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How to Beat Islamic State: Maajid Nawaz, Wall Street Journal, Dec. 11, 2015
All Across the Middle East, Journalists are Blaming Everyone but Arabs for Recent Terror Attacks: Robert Fulford, National Post, Dec. 11, 2015
The Threat from ‘Minnesota Men’: Scott W. Johnson, Weekly Standard, Dec. 7, 2015
Donald Trump ‘Will. Never. Leave. This. Race.’: Steven Ginsberg & Robert Costa, Washington Post, Dec. 10, 2015
WEEKLY QUOTES
“This is not surprising because Abu Mazen [Abbas] continues to incite with lying propaganda about Al-Aksa, lying propaganda about [Israeli] executions, and by rejecting all true efforts to come to negotiations.” — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research released a poll on Monday showing that two-thirds of the Palestinians support the current violence, and another two-thirds said that a two-state solution is no longer viable. Netanyahu said it was time for the international community to understand that “the reason there are no negotiations and no progress toward peace is not to be found on the Israeli side, but on the Palestinian one.” (Jerusalem Post, Dec. 15, 2015)
“Reviewing the status of Anglo-Jewry can lead to diametrically opposing conclusions. Residing in a northwest London Jewish suburb, one can easily be deluded that life for Jews in the U.K. is rosy. Jewish cultural and religious life is thriving, as exemplified by the mushrooming of synagogues and kosher facilities, not to mention the highly successful educational initiatives like Limmud… But this picture is delusionary and a far cry from reality…Even though British Jews have not yet suffered from the bloody jihadi violence and murders of their French counterparts, as European Jews they will ultimately face the same threat, and if they believe they are in a different category, they are in denial…The regular mass support for anti-Israel demonstrations headed by leftist and human rights groups … confirm that hatred of Jews has become a central feature of the British political system.” — Isi Leibler (Candidly Speaking, Dec. 9, 2015)
“I am more than ready to assert the superiority of a culture that is decent and humane, and welcoming, over a culture that thinks it’s right to kill in the name of God… [Once you embrace the principle of killing in the name of God,] “we have the war of all against all, until there is only one man, or one particular faith or version of faith left standing. Now, that is a recipe for catastrophe, absolute catastrophe.” — Former Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott. In an opinion piece published last week, Abbott, a staunch Catholic and former student priest, wrote of a need to “modernize” Islam, saying it propagates a culture that is inferior to that of the West. “Islamic State has a simple but deadly message — submit or die. To most, a medieval fantasy, but rational enough to many Muslims based on their scriptures,” Abbott said. (Washington Post, Dec. 9, 2015)
“Islam, unlike any other existing major religion, is a politico-religious ideology, not a faith, per se, as Westerners, or non-Muslims in general, understand. This becomes—or should become—pellucid when one considers the largest voting block in the United Nations—the Organization of Islamic Cooperation—56 Muslim, Muslim majority or large Muslim plurality, nations, plus the Palestinian Authority. The OIC’s unrelenting goal is to replace modern human rights constructs such as our Bill of Rights, or the UN’s own Universal Declaration of Human Rights, with the 1990 Sharia-based Cairo Declaration, or so-called Universal Declaration of Human Rights in Islam. Thus Islam, via its integrally-related, Sharia supremacist global political organization—unparalleled in our era relative to any other religion—seeks to abrogate basic freedoms of conscience and expression that define free, non-totalitarian non-Muslim societies. This is not a matter of conjecture, or inference, or “Islamophobia”, unless one is impenetrable by the facts…” — Andrew Bostom (Andrewbostom.org, Dec. 8, 2015)
“We’re at war folks, they’re not trying to steal your car, they’re trying to kill us all” — Republican Presidential candidate Sen. Lindsey Graham, during Tuesday’s candidate debate. Graham also defended the last Republican president, saying he blamed Obama, not George W. Bush, for the current I.S. “mess.” “I miss George W. Bush,” Graham said. “I wish he were president right now. We wouldn’t be in this mess. I’m tired of dictators walking all over us.” (Daily Mail, Dec. 16, 2015)
