- urbi et orbi
Foredraget skal ses i lyset af det nylige terrorforsøg i Washington imod bla. den saudiarabiske ambassadør. Rubin har før været bedre end her, men pyt. Uploadet 24. oktober 2011:
Michael Rubin: U.S. and Iran after the DC plot
Michael Rubin, Resident Scholar at the American Enterprise Institute spoke about the future of U.S. policy towards Iran at the National Security Lunch on Capitol Hill.
En ret formel tale her. Flot. Og ret amerikansk. Om USAs militær, islamisk terror, politisk korrekthed, Fukuyama, Huntington, Iran, Irak, kurderne, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Rusland, Kina, Egypten, Tyrkiet, Israel og meget mere. Man kan følge med i en udskrift her i FrontPageMagazine. Fra 21. oktober 2011:
Congressman Allen West
Og Q&A:
Reservelink: Blip TV,
Mord, vold, terror, død og ødelæggelse. Had. Muslimer. The usual stuff:
Bombing Iran a ‘Bad Idea’? Probably. But It’s the ONLY Idea
October 24, 2011 – by David P. Goldman
Dalia Dassa Kaye at the Foreign Policy website argues that bombing Iran is a “bad idea.” She’s absolutely right. It’s a bad idea, except all the others are worse. As Prof. Kaye observes,
The aftermath of an attack could be devastating militarily and politically. It could unleash a wave of Iranian retaliation against U.S. forces, allies, and interests. Iran maintains a wide array of levers across the region, including militia groups it has trained and funded, that it could employ to retaliate against U.S. forces or diplomatic personnel, particularly in countries like Iraq. Iranian missiles have ranges that can reach Israel and all its Gulf Arab neighbors, including those hosting U.S. military forces.
Mere HER hos Pajamas Media.
Don’t Just Blame Iran for the Terror Plot, Blame WikiLeaks
Ryan Mauro – October 25, 2011
The U.S., Saudi Arabia and the international community are debating how to respond to Iran’s planned assassination of the Saudi ambassador in Washington D.C., but there is another party that shares responsibility: Wikileaks, the anti-censorship organization that recklessly published confidential diplomatic cables that prompted Iran to target the ambassador.
Last November, Wikileaks published a series of documents exposing private communications between international government officials. One of the most explosive documents was a State Department cable dated April, 20, 2008. It quoted the Saudi ambassador to the U.S., Adel al-Jubeir, as secretly telling General David Petraeus, “He [the Saudi king] told you to cut off the head of the snake,” referring to the Iranian regime.
Mere HER hos Family Security Matters.
What Will They Think of Next?
Why the crazy Iranian plot to pay Mexicans to kill the Saudi ambassador isn’t so implausible.
By Christopher Hitchens | Oct. 24, 2011
There may conceivably be a reason to doubt the truth of the Obama administration’s claim that the “Quds Force” of the Islamic Republic of Iran went into the free market for murder in order to suborn the killing of the Saudi ambassador to the United States. But neither the apparently surreal nor the apparently flagrant nature of the thing would constitute such reasons. We have been here before, as a splendid recent book reminds us, and have learned that no allegation made against the goon squads in Tehran can be thought of as prima-facie implausible.
Mere HER i Slate. The National Post her.
A Pattern of Appeasement and Retreat
October 24, 2011 – by Michael Ledeen
Take two headlines, one about Iraq, the other about Afghanistan. The Iraqis told us to honor our signed agreement, and pull out all our troops by year’s end. Over in Kabul, Karzai said he’d go to war against us if we attacked his neighbor, Pakistan. It’s the same story in both places, but the real headline is the thirty-year-old one: U.S. fails to come up with an Iran strategy.
It’s pretty obvious, isn’t it? You’re a Middle Eastern leader, and you’ve been working and fighting alongside the Americans. The United States was magnificent on the battlefield, and you either won (as in Iraq) or were winning (Afghanistan) when the Americans announced they were leaving. And they even set a date for their departure. Where does that leave you?
Mere HER i Pajamas Media. Family Security Matters her.
Regime blames assassination plot on its enemies
By Reza Kahlili – October 21, 2011
Iran panicked after the United States accused it of hatching a plot to kill the Saudi ambassador in Washington, immediately denying the allegations, which included plans to bomb the Saudi and Israeli embassies and labeling the plot’s organizer an enemy of the state.
We should have seen it coming.
Iranian officials warned Saudi officials months ago of repercussions because of the Saudi monarchy’s intervention in Bahrain and Yemen, where Iran is pushing for the overthrow of U.S.-friendly governments to establish Shiite rule. Some Revolutionary Guard commanders and parliament deputies even called for a military response to the Saudis’ action in the region.
Mere HER i The Washington Times.
Explaining Iran’s Approach Towards the Middle East
by Aymenn Jawad Al-Tamimi – October 25, 2011
What drives Iran’s ambition to become the dominant power in the Middle East at the expense of the Sunni Arab Gulf states like Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates (UAE)? Is it solely an issue of Iran’s Shi’ite Islamist ideology?
