Britannia Radio

Turkey: Two More Steps Toward Islamism

By Barry Rubin, PAJAMAS MEDIA

In Washington DC they are still ridiculing the idea that Turkey’s government is Islamist, is working step by step to transform fundamentally that country’s state and society, or that it is closer to Tehran than to the United States nowadays or more friendly to Hamas and Hizballah than to Israel.

Yet anyone who actually talks to Turks or looks at daily life there—and that includes the U.S. embassy in Ankara—knew better.

First, a bombshell. No sooner have the heads of the armed forces resigned than the regime issues an arrest warrent for seven senior officers. The Turkish army is finished as a political force–partly thanks to the European Union insisting that it withdraw from a political role–while the courts are being neutralized and the media is being bought up. There is no institution left to prevent the current regime from Islamizing Turkey and fundamentally transforming its society.

In all, 22 suspects are being sought. And what is the...

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Defeating Islamic Terrorism Through Appeasement

BY DANIEL GREENFIELD FrontPageMag

The Obama Administration has a new strategy for combating Islamic terrorism. The document that lays out its new strategy avoids using “Terrorism” in its title, instead substituting “Violent Extremism”. Jihad is not mentioned anywhere. Even “Muslim” is used as little as possible.

Eight pages of mostly redundant text repeat the same idea, that the only way to fight Islamic terrorism is by partnering with and empowering Muslim communities and organizations. That is the “revolutionary” new idea that merited coverage from the New York Times, NPR and CNN. And if the strategy had to be summed up in one word, it would be, “Collaborate!”

“Empowering Local Partners to Prevent Violent Extremism in the United States,” sounds almost as catchy as “Man-Caused Disasters”, and comes from the same school of thought. The University of Denial, whose motto is that the best way to fight Islamic terrorism, is not to talk about it....

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Tzipi Livni should resign now

by Isi Leibler

Opposition Leader Tzipi Livni’s unprecedented outburst against Prime Minister Netanyahu to an American audience, in my opinion, warrants Kadima calling for her immediate resignation as party leader.

Livni’s eruption was unconscionable. I was amongst those calling on both the Prime Minister and the leader of the opposition to set aside their personal and political ambitions and form a unity government to promote the national interest. However Livni’s recent outburst has crossed all red lines and makes this impossible.

In an extensive interview with James Bennett, editor of the influential US journal The Atlantic and Jeffrey Goldberg, a prominent American Jewish journalist, Livni explicitly praised President Obama for pressuring Prime Minister Netanyahu and shamelessly urged the American Administration to intensify pressure on the Israeli government.

She went further and, in a remark she will have cause to regret, even raised the sensitive issue of dual...

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Norway’s Jewish problem

By Caroline B. Glick, JPOST

Norway’s government attacked the author for merely pointing out in various ways, that Norway should not use Breivik’s attack as justification for further weakening Norwegian democracy

In the wake of Anders Breivik’s massacre of his fellow Norwegians, I was amazed at the speed with which the leftist media throughout the US and Europe used his crime as a means of criminalizing their ideological opponents on the Right. Just hours after Breivik’s identity was reported, leftist media outlets and blogs were filled with attempts to blame Breivik’s crime on conservative public intellectuals whose ideas he cited in a 1,500 page online manifesto.

My revulsion at this bald attempt to use Breivik’s crime to attack freedom of speech propelled me to write my July 29 column, “Breivik and totalitarian democrats.”

While the focus of my column was the Left’s attempt to silence their conservative opponents, I also...

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The Campaign to Panic Israel Into a Bad Strategy

By Barry Rubin

I have a high regard for Aluf Benn, a brilliant guy and one of Israel’s best journalists. He has just become editor of Haaretz, Israel’s left-wing newspaper, but is the most moderate person to hold that post in many years. Benn has written an interesting op-ed piece in the New York Times.

Labor Party leader Michael Herzog has written something similar. The message is that Israel must rush to help create a Palestinian state as fast as possible in order to protect its own security, even survival. Of course, if this state were to demilitarize (Herzog’s proposal), end the conflict, give up the demand for Palestinians to “return” to Israel, and implement a permanent peace treaty that would be a great idea. And if such a deal would improve Israel’s regional position that, too, would be good. And if the Palestinian side was eager to make a compromise peace agreement with Israel, that would be viable.

But since none of these conditions apply this line of...

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Ted Belman

Jerusalem, Israel