“Let’s take off the blinders. It’s time to say that these attacks are not isolated incidents. These wolves are not lone, they are instead operating as an ideological pack.” — Republican Presidential candidate Sen. Ted Cruz. Cruz also hit the Obama administration for ignoring the threat of Islamic terrorism, charging that Obama has acted as an “apologist” who is focused more on advancing politically correct rhetoric than on destroying I.S. “The problem has been festering unattended for the entire Obama administration,” he said. (Daily Signal, Dec. 10, 2015)
“Obama’s Chanukah parties have had issues in the past. But this time it teetered over into full-blown violently offensive territory…The White House chose Susan Talve to light the Menorah. Talve is a member of the anti-Israel group T’ruah which is currently promoting assorted “soft BDS” programs. She’s also a Ferguson activist. Her behavior was deeply insulting to the religious Jewish community and made it clear that the White House was determined to hijack even a Chanukah party to promote an anti-Jewish agenda…Instead of talking about Chanukah, Talve blathered on about getting, “guns off our streets” and to “clean up the fires of toxic nuclear waste”. Talve screeched, “I stand here with my fierce family of clergy and black lives matter activists who took to the streets of Ferguson”… Chanukah is a celebration of the Maccabees defeating a Syrian occupation, but Talve may not even know that. Radical clergy tend to be light on the religion and heavy on the social justice.” — Daniel Greenfield (Frontpage, Dec. 10, 2015)
“During a public gathering to commemorate the twentieth anniversary of the Million Man March that was held on Capitol Hill in October, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, the outspoken and controversial pastor whose church President Obama once attended, declared that “The youth in Ferguson and the youth in Palestine have united together to remind us that the dots need to be connected.” He went on to blame “racism, militarism and capitalism” for their historical agonies and implied that Israel was reproducing the European colonial scheme: “Apartheid is going on in Palestine. … As we sit here, there is an apartheid wall being built twice the size of the Berlin Wall in height, keeping Palestinians off of illegally occupied territories…” Such rhetoric, which has become widespread among Israel’s critics (especially on the academic left), aims to reduce the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to a formulaic anti-colonial David vs. Goliath standoff. In doing so, it threatens to transform the conflict from a historically complicated political, geographic and religious struggle to the one thing it has never actually been about: racially motivated imperialism.” — Yoav Fromer (Tablet, Dec. 3, 2015)
“Obama is choosing the worst possible time to close Guantanamo — just as the war against the Islamic State promises to deliver a new stream of captured terrorists into US custody…There is little evidence that the existence of the facility is inspiring new recruits to terrorism — in contrast to the existence of the Islamic State, which is a big magnet for extremists. Obama has already shown some welcome flexibility by rethinking his pledge to withdraw all US troops from Afghanistan by the time he leaves office. He would perform a real public service if he were to similarly rethink his pledge to close the Guantanamo prison.” — Max Boot. Obama has vowed to push ahead with plans to close the Guantanamo Bay prison for terror suspects, despite evidence that a substantial number of former detainees have returned to the battlefield. The White House itself admits that around 10 percent of those released from Guantanamo have resumed fighting for Islamic extremist organizations, but says it is more important to shutter a facility that has become a recruiting tool for terrorists. (New York Post, Dec. 12, 2015 & Yahoo, Dec. 14, 2015)
“Christians today are the most persecuted religious group in the world, and not a day goes by without a Christian somewhere in the world killed precisely for professing that faith. More than three-quarters of all acts of religious discrimination in the world disadvantage Christians. The martyrdom of Christians in the last hundred years has been utterly unseen in history. The last century brought more Christian martyrs than in all the 19 centuries which preceded it. The majority of those martyrdoms came at the hands of the communists, history’s great specialists in mass killing and religious persecution. Today, the killers of Christians are varied, but in largest number and barbarity, the spillers of blood are the self-proclaimed Islamic jihadists.” — Father Raymond J. de Souza (National Post, Dec. 15, 2015)