To begin with, it is worth recalling that many of the Iranian regime’s assertive and expansionist policies today predate Khomeini’s revolution and rise to power in 1979. For example, Iran’s claim to Bahrain goes back to the secular Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi’s resolution in November 1957, declaring the island to be Iran’s fourteenth province. Eventually, the Shah let go of Bahrain for the time being, much to the chagrin of Iranian nationalists.
Mere HER i Middle East Forum. The Jerusalem Post her.
73% of Iraqis: Iran Is Likely to Act Aggressively When U.S. Troops Leave
By Terence P. Jeffrey – October 24, 2011
About 73 percent of Iraqis said they believe it is likely Iran will act aggressively toward their country after U.S. troops leave in December.
Fifty-one percent said they believe the security situation within Iraq will get worse when the U.S. forces leave.
Mere HER hos CNS News. Jeg har blogget en hel del om Iran her i oktober. Se for eksempel:
Andre kilder: Tablet Magazine, Fox News, Family Security Matters, Townhall,
Lou Dobbs er lidt naiv. Dobbs tror, at USA bare kan nedlægge deres militærbaser i bla. Europa. Men flere nationer bliver overvejende islamiske lige om lidt. Flere af disse lande har atomvåben. USA får brug for sine europæiske tropper. Amerikanerne kan endda blive nødt til at bombe atomare installationer her i Europa. I vores egen levetid. Det politiske system er jo helt og holdent udenfor pædagogisk rækkevidde. Man kan ikke få relevante beslutningstagere til at standse det, der sker:
Fra 21. oktober 2011:
Phares on Lou Dobbs Tonight on Fox Business: Iraq may be left vulnerable to Iran
Fra Fox News Radio den 20. oktober 2011:
Qaddafi is gone, but will his replacement be worse? Terror expert Walid Phares weighs in …
FOX News Middle East expert and author of “The Coming Revolution: The Struggle for Freedom in the Middle East” Dr. Walid Phares joins Tom to explain what today’s news means for the region and who may be replacing Qaddafi.
Startes HER – åbner Windows Media Player. Varighed 8½ minut.
Opdatering – fra 20. oktober 2011:
Phares on Fox News: Gaddafi Death is End of Major Chapter in History of Middle East
Muslimske besættelsestropper fra Tyrkiet holder Kurdistan besat. Tyrkerne er islamister. Ergo støtter Vesten tyrkerne. Hvor svært kan det være? Hvad Israel angår, er stedet jo et demokrati. Her er det således endnu mere oplagt, at Vesten leverer mest mulig modstand. Kurdere og israelere skal bare køres over:
The Pathology of Double Standards
by Bruce Thornton on Oct 21st, 2011
The surreal moral idiocy that characterizes hatred of Israel is illustrated daily by states whose actions are shrugged away by the international media. Consider the recent Turkish invasion of northern Iraq in pursuit of Kurdish militants who killed 24 soldiers at military posts near the border. Turkish special forces crossed the border, and the air force bombed targets in Iraq. Some speculate a ground invasion in force is in the works. Since the U.S. supplies much of the military hardware used in the attack, along with intelligence gathered by drones, unsurprisingly the White House “strongly condemn[ed]” the “outrageous terrorist attack against Turkey,” and promised to “continue our strong cooperation” to help Turkey defeat the Kurdish militant separatists.
Apologists for Turkey would argue that the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) is a terrorist organization, as designated by both the E.U. and the U.S., one that since the beginning of its armed struggle in 1984 has killed 12,000 Turks. Thus Turkey is within its rights under international law to cross into another sovereign nation in order to punish and deter further attacks. Leaving aside the accuracy of deeming Kurdish separatists to be terrorists, the behavior of the Turks raises a more interesting question: why isn’t this same consideration given to Turkey afforded to Israel?
Mere HER i FrontPageMagazine.
Ned med mullaherne:
What Iran’s Bluster Hides
by Joseph Puder on Oct 12th, 2011
According to the Global Fire Power website, which uses CIA data, Iranian military strength is hardly as ominous as it appears from Iranian propaganda press releases.
Iranian active military strength stands at 545,000 troops, and its reserve forces number 650,000. And while its population total is over 77 million compared to Israel’s 7 million (less than 10% of Iran’s), Israel’s defense budget is greater – $16 billion vs. Iran’s $9 billion. And while Israel’s military manpower stands at 187,000 in active duty, and 565,000 in reserves, it is far better trained and motivated. Moreover, Iran has 3,230 tanks against Iran’s 1,793, and 1,964 aircraft vs. Iran’s 1,030. The Iranian air force is rather weakened by its older model fighters, such as the F-5, which the Shah received from the U.S. and which lacks spare parts. The same is true for their tanks, which rely on the Russian T-72, and older model tanks. Regardless of the size of the Iranian army infantry or its armor, it is highly unlikely that Iran will be able to move those against Israel, giving the distances involved.
Mere HER i FrontPageMagazine.
