What are we seeing when we watch events from the Middle East on our television screens? Is it news or is it terrorist theater?
Let us observe two media events which occurred on Sunday in Gaza. Sunday afternoon released hostages and Fox News journalists Steven Centanni and Olaf Wiig spoke before the cameras. The fact of their release and their statements were reported by more than 1,000 news organizations throughout the world.
At the press conference, Centanni and Wiig, who were forced by their Palestinian captors to convert to Islam, praised the Palestinians. Centanni said, "I just hope this never scares a single journalist away from coming to Gaza to cover this story because the Palestinian people are a very beautiful, kind-hearted and caring people that the world need[s] to know more about." Wiig similarly praised the Palestinians.
While their remarks were covered extensively, no one seemed to think that the fact that their first post-release statements were made at a Palestinian Authority sponsored media extravaganza in Gaza was significant. No one noted that the men were flanked by Palestinian "security forces," and stood next to Hamas terrorist leader and Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh.
No mention was made of the fact that the two were initially kidnapped by just such PA "security officials," or that Haniyeh is one of the leaders of one of the most fanatical jihadist organizations in the world, an organization that the majority of the "beautiful, kind-hearted and caring" Palestinians voted into office last January.
That is, no mention was made of the fact that until the two men left Gaza, they remained unfree. No one asked whether they had been given the option of not giving a press conference in Gaza. And now that they have spoken, there can be little doubt that a second press conference by the two men, in Israel or the US where no one will force them to convert to Judaism or Christianity or threaten to kill them, will draw far less media interest. After their press conference, the two men became yesterday's news.
Conveniently, the same day the PA released the men who its own forces had kidnapped, Reuters reported that the IDF had shot a missile at its press vehicle and wounded two cameramen - one from Reuters and one from Iranian World TV network - while they were en route to a battle taking place between IDF forces and Palestinian terrorists. Reuters, which is demanding an independent investigation into the attack, is portraying its cameraman Fadel Shana as an embattled hero who would do anything to bring the truth to the world.
Yet it is unclear why anyone should believe either Shana or Reuters. Shana told Reuters that as he was driving to the battle scene, "I suddenly saw fire and the doors of the jeep flew open." He claims to have been wounded by shrapnel in his hand and leg. These are minor injuries for someone whose vehicle was just hit by a missile.
But then, the photographs taken of his vehicle after the purported missile attack give no indication that the car was hit by anything. There is a gash on the roof. The hood is bent out of shape. But nothing seems to have been burned. Cars hit by missiles do not look like they have just been in a nasty accident. Cars hit by missiles are destroyed.
Yet the glass on the windshield and the windows of Shana's vehicle isn't even shattered. In the photographs taken of Shana on the way to the hospital in Gaza, he lies on a stretcher, eyes closed, arm extended in full pieta mode. He is not visibly bleeding although there are some blood stains on his shirt, but then his undershirt is completely white.
I did not see these pictures in the media coverage of the purported IDF attack on the Reuters and Iranian cameramen. I saw them on Powerlineblog Web site. I did not see any questions raised from either the Israeli or the international media on the veracity of Shana's tale, which of course, provides a nice balance to the Centanni-Wiig hostage story.
AS IS the case with the Palestinian war against Israel, one of the most notable aspects of Hizbullah's latest campaign against Israel has been the active collaboration of news organizations and international NGO's in Hizbullah's information war against Israel. Like their rogue state sponsors, subversive sub-national groups like Hizbullah, Fatah and Hamas, see information operations as an integral part of their war for the annihilation of Israel and defeat of the West. And their information operations are more advanced than any the world has seen. As becomes more evident with each passing day, they have successfully corrupted both the world media and the community of NGOs that purportedly operate in a neutral manner in war zones.
It is not a coincidence that I saw the pictures of the Reuters' vehicle on Powerline and not in the media coverage of the purported attack. Both the global media and the international NGO community abjectly refuse to investigate themselves. As democratic governments and their militaries have proven incapable of dealing with the phenomenon (in part because they seek to curry favor with the media and the international NGO community), the blogosphere has taken upon itself the role of media watchdog.
BLOGGERS HAVE become a critical component of the free world's defense in the current war. During the Hizbullah campaign in Lebanon, bloggers scrutinized coverage of the war in a way that has never been done before. Their work has exposed the dirty secret of the Middle East that the media has hidden for so many years: The global media and the international NGO community, which profess to be neutral observers, are in fact colluding with terrorist organizations.
The blogosphere, and particularly Little Green Footballs, Powerline, Zombietime, Michelle Malkin, and EU Referendum, have relentlessly exposed the systematic staging of news events, fabrication of attacks against relief workers, and doctoring of photographic images by Hizbullah with the active assistance of international organizations and the global media.
The International Committee of the Red Cross, with its internationally mandated status as a protected organization, is particularly culpable. The blogoshere - and specifically EU Referendum and Zombietime Web sites - have shown that Red Cross employees in Tyre and Kana fabricated from whole cloth a tale of an Israeli airstrike against Red Cross ambulances in Kana on July 23. In an exhaustively documented report, "How the Media Legitimized an Anti-Israel Hoax and Changed the Course of a War," Zombietime showed how Red Cross employees took an old, rusty ambulance and alleged that the IAF had attacked it with a missile that blew a hole straight through the middle of the red cross on the ambulance's roof.
The Red Cross allegation was reported as fact by such "credible" news organizations as Associated Press, Time magazine, the BBC, ITV, The New York Times, The Guardian, The Age, MSNBC, The Los Angeles Times and the Boston Globe. Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch both published accounts of the attack as evidence of Israeli "war crimes" in Lebanon.
Zombietime clearly proved from simple scrutiny of the photographs taken of the ambulance, that the hole in the cross was not the result of a missile attack but the work of the ambulance manufacturer. It was the hole for an air vent. The pock marks on the roof were the result of age and decay. There had been no fire in the ambulance. There was no attack. It was a complete fabrication, concocted by Red Cross employees who enjoy their protected status because their organization has pledged its neutral status in this and all wars.
ONE WEEK later, as EU Referendum reports in a similarly detailed investigation of the much condemned IAF bombing of Kana on July 30, (which actually happened a mile north of Kana at Khuraybah village), Red Cross relief workers actively participated in the staging of a perverted media extravaganza where the bodies of dead children were paraded about before the waiting camera crews for hours and hours.
Rather than demand that the ICRC account for the clear breach of its binding commitment to neutrality, and rather than attack the Lebanese Red Cross for its active collaboration with Hizbullah, the international media has attacked the bloggers. They are brushed off as "Israel supporters," and "right-wing extremists." The aim of these brush-offs is to convince "right thinking" citizens that they oughtn't have anything to do with these champions of truth and human decency.
As each day passes, the governments, formal and informal legal apparatuses, and media of free societies show themselves to be less and less capable of contending with the information operations conducted against their societies by subversive forces seeking their destruction.
As each day passes it becomes clear that the responsibility of protecting our nations and societies from internal disintegration has passed to the hands of individuals, often working alone, who refuse to accept the degradation of their societies and so fight with the innovative tools of liberty to protect our way of life. The vigilance of just a handful of bloggers brought us the knowledge of the corruption of our media and the network of global NGOs that we have come to rely on to tell us the "objective" truth.
It is up to all citizens of the free world, who value our freedom to recognize this corruption, applaud the bloggers and join them in refusing to allow these corrupt institutions to cloud our commitment to freedom.
Tuesday, August 29, 2006
Saturday, August 19, 2006
Iran's Grand Plan
Iran's Grand Plan
As Israeli troops moved into southern Lebanon, they began coming to the realization that the infrastructure of bunkers, launching sites, and missiles that Hezbollah built up is even more elaborate and sophisticated than Israel had expected. All of it was done through the financial support, bidding and training from Iran. Israel is now estimating that Iran has spent billions of dollars to create this network.
