Category Archives: Middle East

The Palestinian Appetite For Destruction

Islam, Israel, Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, Middle East

“Societies are only as good as the individuals they comprise. And individuals are only as good as their actions. Overall, Israeli society is superior to Palestinian society because, like America, it is peopled by individuals who make possible a thriving civil society. Yet to Bush, the latest chaotic chapter in the annals of the M.O.P.E (Most Oppressed People Ever) is an ‘exciting moment.’ It has inspired in him visions (or hallucinations) of “two states living side by side in peace.” Bush’s appetite for destruction must be even healthier than that of the Palestinians.”

In this week’s WND essay, which led the Commentary Page, “The Palestinian Appetite For Destruction,” you can read about how Abbas intends to consolidating his street cred with the Palestinians, why Carter has a point; Bush ought not to be favoring any of the Palestinian Black Shirts. There is also a juxtaposition of Israeli society and the savage society adjacent to it, and the manner in which the two Palestinians and Jews have responded to historical challenges.

Updated: British Cry Babies Cash In On Cowardice

Middle East, Military

Military analyst Jack Jacobs says everything there is to say about the big British cry babies whose names ought to become synonymous with dishonor and disgrace. Okay, perhaps the tyranny of political correctness prevents him from pointing out how repulsive was the specter of the tubby, unfit female sailor, fretfully sucking on a fag, while reporters told of her baby back home. As though being in the military and waging war all over the world entitles one to job security.
If you venture into a tough neighborhood like the Middle East, your best bet is to leave the women behind, and that goes for women with the Y chromosome as well. Her fellow male sailors were no better than she.
Readers will respond, “Don’t speak until you’ve walked in the sailors’ timid shoes.” Tummy rot! I’m not a trained solider, don’t profess to be, am not paid to be.
These Brits developed minute-made Stockholm syndrome.
And now the creeps will be cashing in on their cowardice; the British military has given them the go ahead to sell their snivels to the tabloids.

Update: In response to Mike Gooding’s letter hereunder: I almost always publish polite disagreement. (Letters that distort my positions, however, are never published.) Still, friendship doesn’t imply blind, slavish loyalty. I must say, I thought Americans acted cheaply and spoke atrocious English. After watching the British captives, I realized they take the cake. The American marines and other top-echelon servicemen (even women) are impressive. Of course, one doesn’t wish to generalize. But, this British bunch was especially unimpressive in conduct, carriage, and demeanor. That they’ve been let loose on the public instead of being hidden somewhere is a big mistake.
Over to Jack Jacobs, retired U.S. Army colonel, who knows a thing or two about bravery. This is not IT, he writes in “British Sailors’ Conduct Was A Disgrace.”

Updated: Bush Should Slither On His Belly to Bashar

Bush, Democrats, Iraq, Middle East

The White House is furious that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has traveled to meet with Syrian President Bashar Assad in Damascus. Assad is not the only Middle East leader Pelosi is speaking to. Omigod! Diplomacy!

Trust Pelosi to give as good as she gets; she has pointed to the hypocrisy of the administration, having said nothing about the “the recent visits by Republican members of Congress.” The U.S. also participated “in a regional security conference in Baghdad last month that also included representatives from Iran and Syria.”

But here’s the real difficulty, as the press sees it: “The United States has poor relations with Syria, accusing it of interfering in Iraq.” Come to think of it, Bush, like the snake he is, should be slithering on his belly to Bashar to thank him for serving as the US’s pressure relief valve vis-a -vis Iraq.

Although the cable cretins don’t bother to report about them, and the administration smears reporters who try —millions of Iraqis have been displaced and uprooted in the aftermath of our invasion. Syria has been incredibly generous to these poor refugees. Together, Jordan and Syria have taken in 1.6 million fleeing Iraqi refugees. “On 20 October, Ron Redmond, UNHCR chief spokesman, said some 40,000 Iraqis are now arriving in Syria each month.” Take into account that these figures date back to October 2006.

Pelosi ought to thank the Syrian president for extending to the Iraqi refugees the use of its public schools and the health care system, although they “have to travel out of the country every six months to renew their visas and cannot hold work permits, resulting in high unemployment.” [I’m sure they don’t risk popping back to Iraq when visa renewal falls due, despite McCain’s assurances.]

IRIN (Integrated Regional Information Networks) reports that “the majority of Iraqi refugees in Syria live in the suburbs of Damascus, in deteriorating socio-economic conditions.” That’s where Pelosi should be headed.

Update: Of course, American interests in the Middle East are not to be conflated with Israel’s. The two countries have completely different interests in the region (the one “lives” there, so to speak; the other often makes life impossible for those who live there). The fact that Bush should be speaking to Bashar doesn’t mean that Israel ought to be doing the same. Israel would be in better shape if it didn’t aim above all to please or emulate the US. Syria wants Israel to return territory acquired due to Syria’s aggression. Israel should reject this “option” if it cares to survive. However, time and again Israel has shown that it is no more than an American satellite.

Further reading:

From Russia With (Less Than) Love

Who’s the Boss — Israel or the U.S.?

Updated ‘Reza Aslan’s Pogrom Amnesia’

Israel, Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, Media, Middle East

About Reza Aslan, the darling of the media on all things Muslim, Myles Kantor observes the following:

“Last night I watched Sam Harris and Reza Aslan’s January 25 debate on religion at the Los Angeles Public Library. Toward the end, Harris noted the anti-Semitic character of the Middle East before the establishment of Israel in 1948.

Aslan responded in reference to pre-state Israel, ‘Before 1948, of course, there were tens of thousands of Jews living alongside their Arab neighbors without any problem at all.’

Without any problem at all? How about the Jerusalem pogrom in 1920 and the Jaffa pogrom in 1921? Or Arab massacres of Jews in Hebron and Safad in 1929? Or the Tiberias pogrom in 1938? (There was a reason the Sephardic Jewish sage Maimonides wrote in 1172 regarding Arabs, ‘Never did a nation molest, degrade, debase, and hate us as much as they.’)

If Aslan is ignorant of this recurrent savagery, then the Harvard graduate’s study of pre-state Israel has been amazingly selective. If not, his misrepresentation of Arab-Jewish life before 1948 is revisionism in the same gutter as Holocaust denial.”

Or down at curb level with the New Historians’ output.

Update: the post was mentioned favorably at Jihad Watch.