The Shape of the Middle East to Come
Dr. Michael Ledeen – October 13, 2011
First, I’d like to say a few words in sympathy with Iraq’s Prime Minister Maliki. Not that I’m an admirer, mind you. But I have been warning about this moment — the moment when we are leaving, and those Iraqis in charge of things in their country have to cope with nasty neighbors on their own — ever since we first mistakenly invaded Iraq while leaving the terror masters in Iran unchallenged.
As the Times’ report makes clear, most “common” Iraqis hate Iran (oddly, the Times account does not discuss the fundamental differences between the two countries’ versions of Shi’ism, which are very deep), but the government has been much more accommodating. And how could it be otherwise? Poor Maliki knows first hand (he was a member of an Iranian-sponsored terror group back in the old days) how dangerous the Tehran regime can be, and he doesn’t want to be blown up. Nor do Kurds like the Barzini and Talabani clans. Who will protect them from the Quds force? Or, for that matter, from Iran’s Sadr Army? And so, when Tehran calls Baghdad and says “support Assad!” they do it. They try to do as little as possible, but they do it. As most any Iraqi government would. Or get blown up.
Mere HER hos Family Security Matters. Pajamas Media her.
Andre kilder: Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, The Washington Post,
Først et interview fra The Centre for Independent Studies. Uploadet på YouTube den 22. september 2011:
CIS Occasional Interviews: Daniel Pipes
Scholar on Radical Islam Daniel Pipes speaks to the CIS’ Peter Kurti on the current Middle East upheavals.
Og forelæsning fra samme center i Australien – 23 august 2011:
Making Sense of the Middle East Upheavals
Daniel Pipes is president of the Middle East Forum and Taube distinguished visiting fellow at the Hoover Institution of Stanford University.
His website, DanielPipes.org is one of the Internet’s most accessed sources of specialized information on the Middle East and Islam. The Boston Globe states that “If Pipes’ admonitions had been heeded, there might never have been a 9/11″ and the Washington Post deems him “perhaps the most prominent U.S. scholar on radical Islam.”
He received his A.B. (1971) and Ph.D. (1978) from Harvard University.
Andre kilder: ABC News,
Opdateret.
Både børn og voksne får skåret kønsorganerne helt eller delvist af i islam:
Indonesian Government’s Backward Step on Female Genital Mutilation
by Irfan Al-Alawi – September 26, 2011
Female Genital Mutilation or Cutting (FGM/C) is increasing in Indonesia, with the issuance in June 2011 of official guidelines from the Ministry of Health for its infliction – even though the Indonesian authorities banned the practice in 2006.
Indonesian media report that the new government regulations on FGM call for “scraping the skin” but not “cutting” the clitoris of Muslim girls. While the Jakarta government had forbidden FGM altogether because it “could potentially harm women’s health” and was “useless,” a lack of state oversight allows its prevalence and increase, especially on the island of Java.
Mere HER hos 
udson New York.
Andre kilder: Family Security Matters,
Folk kan rejse fra islamiske kulturer, men islamisk kultur forlader ikke folk:
Muslims in America: Honor killings of wives and daughters
By Frosty Wooldridge – September 26, 2011
If you will take a gander at the September 26, 2011 issue of Newsweek, page 48, titled “Marry or else!” by Michelle Goldberg, you will see that the Balkanization of America steams full speed ahead of schedule. The quote by James Walsh below brings it home like gangbusters.
“Immigrants devoted to their own cultures and religions are not influenced by the secular politically correct façade that dominates academia, news-media, entertainment, education, religious and political thinking today,” said James Walsh, former Associate General Counsel of the United States Immigration and Naturalization Service. “They claim the right not to assimilate, and the day is coming when the question will be how can the United States regulate the defiantly unassimilated cultures, religions and mores of foreign lands? Such immigrants say their traditions trump the U.S. legal system. Balkanization of the United States has begun.”
Mere HER i NewsWithViews. Omtale artikel er her:
Lidt artikler:
Analysis: Israel, Egypt, Turkey – shifting sands
By Zvi Mazel – September 18, 2011
The many commentators who have lamented in the past few days about the isolation of Israel in the Middle East have apparently forgotten that this is nothing new. Arab armies tried to destroy the newborn state in 1948; successive attempts having failed as well, Arab states dealt with the existence of the Jewish state as with something which had to be endured, not accepted. Yes, peace was achieved between Israel and Egypt, then Jordan, but this was a peace between governments, not peoples. Incitement against the Jewish state never stopped, finding fertile soil in the minds of youngsters taught from the cradle that Jews are the enemies of Islam and will be destroyed on Judgment Day.
What was left were agreements fueled by transient political interests.
Mere HER i The Jerusalem Post.
Erdogan Has Good Reason To Be Crazy
September 18, 2011 – by David P. Goldman
Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan brings to mind the story about the housewife who calls her husband during rush hour. “Be careful driving home on the Beltway, dear,” she advises. “The news says that there’s a maniac driving in the wrong direction.” “What do you mean, ‘a maniac’?,” he replies. “Everybody’s driving in the wrong direction!”