Why? The answer is clear and speaks to why Israel's chief of staff Dan Halutz has described this battle as possibly Israel's most crucial since the War of Independence. Iran is generating a three-pronged threat to Israel's very existence. By developing a nuclear weapon, by arming Hezbollah to the teeth, and by public statements of its president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Iran is trying to recreate the idea that Israel's existence as a Jewish state is not a sure thing, that the notion that Israel is now a permanent entity, if not a beloved one, which had taken hold in the Middle East in recent years, is not true.
Israel, the United States, and indeed the entire civilized world must understand the nature of this threat now and must not equivocate in combating all three dimensions of this sinister Iranian strategy.
Undoubtedly, the huge infrastructure that Iran has built up with Hezbollah in south Lebanon would have been expanded in the coming years in parallel with Iran's nuclear development so that the time would arrive when Iran could threaten Israel from Teheran with a nuclear bomb and from Lebanon with chemically-tipped missiles.
Indeed, it wasn't the extremist Ahmadinejad who expressed Iranian intentions most clearly but the more "moderate" Iranian leader Rafsanjani who several years ago chillingly said with regard to the nuclear issue that Israel is a tiny country and one nuclear bomb would devastate the country while Iran was a large country that could sustain ten such bombs.
This is what Israel's war against Hezbollah is about. It is to begin to reverse Iran's implementation of its plan for Israel's destruction. Of course, it is not Israel's problem alone because Iran's aspirations threaten the Gulf states, ensure nuclear proliferation throughout the region, and menace the west through terrorism and the spread of Islamic extremism.
The west should be fully supporting Israel, as has the United States, in this struggle for its own interests. At the very least, the world must understand that Israel will defend itself and do everything in its power to destroy Hezbollah and combat the Iranian threat. It has no choice.
As Israeli troops moved into southern Lebanon, they began coming to the realization that the infrastructure of bunkers, launching sites, and missiles that Hezbollah built up is even more elaborate and sophisticated than Israel had expected. All of it was done through the financial support, bidding and training from Iran. Israel is now estimating that Iran has spent billions of dollars to create this network.
Why? The answer is clear and speaks to why Israel's chief of staff Dan Halutz has described this battle as possibly Israel's most crucial since the War of Independence. Iran is generating a three-pronged threat to Israel's very existence. By developing a nuclear weapon, by arming Hezbollah to the teeth, and by public statements of its president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Iran is trying to recreate the idea that Israel's existence as a Jewish state is not a sure thing, that the notion that Israel is now a permanent entity, if not a beloved one, which had taken hold in the Middle East in recent years, is not true.
Israel, the United States, and indeed the entire civilized world must understand the nature of this threat now and must not equivocate in combating all three dimensions of this sinister Iranian strategy.
Undoubtedly, the huge infrastructure that Iran has built up with Hezbollah in south Lebanon would have been expanded in the coming years in parallel with Iran's nuclear development so that the time would arrive when Iran could threaten Israel from Teheran with a nuclear bomb and from Lebanon with chemically-tipped missiles.
Indeed, it wasn't the extremist Ahmadinejad who expressed Iranian intentions most clearly but the more "moderate" Iranian leader Rafsanjani who several years ago chillingly said with regard to the nuclear issue that Israel is a tiny country and one nuclear bomb would devastate the country while Iran was a large country that could sustain ten such bombs.
This is what Israel's war against Hezbollah is about. It is to begin to reverse Iran's implementation of its plan for Israel's destruction. Of course, it is not Israel's problem alone because Iran's aspirations threaten the Gulf states, ensure nuclear proliferation throughout the region, and menace the west through terrorism and the spread of Islamic extremism.
The west should be fully supporting Israel, as has the United States, in this struggle for its own interests. At the very least, the world must understand that Israel will defend itself and do everything in its power to destroy Hezbollah and combat the Iranian threat. It has no choice.
Monday, August 14, 2006
Bottle and Baby Used in Plot
Bottle and Baby Used as Bomb
Daily Telegraph
By Fiona Hudson
August 14, 2006
A Husband and wife arrested in the British terror raids
allegedly planned to take their six-month-old baby on a
mid-air suicide mission.
Scotland Yard police are quizzing Abdula Ahmed Ali, 25, and
his 23-year-old wife Cossor over suspicions they were to use
their baby's bottle to hide a liquid bomb.
The theory is one of the reasons security chiefs are now
insisting mothers taste babies' milk at check-in desks
before allowing them to take bottles aboard flights.
The pair are among up to 23 suspects being questioned over a
plot to bring down nine airliners over five US cities,
killing thousands of people in the air and on the ground.
The questioning of the group comes as British Government
sources yesterday revealed many of those suspects posed as
relief workers to travel to al-Qaeda training camps in
Pakistan.
It has also been revealed that security services are
secretly monitoring "dozens" of fresh plots involving
hundreds of suspects which could be unleashed at any time.
One government source said at least 30 priority cases were
under urgent investigation.
"All those 30 are seen as serious, determined attacks that
will happen unless we stop them," the source said.
Police spent yesterday combing through the Alis' east London
housing commission flat for clues.
Cossor took her baby with her to the police station during
last week's raids but her son is now being cared for by
grandparents.
Cossor's grandfather, Nazir Ahmed, 84, said Abdula had
travelled to Pakistan about four weeks ago.
"We didn't understand what the hurry was and why he needed
to go," Mr Ahmed said.
A neighbour at the flats where the married couple lived said
he would be stunned if claims were true.
"I simply cannot believe he could have been involved in a
plot like this. He is religious and seemed to love his
family," the neighbour said.
"I would never have dreamed he could have been involved in
anything like this."
A family friend of Cossor said she had known the arrested
mother 12 years and believed her to be innocent.
"I think it is a case of mistaken identity. The last thing
she'd be interested in is terrorism. They are just simple
day-to-day people going about their own business," she said.
Police in England have reportedly recovered bottles
containing peroxide, including some with false bottoms, from
a recycling centre close to the homes of some of the
arrested suspects.
It has emerged MI5 agents launched covert intrusions on the
homes of some suspects several weeks ago in "sneak and peek"
operations to plant listening devices and gather evidence
ahead of the arrests last week.
Links between suspects in the jet bomb plot and those behind
the London 7/7 attacks have also come to light.
There are reports as many as five of those arrested attended
the same terror training camp in Pakistan as two of the July
7 London suicide bombers.
And US intelligence sources said they believed at least two
of the suspects had trained in Karachi and met al-Qaeda
operatives in the lead up to the 7/7 attacks.
Daily Telegraph
By Fiona Hudson
August 14, 2006
A Husband and wife arrested in the British terror raids
allegedly planned to take their six-month-old baby on a
mid-air suicide mission.
Scotland Yard police are quizzing Abdula Ahmed Ali, 25, and
his 23-year-old wife Cossor over suspicions they were to use
their baby's bottle to hide a liquid bomb.
The theory is one of the reasons security chiefs are now
insisting mothers taste babies' milk at check-in desks
before allowing them to take bottles aboard flights.
The pair are among up to 23 suspects being questioned over a
plot to bring down nine airliners over five US cities,
killing thousands of people in the air and on the ground.
The questioning of the group comes as British Government
sources yesterday revealed many of those suspects posed as
relief workers to travel to al-Qaeda training camps in
Pakistan.
It has also been revealed that security services are
secretly monitoring "dozens" of fresh plots involving
hundreds of suspects which could be unleashed at any time.
One government source said at least 30 priority cases were
under urgent investigation.
"All those 30 are seen as serious, determined attacks that
will happen unless we stop them," the source said.
Police spent yesterday combing through the Alis' east London
housing commission flat for clues.
Cossor took her baby with her to the police station during
last week's raids but her son is now being cared for by
grandparents.
Cossor's grandfather, Nazir Ahmed, 84, said Abdula had
travelled to Pakistan about four weeks ago.
"We didn't understand what the hurry was and why he needed
to go," Mr Ahmed said.
A neighbour at the flats where the married couple lived said
he would be stunned if claims were true.
"I simply cannot believe he could have been involved in a
plot like this. He is religious and seemed to love his
family," the neighbour said.