“The Palestinians have reached the realization that negotiations with the (Israelis) are useless …The so-called peace process is futile. There is no peace. Only the path of Jihad, sacrifice, and blood (will bear fruit)…Our rights will not be restored through the UN Security Council but by means of recruitment… Two thousand verbal ‘rockets’ do not compare to a single rocket made of iron. The children and youth of the West Bank have absorbed the message. Weapons like Kalashnikovs or missiles are not at hand, but there are knives and cars with which to run over the enemies…By God, after the knives used by the people of the West Bank and Jerusalem, can anyone possibly have an excuse to abandon the path of jihad? Nobody can have such an excuse.” — Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal, during a visit to the Malaysian capital of Kuala Lumpur. Some 20 Israelis have been killed in three months of near-daily stabbing, shooting, and car-ramming terror attacks by Palestinians targeting civilians and security forces. More than 100 Palestinians have also been killed, a large proportion of them assailants shot as they carried out attacks. (Times of Israel, Dec. 15, 2015)
SHORT TAKES
HAMAS: JERUSALEM CAR-RAMMING TERRORIST WAS A MEMBER (Jerusalem) — The terrorist who carried out a car-ramming attack in Jerusalem on Monday was a member of Hamas, the Palestinian terror group announced. Abed el-Muhsen Hassuna, who held an Israeli identity card that granted him access to the entire country, drove from Hebron to the capital to carry out the attack. Fourteen people were injured in the attack, including 18-month-old Yotam Sitbon. Hassuna drove his car onto the sidewalk, smashing into pedestrians at a bus stop near the capital’s central bus station. A member of the security forces, a security guard and an armed civilian shot him before he was able to get out of his car. Jerusalem has been one of the two focal points of terror attacks since the latest wave of violence began in October, with Hebron being the other. (Times of Israel, Dec. 15, 2015)
ISRAEL HOLDS FIVE ARAB ISRAELIS SUSPECTED OF SUPPORTING I.S. (Jerusalem) — Five Palestinian citizens of Israel have been arrested in recent weeks on suspicion of supporting I.S., acquiring rifles and practicing shooting in a forest. A joint effort by the Israeli security agency, Shin Bet, and the police led to the arrests in October and November of several residents of Nazareth. Five of those arrested have since been charged with weapons violations and support for I.S. The group is outlawed in Israel. About 34 Arab citizens of Israel have been arrested over the last year on suspicion of activities related to I.S., and 32 more are believed to have gone to Syria or Iraq. (New York Times, Dec. 9, 2015)
ISRAEL’S ARROW 3 SUCCESSFULLY PASSES INTERCEPTION TEST (Jerusalem) — Israel’s upgraded Arrow 3 ballistic missile shield passed a full interception test, hitting a target in space meant to simulate the trajectory of the long-range weapons held by Iran, Syria and Hezbollah. Arrow 3 is equipped with a revolutionary interceptor system that will enable Israel to effectively counter future security threats. Arrow 3 is a pivotal part of the country’s multilayered missile defense outline, alongside the already operational Iron Dome and Arrow 2 systems, and the David’s Sling missile defense system currently being developed. Israel’s strategic outlook has shifted in recent months, given the international deal in July curbing Iran’s nuclear program, the depletion of the Syrian army’s arsenal in that country’s civil war and Hezbollah’s reinforcement of Damascus against the rebels. (Israel Hayom, Dec. 10, 2015)
IRAN CALLS CLOSURE OF UN NUCLEAR ARMS PROBE A ‘BIG SUCCESS’ (Tehran) — Iranian President Rouhani said Wednesday that the U.N. nuclear agency’s decision to close a decade-long probe of allegations that Tehran worked on nuclear weapons is a “big success.” He said the decision paved the way for Iran to fulfill its remaining obligations under a nuclear deal with world powers. The probe had to be formally ended as part of the agreement, which will lift sanctions in return for Iran curbing its nuclear activities. A resolution to close the probe was approved by consensus of the board of the U.N.’s International Atomic Energy Agency. IAEA chief Yukiya Amano has said his investigation couldn’t reconstruct all the details of Iran’s past activities. He said Iran worked on studies relevant to making nuclear weapons, with coordinated efforts up to 2003 tapering off into scattered activities up to 2009. Tehran denies ever seeking nuclear arms. (New York Times, Dec. 16, 2015)
50 KILLED IN ATTACK AT AFGHANISTAN’S KANDAHAR AIRPORT (Kandahar) — Fifty people have died in an attack at a market bazaar and a school near Kandahar airport last week. The number included 38 civilians, ten Afghan National Army soldiers and two policemen. Another 35 people were wounded. Nine terrorists were also killed. The Taliban took responsibility for the attack. The assault occurred after a “Message to Obama” was posted to a video site, purportedly of Taliban suicide attackers warning that U.S. troops would not be safe in Afghanistan. (CNN, Dec. 10, 2015)