Now that Turkey has threatened Europe with a “freeze in relations” if Cyprus (as planned) assumes the presidency of the European Union in 2012, it must seem to Erdogan that everyone is driving in the wrong direction. Earlier this month Turkey declared “null and void” the United Nations’ Palmer Commission report, which supported Israel’s right to enforce a blockade against Gaza. That was a minor gaffe, because United Nations dicta have the authority of revelation to the liberal media, except, of course, when they support Israel. It’s one thing for Turkey to freeze relations with Israel — we take it for granted these days that everybody hates Israel — but the Europeans? Everybody likes the Europeans, who have replaced their defense ministries with an answering machine that says, “We surrender.” And over Cyprus? Even Russia, Turkey’s key trading partner and the host for millions of Turkish guest workers, is aghast at Erdogan’s tantrum. Russia has strong ties to Cyprus.
Mere HER hos Pajamas Media.
Turkey’s Moralpolitik: World Leader in Imprisoning Journalists
by Anna Mahjar-Barducci – September 23, 2011
Some analysts, under the impression that Turkey is severing relations with Israel because Turkey claims that it is its duty is to champion “human rights” in the Middle East, have written that Turkey is abandoning “realpolitik” for “moralpolitik.”
According to a large number of academics and journalists in the Western media, especially in Europe, Turkey has chosen to follow a new ethical policy based on moral attitudes. This simplistic and naïve interpretation of the Turkish agenda is becoming so that the international community fails to denounce human rights abuses in Turkey. In Italy, several media sources, such as the newspaper La Stampa, wrote that Turkey is an example of democracy to be followed in the Middle East, whereas the Washington-based Middle East Institute wrote in an article published by Dr. Gonul Tol that Turkey is balancing strategic interests with idealism.”Turkey views its conduct of foreign policy as a balance between diplomacy and hard power to pursue its interests, both moral and geopolitical,” Tol wrote..
Mere HER hos Hudson New York.
Erdogan Creates International Complications for Turkey
Dore Gold – September 23, 2011
While Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan has been using his anti-Israeli rhetoric to build up Turkey as a new great power in the Arab world, his neo-Ottoman policy is sparking a reaction among other countries that could pose for him serious problems in the period ahead. For Erdogan has not only been using aggressive rhetoric against Israel. In the last few weeks the Turkish government has also been threatening Cyprus for developing its undersea gas resources in the Mediterranean. As a result, Russia has been drawn in to neutralize Turkish behavior.
Cyprus just signed an agreement with the Texas-based Noble Energy, which is in a partner in developing Israeli maritime gas fields, as well. Turkey’s Minister for EU Affairs, Egemen Bağış let it be known that the Turkish Navy could intervene if Greek Cyprus does not call off the project. He said “That’s what a navy is for.” As a result, the Russian Foreign Ministry publicly backed the right of Cyprus to develop its Mediterranean gas. Cyprus, in turn, described Russia as “a shield against any threats by Turkey.”
Mere HER hos Dore Gold.
Opdatering:
Turkish Prime Minister Cuts All Ties with Syria
And more from the Turkish Press
by AK Group – September 23, 2011
Turkey has suspended talks with Syria and may impose sanctions on Damascus, Prime Minister Tayyip Erdoğan said, the clearest sign yet that Ankara has parted ways with President Bashar al-Assad over his bloody crackdown on anti-government protesters.
Mere HER hos Hudson New York.
Andre kilder: The New York Times, Asia Times, Pajamas Media,
Uploadet af Pajamas Media den 13. september 2011:
Afterburner with Bill Whittle: What We Did Right
What did we do right in Afghanistan and Iraq? What did Bush do right in the War on Terror? Hear Bill Whittle as he puts forth his case for America’s post-9/11 triumphs.
Importeret umenneskelighed:
Marry – or Else
Sep 18, 2011 – Michelle Goldberg
Forced weddings and ‘honor’ killings aren’t just a developing-world issue. New research shows how it happens in England and the United States.
When Jasvinder Sanghera turned 14, she knew her time had come. As the sixth of seven daughters in a conservative Sikh family, growing up in the English industrial city of Derby, Sanghera had watched her parents pull her older sisters out of school, one by one, and send them to India to marry complete strangers—often men who abused them. The British educational system never questioned the girls’ long absences and ultimate disappearances. Then, one day, when Sanghera came home from school, her mother presented her with a photograph of a man. Sanghera was told that she’d been promised to him when she was just 8 years old. “I was the one who said, ‘No, I want to finish school, Mum. I just want to get an education,’” Sanghera said recently.
Mere HER i The Daily Beast.
Jeg har brugt en hulens masse tid på at læse om konflikten mellem Tyrkiet og Israel. Og noget af det bedste tog jeg fra til bloggen. Men først et nyt interview med Tyrkiets præsident, Abdullah Gül:
“Turkey is No Longer a Friend of Israel” Says President of Turkey
Det, man siger, er man selv? Erdogan er en dårlig taber. Det var Tyrkiet, der handlede i strid med international lov, fordi de ikke stoppede den “flotilla”:
Turkish PM declares freeze on Israel ties
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan announces a total freeze on military and trade ties with Israel and threatens to visit Gaza as the one-time allies’ diplomatic spat intensifies
Desuden audio fra NPR – Talk of the Nation den 13. september 2011. Man kan følge med i en komplet udskrift her:
Israel Feeling Increasingly Isolated From Allies
Israeli diplomats have fled Egypt after an attack on their embassy in Cairo and were forced to leave Turkey after a diplomatic row. As Israel appears to lose its Muslim allies, many worry about possible repercussions on the peace process, Israel’s security and the U.S. role in the region.