"I would never have dreamed he could have been involved in
anything like this."
A family friend of Cossor said she had known the arrested
mother 12 years and believed her to be innocent.
"I think it is a case of mistaken identity. The last thing
she'd be interested in is terrorism. They are just simple
day-to-day people going about their own business," she said.
Police in England have reportedly recovered bottles
containing peroxide, including some with false bottoms, from
a recycling centre close to the homes of some of the
arrested suspects.
It has emerged MI5 agents launched covert intrusions on the
homes of some suspects several weeks ago in "sneak and peek"
operations to plant listening devices and gather evidence
ahead of the arrests last week.
Links between suspects in the jet bomb plot and those behind
the London 7/7 attacks have also come to light.
There are reports as many as five of those arrested attended
the same terror training camp in Pakistan as two of the July
7 London suicide bombers.
And US intelligence sources said they believed at least two
of the suspects had trained in Karachi and met al-Qaeda
operatives in the lead up to the 7/7 attacks.
Wednesday, August 09, 2006
Dear Mr. Prime Minister ...
4 August 2006
The Prime Minister
10 Downing Street
London
SW1A 2AA
Dear Mr Blair,
I'm writing to encourage you to continue to do your utmost to see a just
and realistic end to the fighting in Lebanon, and to support you in your
determination to ensure that Hizbullah, an organization with a long history
of terrorist activity against Israeli and Western targets, be not allowed
to emerge from this conflict still intact and capable of regrouping, re-arming,
and, in the end, growing strong enough to accomplish its long-stated goal
of destroying the state of Israel.
Let me say, very briefly, that I take a particular interest in this conflict.
I used to teach Arabic and Islamic Studies at Newcastle University, but
my specialization has always been in Iranian affairs, specifically aspects
of Shi'ite Islam. I am also a regional coordinator for the Israel Peace
Forum, and much involved in presenting an accurate and nuanced picture
of the Middle East conflict as a whole.
I believe that your analysis of a wide arc of terror is entirely accurate,
and that failure to act now against the spreading evil of radical Islam
may expose this country, its allies, and many other nations round the globe
to increasingly severe acts of terror that will shift, given time, to more
conflict of the kind now seen in Lebanon, Iraq, and Afghanistan.
I know that international pressure for a ceasefire in Lebanon is intense,
and I realize that time must be running out for you and those few nations
who have seen the real danger Israel now faces. Please stand firm. To leave
Hizbullah largely intact would be to guarantee greater and bloodier fighting
in the years ahead. The danger, as I am sure you are aware, is not only
to Israel, but for the people of Lebanon, who may find themselves at Hizbullah's
mercy. Not only that, but a perceived victory for Hizbullah would permit
both Syria and Iran to extend their baneful influence further through the
region. If Hizbullah is seen to be capable of fighting with reasonable
success against one of the world's best armies, how may that not be interpreted
elsewhere in the Islamic world? It would certainly be a boost for recruitment
to radical jihadist ideology, to active jihadist groups, and to international
organizations like al-Qaeda.
Here in Britain, support for terrorism among large sections of the Muslim
population is an alarming trend that must surely be cut off before it grows
to unmanageable proportions. I believe you are right to call for the glorification
of terrorism to become an offence, but I also believe you have been taking
advice from sections within the Muslim community that are committed to
an anti-Western, anti-British, and anti-Semitic view of the world. If Hizbullah
should proclaim even a partial victory, I would expect to see more young
Muslims here flock to the banner of jihad, whether to fight abroad or here
in the UK.
In the Middle East, force alone will not solve a deeply embedded problem.
But one thing I am certain of and that is so long as its neighbours do
not recognize Israel and her right to exist, there will never be peace.
With a terrorist organization in control of Gaza and dominant in the West
Bank, with a terrorist army on its borders, and with an apocalyptic Iranian
president determined to wipe her from the map, Israel is faced with the
greatest threat ever suffered by any nation since these islands faced the
armies of the Third Reich.
In the 19th century, a sectarian group of Shi'ite Muslims in Iran, believing
the advent of their Messiah, the Twelfth Imam, to be imminent, purchased
and made arms and prepared for the final jihad. They made ready to fight
in order to bring the Imam to earth. Today, there are reliable reports
that President Ahmadinezhad holds an identical belief, that he anticipates
the return of the Imam in a short space of time, and that he may be preparing
to force his hand by initiating the holy war necessary to his advent.
Given that context and the knowledge that that the destruction of Israel
would win its author acclamations from every quarter of the globe, I fear
for Israel. I have seen documents that suggest al-Qaeda already possesses
nuclear materials. I know, as you do, that Iran is bent on the acquisition
of nuclear weapons. Even a small number of such weapons in the hands of
Hizbullah could wreak untold calamity on the people of Israel and open
up chaos in international affairs. Unlike Mr Ahmadinezhad, I do not wish
to sound apocalyptic. But I do believe that the elimination of Israel is
planned, plotted, and even scheduled with great care and seriousness in
more than one country. And I am convinced that, if Israel disappears, the
consequences for all of us will be fearful.
You are a resolute politician, and I think you see this threat more clearly
than most. If there was ever a time to act, I think this is it. If an international
force does enter Lebanon, can you ensure, in tandem with the United States,
that it will have teeth, that it be empowered to implement UN Resolution
1559, that it be capable of disarming Hizbullah with or without the cooperation
of the Lebanese government, that Israel, which has never been the aggressor
in the wars it has fought, be enabled to contribute to the downfall of
this fascist-like group, and that both Israel and Lebanon finally enjoy
secure borders across which they can work together to mend the breaches
that have opened up between them?
Backed by an ideology of martyrdom through suicide or fighting - an ideology
with deep Shi'ite roots, now disseminated from Tehran - radical jihadist
Muslims have come to seem invincible. Whether in Afghanistan, Iraq, or
Lebanon, they are starting to believe they can triumph over the forces
of democracy, reason, and justice. They are starting to think they can
destroy Israel, win back Spain, and impose shari'a law in Europe.
Just as our parents and grandparents fought the dark ideology of Nazism
in the 1930s and 40s, so I believe this generation has the heaviest of
responsibilities face to face with this growing threat to all civilized
values. Not just the West, but the peoples of the Islamic world too may
see their way of life changed for ever should the totalitarian spectre
impose itself and its deadening hatred of life on all we and they hold
dear.
I don't like to speak in terms of historic moments or symbolic conflicts,
but I'm afraid that, as this struggle intensifies, I am bound to do so.
Civilization itself is at stake. The values of democracy, the rule of law,
human rights, and the open society are as much or more at risk today than
in the decades when we confronted, first German fascism and then Russian
communism. It may or it may not be your destiny jointly to lead the free
world in this clash of civilizations. But I ask you to hold firm now and
in the future, not just here in Britain, but in the Middle East, where
a sort of Armageddon is being fought on the television screens of the world.
Excuse my prolixity and my overwrought language. I intended something simpler.
I wanted to say in a few words what I have now written in four pages. By
all means ignore most of this, if, indeed, it ever crosses your desk. But
promise me one thing: that if it is your destiny to stand up for Israel
in the time of its greatest peril, you will not prove fainthearted.
Yours sincerely,
Dr. Denis MacEoin
========
Denis MacEoin first graduated with an M.A. in English from Trinity College,
Dublin, followed by a second degree in Persian, Arabic, and Islamic Studies
from Edinburgh and a PhD in Persian/Islamic Studies from Cambridge (King�s
College). From 1979-80, he taught at Mohammed V University in Fez, Morocco,
before taking up a post as lecturer in Arabic and Islamic Studies at Newcastle.
In 1986, he was made Honorary Fellow in the Centre for Islamic and Middle
East Studies at Durham University. He has published extensively on Islamic
topics, contributing to the Encyclopaedia of Islam, the Oxford Encyclopaedia
of Islam in the Modern World, the Encyclopaedia Iranica, the Penguin Handbook
of Religions, journals, festschrifts, and books, and has himself written
a number of books. In September 2005, he was appointed to the post of Royal
Literary Fund Fellow at Newcastle University.
