Why the world loves Palestinians
Israel’s ambassador to the UN, Ron Prosor, described the special situation of Palestinian refugeeson the recent World Refugee Day:
- Unlike other refugees, the Palestinians have their own set of rules, their own funding and even their own international agency, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency or UNRWA. To paraphrase George Orwell, all refugees are equal, but some refugees are more equal than others.
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Of Moderates and Mu’tazilites: How Islam Wins
In an important article for FrontPage Magazine, “recovered” Muslim Bosch Fawstin acknowledges that “Muslims who take Islam seriously are at war with us and Muslims who don’t aren’t. But,” he continues, “that doesn’t mean we should consider these reluctant Muslims allies against Jihad…they give the enemy cover..indifferen about the evil being committed in the name of their religion…prov in their silence and inaction against jihad that they are not on our side either.” Whether they know it or not, or whether they are merely indifferent to the activities of the “radical” wing of the religion they profess, or whether some — a very few — are doctrinally committed to the reinterpretation of the canonical literature, “moderates” in their adherence to traditional dogma or even in their obliviousness to the axioms of Islamic orthodoxy are the sine qua non for the perpetuation of Islam as understood and pursued by those who would subjugate the liberal West to their totalitarian creed. And the latter’s understanding of the faith is correct, as David Hayden methodically shows in his masterful Muhammad and the Birth of Islamic Supremacism, a must-read for Muslims and non-Muslims alike. Islam is jihad. There is nothing moderate about it. (Read more…)
Can Muslim Activism Be Done Right?
In an interesting and presumably comforting article recently posted on this site, titled Muslim Activism Done Right, Michael Volpe draws our attention to a new Canadian advocacy group, Progressive Muslims Institute Canada (PMIC). Anti-extremist, amenable to secular values and politically communal, PMIC seeks to counter the theological summons to jihad and the spirit of antisemitic hatred embraced by its majoritarian co-religionists, and to establish friendly working relations with the Jewish community. Volpe understands this new project as a welcoming sign and harbinger of the future, suggesting the hope for a gradual reconciliation between heretofore antagonistic groups and the restoration of both sanity and the desire for social peace within the Muslim collective.
According to the Director General of the PMIC, Tahir Gora, the Institute “strongly denounces all forms of extremism and terrorism in the name of Islam” and promotes “gender equality…liberal, progressive and secular values among Muslims, and believes in a clear separation between religion and state.” Jewish organizations like the The Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA), whose concern with interfaith outreach trumps Jewish security, and B’nai B’rith have enthusiastically applauded such initiatives. And of course, developments like PMIC are a far sight better than jihadist savagery and orthodox adherence to the basic Islamic texts. (Read more…)
Bibi is capitulating. No surprise there.
Once again Netanyahu is caving to extortion. He should not agree to release 1000 murderers from jail even though they have been there since before Oslo. After all, I don’t see the US releasing Pollard any time soon. He has been in jail for much longer and he didn’t kill anyone.Effectively then, Abbas removes the precondition about borders which doesn’t mean that he won’t insist on the ’67 lines throughout negotiations. Netanyahu on the other hand releases many prisoners which is a tangeble concession and applies a freeze xcept for the settlement blocs which will last as long as the negotiations last.Naft ali Bennett put it this way:“I’ve participated in dozens of negotiations in my life; never have I paid a price for the simple right to negotiate. If you want to sit and talk, by all means. I’m not about to pay for this sacred right to sit and talk to .”
Ted Belman
Diplomats: Netanyahu ready to release Palestinian prisoners, Sources involved in talks with John Kerry say move would coincide with Abbas agreeing to back down from preconditions and return to the negotiating table
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is prepared to release a limited number of Palestinian prisoners in exchange for Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas dropping the return to the ’67 lines as a precondition to resuming peace talks, diplomatic sources said Monday.
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Poll: Most Israeli Arabs Support Violent Uprising
By Gil Ronen, INN
About 58% of the Arab citizens of Israel say that the Palestinian Authority Arabs would be justified in starting a violent rebellion (“intifada”) if the diplomatic process does not advance. A similar percentage advocate an “intifada” by Israeli Arab citizens if their situation does not improve considerably, according to a poll, which was carried out by Prof. Sami Samoha of Haifa University, with the Israeli Democracy Institute.
The views are in line with the call Monday by an Arab Knesset Member, for an Arab intifada inside Israel.
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Egyptians strive to end Morsi era: Muslim Brotherhood frantic to save the Caliph
Egyptians are united once again by the single yearning to rid the country of its corrupting force, Mr. Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood, and, unlike two years ago, actualize the dream of democracy. There is a sense that something very significant is about to happen with both fear and hope intermingled.
