed. Every week of demonstrations and deaths only makes things more difficult for him....I do not think he has a chance against the opposition."
(Ha'aretz)
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