The Prime Minister
10 Downing Street
London
SW1A 2AA
Dear Mr Blair,
I'm writing to encourage you to continue to do your utmost to see a just
and realistic end to the fighting in Lebanon, and to support you in your
determination to ensure that Hizbullah, an organization with a long history
of terrorist activity against Israeli and Western targets, be not allowed
to emerge from this conflict still intact and capable of regrouping, re-arming,
and, in the end, growing strong enough to accomplish its long-stated goal
of destroying the state of Israel.
Let me say, very briefly, that I take a particular interest in this conflict.
I used to teach Arabic and Islamic Studies at Newcastle University, but
my specialization has always been in Iranian affairs, specifically aspects
of Shi'ite Islam. I am also a regional coordinator for the Israel Peace
Forum, and much involved in presenting an accurate and nuanced picture
of the Middle East conflict as a whole.
I believe that your analysis of a wide arc of terror is entirely accurate,
and that failure to act now against the spreading evil of radical Islam
may expose this country, its allies, and many other nations round the globe
to increasingly severe acts of terror that will shift, given time, to more
conflict of the kind now seen in Lebanon, Iraq, and Afghanistan.
I know that international pressure for a ceasefire in Lebanon is intense,
and I realize that time must be running out for you and those few nations
who have seen the real danger Israel now faces. Please stand firm. To leave
Hizbullah largely intact would be to guarantee greater and bloodier fighting
in the years ahead. The danger, as I am sure you are aware, is not only
to Israel, but for the people of Lebanon, who may find themselves at Hizbullah's
mercy. Not only that, but a perceived victory for Hizbullah would permit
both Syria and Iran to extend their baneful influence further through the
region. If Hizbullah is seen to be capable of fighting with reasonable
success against one of the world's best armies, how may that not be interpreted
elsewhere in the Islamic world? It would certainly be a boost for recruitment
to radical jihadist ideology, to active jihadist groups, and to international
organizations like al-Qaeda.
Here in Britain, support for terrorism among large sections of the Muslim
population is an alarming trend that must surely be cut off before it grows
to unmanageable proportions. I believe you are right to call for the glorification
of terrorism to become an offence, but I also believe you have been taking
advice from sections within the Muslim community that are committed to
an anti-Western, anti-British, and anti-Semitic view of the world. If Hizbullah
should proclaim even a partial victory, I would expect to see more young
Muslims here flock to the banner of jihad, whether to fight abroad or here
in the UK.
In the Middle East, force alone will not solve a deeply embedded problem.
But one thing I am certain of and that is so long as its neighbours do
not recognize Israel and her right to exist, there will never be peace.
With a terrorist organization in control of Gaza and dominant in the West
Bank, with a terrorist army on its borders, and with an apocalyptic Iranian
president determined to wipe her from the map, Israel is faced with the
greatest threat ever suffered by any nation since these islands faced the
armies of the Third Reich.
In the 19th century, a sectarian group of Shi'ite Muslims in Iran, believing
the advent of their Messiah, the Twelfth Imam, to be imminent, purchased
and made arms and prepared for the final jihad. They made ready to fight
in order to bring the Imam to earth. Today, there are reliable reports
that President Ahmadinezhad holds an identical belief, that he anticipates
the return of the Imam in a short space of time, and that he may be preparing
to force his hand by initiating the holy war necessary to his advent.
Given that context and the knowledge that that the destruction of Israel
would win its author acclamations from every quarter of the globe, I fear
for Israel. I have seen documents that suggest al-Qaeda already possesses
nuclear materials. I know, as you do, that Iran is bent on the acquisition
of nuclear weapons. Even a small number of such weapons in the hands of
Hizbullah could wreak untold calamity on the people of Israel and open
up chaos in international affairs. Unlike Mr Ahmadinezhad, I do not wish
to sound apocalyptic. But I do believe that the elimination of Israel is
planned, plotted, and even scheduled with great care and seriousness in
more than one country. And I am convinced that, if Israel disappears, the
consequences for all of us will be fearful.
You are a resolute politician, and I think you see this threat more clearly
than most. If there was ever a time to act, I think this is it. If an international
force does enter Lebanon, can you ensure, in tandem with the United States,
that it will have teeth, that it be empowered to implement UN Resolution
1559, that it be capable of disarming Hizbullah with or without the cooperation
of the Lebanese government, that Israel, which has never been the aggressor
in the wars it has fought, be enabled to contribute to the downfall of
this fascist-like group, and that both Israel and Lebanon finally enjoy
secure borders across which they can work together to mend the breaches
that have opened up between them?
Backed by an ideology of martyrdom through suicide or fighting - an ideology
with deep Shi'ite roots, now disseminated from Tehran - radical jihadist
Muslims have come to seem invincible. Whether in Afghanistan, Iraq, or
Lebanon, they are starting to believe they can triumph over the forces
of democracy, reason, and justice. They are starting to think they can
destroy Israel, win back Spain, and impose shari'a law in Europe.
Just as our parents and grandparents fought the dark ideology of Nazism
in the 1930s and 40s, so I believe this generation has the heaviest of
responsibilities face to face with this growing threat to all civilized
values. Not just the West, but the peoples of the Islamic world too may
see their way of life changed for ever should the totalitarian spectre
impose itself and its deadening hatred of life on all we and they hold
dear.
I don't like to speak in terms of historic moments or symbolic conflicts,
but I'm afraid that, as this struggle intensifies, I am bound to do so.
Civilization itself is at stake. The values of democracy, the rule of law,
human rights, and the open society are as much or more at risk today than
in the decades when we confronted, first German fascism and then Russian
communism. It may or it may not be your destiny jointly to lead the free
world in this clash of civilizations. But I ask you to hold firm now and
in the future, not just here in Britain, but in the Middle East, where
a sort of Armageddon is being fought on the television screens of the world.
Excuse my prolixity and my overwrought language. I intended something simpler.
I wanted to say in a few words what I have now written in four pages. By
all means ignore most of this, if, indeed, it ever crosses your desk. But
promise me one thing: that if it is your destiny to stand up for Israel
in the time of its greatest peril, you will not prove fainthearted.
Yours sincerely,
Dr. Denis MacEoin
========
Denis MacEoin first graduated with an M.A. in English from Trinity College,
Dublin, followed by a second degree in Persian, Arabic, and Islamic Studies
from Edinburgh and a PhD in Persian/Islamic Studies from Cambridge (King�s
College). From 1979-80, he taught at Mohammed V University in Fez, Morocco,
before taking up a post as lecturer in Arabic and Islamic Studies at Newcastle.
In 1986, he was made Honorary Fellow in the Centre for Islamic and Middle
East Studies at Durham University. He has published extensively on Islamic
topics, contributing to the Encyclopaedia of Islam, the Oxford Encyclopaedia
of Islam in the Modern World, the Encyclopaedia Iranica, the Penguin Handbook
of Religions, journals, festschrifts, and books, and has himself written
a number of books. In September 2005, he was appointed to the post of Royal
Literary Fund Fellow at Newcastle University.
Tuesday, August 08, 2006
Those Poor, Innocent Lebanese ...
Those Poor, Innocent Lebanese
By Irwin N. Graulich
MichNews.com
Aug 4, 2006
Let me get this straight. You allow one of the largest terrorist organizations in the world to set up shop throughout your country. You permit them to completely take over the entire southern third of Lebanon and you claim to have seen nothing.
You allow the terrorists to build sophisticated, fortified bunkers and you did not see any heavy equipment building them. You allow the Hezbollah terrorists to move into many of your towns and villages, including the complete takeover of one of the largest neighborhoods in Beirut, where they proceed to build numerous, complex command and control centers...and then you claim ignorance.
You allow Hezbollah to store weapons, bombs and rockets in your basements.
You turn a blind eye when they carry arms into your restaurants, stores and buildings, yet you call yourself an "innocent civilian."