Revolutionaries, vigilant since January 2011, are today boosted by a motivated Egyptian populace of young, old, urban, rural, religious, atheist, rich, and poor in a fevered pitch toward removing Morsi from office.
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As Intervention Debate Fires Up, Brave Syrian “Rebels” Torch Church
Even if I weren’t opposed to American intervention on the side of Sunni Islamic supremacists in Syria, I’d be inclined to agree with the bottom line of John O’Sullivan’s characteristically wise weekend column: the United States should not act unless we are willing to act decisively. There is clearly no public appetite for doing so. I believe this is prudent on the public’s part.
John seems more agnostic on that point. He packs some telling observations in the thrust of his argument that are very much worth considering further:
- President Obama seems to have reached the conclusions that American voters will go no further than supplying lighter and less advanced weaponry to the rebels. Others — Senators John McCain and Lindsay Graham, and former president Clinton — argue that they would support a higher level of intervention once the president (any president, apparently) ordered it. But experience suggests that even if that were so, public support would evaporate unless the rebels looked like scoring a victory in reasonable time. And that would be a plausible outcome only if U.S. intervention were bold and substantial…
For Israel, charity begins — but doesn’t end — at home
A June 8 article in The Times on a study that ranked countries based on international giving may leave readers with the misleading impression that Israelis are not generous with their charity dollars. Unfortunately, as is too often the case when it comes to Israel, this has served as a springboard for those seeking to malign Israel and the Jewish people. The figures in the article must be taken in context.
Israel has a heavy defense burden and has absorbed millions of immigrants over a short period of time. It spends roughly 7% of its gross domestic product on defense, almost four times the average of 1.8% of other Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development countries. As a consequence, Israel is left with fewer resources to allocate for civilian purposes. Nevertheless, having joined the OECD only in 2010, Israel is working hard to achieve the philanthropic spending levels set by some of the other member states. For example, just last year a group of 20 leading Israeli investors established Committed to Give, with the express goal of significantly increasing the level of private philanthropy in Israel. (Read more…)
In Russia, national interest takes precedent over minorities.
On February 4th, 2013, Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, addressed the Duma, (Russian Parliament), and gave a speech about the tensions with minorities in Russia:
- “In Russia live Russians. Any minority, from anywhere, if it wants to live in Russia, to work and eat in Russia, should speak Russian, and should respect the Russian laws. If they prefer Sharia Law, then we advise them to go to those places where that’s the state law. Russia does not need minorities. Minorities need Russia, and we will not grant them special privileges, or try to change our laws to fit their desires, no matter how loud they yell ‘discrimination’. We better learn from the suicides of America, England, Holland and France, if we are to survive as a nation. The Russian customs and traditions are not compatible with the lack of culture or the primitive ways of most minorities. When this honorable legislative body thinks of creating new laws, it should have in mind the national interest first, observing that the minorities are not Russians.
The representatives in the Duma gave Putin a five minute standing ovation.
Notice that he considers that America et al is committing suicide.
Also in law making he places the national interest first. The is what the right in Israel wants to happen. Being a Jewish state must take precedent over pure democratic values in our legislation.
Dani Dayan boldly goes where no settler leader has gone before: Washington
Since he stepped down as head of the Yesha Council, Dani Dayan has been making the case for settlements in quarters that were once off limits to him: with foreign ambassadors, left-wing policy institutes and even in the pages of The Guardian.
Three and a half years ago Dani Dayan, the head of the Yesha Council of settlements, and his director general Naftali Bennett sat with Dr. Dore Gold in his research institute in Jerusalem’s Katamon neighborhood and asked him for advice. This was after the Bar-Ilan University speech in which Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for the first time expressed consent to the establishment of a Palestinian state, and at the height of the contacts with the U.S. administration to discuss a freeze on construction in the settlements.
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The European Union vs. Turkey
In an uncharacteristic action on June 13, 2013, the European Union belatedly earned its credentials for the Nobel Peace Prize it had been surprisingly awarded on December 10, 2012. The European Parliament (EP) passed a non-binding Resolution on the situation in Turkey [2013/26664(RSP)] stating that the Turkish police had used excessive violence in an effort to disperse a group of demonstrators that had been protesting against the planned felling of trees for a new construction project in Istanbul’s Gezi Park in the Taksim Square area.
It was of course well known by this time that the police intervention in Istanbul had led to clashes with the protestors, and that the protests had spread to more than 70 cities in Turkey. Using tear gas, water cannons, plastic bullets, and pepper spray, among other things, the police action had resulted in a number of deaths, thousands wounded, mass arrests, and severe damage to private and public property. Doctors and lawyers who helped the protestors had been detained. Police brutality had been reproved by media in Europe and the U.S., but the Turkish media had remained virtually silent about the excessive violence.
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Ted Belman
Jerusalem, Israel
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