TRUMP’S POLL NUMBERS SURGE AFTER MUSLIM BAN COMMENTS (New York) — Donald Trump has reached his highest mark yet in a national poll, pulling away from the GOP presidential field with 41 percent of the vote on the eve of Tuesday’s debate. The real estate mogul’s support was nearly triple that of his nearest rival, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, who scored 14 percent in the Monmouth University poll released Monday. Florida Sen. Marco Rubio was at 10 percent while Ben Carson had 9 percent. None of the other candidates topped 3 percent. National polls last week showed Trump in the mid-30 percent range. His runaway showing comes amid a furor over his recent inflammatory comments, with the survey conducted after he suggested that Muslims should be barred from the country. (New York Post, Dec. 14, 2015)
SAUDIS LAUNCH ‘ISLAMIC MILITARY ALLIANCE’ TO COMBAT TERRORISM (Riyadh) — Saudi Arabia has announced the formation of an “Islamic military alliance” to combat global terrorism, an effort to respond to Western assertions that it could do more in the fight against I.S. and to solidify its claim to leadership of the Sunni world. The 34-member group will coordinate mutual anti-terrorism assistance for members “all over the Islamic world,” Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman said. In addition to a military component, he said it would include “stopping the flow of funds” to terrorists and “confronting the ideology of extremism that promotes killing of the innocent, which is contrary to every religion, particularly the Islamic faith.” (Washington Post, Dec. 15, 2015)
SAUDI VOTERS ELECT 20 WOMEN CANDIDATES FOR THE FIRST TIME (Riyadh) — Saudi voters elected 20 women for local government seats, a day after women voted and ran in elections for the first time in the country’s history. The 20 female candidates represent just one percent of the roughly 2,100 municipal council seats up for grabs, but even limited gains are seen as a step forward for women who had previously been completely shut out of elections. Women are still not allowed to drive and are governed by guardianship laws that give men final say over aspects of their lives like marriage, travel and higher education. (Washington Post, Dec. 13, 2015)
US ‘SHOCKED’ AT HUNGARIAN PLANS TO HONOR WW2 ANTI-SEMITE (Budapest) — A US envoy said Washington was shocked by plans to erect a statue of Balint Homan, who contributed to murderous antisemitism in Hungary in the 1930s and 40s. Homan was a proponent of anti-Jewish laws and a Nazi supporter to the end of the war. He was later jailed and died in prison in 1951. The central European nation still grapples with its past, including its active role in deporting half a million Jews. The Balint Homan Foundation wants to honor Homan, who they say was an eminent historian and minister of religion and education before and during World War Two. (Jerusalem Post, Dec. 13, 2015)
AMAZON UNDER FIRE FOR ALLOWING SALE OF NAZI PARAPHERNALIA (Toronto) — Nazi flags, Hitler Youth knives, and running shoes with swastikas on them are just some of the items for sale on Amazon’s U.S. and Canadian websites that have a customer calling for a boycott of North America’s largest online retailer. Mark Schwartz said he was disgusted to discover Amazon is making money off what he calls “hate items” by allowing vendors to sell the merchandise on its website. Schwartz’s father is a Holocaust survivor. He was caught in the Nazi’s roundup of Hungarian Jews and taken to Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. According to B’nai Brith, the organization raised the issue in a letter to Amazon’s CEO Jeff Bezos in 2013, but nothing changed. (CBC, Dec. 14, 2015)
ERDOGAN: NORMALIZED TIES WITH ISRAEL WOULD BENEFIT REGION (Ankara) — Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has signaled a possible warming of relations with Israel, saying the entire region would have much to gain from normalized ties. Relations between former allies Turkey and Israel broke down in 2010 after an Israeli naval raid on a Gaza-bound flotilla killed 10 Turkish citizens. Turkey has become the strongest critic of Israeli actions in Gaza, and reconciliation efforts between the two have repeatedly failed. Erdogan told journalists that “normalization with Israel” was possible if the sides can reach a compensation deal for the raid’s victims and if Israel lifts a blockade against Palestinians. (Times of Israel, Dec. 14, 2015)