You watch the Hezbollah parades with hundreds of thousands of participants including children screaming, "Jihad. Death to Israel, Jews and Americans," burning American and Israeli flags, while goose-stepping soldiers with Nazi-like salutes receive your cheers--and all of you "innocent civilians" did not see a thing even though you were captured on videotape. All this, while Koffi Annan and much of the UN insist that "we should not believe our lying eyes about the innocent civilians."
There are giant posters of the rubenesque terrorist leader, Hasan Nasrallah, all over Lebanon with headlines declaring the imminent destruction of Israel. Yet you choose to elect this terrorist party to your government--and all of the so called "innocent Lebanese" do not know anything about anything.
Twenty thousand rockets and launchers are shipped into your country along with other military equipment by plane, truck and ship, and the government industrial complex knew absolutely nothing; and neither did all those "poor, innocent civilians" who are now crying.
So you allow the "Devil" into your homes and into your lives; you take the Devil's money, food and medicine; you sleep with the Devil...and get a serious evil disease. And then you blame the Jews, of course! Well, there is no sympathy for the devil...or his helpers!
The Lebanese "knowingly allowed (aka aided and abbetted)" murderous terrorists to proliferate in their sovereign nation. Like spoiled teenagers, they now refuse to take any responsibility. Of course there are some truly innocent civilians, but there were hundreds of thousands of beautiful German babies and mothers in Dresden and Berlin who were blown to bits. If an attack emanates from your country, the entire country is responsible. That is how life works and it is sometimes unfair.
I hate when people lie to my face and expect me to believe their vile fabrications. Does the Muslim world really think that the vast majority of Americans are that foolish? Only the quislings at CNN like Larry King, Nic Robertson, Wolf Blitzer, et al will fall for this Joseph Goebbals-style propaganda.
The confused, immoral left and their paper of record, The New York Times only see "innocent civilians throughout Lebanon." Europe, that moral bastion which gave birth to Nazism, will look at photos of men, women and children in despair, without putting the image into its proper context.
Yet countries like Sweden, Switzerland and Ireland, who could not decide whether to support Hitler or Churchill during WWII, can drum up the moral authority to criticize Israel today. And leave it to Vichy, France 2006 headed by Jaques "Petain" Chirac to condemn Israel's response.
Seeing television snippets of wounded or dead Lebanese with people sitting on the ground crying and calling them all "innocent civilians" is the same as looking at a photograph of the armpit of Christie Brinkley and saying, "Here is the photo of a supermodel. Isn't she beautiful?" The armpit picture is only a part of the story. When human beings see babies or mothers hurting, no matter what, we feel the pain. If we saw baby pictures of Charles Manson, we would want to cuddle him.
We cannot look at photos of so-called "innocent civilians" in a vacuum. It is important for all "moral, decent" human beings to realize that the compassion emotion is similar to the sex emotion. Often times, it interferes with truth, logic and morality.
Listen up all you "Innocent Lebanese along with your innocent, Hezbollah supporting government." Do you want to know why your towns, villages and cities are smoldering? Do you want to know why 800,000 people are homeless and 600 are dead? Do you want to know why your infrastructure is devastated?
The answer is..."That the Jews are simply not going to pack up their little valises and walk into gas chambers again. The Jews will not be taken from their homes and marched into the Mediterranean Sea by Nazis or Hezbollah-Hamas-Syrian-Iranian, Nazi-like sympathizers. The Jews in Israel or anywhere else are just not going to allow themselves to be shipped away like you dream about every day. Attention all radical Muslims throughout the entire world and Jacques Chirac. The Jews will not be walking into death camps or graves ever again, and if you dare try it, Qana, South Beirut, Tyre, Nabatiyeh, Bint Jbeil, Kounine, Beit Yahoun, Rashaya, Baalbek, Majdel Zoun, Ayt-a-Shab, etc. will all look a whole lot worse than Dresden and Berlin. And Tehran may become hotter than Hiroshima.
Attention Lebanon--your country is smoldering because Jews are sick and tired of being murdered. You keep pushing those pathetic, weak, Torah studying Jews by using terrorism and kidnapping soldiers, and all, yes all of Lebanon will be smoldering.
Listen very carefully enemies of Israel, because you are making a giant mistake. I urge any person that will be having dinner with Sayed Hassan Nesrallah, the big fat brave man hiding in his little rat hole while his fighters are being picked off like little olives on a tree, to make sure his life insurance is fully paid.
Mr. hero Nesrallah is just a pimp for Iran, sending out his Hezbollah terrorist hookers to "screw the Jews." The amazing thing is that Iran is not an Arab country. They should not be involved in the Arab-Israeli conflict. They do not border Israel, so there is no Iranian territorial dispute where they claim, like everyone else, that Israel occupies their land. Yet, Ahmadinejad's (pronounced--"a mad dog on Jihad") hatred for Jews and Israel rivals that of Adolf Hitler.
It is no wonder that the Iranian president feels this way since Israel is supreme in virtually every area--technically, militarily, scientifically, culturally, morally and religiously. Each attempt by macho Muslim/Arab countries to destroy Israel has been met with a totally devastating, humiliating defeat. Like Saddam, the skinny, little Ahmadinejad (pronounced "a mad dog on Jihad") aspires to be the big hero of the Muslim world.
What Ahmadinejad (pronounced "a mad dog on Jihad") does not comprehend, is that Israel will not use a tongue depressor when they capture him and his associates. The truth be told that should Iran dare make one wrong move directly on Israel, then Israel will simply "Beat the Shiite out of them!"
---------------------------------------------
Irwin N. Graulich is a well known motivational speaker on morality, ethics, religion and politics. He is also President and CEO of a leading marketing, branding and communications company in New York City. He can be reached at Irwin.graulich@verizon.net
By Irwin N. Graulich
MichNews.com
Aug 4, 2006
Let me get this straight. You allow one of the largest terrorist organizations in the world to set up shop throughout your country. You permit them to completely take over the entire southern third of Lebanon and you claim to have seen nothing.
You allow the terrorists to build sophisticated, fortified bunkers and you did not see any heavy equipment building them. You allow the Hezbollah terrorists to move into many of your towns and villages, including the complete takeover of one of the largest neighborhoods in Beirut, where they proceed to build numerous, complex command and control centers...and then you claim ignorance.
You allow Hezbollah to store weapons, bombs and rockets in your basements.
You turn a blind eye when they carry arms into your restaurants, stores and buildings, yet you call yourself an "innocent civilian."
You watch the Hezbollah parades with hundreds of thousands of participants including children screaming, "Jihad. Death to Israel, Jews and Americans," burning American and Israeli flags, while goose-stepping soldiers with Nazi-like salutes receive your cheers--and all of you "innocent civilians" did not see a thing even though you were captured on videotape. All this, while Koffi Annan and much of the UN insist that "we should not believe our lying eyes about the innocent civilians."
There are giant posters of the rubenesque terrorist leader, Hasan Nasrallah, all over Lebanon with headlines declaring the imminent destruction of Israel. Yet you choose to elect this terrorist party to your government--and all of the so called "innocent Lebanese" do not know anything about anything.
Twenty thousand rockets and launchers are shipped into your country along with other military equipment by plane, truck and ship, and the government industrial complex knew absolutely nothing; and neither did all those "poor, innocent civilians" who are now crying.
So you allow the "Devil" into your homes and into your lives; you take the Devil's money, food and medicine; you sleep with the Devil...and get a serious evil disease. And then you blame the Jews, of course! Well, there is no sympathy for the devil...or his helpers!
The Lebanese "knowingly allowed (aka aided and abbetted)" murderous terrorists to proliferate in their sovereign nation. Like spoiled teenagers, they now refuse to take any responsibility. Of course there are some truly innocent civilians, but there were hundreds of thousands of beautiful German babies and mothers in Dresden and Berlin who were blown to bits. If an attack emanates from your country, the entire country is responsible. That is how life works and it is sometimes unfair.