Guests
Joel Greenberg, Jerusalem correspondent, Washington Post
Akiva Eldar, chief political columnist, Ha’aretz
Dore Gold, former Israeli Ambassador to the United NationsHost
Neal Conan
Startes HER eller her - åbner Windows Media Player. Varighed ½ time. Og til artiklerne:
UN Report on Flotilla Incident Exonerates Israel
Sep 3, 2011 • By Elliott Abrams
The United Nations report on the Mavi Marmara incident, entitled “Report of the Secretary-General’s Panel of Inquiry on the 31 May 2010 Flotilla Incident,” is now public and largely exculpates Israel. All the facts are as Israel contended and as the Commission notes “Israel faces a real threat to its security from militant groups in Gaza. The naval blockade was imposed as a legitimate security measure” and “Israeli Defense Forces personnel faced significant, organized and violent resistance from a group of passengers when they boarded the Mavi Marmara requiring them to use force for their own protection. Three soldiers were captured, mistreated, and placed at risk by those passengers. Several others were wounded.”
The Commission makes the judgment that the use of force by the Israelis was “excessive and unreasonable,” but the real verdict is evident in the way the Israeli and Turkish governments have reacted. Israel has accepted the report and its findings of fact while of course disagreeing with that judgment about its soldiers; Turkey has rejected the report entirely.
First, the panel challenges the motives of the flotilla:
Mere HER i The Weekly Standard.
Turkey’s economic lie
Turkey no economic powerhouse, Erdogan’s credit bubble will soon explode
Guy Bechor – September 15, 2011
Some refer to him as “the Middle East’s new sultan in a neo-Ottoman empire” – yet the truth about Erdogan’s kingdom is utterly different. We are not facing an economic power, but rather, a state whose credit bubble will be bursting any moment now and bringing down its economy.
The budget deficit of the collapsing Greece compared to its GDP stands at some 10%, and the world is alarmed. At the same time, Turkey’s deficit is at 9.5%, yet some members of the financial media describe the Turkish economy as a success story (for comparison’s sake, Israel’s deficit stands at some 3% and is expected to decline to 2% this year.)
Mere HER hos Ynetnews.
Why the West Cares about Turkey’s Diplomatic Conflict with Israel
September 10, 2011 – Dore Gold
Under the surface, there have been growing concerns in the West about the general direction of Turkish foreign policy under Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan and his AKP Party. In an extremely important 2004 cable from the US Department of State, revealed by WIKILEAKS, that was described previously in this column, an American diplomat in Turkey wrote about his concerns with Ankara’s “new, highly activist foreign policy,” Like many other commentators he focused on what he called the “neo-Ottoman fantasies” of Ahmet Davutoglu, who was then only an advisor and today is Turkey’s foreign minister.
But the American diplomat went much further in his description. He attended a meeting at the main think tank of Turkey’s ruling AKP Party where he heard many in the AKP saying that it is Turkey’s role to spread Islam in Europe. He added that among the participants in the think tank there was “the widespread belief” that Turkey should ”avenge the defeat at the siege of Vienna in 1683″–where the Ottoman armies loss to the Hapsburg Empire.
Mere HER i The Algemeiner. Kan også læses her hos Dore Gold.
A Brilliant Fraud
By Stanley Weiss – September 15, 2011
It was the first time that cattle cars would be used in the 20th century to carry people to concentration camps, a systematic annihilation of a whole population so horrific that a new word had to be invented to capture its brutality: genocide.
In the midst of World War I, over a million Christian Armenians in Turkey were rounded up by the Ottoman Empire and slaughtered in unspeakable ways. No less a mass murderer than Adolf Hitler, in a speech to Nazi commanders before he invaded Poland, reportedly defended his order to, “kill without pity or mercy all men, women, and children of the Polish race” by asking, “Who, after all, speaks today of the annihilation of the Armenians?”
Mere HER i Huffington Post.
Turkey rebukes Israel: do they remember Northern Cyprus and the Kurds?
04 Sep, 2011 – Boutros Hussein and Lee Jay Walker
Turkey is once more playing the “Israel card” whereby in order to gain credibility at home and to appease the anti-Israeli lobby, the same issue keeps on popping up. However, while individuals or governments who oppose Israel may welcome the ongoing outbursts which break out frequently it is obvious that mass hypocrisy in Turkey renders this a farce.
If Turkey is so concerned about human rights then why not focus on leaving Northern Cyprus, give greater freedom to the Kurds, install equality for the Alevi Muslims, stop attacking Kurds in Northern Iraq and recognize the mass genocide of Christians which took place in 1915 (pogroms before and after this date).