CLOISTERED TURKISH JEWS HOLD THEIR FIRST PUBLIC MENORAH LIGHTING (Istanbul) — Turkey’s usually closed Jewish community held its first public Hanukkah lighting on Sunday since the founding of the republic nearly a century ago, marking a possible shift in how the community interacts with the larger society. Community representatives, alongside local dignitaries and foreign diplomats, lit the final Hanukkah candle in the Istanbul neighborhood of Ortaköy. “I wish peace, happiness and welfare to all Jews, primarily Turkey’s Jewish citizens who are an inseparable part of our society, on the occasion of Hanukkah,” Erdogan said in a statement. Sixty-nine percent of Turks harbor antisemitic attitudes, according to the ADL. (Jerusalem Post, Dec. 14, 2015)
ANTI-ISRAEL PROTEST DISRUPTS YORK U. HANUKKAH PARTY (Toronto) — A pre-Hanukkah celebration sponsored by the Hillel chapter at York University in Toronto was interrupted by an anti-Israel student demonstration. On Dec. 3, supporters of Students Against Israeli Apartheid were holding a “silent protest” for a “YU Divest” campaign, when they noticed Jewish and other students enjoying a holiday event featuring an inflatable Hanukkah menorah. The anti-Israel protesters then began to chant slogans and hand out leaflets right near the Hillel event. Avi Benlolo, CEO of Friends of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, said that the disruption shows the “true antisemitic nature of the anti-Israel boycott crowd at York.” (Algemeiner, Dec. 13, 2015)
AMERICAN FEMINIST ASSOCIATION JOINS BDS (New York) — The members of the National Women’s Studies Association (NWSA) have voted in favor of a proposal to join the anti-Israel Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement. The non-binding resolution was approved by an 88.4 percent margin, with 653 members voting for it and 86 members against, at the association’s annual assembly. The NWSA resolution will be voted on by the association’s 12,000 members in the next two months. If it passes, it will make the NWSA the largest organization yet to propose an academic boycott of Israel. The NWSA resolution comes at the heels of last month’s American Anthropological Association (AAA) resolution to boycott Israeli universities. (Ynet, Dec. 2, 2015)
VATICAN DECLARATION ‘REPUDIATES’ REPLACEMENT THEOLOGY (Rome) —The Vatican issued an unprecedented declaration that the Jewish people are part of God’s salvation without explicitly confessing Christ as their savior, in a document that includes other changes in Catholic Church teachings related to Christian-Jewish relations. The Pontifical Commission for Religious Relations with the Jews presented the document during a press conference at the Vatican to mark the 50th anniversary of the “Nostra Aetate” declaration, which was another watershed moment in Jewish-Christian ties. Even though Catholics believe that there is only one path to salvation, the new document states that “it does not in any way follow that the Jews are excluded from God’s salvation because they do not believe in Jesus Christ as the Messiah of Israel and the Son of God.” According to the document, Jews are Catholics’ “elder brothers” and “fathers in faith.” Catholics, it states, should reject institutional activities that try to convert Jews, but can “in a humble and sensitive manner” bear witness “to their faith in Jesus Christ also to Jews.” (JNS, Dec. 10, 2015)
How to Beat Islamic State: Maajid Nawaz, Wall Street Journal, Dec. 11, 2015 — Islam is a religion, and like any other faith, it is internally diverse. Islamism, by contrast, is the desire to impose a single version of Islam on an entire society. Islamism is not Islam, but it is an offshoot of Islam. It is Muslim theocracy.
All Across the Middle East, Journalists are Blaming Everyone but Arabs for Recent Terror Attacks: Robert Fulford, National Post, Dec. 11, 2015 —In the wake of great catastrophes, fantasies float to the surface and fill the minds of the credulous and the guileful. The assassination of John Kennedy led to widespread theorizing about a secret plot to kill him. The destruction of the Twin Towers inspired many to conclude that the U.S. government was behind it.
The Threat from ‘Minnesota Men’: Scott W. Johnson, Weekly Standard, Dec. 7, 2015 — If you get your news from the headlines, you can be excused for thinking that “Minnesota men” pose a special risk of taking up the terrorist jihad at home and abroad.
Donald Trump ‘Will. Never. Leave. This. Race.’: Steven Ginsberg & Robert Costa, Washington Post, Dec. 10, 2015 — Donald Trump came down the stairs, stopped in the middle of the clubhouse restaurant, thrust his arms out and proclaimed: “How great is this?” It was his way of saying hello and also a declaration of how America’s boss planned to try to own the room – through charm, not intimidation.