I hate when people lie to my face and expect me to believe their vile fabrications. Does the Muslim world really think that the vast majority of Americans are that foolish? Only the quislings at CNN like Larry King, Nic Robertson, Wolf Blitzer, et al will fall for this Joseph Goebbals-style propaganda.
The confused, immoral left and their paper of record, The New York Times only see "innocent civilians throughout Lebanon." Europe, that moral bastion which gave birth to Nazism, will look at photos of men, women and children in despair, without putting the image into its proper context.
Yet countries like Sweden, Switzerland and Ireland, who could not decide whether to support Hitler or Churchill during WWII, can drum up the moral authority to criticize Israel today. And leave it to Vichy, France 2006 headed by Jaques "Petain" Chirac to condemn Israel's response.
Seeing television snippets of wounded or dead Lebanese with people sitting on the ground crying and calling them all "innocent civilians" is the same as looking at a photograph of the armpit of Christie Brinkley and saying, "Here is the photo of a supermodel. Isn't she beautiful?" The armpit picture is only a part of the story. When human beings see babies or mothers hurting, no matter what, we feel the pain. If we saw baby pictures of Charles Manson, we would want to cuddle him.
We cannot look at photos of so-called "innocent civilians" in a vacuum. It is important for all "moral, decent" human beings to realize that the compassion emotion is similar to the sex emotion. Often times, it interferes with truth, logic and morality.
Listen up all you "Innocent Lebanese along with your innocent, Hezbollah supporting government." Do you want to know why your towns, villages and cities are smoldering? Do you want to know why 800,000 people are homeless and 600 are dead? Do you want to know why your infrastructure is devastated?
The answer is..."That the Jews are simply not going to pack up their little valises and walk into gas chambers again. The Jews will not be taken from their homes and marched into the Mediterranean Sea by Nazis or Hezbollah-Hamas-Syrian-Iranian, Nazi-like sympathizers. The Jews in Israel or anywhere else are just not going to allow themselves to be shipped away like you dream about every day. Attention all radical Muslims throughout the entire world and Jacques Chirac. The Jews will not be walking into death camps or graves ever again, and if you dare try it, Qana, South Beirut, Tyre, Nabatiyeh, Bint Jbeil, Kounine, Beit Yahoun, Rashaya, Baalbek, Majdel Zoun, Ayt-a-Shab, etc. will all look a whole lot worse than Dresden and Berlin. And Tehran may become hotter than Hiroshima.
Attention Lebanon--your country is smoldering because Jews are sick and tired of being murdered. You keep pushing those pathetic, weak, Torah studying Jews by using terrorism and kidnapping soldiers, and all, yes all of Lebanon will be smoldering.
Listen very carefully enemies of Israel, because you are making a giant mistake. I urge any person that will be having dinner with Sayed Hassan Nesrallah, the big fat brave man hiding in his little rat hole while his fighters are being picked off like little olives on a tree, to make sure his life insurance is fully paid.
Mr. hero Nesrallah is just a pimp for Iran, sending out his Hezbollah terrorist hookers to "screw the Jews." The amazing thing is that Iran is not an Arab country. They should not be involved in the Arab-Israeli conflict. They do not border Israel, so there is no Iranian territorial dispute where they claim, like everyone else, that Israel occupies their land. Yet, Ahmadinejad's (pronounced--"a mad dog on Jihad") hatred for Jews and Israel rivals that of Adolf Hitler.
It is no wonder that the Iranian president feels this way since Israel is supreme in virtually every area--technically, militarily, scientifically, culturally, morally and religiously. Each attempt by macho Muslim/Arab countries to destroy Israel has been met with a totally devastating, humiliating defeat. Like Saddam, the skinny, little Ahmadinejad (pronounced "a mad dog on Jihad") aspires to be the big hero of the Muslim world.
What Ahmadinejad (pronounced "a mad dog on Jihad") does not comprehend, is that Israel will not use a tongue depressor when they capture him and his associates. The truth be told that should Iran dare make one wrong move directly on Israel, then Israel will simply "Beat the Shiite out of them!"
---------------------------------------------
Irwin N. Graulich is a well known motivational speaker on morality, ethics, religion and politics. He is also President and CEO of a leading marketing, branding and communications company in New York City. He can be reached at Irwin.graulich@verizon.net
Friday, August 04, 2006
Europe Thy Name is Cowardice
Mathias Dapfner,Chief Executive of the huge German publisher Axel Springer AG, has written a blistering attack in DIE WELT, Germany's largest daily paper, against
the timid reaction of Europe in the face of the Islamic threat. This is a
must-read by all Americans. History will certify its correctness. EUROPE
- THY NAME IS COWARDICE
(Commentary by Mathias Dapfner CEO, Axel Springer, AG)
A few days ago Henry Broder wrote in Welt am Sonntag, "Europe - your
family name is appeasement." It's a phrase you can't get out of your
head because it's so terribly true.
Appeasement cost millions of Jews and non-Jews their lives, as England and
France, allies at the time, negotiated and hesitated too long before they
noticed that Hitler had to be fought, not bound to toothless agreements.
Appeasement legitimized and stabilized Communism in the Soviet Union, then
East Germany, then all the rest of Eastern Europe, where for decades,
inhuman suppressive, murderous governments were glorified as the
ideologically correct alternative to all other possibilities.
Appeasement crippled Europe when genocide ran rampant in Kosovo, and even
though we had absolute proof of ongoing mass-murder, we Europeans debated
and debated and debated, and were still debating when finally the
Americans had to come from halfway around the world, into Europe yet
again, and do our work for us.
Rather than protecting democracy in the Middle East, European Appeasement,
camouflaged behind the fuzzy word "equidistance," now countenances suicide
bombings in Israel by fundamentalist Palestinians.
Appeasement generates a mentality that allows Europe to ignore nearly
500,000 victims of Saddam's torture and murder machinery and, motivated by
the self-righteousness of the peace movement, has the gall to issue bad
grades to George Bush ... Even as it is uncovered that the loudest critics
of the American action in Iraq made illicit billions, no, TENS of
billions, in the corrupt U.N. Oil-for-Food program.
And now we are faced with a particularly grotesque form of appeasement.
How is Germany reacting to the escalating violence by Islamic
Fundamentalists in Holland and elsewhere? By suggesting that we really
should have a "Muslim Holiday" in Germany?
I wish I were joking, but I am not. A substantial fraction of our
(German) Government, and if the polls are to be believed, the German
people, actually believe that creating an Official State "Muslim Holiday"
will somehow spare us from the wrath of the fanatical Islamists.
One cannot help but recall Britain's Neville Chamberlain waving the
laughable treaty signed by Adolph Hitler and declaring European "Peace in
our time".
What else has to happen before the European public and its political
leadership get it? There is a sort of crusade underway, an especially
perfidious crusade consisting of systematic attacks by fanatic Muslims,
focused on civilians, directed against our free, open Western societies,
and intent upon Western Civilization's utter destruction.
It is a conflict that will most likely last longer than any of the great
military conflicts of the last century - a conflict conducted by an enemy
that cannot be tamed by "tolerance" and "accommodation" but is actually
spurred on by such gestures, which have proven to be, and will always be
taken by the Islamists for signs of weakness. Only two recent American
Presidents had the courage needed for Anti-appeasement: Reagan and Bush.
His American critics may quibble over the details, but we Europeans know
the truth. We saw it first hand: Ronald Reagan ended the Cold War,
freeing half of the German people from nearly 50 years of terror and
virtual slavery. And Bush, supported only by the Social Democrat Blair,
acting on moral conviction, recognized the danger in the Islamic War
against Democracy. His place in history will have to be evaluated after
a number of years have passed.
In the meantime, Europe sits back with charismatic self-confidence in the
multicultural corner, instead of defending liberal society's values and
being an attractive center of power on the same playing field as the true
great powers, America and China.
On the contrary - we Europeans present ourselves, in contrast to those
"arrogant Americans", as the World Champions of "tolerance", which even
(Germany's Interior Minister) Otto Schily justifiably criticizes.
Why? Because we're so moral? I fear it's more because we're so
materialistic, so devoid of a moral compass.