Mere HER hos Lee Jay Walker.
Erdogan’s Dhimmi Problem
Emmanuel Navon – September 7, 2011
Under Islamic law (“Shariah”), non-Muslims (such as Christians and Jews) are mostly free to practice their religion in private but are discriminated and treated as second-class citizens, or dhimmis. As the Quran clearly states, non-Muslims must “feel themselves subdued” (Sura 9:20). When the Jews regained their independence in 1948, they not only rebelled against “dhimmitude.” They also regained and freed, like the Spaniards after the Reconquista, a land once ruled by Islam. To Muslims, this was -and still is- a double offence.
Turkey’s Islamist Prime Minister Erdogan has taken upon himself to make Israel a “dhimmi state.” Edorgan was raised as a Sufi Muslim and was imprisoned in 1998 for singing out loud that “The mosques are our barracks, the domes our helmets, the minarets our bayonets and the faithful our soldiers.” While mainstream Western media are at pains to describe Turkey’s Islamist AKP Party as “moderate,” Erdogan himself declared on Kanal D TV in August 2007 that describing Islam as moderate “is offensive and an insult to our religion.” Erdogan has been embracing the presidents of Iran and Sudan. While Sudan’s president is accused of genocide by the International Criminal Court, and while Turkey has been asked to apologize for the Armenian genocide, Erdogan has declared that “No Muslim can perpetuate genocide.”
Mere HER hos For the Sake of Zion. Kan også læses her hos Arutz Sheva.
As Israel-Turkey Alliance Disintegrates, Analysts Worry
By Piotr Zalewski – Sep 6 2011
The rapidly worsening fall-out between these two allies could have serious repercussions for an already fragile Middle East
After Turkey’s decision to suspend military ties with Israel, expel the country’s ambassador, and now possibly to apply to the International Court of Justice for an investigation into Israel’s Gaza blockade — on account of Israel’s refusal to apologize for last year’s lethal attack on the Mavi Marmara, a Gaza-bound Turkish aid ship — it’s difficult to decipher who, if anyone, might benefit from the current impasse. For Turkey, the breakup with Israel is another nail in the coffin of Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu’s vaunted “zero problems” policy that, until recently, allowed the country to keep lines open with all sides of the Middle East’s conflicts. For Israel, the potential loss of a crucial regional ally only deepens the country’s isolation as it scrambles to come to terms with the Arab spring and its fallout. Among experts, there is some hope that the Turkey-Israel relationship could recover, if slowly. Yet there is also fear that it will deteriorate much further — and quickly.
Not long ago, Turkey could rightfully claim to maintain open diplomatic relationships with practically everyone in the Middle East. But, as Soli Ozel, a professor of international relations at Istanbul’s Bilgi University, told me, “those times are over.” “Turkey is not going to have much of a role to play. It cannot replicate the Syrian-Israeli proximity talks, which it masterminded a few years ago.” Same, he said, for the Israeli-Palestinian talks. “Turkey will probably be hailed by the Palestinians but it will isolate itself from the peace process, if the process ever comes back to life.”
Mer HER i The Atlantic.
Turkey Tantrum Burying Palmer Report
by Simon Plosker – September 14, 2011
Only weeks after its release, the Palmer Report into the 2010 Gaza flotilla incident appears to have been consigned to the dustbin of history.
Despite leveling criticism at Israel for “excessive force”, the report could and should have been a major prize for Israel public diplomacy. How often, and particularly at a time of precious few PR gifts, does a UN-sponsored investigation uphold the legitimacy of Israel’s naval blockade as well as highlighting the danger of Hamas from Gaza?
Mere HER hos Ynetnews eller her hos HonestReporting.
Og endelig to artikler om de israelske naturgas-fund, som siges at styrke Israels position både i Mellemøsten og i Vesten. Fra hhv. Foreign Policy og Family Security Matters:
Andre kilder: Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs, FN pdf, The Jerusalem Post, The Jerusalem Post, The Jerusalem Post, The Jerusalem Post, The Jerusalem Post, The Jerusalem Post, The Jerusalem Post, The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Washington Post, Haaretz, Haaretz, Haaretz, Haaretz, Ynetnews, Ynetnews, Ynetnews, Ynetnews, Ynetnews, Ynetnews, Ynetnews, Ynetnews, Ynetnews, Family Security Matters, Family Security Matters, Reuters, Reuters, Reuters, Reuters, The Trumpet, Foreign Policy, Foreign Policy, The Sacramento Bee, The Boston Globe, The American Spectator, Townhall, The Guardian, The American, The American, The National Interest, The Algemeiner, The Daily Beast, The Wall Street Journal, Voice of America, Blomberg Businessweek, MSNBC, BBC, BBC, CNN, HonestReporting, Israel Hayom, Israel Hayom, IMRA, AEI, Globes, Daniel Pipes, Daniel Pipes, National Review Online, Yahoo News, Yahoo News,
Fra 14. september 2011:
Michael Coren on Turkey’s neo-Ottomanism
With David Pryce-Jones of National Review.