For his policies, Bush risks the fall of the dollar, huge amounts of
additional national debt, and a massive and persistent burden on the
American economy - because unlike almost all of Europe< /FONT>, Bush
realizes what is at stake - literally everything.
While we criticize the "capitalistic robber barons" of America because
they seem too sure of their priorities, we timidly defend our Social
Welfare systems. Stay out of it! It could get expensive! We'd rather
discuss reducing our 35-hour workweek or our dental coverage, or our 4
weeks of paid vacation ... Or listen to TV pastors preach about the need
to "reach out to terrorists. To understand and forgive".
These days, Europe reminds me of an old woman who, with shaking hands,
frantically hides her last pieces of jewelry when she notices a robber
breaking into a neighbor's house.
Appeasement?
Europe, thy name is Cowardice.
the timid reaction of Europe in the face of the Islamic threat. This is a
must-read by all Americans. History will certify its correctness. EUROPE
- THY NAME IS COWARDICE
(Commentary by Mathias Dapfner CEO, Axel Springer, AG)
A few days ago Henry Broder wrote in Welt am Sonntag, "Europe - your
family name is appeasement." It's a phrase you can't get out of your
head because it's so terribly true.
Appeasement cost millions of Jews and non-Jews their lives, as England and
France, allies at the time, negotiated and hesitated too long before they
noticed that Hitler had to be fought, not bound to toothless agreements.
Appeasement legitimized and stabilized Communism in the Soviet Union, then
East Germany, then all the rest of Eastern Europe, where for decades,
inhuman suppressive, murderous governments were glorified as the
ideologically correct alternative to all other possibilities.
Appeasement crippled Europe when genocide ran rampant in Kosovo, and even
though we had absolute proof of ongoing mass-murder, we Europeans debated
and debated and debated, and were still debating when finally the
Americans had to come from halfway around the world, into Europe yet
again, and do our work for us.
Rather than protecting democracy in the Middle East, European Appeasement,
camouflaged behind the fuzzy word "equidistance," now countenances suicide
bombings in Israel by fundamentalist Palestinians.
Appeasement generates a mentality that allows Europe to ignore nearly
500,000 victims of Saddam's torture and murder machinery and, motivated by
the self-righteousness of the peace movement, has the gall to issue bad
grades to George Bush ... Even as it is uncovered that the loudest critics
of the American action in Iraq made illicit billions, no, TENS of
billions, in the corrupt U.N. Oil-for-Food program.
And now we are faced with a particularly grotesque form of appeasement.
How is Germany reacting to the escalating violence by Islamic
Fundamentalists in Holland and elsewhere? By suggesting that we really
should have a "Muslim Holiday" in Germany?
I wish I were joking, but I am not. A substantial fraction of our
(German) Government, and if the polls are to be believed, the German
people, actually believe that creating an Official State "Muslim Holiday"
will somehow spare us from the wrath of the fanatical Islamists.
One cannot help but recall Britain's Neville Chamberlain waving the
laughable treaty signed by Adolph Hitler and declaring European "Peace in
our time".
What else has to happen before the European public and its political
leadership get it? There is a sort of crusade underway, an especially
perfidious crusade consisting of systematic attacks by fanatic Muslims,
focused on civilians, directed against our free, open Western societies,
and intent upon Western Civilization's utter destruction.
It is a conflict that will most likely last longer than any of the great
military conflicts of the last century - a conflict conducted by an enemy
that cannot be tamed by "tolerance" and "accommodation" but is actually
spurred on by such gestures, which have proven to be, and will always be
taken by the Islamists for signs of weakness. Only two recent American
Presidents had the courage needed for Anti-appeasement: Reagan and Bush.
His American critics may quibble over the details, but we Europeans know
the truth. We saw it first hand: Ronald Reagan ended the Cold War,
freeing half of the German people from nearly 50 years of terror and
virtual slavery. And Bush, supported only by the Social Democrat Blair,
acting on moral conviction, recognized the danger in the Islamic War
against Democracy. His place in history will have to be evaluated after
a number of years have passed.
In the meantime, Europe sits back with charismatic self-confidence in the
multicultural corner, instead of defending liberal society's values and
being an attractive center of power on the same playing field as the true
great powers, America and China.
On the contrary - we Europeans present ourselves, in contrast to those
"arrogant Americans", as the World Champions of "tolerance", which even
(Germany's Interior Minister) Otto Schily justifiably criticizes.
Why? Because we're so moral? I fear it's more because we're so
materialistic, so devoid of a moral compass.
For his policies, Bush risks the fall of the dollar, huge amounts of
additional national debt, and a massive and persistent burden on the
American economy - because unlike almost all of Europe< /FONT>, Bush
realizes what is at stake - literally everything.
While we criticize the "capitalistic robber barons" of America because
they seem too sure of their priorities, we timidly defend our Social
Welfare systems. Stay out of it! It could get expensive! We'd rather
discuss reducing our 35-hour workweek or our dental coverage, or our 4
weeks of paid vacation ... Or listen to TV pastors preach about the need
to "reach out to terrorists. To understand and forgive".
These days, Europe reminds me of an old woman who, with shaking hands,
frantically hides her last pieces of jewelry when she notices a robber
breaking into a neighbor's house.
Appeasement?
Europe, thy name is Cowardice.
Thursday, August 03, 2006
What the French Think of Israel ...
Give this a quick look over, to see what the "... shitty little
country" has given the entire world.
The Middle East has been growing date palms for centuries. The
average tree is about 18-20 feet tall and yields about 38 pounds of
dates a year.
Israeli date trees are now yielding 400 pounds/year and are short
enough to be harvested from the ground or a short ladder.
Israel the 100th smallest country, with less than 1/1000th of the
world's population, can lay claim to the following :
The cell phone was developed in Israel by Israelis working in the
Israeli branch of Motorola, which has its largest development
center in Israel .
Most of the Windows NT and XP operating systems were developed by
Microsoft-Israel.
The Pentium MMX Chip technology was designed in Israel at Intel .
Both the Pentium-4 microprocessor and the Centrino processor were
entirely designed, developed and produced in Israel.
The Pentium microprocessor in your computer was most likely made in
Israel.
Voice mail technology was developed in Israel.
Both Microsoft and Cisco built their only R&D facilities outside
the US in Israel.
The technology for the AOL Instant Messenger ICQ was developed in
1996 by four young Israelis.
Israel has the fourth largest air force in the world (after the
U.S, Russia and China). In addition to a large variety of other
aircraft, Israel's air force has an aerial arsenal of over 250
F-16's. This is the largest fleet of F-16 aircraft outside of the
U. S.
Israel's $100 billion economy is larger than all of its immediate
neighbors combined.
Israel has the highest percentage in the world of home computers
per capita.
According to industry officials, Israel designed the airline
industry's most impenetrable flight security. US officials now
look (finally) to Israel for advice on how to handle airborne
security threats.
Israel has the highest ratio of university degrees to the
population in the world.
Israel produces more scientific papers per capita than any other
nation by a large margin - 109 per 10,000 people --as well as one
of the highest per capita rates of patents filed.
In proportion to its population, Israel has the largest number of
startup companies in the world. In absolute terms, Israel has the
largest number of startup companies than any other country in the
world, except the U.S. (3,500 companies mostly in hi-tech).
With more than 3,000 high-tech companies and startups, Israel has
the highest concentration of hi-tech companies in the world --
apart from the Silicon Valley, U.S.
Israel is ranked #2 in the world for venture capital funds right
behind the U.S.
Outside the United States and Canada, Israel has the largest number
of NASDAQ listed companies.
Israel has the highest average living standards in the Middle East.
The per capita income in 2000 was over $17,500, exceeding that of
the UK.
On a per capita basis, Israel has the largest number of biotech
startups.
Twenty-four per cent of Israel's workforce holds university
degrees, ranking third in the industrialized world, after the
United States and Holland and 12 per cent hold advanced degrees.
Israel is the only liberal democracy in the Middle East.