Som altid læseværdige artikler:
Tyrkiets neuroser: en historie om to bogstaver
14. september 2011 – artikel af Jens Juhl Jensen
Symbolværdi spiller en kolossal rolle i tyrkisk politik. Det viser sig i forholdet til Israel og i forbuddet mod et bestemt bogstav
Mere HER i Sappho.
Norsk kommunalvalg: Medierne tabte
14. september 2011 – klumme af Hans Rustad
Valget, der fandt sted i Breiviks skygge, blev et nederlag for Fremskrittspartiet. Men den egentlige taber er medierne, mener Hans Rustad.
Mere HER i Sappho.
Villighed til vold
13. september 2011 – artikel af Kirsten Damgaard
10 år efter 11. september kan vi lægge frygten bag os, har det lydt de seneste dage. Kulturpsykolog Kirsten Damgaard mener noget andet. Læs hendes dybdeborende analyse af muslimske terrorister.
Mere HER i Sappho.
Kilometerlang artikel her. Et såkaldt symposium – post 9/11:
A Free-for-All on a Decade of War
From the Times Magazine, a post-9/11 debate on what has been learned and where our conclusions might take us.
By Scott Malcomson – September 7, 2011
The American reaction to being attacked on Sept. 11 was in many ways an intellectual one. President George W. Bush tended to frame it that way: the attack was on our “values,” and the “war against terror” was a war of ideas meant to advance the idea of freedom. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld was the administration’s epistemologist, worrying over the question of knowability; Bernard Lewis was its historian, Paul Wolfowitz its moralist in arms. That America’s actions (as opposed to precautions) after 9/11 almost all took place far from home, with a professional army, strengthened this sense of abstraction. The possibility of anything like victory over our enemies was discounted early on (by Rumsfeld). Little wonder that, unlike in earlier wars, we have talked so much about what this conflict means, rather than simply working to end it as soon as possible.
Mere HER i The New York Times.
Andre kilder: The National Interest,
Lidt artikler i anledning af årsdagen for 9/11. Jeg prøver at holde antallet på et behersket niveau. National Review Online går den anden vej. Her har 41 analytikere skrevet om tragedien. Center for Security Policy har bedt 30 analytikere om at skrive om tiårsdagen her. Veritas Universalis har fire i denne post:
U.S. Missteps Leave Jihadists Stronger Than on 9/11
By Walid Phares – 09 Sep 2011
A decade after the jihadi strikes against America’s military and financial centers at the hands of al-Qaida, the question remains: Have we won the war?
In the ongoing, debate, we see two camps. One stating that we were defeating the enemy until Washington changed direction three years ago, and another boasting that America was losing the war until three years ago when a change of direction brought victory in sight.
Some really believed that the years following the attacks have brought the free world and democracy to an inch from victory. Others among us believe that thanks to today’s policies we are finally better than ever before.
Mere HER hos Newsmax. Canada Free Press HER. Energy Publisher her. Family Security Matters her.
Post-9/11′s unspoken truth
Victor Davis Hanson / Sept. 9, 2011
Why did radical Islamic terrorists kill almost 3,000 Americans a decade ago? Few still believe the old myth that prior U.S. foreign policy or support for Israel logically earned us Osama bin Laden’s wrath. After all, the U.S. throughout the 1990s had saved Islamic peoples from Bosnia and Kosovo to Somalia and Kuwait. Russia and China, in contrast, had oppressed or killed tens of thousands of their own Muslims without much fear of provoking al-Qaida.
Moreover, thousands of Arabs have been killed recently, but by their own Libyan and Syrian governments, not Israeli Defense Forces. Al Qaida still issues death threats to Americans even though its original pretexts for going to war – such as U.S. troops stationed in Saudi Arabia – were long ago irrelevant.
Mere HER hos Orange County Register. Free Republic her. Towhall her.
Thank You, America, For the Golden Age of Islam
Diana West | September 8, 2011
It is something to have gone 10 years without an Islamic attack of similarly gigantic proportions to those of Sept. 11, 2001, but it is not enough. That’s because the decade we look back on is marked by a specifically Islamic brand of security from jihad. It was a security bought by the Bush and Obama administrations’ policies of appeasement based in apology for, and irrational denial of, Islam’s war doctrine, its anti-liberty laws and its non-Western customs. As a result of this policy of appeasement — submission — we now stand poised on the brink of a golden age.
Tragically for freedom of speech, conscience and equality before the law, however, it is an Islamic golden age. It’s not just the post-9/11 rush into Western society of Islamic tenets and traditions on everything from law to finance to diet that has heralded this golden age, although that’s part of it. More important is the fact that our central institutions have actively primed themselves for it, having absorbed and implemented the central codes of Islam in the years since the 9/11 attacks, exactly as the jihadists hoped and schemed.
Mere HER hos Townhall. WorldNetDaily her.
The View from Abroad
What it was like to be an American in France in the aftermath of 9/11
Claire Berlinski – 9 September 2011
I was in Paris, alone. My father was in Washington, D.C., with his parents. After seeing the images on television, my grandfather, already ill, collapsed. My memories of September 11 are bound up inextricably with my grandfather’s death.
My grandparents were musicians, refugees from the Nazis. They fled to Paris from their native Leipzig in 1933. From my grandfather’s memoirs:
Berlinski’s bedstefar var ikke halalhippie. Interessant mand. Mere HER i City Journal.
Andre kilder: Daniel Pipes, Daniel Pipes,
Opdatering den 12. september 2011: Daniel Pipes’ kommentarer fra National Review Online og Center for Security Policy er blevet oversat til dansk. De kan læses på Daniel Pipes’ hjemmeside her og her.
Opdatering 15. september 2011 – endnu en af Pipes’ artikler, In Praise of NYC’s Muscular Counterterrorism, findes nu på dansk:
Origialen på engelsk kan læses både hos Statebrief her og hos National Review Online her.
Denne lidt ældre artikel er skrevet i lyset af terrorbombningerne i London, som fandt sted den 7. juli 2005. Patrick Sookhdeo har et godt overblik. Og en lysende, analytisk begavelse:
The myth of moderate Islam
By Patrick Sookhdeo – 30th July 2005
Patrick Sookhdeo says Islamic teaching has been aggressive for 1,400 years, and requires radical re-interpretation
The funeral of British suicide bomber Shehzad Tanweer was held in absentia in his family’s ancestral village, near Lahore, Pakistan. Thousands of people attended, as they did again the following day when a qul ceremony was held for Tanweer. During qul, the Koran is recited to speed the deceased’s journey to paradise, though in Tanweer’s case this was hardly necessary. Being a shahid (martyr), he is deemed to have gone straight to paradise. The 22-year-old from Leeds, whose bomb at Aldgate station killed seven people, was hailed by the crowd as ‘a hero of Islam’.
Some in Britain cannot conceive that a suicide bomber could be a hero of Islam. Since 7/7 many have made statements to attempt to explain what seems to them a contradiction in terms. Since the violence cannot be denied, their only course is to argue that the connection with Islam is invalid. The deputy assistant commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, Brian Paddick, said that ‘Islam and terrorists are two words that do not go together.’ His boss, the Commissioner Sir Ian Blair, asserted that there is nothing wrong with being a fundamentalist Muslim.
But surely we should give enough respect to those who voluntarily lay down their lives to accept what they themselves say about their motives. If they say they do it in the name of Islam, we must believe them. Is it not the height of illiberalism and arrogance to deny them the right to define themselves?
Mere HER i The Spectator. Jeg har valgt at linke til printversionen for at undgå den irriterende sideinddeling, som ses her.
Patrick Sookhdeo er - foruden at være islamkritiker – også præst, forfatter og stifter af Barnabas Fund. Og på fondens hjemmeside kan man høre en audio i to dele fra “Focus on the Family”. Talen starter som en slags prædiken, men tager hurtigt form som et stærkt foredrag om muslimsk grusomhed overfor kristne. Part to er Q&A, som starter efter at studieværterne har fået snakket af, – det er de næsten 13 minutter om. Man går ikke glip af alverden ved at spole forbi – det samme gælder slutningen. Fra februar 2008:
Radical Islam`s Threat to the Western World – Focus on the Family interview with Patrick Sookhdeo
Focus on the Family is featuring Patrick Sookhdeo on their daily syndicated broadcast on Tuesday, February 5th and Wednesday, February 6th. The talks will air on stations in the United States, and will be available via the internet after being broadcast.
Link til audio hos Barnabas Fund HER.
Fremtiden er her allerede, hvis man skal tro Ledeen:
It’s a Real War, Stupid. A Big War. A Worthy Challenge for America
August 22, 2011 – by Michael Ledeen
If we are going to win in the Middle East, we have to get the context right. As I wrote in The War Against the Terror Masters, long before the invasion of Iraq, we cannot just “do” a country like Iraq, or today, Syria, and then move on. That’s one of the strategic mistakes Bush, Rice, Hadley, Cheney and Rumsfeld made. They viewed Iraq in isolation. They thought they could just “do Iraq,” and then consider their options. We then belatedly discovered (even though our enemies publicly announced what they were going to do) that Iraq and Afghanistan could not have decent security so long as Syria and Iran actively supported terrorists in those countries. American soldiers and countless Iraqi and Afghan civilians have paid a terrible price for our failure of vision.
The regional war has expanded, but we still look at each battle field in isolation, rather than seeing the war whole:
Mere HER hos Pajamas Media. Family Security Matters her. Iran har sat to amerikanere i fængsel:
American Hikers Sentenced in Iran
By Michael Ledeen – August 22, 2011
You didn’t really think the Iranian regime was going to release the American hiker hostages, did you? We were evidently unwilling to pay the regime’s ransom demands (the only time hostages are released from Iran is when they are ransomed out, or when the regime fears something terrible is about to happen. The female hiker was released because the Iranians feared she might die in custody, for example).
Mere HER i National Review Online.
Warning: The English translation is hopeless
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