In 1984 and 1991, Israel airlifted a total of 22,000 Ethiopian Jews
(Operation Solomon) at Risk in Ethiopia, to safety in Israel.
When Golda Meir was elected Prime Minister of Israel in 1969, she
became the world's second elected female leader in modern times.
When the U. S. Embassy in Nairobi, Kenya was bombed in 1998,
Israeli rescue teams were on the scene within a day -- and saved
three victims from the rubble.
Israel has the third highest rate of entrepreneurship -- and the
highest rate among women and among people over 55 - in the world.
Relative to its population, Israel is the largest
immigrant-absorbing nation on earth. Immigrants come in search of
democracy, religious freedom, and economic opportunity. (Hundreds
of thousands from the former Soviet Union)
Israel was the first nation in the world to adopt the Kimberly
process, an international standard that certifies diamonds as
"conflict free."
Israel has the world's second highest per capita of new books.
Israel is the only country in the world that entered the 21st
century with a net gain in its number of trees, made more
remarkable because this was achieved in an area considered mainly
desert.
Israel has more museums per capita than any other country.
Medicine... Israeli scientists developed the first fully
computerized, no-radiation, diagnostic instrumentation for breast
cancer.
An Israeli company developed a computerized system for ensuring
proper administration of medications, thus removing human error
from medical treatment. Every year in U. S. hospitals 7,000
patients die from treatment mistakes.
Israel's Given Imaging developed the first ingestible video camera,
so small it fits inside a pill. Used to view the small intestine
from the inside, cancer and digestive disorders .
Researchers in Israel developed a new device that directly helps
the heart pump blood, an innovation with the potential to save
lives among those with heart failure. The new device is
synchronized with the camera helps doctors diagnose heart�s
mechanical operations through a sophisticated system of sensors.
Israel leads the world in the number of scientists and technicians
in the workforce, with 145 per 10,000, as opposed to 85 in the U.
S., over 70 in Japan, and less than 60 in Germany. With over 25% of
its work force employed in technical professions. Israel places
first in this category as well.
A new acne treatment developed in Israel, the Clear Light device,
produces a high-intensity, ultraviolet-light-free, narrow-band blue
light that causes acne bacteria to self-destruct -- all without
damaging surrounding skin or tissue.
An Israeli company was the first to develop and install a
large-scale solar-powered and fully functional electricity
generating plant, in southern California's Mojave desert.
All the above while engaged in regular wars with an implacable
enemy that seeks its destruction, and an economy continuously under
strain by having to spend more per capita on its own protection
than any other county on earth.
. .. . . AND THE FRENCH AMBASSADOR IN ENGLAND
SAYS :
"ISRAEL IS NOTHING BUT A SHITTY LITTLE COUNTRY"
country" has given the entire world.
The Middle East has been growing date palms for centuries. The
average tree is about 18-20 feet tall and yields about 38 pounds of
dates a year.
Israeli date trees are now yielding 400 pounds/year and are short
enough to be harvested from the ground or a short ladder.
Israel the 100th smallest country, with less than 1/1000th of the
world's population, can lay claim to the following :
The cell phone was developed in Israel by Israelis working in the
Israeli branch of Motorola, which has its largest development
center in Israel .
Most of the Windows NT and XP operating systems were developed by
Microsoft-Israel.
The Pentium MMX Chip technology was designed in Israel at Intel .
Both the Pentium-4 microprocessor and the Centrino processor were
entirely designed, developed and produced in Israel.
The Pentium microprocessor in your computer was most likely made in
Israel.
Voice mail technology was developed in Israel.
Both Microsoft and Cisco built their only R&D facilities outside
the US in Israel.
The technology for the AOL Instant Messenger ICQ was developed in
1996 by four young Israelis.
Israel has the fourth largest air force in the world (after the
U.S, Russia and China). In addition to a large variety of other
aircraft, Israel's air force has an aerial arsenal of over 250
F-16's. This is the largest fleet of F-16 aircraft outside of the
U. S.
Israel's $100 billion economy is larger than all of its immediate
neighbors combined.
Israel has the highest percentage in the world of home computers
per capita.
According to industry officials, Israel designed the airline
industry's most impenetrable flight security. US officials now
look (finally) to Israel for advice on how to handle airborne
security threats.
Israel has the highest ratio of university degrees to the
population in the world.
Israel produces more scientific papers per capita than any other
nation by a large margin - 109 per 10,000 people --as well as one
of the highest per capita rates of patents filed.
In proportion to its population, Israel has the largest number of
startup companies in the world. In absolute terms, Israel has the
largest number of startup companies than any other country in the
world, except the U.S. (3,500 companies mostly in hi-tech).
With more than 3,000 high-tech companies and startups, Israel has
the highest concentration of hi-tech companies in the world --
apart from the Silicon Valley, U.S.
Israel is ranked #2 in the world for venture capital funds right
behind the U.S.
Outside the United States and Canada, Israel has the largest number
of NASDAQ listed companies.
Israel has the highest average living standards in the Middle East.
The per capita income in 2000 was over $17,500, exceeding that of
the UK.
On a per capita basis, Israel has the largest number of biotech
startups.
Twenty-four per cent of Israel's workforce holds university
degrees, ranking third in the industrialized world, after the
United States and Holland and 12 per cent hold advanced degrees.
Israel is the only liberal democracy in the Middle East.
In 1984 and 1991, Israel airlifted a total of 22,000 Ethiopian Jews
(Operation Solomon) at Risk in Ethiopia, to safety in Israel.
When Golda Meir was elected Prime Minister of Israel in 1969, she
became the world's second elected female leader in modern times.
When the U. S. Embassy in Nairobi, Kenya was bombed in 1998,
Israeli rescue teams were on the scene within a day -- and saved
three victims from the rubble.
Israel has the third highest rate of entrepreneurship -- and the
highest rate among women and among people over 55 - in the world.
Relative to its population, Israel is the largest
immigrant-absorbing nation on earth. Immigrants come in search of
democracy, religious freedom, and economic opportunity. (Hundreds
of thousands from the former Soviet Union)
Israel was the first nation in the world to adopt the Kimberly
process, an international standard that certifies diamonds as
"conflict free."
Israel has the world's second highest per capita of new books.
Israel is the only country in the world that entered the 21st
century with a net gain in its number of trees, made more
remarkable because this was achieved in an area considered mainly
desert.
Israel has more museums per capita than any other country.
Medicine... Israeli scientists developed the first fully
computerized, no-radiation, diagnostic instrumentation for breast
cancer.
An Israeli company developed a computerized system for ensuring
proper administration of medications, thus removing human error
from medical treatment. Every year in U. S. hospitals 7,000
patients die from treatment mistakes.
Israel's Given Imaging developed the first ingestible video camera,
so small it fits inside a pill. Used to view the small intestine
from the inside, cancer and digestive disorders .
Researchers in Israel developed a new device that directly helps
the heart pump blood, an innovation with the potential to save
lives among those with heart failure. The new device is
synchronized with the camera helps doctors diagnose heart�s
mechanical operations through a sophisticated system of sensors.
Israel leads the world in the number of scientists and technicians
in the workforce, with 145 per 10,000, as opposed to 85 in the U.
S., over 70 in Japan, and less than 60 in Germany. With over 25% of
its work force employed in technical professions. Israel places
first in this category as well.
A new acne treatment developed in Israel, the Clear Light device,
produces a high-intensity, ultraviolet-light-free, narrow-band blue
light that causes acne bacteria to self-destruct -- all without
damaging surrounding skin or tissue.
An Israeli company was the first to develop and install a
large-scale solar-powered and fully functional electricity
generating plant, in southern California's Mojave desert.
All the above while engaged in regular wars with an implacable
enemy that seeks its destruction, and an economy continuously under
strain by having to spend more per capita on its own protection
than any other county on earth.
. .. . . AND THE FRENCH AMBASSADOR IN ENGLAND
SAYS :
"ISRAEL IS NOTHING BUT A SHITTY LITTLE COUNTRY"
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